Children would attend Cornwall, not M-W, schools if project is approved, completed

HIGHLAND MILLS-The Woodbury Planning Board is reviewing plans for a proposed project that, if approved, would add 281 homes to Highland Mills. The proposal, made by New Jersey-based developers Legacy Ridge at Highland Mills, is a 281-home gated community, dubbed Legacy Ridge, to be built on the 707-acre parcel located at the intersection of Trout Brook and Smith Clove Road. Because current zoning laws would allow only 170 homes to be built on property that size, developers have requested an increase in the housing density. If the request is approved, the minimum lot size will be changed from three acres to two acres per unit, allowing the developer to build more than 100 additional houses. In January, the Woodbury Town Board declared that the Legacy Ridge project may have significant adverse environmental impact and requested a DEIS (Draft Environmental Impact Statement), along with a traffic impact analysis, neither of which have been submitted. Though many Woodbury residents have shown a less-than-enthusiastic attitude toward the project, advocates say it may be beneficial to the community. If the project is approved, Legacy Ridge homes would be connected to the Valley Forge sewer plant, which developers have offered to completely rebuild at no cost to taxpayers. The current plant is in need of costly repairs and unless the new plant is built, Valley Forge taxpayers will be hit hard. Because Legacy Ridge would just about double the number of homes connected to the sewer plant, any repairs to the plant in the future would be divided over twice as many taxpayers. Legacy Ridge at Highland Mills also has offered to 230 acres to the town as open space. The land, which is located north of Trout Brook, would become a town park, unavailable to developers in the future. The land will be gated in along with the new homes. Although the Legacy Ridge site is located in Woodbury, the children growing up in Legacy Ridge would attend Cornwall schools. About 3,200 students now attend Cornwall schools, whose facilities are built to accommodate about 3,500 students. With roughly 400 new homes being built in Cornwall over the next few years and the 281 homes proposed in the Legacy Ridge project, the Cornwall School District could see an increase in enrollment of more 1,000 students within a matter of years, using a rule of thumb of two children per household. Legacy Ridge representatives say a DEIS will be prepared by the end of this month. Although the developers have met with the planning board numerous times, an official application has not been filed. Until that happens, no public hearing can be scheduled. This is one of two gated communities proposed to the Woodbury Planning Board over the past seven months. Proposed plans for another development similar to Legacy Ridge also call for zoning law changes, but were not discussed at Wednesday's meeting. Developers of the second project want to build about 400 homes. The cost of a house in both proposed developments is estimated to begin at $400,000.