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amenia planning board

Planning Board schedules public hearing on Keane Stud impact study

AMENIA — The public may now view and comment on a preliminary environmental impact study for a proposed luxury housing subdivision at Keane Stud on Depot Hill Road.

By unanimous vote at its meeting on Wednesday, July 8, the Planning Board set a public hearing date of Wednesday, Sept. 23, at the Town Hall to hear residents’ comments on the drafted Preliminary Environmental Impact Study.

Minor changes will need to be incorporated, stipulating that some statements are the opinions of the applicant, adding some technical corrections and a watermark to a Conservation Analysis included in the Appendix to indicate that the information is outdated, having been prepared in 2023.

Proposed Keane Stud subdivision plans for the Depot Hill Road property call for 605 acres to be divided into 23 large agricultural lots.

Aspects of visual and environmental impact have been under study since September 2025, involving meetings between the developer and the town’s visual consultant George Janes. The environmental impact study review is seen as the first step toward completing the environmental review requirements.

Representing the Keane Stud developers at last week’s meeting and throughout the process was attorney Diana Kolev, Partner of DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Wise Wiederkehr, LLP, of White Plains.

Kolev asked the board to move ahead and approve the scope impact analysis, while Janes indicated that confusion remains about what constitutes completeness, and that the main issue remains the visual analysis.

Janes showed a series of simulations of visual impacts from a variety of possible imagined structures.

Board attorney Victoria Polidoro reminded the board that it needed to determine if the scoping impact analysis is adequate, not whether members agreed with it or not.

Janes commented that the drafted text describes the amount of area being affected by the subdivision within the landscape and then it draws a conclusion.

“What’s it going to look like?” asked Planning Board chair Robert Boyles.

Once the required changes are incorporated into the drafted study, the public will be able to review the document in advance of the September public hearing.

Leila Hawken
amenia planning board

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Photo by Leila Hawken

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