By Michael Ryan
WINDHAM - It was much more quiet on the Windham Mountain Club front at a recent planning board public hearing on the ski center’s multi-million dollar development Master Plan.
A good-sized crowd of residents and interested parties gathered inside the Centre Church on February 20, continuing what has already become a years-long envisioning, presentation and approval process.
Completion of the Master Plan will likely consume several more years in what will easily be the most impactful development in the history of the town of Windham other than the creation of the ski slope itself.
Several questions were asked about various issues during this hearing that were mostly typical of any planning board procedure following a very different gathering this past summer.
On the table at that time was whether or not the WMC would need to go through an exhaustive and expensive, full scale environmental review.
Those talks were unquiet, honing in on the controversial issue of how the Master Plan would effect public access to the slopes.
Concerns were expressed about that access and how potential limitations, not yet clarified by the WMC, might deeply impact the economy of the whole community as the ski center moves toward privatization.
A separate agreement has been established between the town and the WMC, providing certain assurances about public availability that simultaneously give financial openings to local businesses.
The larger-scale environmental review has been deemed unnecessary by the planning board, barring any unforeseen arisings, leaving relatively routine site plan and subdivision matters to be put forth and resolved.
While local planners have agreed the project will not hurt the environment or community sustainability, numerous regulatory hoops must still be leaped by the ski center.
They are obliged to pass muster with the State Department of Health, the New York City Department of Environmental Protection and the State Department of Environmental Conservation, among others.
WMC president Chip Seamans was on hand for the public hearing, as he was in the summer, fielding various inquiries and offering a power point overview of where the Master Plan is at now.
Development will unfold in multiple phases beginning with additions to the existing tubing park, along South Street, known as the Adventure Center.
Details include snow tubing to remain open to the public, tennis courts, pickleball, padel courts, golf simulators, pool area with pool, hot tubs, plunge pool and splash pad.
A kids camp will offer arts and crafts, a lounge area, playground, and basketball court. Plans for skeet shooting have been dropped.
Seamans, in a followup phone interview, said work at the Adventure Park is expected to commence this spring.
The more expansive and visible changes to the landscape, and to the future of Windham, will revolve around real estate and potential membership in the exclusive club.
As many as 46 townhouses and 20 single-family house lots are planned, including “reconfiguring previously approved subdivisions (28 previously
approved lots),” the power point information shows.
There will also be, “redevelopment of existing disturbed areas with landscaping, green space and walking areas,” the power point shows.
The architectural theme will be, “mountain contemporary design, utilizing glass and wood,” the power point shows.
Seamans said the hope is to begin, “putting utilities in the ground this summer,” also giving attention to new parking areas.
Much if not all of the current parking on the east side of the main entryway to the WMC will become the residential zone.
More public input sessions will be taking place even as the planning board continues its fine-tooth-combing of the Master Plan’s particulars.
“We are proceeding with putting all agreements together,” planning board chairman Thomas Poelker said in a phone interview.
“The Windham Mountain Club, like anybody else, wants to get going quickly but this takes time and we will take that time,” Poelker says.
Windham planners are being advised by Adam Yagelski, a senior planner with Delaware Engineering, helping oversee the review process.
“The enormity of this project calls for a very real balance between working with the main economic engine in town and making sure the town is protected,” Yagelski says.
“I think the planning board has done a really good job with that so far. It bears mentioning that the applicant is probably not going to build all the residential units at once,” Yagelski says.
More movement aimed at pivoting toward the final stages of site plan and subdivision approval is expected to occur at the planning board’s scheduled March 20 meeting.
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