Cliff Notes

This space is an effort to share information about the - Rhinebeck Comprehensive Plan and its impact on the Hamlet of Rhinecliff.

Let me start by saying that the Comprehensive Plan is an extremely important document that took a lot of time and effort to complete and all of its members should be thanked for their work. It has been almost 3 years since the Comprehensive Plan Committee held it's Rhinecliff visioning session at the Morton library.

I was happy to be there and exited about the planning process. Later, the Comprehensive Plan Committee came back to share with Rhinecliff their plan to add a high density TND (Traditional Neighborhood Development) on the Creed property on Orchard road near Rhinecliff Road. This went over like the proverbial lead balloon.

Were they listening at all at the visioning session? Rhinecliff residents overwhelmingly called for a greenbelt around the hamlet and called for limiting the growth around the hamlet. The Comp Plan Committee had decided that in order to preserve open space in the town, they needed to put density and affordable housing somewhere. In order to downzone the town to mostly 6, 10 and 20 acres and preserve the open space, they are sacrificing Rhinecliff.

In the last two years, I have learned a lot about the planning process and specifically, about the arguments being used to justify a decision that many of us believe is misguided and will permanently alter our historic hamlet. I believe that the Comp Plan's insistence on the TND is misguided and their arguments are flawed - and sometimes contradictory. On April 17th at 6:45, the Comprehensive Plan Committee will deliver the completed plan to the town board. This will start the public hearing and SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review) process. I truly believe that if our arguments are well reasoned and we present them thoughtfully, they will be integrated into the plan. It is critical that people understand the issues and I hope that this forum will help. There are a lot of arguments and I hope many of you will participate in this forum. If you have questions, please ask.

This is a completely open forum. If you disagree, please explain why. Just log in and click on the link below. In the next few weeks, I will address the following and I am sure a few other questions. I hope many of you will help in this effort.

Is “Smart Growth” the “Clear Skies” or “Healthy Forest” of planning?

“Will of the people” and “Participation” just nice catch phrases?

“Walkability” How far? Up hills? To work? To shop? To school? What do the experts say?

If you add all this density (and traffic), don’t you hurt our walkability?

“New Urbanism” shouldn’t we be talking about “new ruralism”

“Growth consistent with the history or the hamlet” what the #%^$^$ are they talking about? Rhinecliff as it is right now was built with very few exceptions) before a single car traveled its narrow windy and hilly roads.

Traffic - Has anyone looked at our roads? Conducted a traffic study?

Historic hamlet - Does anyone really believe that tacking a 90-unit (at minimum) subdivision onto the Hamlet (all designed and built buy the same builder) will improve the hamlet?

“Hamlet, to be or not to be" - When do we stop being a hamlet and start being a village?

“Gateways” - Why are the towns gateways so important but ours are not?

Why can’t we have a greenbelt with public access (trails) around our historic hamlet?

All this and more coming soon.

Andrew S