A proposed 185-key hotel and wellness resort at the former Roeliff Jansen Central School entered public review July 23, drawing about 100 people to a public hearing before the Copake Zoning Board of Appeals. Board Chair Jon Strom said the review could take months.
Roe Jan Resort LLC is seeking a special use permit to convert the vacant school building into a hotel with swimming pools, three restaurants, two bars, a tennis and pickleball court, an auditorium, a spa, retail shops, a courtyard, and about 15 lodges, according to Paul Bennett, an architect who presented the applicant’s plans to the board.
The 41-acre property at 9065 Route 22 sits just south of the Roeliff Jansen Community Library and a few miles north of Ancram. Route 22 runs along one side of the site and the Roeliff Jansen Kill runs along the other.
The more than 90,000-square-foot building has been vacant since 1999, when the school moved to the Taconic Hills Central School District’s consolidated campus in Craryville.
The property is within the town’s Scenic Corridor Overlay Zone, or SCOZ. The zoning board began reviewing the proposal under 17 criteria, including its compatibility with surrounding properties and the environment, as well as its visual effect on the Route 22 corridor.
“The success of the SCOZ is why this is an interesting property,” Bennett said. “Route 22 is a very beautiful roadway, it makes this place an interesting place to visit. That’s why there could be a hotel and a resort. We want to work within that but we’re also a giant building and we have some other things we’re hoping to do to make this a valuable place to go.”
Several Copake and Hillsdale residents expressed concern about the project’s scale and its potential effects on water, sewage, and other natural resources.
Longtime Hillsdale farmer and former Roe Jan School teacher Anne Banks said the development would be detrimental to the community.
“We would be having significant newcomers to the area,” Banks said. “As far as the sewage goes, I don’t know if there would be enough water to have multiple wells on that property to supply the whole thing. Being next to a protected stream, I don’t see how you could contain all the effluents from all those guests and all those visitors underground and prevent it from leaking into the stream.”
Bennett said the design team intends to preserve the surrounding landscape and use native vegetation throughout the property.
“Our concept is that from the boundary of this building, everything is in the natural environment,” Bennett said. “Our landscape architect is looking to do all natural, native vegetation in a way that makes this whole property, from walking out to wandering around, going to a lodge or going to a cabin, it’s part of the whole experience, in keeping with the surroundings.”
Another Copake resident spoke in support of the proposal, saying it could restore a building that has become “an eyesore” while creating jobs.
“People move out of here,” she said. “We don’t have a school or anything else because we don’t have jobs. This would provide jobs for people, it would be wonderful. So many people are sickened by the deterioration of a beloved school that we all went to.”
Bennett also said he was consulting with the Copake and Hillsdale fire chiefs about emergency vehicle access to the property.
Zoning Board Chair Jon Strom said the review would likely continue for months and that the July 23 hearing was expected to be the first of several opportunities for public comment.
The public hearing remains open. The board’s next meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Aug. 27.