Ramapo Taxpayers to Subsidize Large-scale Development in Orange County

Image showing size of the Tuxedo Reserve project--from www.tuxedoreserve.com

March 1, 2009 The Journal News reported Sunday that "Rockland’s sewer district may provide service to a planned residential community in Orange County." The development is huge--1,195 homes in a sprawling site called Tuxedo Reserve in the highlands north of Sloatsburg in Orange County. The cost to Rockland taxpayers will include the capital expense of $125+ million for the almost completed Western Ramapo Waster Treatment Plant in Hillburn. The prime beneficiary is Related Companies, one of the richest developers in the country with real-estate assets worth $16 billion.

It’s not like the deal comes out of the blue. In the Tuxedo Town Board meeting of Feb. 23, Supervisor Peter Dolan offered the following in his Supervisor’s Update:
"Supervisor Dolan reported that he has been investigating the possibility of the Town hooking up to the new Hillburn sewer plant. Since this plan is short about a million gallons of capacity, they have approached Tuxedo Reserve as well as the Town of Tuxedo about the possibility of pumping our sewage to the plant." "They" you would assume is Rockland County Sewer District #1.

In his Thursday night cable show on Jan. 29, Supervisor St. Lawrence twice mentioned the possibility of connecting the massive development to the new sewer processing plant almost completed in Hillburn. Then at the regular meeting of the Rockland County Sewer District #1 this past Wednesday, there was mention again of the offer. (Supervisor St. Lawrence is Vice Chairman of the Sewer Commission.) One panel member even ironically expressed some misgiving about the appearance that Rockland taxpayers might see this as subsidizing the very wealthy developer who has decided against paying for a processing plant needed for the scale of their project.

Andrew Dance, assistant vice president for the Tuxedo Reserve development company (Related Companies), is quoted in the Journal article, "We believe it does make sense environmentally, and we have to see if it will have an economic benefit to Rockland County." Actually, there are two kinds of green involved in these statements. The economic advantage all swings to Related because they can provide sewering for 1,195 homes without a dime spent in capital expenditure. That expense is on the backs of taxpayers across the border in Rockland. The environmental advantage is to neither. What are now pristine water flows reaching the Ramapo River from the forest-covered mountains will be changed as the hillside is built and paved over and we have instead processed sewage put back into the River. This in an area that provides Rockland with 40% of its drinking water.

The estimate given at the Sewer Commission meeting is that the new Western Ramapo Waste Water Treatment Plant will go online in April of this year. The Tuxedo Reserve building project has final site plan approval, granted months ago, to go ahead with the first phase, which will involve more than 100 houses.

The politicians gave guarded responses to the paper. County Executive Scott Vanderhoef is reported "[saying] that an earlier concern of his was that the sewer expansion into Hillburn and Sloatsburg not prompt additional developments by Tuxedo Reserve." Does that mean the Executive believes 1,195 new homes is OK--not OK? Further, someone should ask if he thinks the Rockland taxpayers should foot the bill for the sewering for this development.

St. Lawrence told the reporter, "The sewer district would also be looking to Tuxedo Reserve to pay a portion of the construction costs." Any specific numbers are obscured by a follow-up statement, "This is all about fact-finding right now." Perhaps a reasonable formula would be: determine the proportion 1,195 homes will be in the total flow to the processing plant, and then use that percentage, times the total cost of $125,000 million (or whatever the final total cost for the plant is), and charge that figure to Related. It is, after all, one of the wealthiest developers in the nation.

The Rockland County Legislature will also have to deal with this problem. The giving away of local facilities to other counties requires the legislature’s approval and was originally opposed in this case.

Michael Castelluccio