CATSKILL - Nothing is etched in stone or cement yet but an energetic effort is underway to make use of the ghostly-dormant lands and structures in and around the once-enlivened Lehigh Cement plant.
The Greene County Legislature, at a recent meeting, approved a resolution authorizing the submission of a grant application related to what is being called the Cementon Redevelopment Project.
Lawmakers took the action following a presentation by James Hannahs, the new executive director of Greene County Economic Development, Tourism and Planning.
Hannahs, hitting the floor running, was named earlier this spring to succeed longtime department head Warren Hart, who retired.
The idea behind the Cementon plan is to, “deploy economic development projects that result in organic and diversified job creation opportunities that expand tax revenue sources, especially within emerging and targeted industries as identified by New York State,” the resolution states.
It is not idle thinking. “New York State agencies have expressed the need for an increased supply of large-scale tracts of developable real estate sites to strengthen efforts launched to attract business within targeted and emerging markets,” the resolution states.
“New York Empire State Development has developed grant programs to assist municipalities in implementing the initiatives necessary to market sites,” the resolution states.
Those initiatives include but are not limited to, “capital improvements (infrastructure expansion and other site work activities), and soft costs (master plans, general environmental impact statements and other study/due diligence efforts),” the resolution states.
“A competitive and popular grant program dedicated to implementing the
aforementioned activities, entitled “FAST NY,” will provide up to $300 million,” the resolution states, in overall funding.
Those dollars can be invested to, “prepare and develop sites statewide to jumpstart New York’s shovel-readiness and increase its attractiveness to large employers,” the resolution states.
“Through the nature of its own business attraction, retention and expansion efforts, [Hannah’s agency] has identified a large tract of land located in the areas known as Cementon, Alsen, and Smith’s Landing,” along Route 9W, between Catskill and Saugerties, the resolution states.
The tract, up to 11 parcels and 4,000 acres, displays, “many characteristics believed to embody a highly marketable site,” the resolution states.
Hannahs noted his agency has, “conducted numerous meetings with the owners of the identified tracts, discussing their desires of expansion and appetite for deploying site development activities consistent with the marketability guidelines set forth” in the grant program.
His agency has, “received general support, positive feedback, and a willingness to partner with [Greene County] to understand the viability of a comprehensive redevelopment strategy for the project area.
“EDR, a professional community planning and engineering company, was
procured from the county’s Roster of Professional Consulting Services to provide a scope of services that would deliver a comprehensive master plan of the scoped site,” the resolution states.
That master plan would be delivered, “complete with a conceptual site plan, completed State Environmental Quality Review (SEQR), finalized GEIS, and a findings statement,” the resolution states.
Getting to the fiscal nitty gritty, the resolution states that Hannah’s agency, this past December, “submitted a prequalifying letter-of-interest to Empire State Development providing a summary of a potential full grant application,” a pre-requisite to being eligible for the money.
Hannah got the State go-ahead to begin the grant process, seeking support from the legislature, which was given, hoping to secure up to 50 percent of the upfront cost for EDR’s work, set at $775,910.
If all goes as wished, the undertaking will create a business scenario, “so that when compa