We, the undersigned, are residents and property owners in the Haldane School District in Philipstown, Putnam County, New York.   It has come to our attention that the Town of Fishkill is considering rezoning property on the northern border of Philipstown in order to allow the Walloon Trust, 44 Elm Street, Fishkill NY 12524, to construct a 210 unit Mobile Home Park.  

The Highland Valley Development Project’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS)* estimates that the project will add only 24 students to our district. We strongly disagree with this estimate.  According to the DEIS, the project site is currently zoned R-4A (Residential, 4 acres)  and GB (General Business), and the Project Sponsor (Walloon Trust, 44 Elm Street, Fishkill, New York 12524) wants to rezone the project site to RMF-5 (Residential Multifamily – 12 density units/acre) to comply with the Town of Fishkill’s Mobile Home Park regulations. 

If the rezoning request is granted, once the project is complete, the impact on the Haldane School District and Philipstown taxpayers will be substantial. Haldane School will suffer adversely due to an increased student population far greater than the DEIS reports. We question the accuracy of the formula used in the DEIS to estimate the number of students that would be added to the district. Furthermore, the tax impact on Philipstown will be significantly larger than the DEIS estimates and will create a hardship to taxpayers.   Our district’s 2010 enrollment is 875 students; adding even the low estimate of 24 students still represents a 2.7% student population increase, at a cost to the Haldane School District taxpayers of over $400,000. 

The Town of Fishkill failed to notify both the Haldane School District and the Town of Philipstown about this project and its potential impact on the Haldane School District, and did not seek any input from either entity when developing this plan.