Is Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival's new home to be or not to be?

GARRISON – It has undergone years of governmental review and public comment, has been scorned by its neighbors, praised by its fans, and scaled back from what it once was. But whether a new permanent home for Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival is to be or not to be remains an open question.

The Philipstown Town Board approved a zoning change on March 7, creating the Garrison Cultural Conservation Planned Development District on land once occupied by Garrison Country Club, including 98 acres that philanthropist Christopher Davis gifted to the festival.

The local law now spells out what is permitted in the new zone, a necessary hurdle for the proposal to move forward at the planning board, which will make key decisions on the subdivision of the property and what the festival will be allowed to build on the site. Another body, Philipstown’s Conservation Board, is reviewing the environmental impact of the proposal, poring over binders detailing the addition of native plants and plans to keep invasive species at bay.

After three years, the final state-mandated environmental review found last November "that there would be no significant adverse impacts related to wetlands, visual resources, or noise, among other things," said the festival's environmental lawyer, Adam Stolorow of Sive Paget and Riesel.

What's in (and out of) Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival's proposal?

Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival’s ambitious plan was set in motion in August 2020 when philanthropist Davis — in a scene that surely must have reminded some Shakespeare fans of the start of "King Lear," when the ruler pulls out a map and starts divvying things up — decided to split his 198 acres into three parts. (Cue Cordelia.)

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One parcel is set aside for a future private home. One parcel, about 17 acres, is earmarked for the Hudson Highland Land Trust. The last parcel, about 98 acres, went to the festival, which soon announced plans to make the site its permanent home, ending decades of productions on a majestic bluff overlooking the Hudson Highlands at the Boscobel House & Gardens, facing south.

Four years later, the proposal working its way through Philipstown's boards now calls for a LEED-certified open-air theater pavilion on a ridge with a commanding view of the Hudson, facing north, and the continued operation of the existing Garrison event venue and restaurant. A later phase would add housing for actors and visitors.

Gone from the plan is a 225-seat indoor theater that could have permitted year-round productions, and a proposal for a 20-room hotel.

Neighbors weigh in

The festival is readying productions for its 37th summer, its third season under a tent erected in a wood-side hollow next to the existing restaurant and banquet hall. Even as the festival actors were learning their lines and their blocking, Philipstown neighbors lined up on April 18, hoping their words would block, or at least alter, the proposal.

The Planning Board and Conservation Board held a joint public session that night, at which the public was once again invited to weigh in on the plan: specifically on the subdivision of 198 acres, the site plan, and environmental concerns.

It’s not exactly the level of the warring Capulets and the Montagues, but the festival’s plan has certainly raised the ire of its neighbors, who vented at the meeting about traffic lights, ridge lines, invasive plants, acoustics and even downshifting trucks.

Some took issue with a proposed traffic light at Snake Hill Road at Route 9, worried that the proposed signal, which has yet to be studied by the Department of Transportation, would fix the temporary problem of occasional summer-weekend traffic with a year-round, 24/7 traffic light.

Marcy Fisher spoke about being able to hear heavy trucks slamming their brakes at all hours from her home on Coleman Road. She then raised a horrific hypothetical.

"I'm not dramatic," she said, in a statement that would become just that.

"I am sure," she continued, "there will be some sort of accident when some truck that can't slow down slams into a school bus or a car or something else. And everybody here that said that it was OK can hold themselves responsible."

Others neighbors took issue with the plan to place the open-air pavilion theater at the ridge line. Some raised concerns that were aesthetic, others acoustic.

Replacing a natural viewshed with an artificial one was not in keeping with conservation of the Hudson Valley's natural splendor, they said. Another neighbor called the ridge location "a sacrilege." Another worried there hadn't been enough study of how sound will travel from a theater that is open to the air.

(The festival commissioned at least two noise reports, in 2022 and 2023.)

Another neighbor, Joe Regele, said: "When this move up the hill started almost four years ago, we were told it was a small community group moving their tent from Boscobel to the golf course. We were told that this was happening so that the golf course would not be developed.

"We now have a $20 million development happening on the golf course," he said. "This thing started small, started neighborhood friendly, moved up the hill, and now we've got this enormous development happening. In keeping with the request to keep it off the ridge, I see no reason for this tent to be on the ridge, other than ego."

Next steps

As the joint meeting drew to a close, the two boards had to decide separately if they had heard enough from the public to wrap up public comment on the proposal. The Conservation Board, which is only ruling on the environmental standpoint of the plan, voted unanimously to keep public comment open.

Conservation Board Chair Andrew Galler said the board will need time to pore over the festival's latest changes to the environmental plan, which was delivered April 8.

"I think it's going to take us several meetings, meaning several months, to look at plans, give input on those plans and get changes," Galler said. He set the next public hearing for 7:30 p.m., June 11.

When the Planning Board members, in considering their vote, asked if the Conservation Board's action would affect their deliberations over subdivision and site plan, Galler spoke.

"We are not exclusionary," he said. "We really work to be within the ordinance that the town has given us and work with the applicants to adapt what is best. So I don't see us denying. I see us perhaps making significant changes to what's being proposed."

Planning Board Chair Neal Zuckerman then took up the vote to close the public hearing — meaning the public-comment portion of the festival's proposal to his board. He noted that everyone who had wanted to speak had been offered time, and that the public could still offer their thoughts, but not in a public hearing.

Speaking to his board members, he said: "I'm sure you can predict future comments if we kept our public hearing open for the Planning Board."

The board voted, 5-1, to close the public hearing, but the hearing on the application will continue.

The options before the Planning Board, according to board attorney Steven Gaba, are "whether to grant or deny or grant with conditions the subdivision application and the site plan application."

The board, having closed the public hearing, will meet with consultants and get further input from the Conservation Board, Gaba said, noting that there are time constraints on the subdivision part of the application that must be either met or extended.

The Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival starts its 2024 season June 11. Details at www.hvshakespeare.org.

Reach Peter D. Kramer at pkramer@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Rockland/Westchester Journal News: Hudson Valley Shakespeare's plans for new home await town approvals