Neighbors like O’Neill and other driveway opponents have pointed to one spot on the drive as being extremely wide, perhaps 60 feet or 70 feet. The Majestics also dispute that claim. Shown on the map along with the driveway is a wider swath of land that’ll be temporarily disturbed during construction. One area of disturbance bulges away from the driveway to a width of 48 feet – a figure the couple says was exaggerated to up to 70 feet.
Their site plan calls for about 3.8 acres of disturbance on the site, but that includes the septic tank, the 2380-foot-long driveway and temporary clearing around the driveway. The plan also calls for two buildings – a 1000-square-foot guest house and a 3000-square-foot main residence. Almost 32 acres will not be developed at all and preserved, as per zoning, as an open-space easement.
The couple also disputes the claim that the driveway or the house will be highly visible. “We don’t want some big hellacious scar going up there, either,” he says.
Marybeth is better known around town for her work with the historical society. Both Majestics have been active in fighting to preserve local landmarks – including the town hall and the old firehouse.
“We’ve never had negative publicity. We’ve been positive in our community forever,” she says. “Charlie restored this house. He and the boys, we took the bell from the sign in front of town hall, had it restored. He put a rubber membrane on the floor of the belfry, restored the belfry, put the bell back up there, makes it ring – he did this for the town.”
Charles and Marybeth have three grown sons, two of whom are in college. Part of the plan for that guest house, and the development of the parcel in general, is to give the boys a place to stay. At first only the smaller 1000-square-foot house will be built, allowing the couple to live at the site while construction on the main residence takes place.
Looking back at the headache of years in front of the zoning and planning boards and in court, the Majestics find only one culprit: the law itself. Marybeth says she feels the law is meant to block people from ever building on the “privately owned national treasure” that is the Shawangunk Ridge.
In the process, the couple has had to hire four separate lawyers. They’ve paid upwards of $30,000 and possibly as much as $50,000 on engineers and surveys and legal representation. Charles admits some of that money would have been spent regardless to put a house on that land, “but the Town of Gardiner probably cost us $25,000.”
“Now you’re living your law. So maybe you want to look at it,” she says. “This battle was not necessary.”
The fight’s not over
Early last week, it looked like the Majestics were in the clear. They’d gotten their site plan and special permit from the planning board back in late November. The deadline for the environmentalists to sue to appeal the approval had nearly expired. The couple was getting ready to apply for a building and driveway permit.
Last Friday word that the Friends of the Shawangunk (FoS) had filed an Article 78 lawsuit against the planning board and the Majestics started to circulate around town. That suit takes the town to task for approving the driveway in the first place.
“Frankly, the planning board did not follow a lot of the restrictions in the zoning law for approving this type of a project in the SP zone,” says David Gordon, the attorney representing the FoS. “This is not a general lawsuit about a road coming up from North Mountain Road .… This is very, very specific allegations of violations of the standards of the SP zoning district.”
The planning board is being sued for failing to look at runoff and stormwater retention as required by town law and for having dismissed the findings of the local environmental conservation commission.
Case law already exists for Gardiner’s SP-3 zoning. A lawsuit filed by the Friends of the Shawangunks tried to stop neighbors Werner and Joan Wustrau from building a 3200-foot driveway in the mountains. The state Appellate Division ruled in favor of the Wustraus.
Annie O’Neill, one of the four neighbors whose land the Majestics needed to get that easement for the driveway, has lived on her parcel since 1971. She criticizes the planning board. “We really have not been able to successfully fight it because the planning board doesn’t seem to really want the applicants to go through the rigors of what should be a full conservation analysis,” O’Neill says. “It’s been kind of frustrating.”
For her the lack of respect for the town ECC was also striking. “They didn’t really want to ever listen to the environmental conservation commission,” she says. “You have no idea the amount of work the environmental commission did in terms of reporting.”
O’Neill, a Friends of the Shawangunks member, is technically under a gag order after her settlement with the Majestics. Even so, she’s been an outspoken critic throughout the process. At one point she filed a motion to vacate her settlement, which the courts refused.
She says that she and the other neighbors involved the settlement, like Lebost, had some regrets about accepting those terms. “Maybe we should have continued to fight it in court,” she says. “We didn’t have the resources to go through a trial, an appeal.”
Like the Majestics, O’Neill has also poured out a lot of blood, sweat and money fighting for her point of view to be heard. In all, she estimated she’d paid at least $10,000 fighting the driveway.
O’Neill doesn’t want the SP zoning to be changed. “I think that if they make zoning, it’s to have zoning. It’s not to have exceptions to zoning,” she says. “I think it’s a good zoning law. I think it really is, and I think it took a lot of things into consideration – but it’s not made to be broken right away.”
The case law with the Wustrau driveway has the artist and environmentalist worried. “It might be hard to win,” she admits.
Back at their house on 208, the Majestics were feeling a little worn down by the news of yet another legal fight to build their home in the hills. Charles sees the Article 78 lawsuit as just another expense. He sees his family as the little guy in the drama. FoS is well-organized and well-funded, he says. “They’ve got the money – not us,” he says. “They’ve done this two other times on two other SP projects.”
The Wustrau decision brings a little encouragement into the Majestic household, even though the legal arguments in the two cases are different. “I think it’s going to be fine,” Charles says. “Our attorney says it’s ludicrous.”
He’s also encouraged by the state’s involvement in resolving the original right-of-way dispute. Charles says he thinks the settlement for that easement grants at least the permission to create an access road. “So it’s going to happen either way,” he says. “I don’t know if they realize that.”
For now the Majestics’ other passion project, building a house off North Mountain Road, is again on hold.
The Majestics should have a right to build on their own land. I lived less than 1/2 mile of this property and it is a wonderfully wooded area. They have been paying taxes on the property for many years and with all the added restrictions on building on the land their following all the restrictions given them what more can you ask for. Sometimes we need to consider the people building and their living in Gardiner for so many years. Years ago I had to walk home from the one room school at Benton Corners. I am sure I would not have been able to see the spot where they plan on building…unless you fly over with a helicopter.
Douglas Edebohls, Venice, Florida.