FOR THEIR LAWSUIT FIGHTING LARGE RESORT DEVELOPMENT
Petition demonstrates wide opposition to Six Senses project
A petition, supporting the Rhinebeck Town Board’s lawsuit opposing illegal zoning actions in neighboring towns that would allow a large resort development to move forward, has been delivered to the Town Board today with more than 400 signatures from residents of Rhinebeck and neighboring towns.
The lawsuit, filed by Rhinebeck together with Common Senses Hudson Valley and local residents, contests actions taken by the town boards of Clinton and Hyde Park to override their own zoning codes to ease the path for development of a resort by the $20 billion Intercontinental Hotel Group (IHG) under its Six Senses brand. The project would adversely impact all three towns, the lawsuit claims, because the proposed main entrance for the 240-guest resort hotel is on Route 9G at Clinton’s border with Hyde Park and Rhinebeck. Development plans call for approximately 50 buildings on the site, with a total footprint larger than a typical “big box” home center, and IHG Six Senses estimates that it would generate as many as 600 car and truck trips every day on local roads. The site is currently the historic Old Stone Farm, which has been in agricultural use for more than 200 years and includes environmentally fragile wetlands, meadows, forested slopes, and the pristine Crum Elbow Creek.
The petition, spearheaded by Common Senses Hudson Valley, a grassroots group that formed recently to oppose development of the resort, contains 405 signatures, 168 of which are from residents listing Rhinebeck or Rhinecliff zip codes and most of the rest from neighboring zip codes. It was created in response to another petition opposing Rhinebeck’s legal action, that was organized by the real estate broker who engineered the sale of the Old Stone Farm to IHG. Despite being promoted through the vast email list of the Rhinebeck Area Chamber of Commerce, that earlier petition only garnered a total of 171 signatures, only 42% of the support achieved by the Common Senses Hudson Valley petition.
The Common Senses Hudson Valley petition was hand-delivered to the Rhinebeck Deputy Town Clerk on Tuesday June 10 for transmission to the Town Board.