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Rockledge adaptive-reuse plan draws support and conditions as ZBA opens hearing
Summary
The Zoning Board of Appeals opened a public hearing Feb. 19 on the Rockledge adaptive-reuse subdivision on Acre Hook Road, where applicant representatives said the planning board had issued a SEQR negative declaration and sought to reallocate two residential units from a stone barn to a larger manor house.
The Rhinebeck Zoning Board of Appeals opened a public hearing Feb. 19 on the Rockledge subdivision and adaptive-reuse plan on Acre Hook Road, a 36-acre property containing multiple historic structures. Applicant counsel Sean Kemp and environmental planner Matthew Broukoff said the planning board had adopted a negative declaration in a coordinated SEQR review the prior night and that National Park Service review of the adaptive reuse has been obtained for preservation integrity.
The applicant described a three-lot scheme in which two 5-acre parcels would contain existing buildings (the manor house and a stone barn) and the remaining roughly 26 acres would be retained as open land. Under the town's adaptive-reuse provisions an eligible building can receive increased internal density; the applicant proposed reallocating two of the units that otherwise would be in the stone barn to the larger manor house, creating six units in the manor and two in the stone barn without increasing the project's overall density. Kemp said the manor house is about 7,500 square feet with three floors plus basement and that the stone barn is roughly 5,000 square feet and more limited in usable floorspace.
Neighbors who spoke at the hearing generally supported the transfer of units from the stone barn to the manor house, but asked that the ZBA make it clear in any approval that the total allocation was fixed so that a future owner of the stone-barn parcel could not later add additional residential units beyond two. The board discussed whether such a restriction would be an appropriate condition tied to a variance and noted that conditions must be reasonably related to the variance and not attempt to control the future use beyond the variance standard. The board agreed to conduct a site visit and assigned a lead member; the board closed the public hearing and will consider the application after the site inspection and receipt of all planning-board materials.
The Rockledge matter is a large, multi-stage project that has been before planning and ZBA bodies for years. The planning board's negative SEQR declaration was noted at the ZBA hearing; the ZBA will evaluate the five-factor area-variance standard and the project's character-of-neighborhood impacts before reaching a decision.
