Planning Board to Mull Over Boy Scout Camp Course

After over an hour and a half of discussion on Thursday afternoon, a public hearing on a plan to construct an outdoor challenge course on the property of the Boy Scouts camp in Baiting Hollow was left open, leaving Planning Board members further time to consider it.

Neighbors and individuals concerned with the impacts of constructing the course – known as a COPE Course, for Challenging Outdoor Personal Experience – showed up at the public hearing, while Boy Scout representatives defended the proposed course as a team-building exercise that could not be sited elsewhere on the 89-acre Sound Avenue property.

"This is not an obstacle course," said a lawyer representing the Boy Scouts, John J. Roe. "It's a physical and personal challenge that requires the trust and teamwork of the people involved."

Individuals who showed up to halt the course as proposed noted that surrounding property values could be negatively impacted if the COPE course – sited about 100 feet away from the property of Silver Beech Lane residents Bob and Mary Oleksiak – gets a green light.

Joe Van de Wetering, also a Silver Beech Lane resident, said that while he and his wife have two grandchildren who are scouts, and they "love the Boy Scouts," they also "oppose NIMBYs."

"This is not a NIMBY issue," he said. "This is an in your face issue."

Fran Rosenfeld said she is counting on the value of her home to support her when the day comes that she'll have to move out, and the construction of the course could affect her down the road when she goes to sell her home. 

"This is not just about deciding an obstacle course," she said. "You are taking prime property and taking the value of these homes and completely destroying it."

Roe nor camp director Jim Grimaldi denied the fact that they would open the COPE course to outside groups for use of the grounds, an issue that former supervisor and lawyer Phil Cardinale – speaking on behalf of the Oleksiaks – as well as others noted would violate town code as an expansion of use on the property. Since the parcel predates its current residential zoning on town books, an expansion of use would violate its pre-existing, nonconforming use, they said. As such, a special permit would be required from the town board.

Planning Department Director Rick Hanley – the zoning officer in charge of the site's application – had yet to make a determination as of Thursday on how the plan fit in relation to town code, Cardinale said.

The Planing Board decided to leave the public hearing open until its May 2 meeting.