Tell Gov. Spitzer to cut Catskill Development

Dear Friends,

Governor Spitzer needs to hear from you right now!!!!
As you probably know, confidential negotiations concerning the Belleayre Resort have been going on with the Governor's office for several months now. It is an extremely important moment to tell him how you feel about this proposal. Even if modified, anything resembling the original size and scope of the proposed resort is unacceptable. (Note: the developer proposed eliminating one of the golf courses and reducing approximately 15% of the timeshares long before negotiations started.)

Here is a link to email Governor Spitzer www.ny.gov/governor/contact/index.html and below are a few short points to add to your email if you need them. Cut and paste as you like. It would be best to send a copy (must be a separate email) to Judith Enck (Spitzer's Secretary of the Environment) at judith.enck@chamber.state.ny.us

Please take a moment to do this. The timing could not be more important. Your email can be short and still be effective or long and detailed if you prefer. Just do it!!!!!!! We could lose the Catskills as we know them forever if this development is built anywhere near its original size.
Once again, thank you for caring. And pass this along to everyone you know who cares!!!!!!!!

Judith Wyman
Friends of Catskill Park

Sample Letter

Dear Governor Spitzer,
Re: Belleayre Resort

Large-scale mountaintop and mountainside development is a dangerous precedent for the Catskill Park and the New York City Watershed. It would drastically increase development pressure on what should remain an area targeted for preservation.

Even if modified, anything resembling the original size and scope of the original Belleayre Resort proposal would be unacceptable.

It would send a "come and build" message instead of a "preserve this irreplaceable resource" message for the State's major watershed and second largest assemblage of "forever wild" land, the Catskill Park.

Sprawl kills a watershed and this would be the beginning of classic sprawl in the area.

The socio-economic impacts would be a nightmare for the local communities. Anyone who lives here knows that there is already a shortage of labor and affordable housing in the area. Workers would need to be brought in to service the resort and they would need housing and be entitled to services at taxpayer expense. It would not fill a local need. It would create a new set of problems.

This development could double the population of Shandaken very quickly.

Flooding is already a serious problem in the area, and once steep slopes are deforested, blasted and bulldozed, the potential for flooding and erosion increase dramatically. There has been an increase in severe storms in the last 11 years and at least 3 major floods as a result. This is the wrong type of development for this time of global climate change.

Traffic on Route 28, our only main artery through the area, is already horrendous in the summer and on Ski Weekends. Many serious accidents accidents happen on this very dangerous road.

Signed:
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