The Gables at Warwick gains preliminary board approval

WARWICK-The Gables at Warwick, an 18-lot subdivision on Route 17A in Bellvale, is one step closer to being built. The Planning Board gave the project preliminary approval last week. The developers must now go to the Orange County Department of Health, as well as other agencies, for reviews before proceeding to final approval. The process could take from six months to a year before it is completed. This proposal has been before the board for nearly five years, having been submitted in 2000. Up for discussion earlier this year was secondary access for the development or allowing a boulevard for a single entrance and exit, a water supply, traffic, trees and open space. The Gables at Warwick is looking to become part of the Bellvale Water District, as is BCM, a proposed 42-lot development in the area. The water district currently provides water to 25 homeowners in the area. But the water system in the area has a high level of dissolved uranium. The cost to correct the problem is prohibitive. The town proposed adding BCM to the district for two reasons-it could provide ample water to the district, helping to dissolve the uranium further, and share in the cost of updating the 40-year-old system. The Gables at Warwick is banking on BCM being approved and therefore the district having enough water to supply to all. John Lehman, engineer for the Gables project, has said there are alternatives to that plan. If this development is not hooked into the Bellvale Water District, he said, they could reconfigure the development and dig wells. Or they could make an agreement with the BCM development and have water provided by them. The town's Conservation Board had said the open space on this cluster development was too segmented, saying just 10 lots in the development benefit from the open space. Nearly 56 percent of the land in this cluster development will remain open space. The Planning Board adjourned a public hearing on Foxwood Estates, a 14-lot subdivision also in Bellvale, until June 15.