Village, Red Swann Inn to have work session Feb. 1

WARWICK-The mayor and Board of Trustees will meet with representatives from the Red Swan Inn on Tuesday, Feb. 1, to discuss what will be the next step in that project's application process. Two weeks ago at the village's regular work session, the board agreed with its attorney, Michael Meth, to move to the next step in the process, hire planners and produce a scoping document. That document would serve as a table of contents for what will eventually be the project's Environmental Impact Statement. That isn't how the project's attorney, Steven Spiegel, sees it. Spiegel said this is not the process that should be followed, saying the questions that would be addressed in a scoping document should not be done until the Planning Board gives the project a site plan review, something that is way down the road. Now, the two will meet for a special session to discuss what is next for the project. Organizers of the Red Swan Inn project have proposed to create a floating hospitality zone in order to build the new Red Swan Inn, resurrecting the original Red Swan Inn, which was built at the turn of the 20th century. It was located on the property where the Warwick Country Club now sits and was destroyed by fire in the 1950s. The new zone would contain residential housing, the inn, some commercial businesses and retail establishments. Demetroules, R.E., LLC is the company behind the Red Swan Inn. It is owned by Michael S. Demetroules, a lifelong Village of Warwick resident and direct descendent of Thomas Welling, who founded the Welling farm in 1750. The plan is to place this zone on the nearly 11-acre site, which once was the Welling property.