The Red Hook Town Board has indicated that it will not accept the proposed donation of a 5.27 acre parcel of wetland.
The proposal comes from the David’s Island Development Corporation, a subsidiary of Consolidated Edison, which has held the property, located near Tivoli by the Columbia County border, since the 1980’s. The parcel was one of many originally purchased for the installation of power lines, but the project never materialized and most of the unused properties have been sold off.
The parcel was part of the Red Hook Conservation Advisory Council biodiversity study. “After looking at the water resources on the county mapping system, it seems that section is very undevelopable,” said CAC liaison Brenda Cagle, “so I do not see any real danger of that wetland being harmed.” However, it is contained within a wetland that forms a part of Tivoli’s Stony Creek watershed and feeds into the White Clay Kill.
“It would take it off the tax roll and we would have no use for it,” added Councilperson Harry Colgan.
“We would own five acres of swamp basically. I don’t mean that in a negative way; it is a very important environmental resource, but it would have no use for the town or probably for anybody else.”
The property is valued at $61,600 and the current taxes are $1,500.
The final vote by the board was postponed pending one last review by the CAC.
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