By SULAIMAN BEG
sbeg@thejournalnews.com
THE JOURNAL NEWS

(Original publication: December 12, 2005)

RAMAPO — A proposed 262-unit housing complex in western Ramapo may give volunteer emergency workers preference at market-rate value.

Pleasantville-based Baker Cos. is proposing to build the two-bedroom, two- and three-story condominiums on 50 acres off Route 17 near the intersection of Sterling Mine Road, said Bruce Mawhirter, the development company's project approval manager.

The development would include Auntie El's Farm Market, a bakery, farm stand and garden center, making the site the first mixed-use development since the Town Board adopted its master plan for development last year, said town Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence.

He said the town was in talks with the development company to give volunteer firefighters and ambulance corps members "first crack" at buying units, although they will not be discounted.

"With their expertise, we'd like to have them around here," said St. Lawrence. "We want to keep them."

This would be the town's first attempt at providing housing for volunteers, St. Lawrence said, but he hoped to look at other areas next year.

Mawhirter said the 25 buildings would range from six to 14 units per building and the site would include a community center with a swimming pool. Each unit would be about 1,700 to 1,800 square feet.

While plans are still preliminary, an application was submitted to the town, and the company will be before the town's Planning Board by early next year, Mawhirter said.

He said the company planned to meet with the town's Community Design Review Committee next month.

"It's all still very preliminary. We have not come up with a resolution," Mawhirter said. "We want to comply with all laws and regulations when offering units to the public."

Mawhirter said the units did not have a price tag, but he expected them to be "very affordable based on the area."

Sloatsburg Fire Chief John Johnston said that although the gesture was nice and there was a definite need for housing, providing anything but affordable housing for volunteers was pointless.

"If it's not discounted, I don't see how it's going to help," he said. "You can offer me first crack at a Rolls-Royce, but if I can't afford it, what good is it?"

Johnston said fire departments throughout the county were losing members because they were being priced out of Rockland.

"We're going to be in trouble in the not too distant future," he said. "We're going to lose these kids. We're going to lose the vast majority of them."

Frank Hutton, vice chairman of the Committee to Promote Volunteerism in Rockland County Emergency Services and a member of the Nanuet Fire Department, said he met with St. Lawrence last week to discuss the need for affordable housing for volunteers.

"We're trying to keep the young people," he said. "The ones that can't afford half-a-million-dollar homes. People trying to get a family home are moving north and west."

Sloatsburg Mayor Carl Wright said he was concerned about the development and its proximity to another high-density property proposed by Lorterdan Properties, a Montclair, N.J., company, and how both would affect traffic, the environment and the ecology of the area.

"It's a sea of urbanization," he said. "When you develop land, you lose it. And then you put pressure on other vacant land."

He said he was particularly concerned about traffic on Route 17, a four-lane highway that is often congested now.

St. Lawrence said the impact would be minimal because of the roadway's proximity to the New York State Thruway.

Karl Schlademan, who has run Auntie El's with his wife, Elena, since 1981, said he was not too concerned about the development.

"It's more business," he said. "It's progress. It's progressing in my favor."

Monsey Fire Chief Andrew Schlissel said the housing was "a great idea," but, if approved, would not help volunteers in the eastern end of town.

"We're trying to retain members," he said. "A firefighter living in Sloatsburg can't be a member of a fire company. It's more members for Sloatsburg, but not for us."