I have heard that there is a new development, 210 modular homes, proposed for a spot over the Dutchess border in the Town of Fishkill which will result in adding students to the Haldane School District. This will be a big deal for taxpayers in the Haldane district, as it will raise school costs and potentially crowd the school, and I think we should be paying close attention to it. Anybody out there have more info?

I just posted the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (see http://sites.google.com/site/haldanepta/Home/news-flash/highlandvalleydevelopment) in which the developer estimates that only about 24 students would be added to the district. I think this is grossly underestimating the number of children in a 210 unit development.
The Fishkill Planning Board has this project on its agenda for its June 10 meeting (http://www.fishkill-ny.gov/pdfs/PlanningBoardAgendas/2010Agendas/06-10-10%20PB%20Agenda.pdf).
This development will affect all Haldane School taxpayers, and it could have an impact on Garrison students as well, as Haldane could become impossibly overcrowded.

The Highland Valley Development estimates their tax impact on Haldane School taxpayers to be more than $200k, and will add only about 24 students to the district. Many feel that this is an underestimation and suggest that 100+ is a more accurate number. How many students do you think a 210-unit development will add to a school district?
Attached is the extract from Highland Valley’s draft Environmental Impact Statement. Do their estimates seem reasonable, considering the size of the project? Can Haldane School afford the space or cost of an additional 24 to 100+ students?
Please write to the Fishkill Town Board TODAY at 807 Route 52, Fishkill, NY 12524-3109 to let them know that we cannot afford to educate their students.

The impact statement is flawed in several ways.

They choose to ignore that these are mobile homes for the calculations, even though mobile homes have more shool-age kids, lower private-school attendance, and lower tax revenue than the rest of the school district.

If they had used their original calculation on 141 new students, this exceeds the capacity of Haldane and results in a deficit of $2,194,396.88. This value is over 10% of the entire Haldane district budget.

Even their fudge calculation is wrong. They effectively claim that 10% of Haldane students attend private schools. See the problem there?

Typical developer drivel.

They used the accepted, conventional method for figuring impact, got 141 students, saw that this was a 12% increase in the size of the school district, and knew this would be horrible and hard to sell.

So they threw the number out and made up their own calclulations, assuming mobile/modular homes would have the same density of children as the rest of Cold Spring, including the retirement apartments, the mansions, etc. They make no mention that we have a low density due to these types of places and also because of vacation homes, and that their mobile/modular homes will not be vacation properties, retirement homes, or mansions. Mobile/modular homes have lots of kids; that's what the conventional menthod for calculating impact so clearly showed and why they threw it out. Ignoring these things, they take the demonstrated density for all of Cold Spring and just use it for themselves.

But they weren't done. Then they deducted an additional ten percent in what was clearly bad, tricky math they were hoping would be overlooked. They claimed that ten percent of the kids who go to Haldane will in fact go to private schools. But their basis number is the number of kids iactually n the Haldane school system, not how many could be in the school system if they weren't somewhere else. How can ten percent of the 866 kids who actually go to Haldane at present not go to Haldane at present?

Viola: the number they want: 24 new students, not 141.

Maybe the fact that that accepted calculations were "historically high" for this area shows that the development they propose is historically inappropriate for this area. It should be resisted.

Regardless of their flawed calculations, this project shows every indication of moving forward quickly. Public support may not even be able to stop it, but it is essential that we try. Please send a message to the Fishkill town and planning boards!

From the Highland Valley DEIS study, pages 17–18:
“If the current number of students is 866 in the District, the “Program” costs are $17,017.37 per student. Therefore, the additional 24 students would create a need for an additional $408,416.88 on the district. At build-out, the Highland Valley project will generate $205,052.29 of tax revenue to the Haldane School District. The net deficit is $203,364.5910
to the Haldane School District.”
Fishkill has it in their power to decide on zoning that will affect Philipstown taxes. It is that simple.

It would appear that the Fishkill Town Board would prefer to keep this Highland Valley project under wraps until it is a done deal. According to this blogger, the Town Board discussed the project at the May 12, 2010 meeting, although it was not on the agenda. The discussion took place after an Executive Session when the room had cleared out.
Do you suppose they want to hide something?
Link to blog: http://ozzyalbra.blogspot.com/2010/05/may-12th-2010-fishkill-town-board.html

If you oppose the Highland Valley Development Project, please let the Fishkill Town Board & Planning Board know by signing the petition here: http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/highlandvalley/, and tell your friends and neighbors.

This item is on the agenda for the next Fishkill Planning Board meeting on June 10th - 7pm at Fishkill Town Hall, 807 Route 52, Fishkill, NY 12524. It would be great if a large contingent of Haldane supporters could be at that meeting.

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