Riverfront estate tree removal draws scrutiny

But, the town’s Zoning Enforcement Officer has now requested that Wenner’s group apply retroactively for another special permit because he said the Teviot tree removal exceeded the original permit’s scope.

Planning board members, who visited Teviot on April 21, unanimously agreed that the scope of Teviot tree removal was far in excess of what they had previously permitted.

At the board’s May 7 meeting, Deputy Chair Laing said, “I had been disturbed to see the extreme number of trees that had been removed and to see that the understory had been completely cleared.”

Chairperson Christine Kane added that the bluffs overlooking the railroad tracks are now bare, causing an imminent erosion threat due to the lack of vegetation. Additionally, it was reported, efforts by the property managers to re-vegetate the cliff had failed.

The planning board is currently pressing Wenner’s group to provide a management plan that will address these problems at Teviot . They have also been asked to submit a map detailing the location and size of every tree to be cut on the Woods Road property so there will be no question about what is permitted if the application is approved.

This is not the first time Wenner has met resistance from Red Hook planners.

In 2009, he petitioned for permission to operate a helipad at Teviot. At that time, the planning board determined that a helipad and the associated flight traffic up and down the coast would have a “significant adverse impact on the environment.”

The public hearing on the tree cutting will continue at the planning board’s June 18 meeting.

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