Chester considers joining Greenway

By Ginny Privitar
CHESTER — The Village of Chester is debating whether to join the Hudson River Valley Greenway Compact, which offers grants and free technical advice to communities that adopt smart growth planning.

Local businesses and the Chester Historical Society say they'd like to take advantage of Greenway money to fix downtown storefronts and plant trees and flowers. The village board at its Aug. 12 meeting said it will consider the implications of joining the compact.

The idea was first proposed by businessman Gene Winters, who said he was interested in sprucing up the downtown area near the Heritage Trail.

Winters told the board about the county's then-upcoming hearing on becoming a Greenway Compact county. On Aug. 19, the county agreed to join Putnam, Dutchess, and Westchester counties, which also have countywide compacts. All 14 counties in the Greenway are eligible for compact membership. Many Greenway municipalities are already compact members.

The Greenway Compact encourages the preservation and improvement of downtown centers by making them more pedestrian and bike-friendly. It also encourages the creation of green corridors through the acquisition of open space.

Now that the county has joined the Greenway, the village must make its own resolution to approve the compact.

Resident Gordon Shehab objected to the idea.

“I’d like to exercise my strong objection," said Shehab, who said he was afraid that participation, particularly when accepting grants, will lead to undue government influence in zoning, the types of housing that can be built, and where, land seizures, and restrictions on automobile travel.

"This Greenway Compact is very, very far-reaching in what it will do to control people," he said. "I hope you will read it first because it’s going to have a big price that you’re going to pay for getting these grants.”

Others at the meeting knew little about it. Board member John Thomas Bell, who presided at the meeting in the absence of Mayor Phil Valastro, said, “We’ll definitely look at both sides of it.”

Goshen officials also knew little about it, although the town joined the Greenway eight years ago when Honey Bernstein was supervisor. In fact, the Town of Goshen in 2005 won the Greenway's $5,000 Visions in Planning Award award for having the best master plan in the Hudson Valley.

Bernstein told The Chronicle she could not remember whether Goshen had applied for Greenway grants, but that she thought membership was a good thing. The current supervisor, Doug Bloomfield, did not know whether Goshen had applied for grants.

The full 52-page compact plan, and shorter versions of the plan, are available on the county website at www.co.orange.ny.us. Type in Greenway Compact. The “Design Guide 2010” gives information on how the compact may be implemented.