The paperwork’s been completed, the money has changed hands, and now there’s one more farm protected in perpetuity in New Paltz and 600 more feet of Wallkill riverbank which will be undisturbed.
Pete Taliaferro has been seeking a way to provide for his family in retirement for some years, and he wasn’t looking to do it by selling his farmland to real estate developers. After a number of schemes proved unpalatable, Taliaferro Farms have now become a nexus of cooperation in the name of preserving open space. In exchange for giving up those development rights, Taliaferro received $387,000, which was paid from the coffers of the Town of New Paltz, the County of Ulster and the nonprofit agency Scenic Hudson. Taliaferro has said that more than three-quarters of that money will be needed to pay off existing debt.
Under the agreement, the 32-acres Plains Road property won’t be usable for much else but farming and 660 feet of riverbank will remain as is. This ensures that a well-known farm in the community that’s associated with bucolic views from the Wallkill Valley Rail Trail will remain as residents have come to know them.
The easement documents grant enforcement authority to the Wallkill Valley Land Trust.
What kind of backdoor thievery is this? Looks like he got his ransom money from Our Tax Dollars. Can’t wait for Our Tax Dollars to pay for another lawsuit. The stupidity of our politicians. They granted development rights for free when writing the code and now pay this guy to relinquish it with Our Tax Dollars. Just because he can’t run a business and is in debt, Our Tax Dollars have to bail him out. Not to mention the tax abatement he recieves. We are subsidizing one person’s bad business decisions. $387,000 could have been used to better the lives of alot more Taxpayers than just this bad businessman and his family. Now that the land is off the tax roll and all of Our Taxes will be going up because of it. No wonder everyone is selling and moving out.
Sue. You have 30 days from the time the town board voted. If you need a conflict-of-interest issue to win on tell the court that the town planning board chair is a town employee on the board of assessment review? then,the planning board lawyer, the one she hired, will have had her conflict-of-interest issue at hand before he cashed the town’s check.
We read his New Paltz assessment roll entry. It contains unlawful entries that are endemic to ALL of upstate new york assessment rolls, Albany not excepted. Lawyers always get paid no matter what the racket.