Photo Credit: Robert Lyons
When El Guacamole café opened in Pine Plains in 2018, cook Antonio Sanchez was looking forward to providing a fun, affordable hangout with tasty Mexican specialties, including his signature mole sauce. Cozy booths were installed to comfortably seat more than two dozen diners.
But then Sanchez and his co-workers got some bad news: according to Dutchess County health guidelines, El Guacamole’s septic system could not accommodate the number of customers they had envisioned. What was more, under the same guidelines, the small size of the café lot prevented them from installing a larger septic system that would meet legal requirements for hosting additional patrons.
One thing that would have solved the situation? An entire central wastewater system, shared throughout downtown Pine Plains. But with no central septic in place, it was impossible for El Guacamole to remedy the situation. Disappointed, the team ripped out the homey booths and replaced them with tables and seating for what the guidelines allowed — just 12 diners.
“I wanted 25, 30 seats,” said Sanchez, who came to Pine Plains after working at El Guacamole’s original location in Hyde Park. “It would be better for my business.”
Victoria McDermott, a former server at the café, described the restrictions as “ridiculous,” adding, “Not everyone uses the bathroom at the same time.”
Since then, El Guacamole has been allowed to expand slightly, to 16 seats. But it still falls short of the capacity the café had hoped for when it opened. Many members of the Pine Plains business district – the 32 properties lining the central intersection of Church and Main streets – say without a proper septic system, challenges will continue to daunt the underused town center as it aspires to liveliness.
Harder to Thrive
At the heart of the wastewater issue lies a fundamental question common to many small towns in Dutchess County and beyond: To grow or not to grow? Under New York state law, individual towns have the ability to set a vision for local development. In Pine Plains, that vision is laid out in the town’s Comprehensive Plan, a decades-old foundational document last updated in 2019.
The plan seeks to preserve the town’s rural character while encouraging modest growth through improved zoning and the creation of a new light industrial area. But the county health guidelines mean that without a central wastewater solution, would-be entrepreneurs eyeing the town’s business district must either limit their water-use needs or have the financial wherewithal to buy both standalone septic systems and the larger lots required for such an installation.
The Stissing House restaurant, The Stissing Center community hub and the Tower Pizza complex – some of the largest downtown businesses in Pine Plains — all have individual septic systems. But Rory Chase, a dairy farmer and award-winning cheesemaker who owns a home in the business district, says they’re among the exceptions.
Photo Credit: Robert Lyons
“Every other property is in a position where changing their usages or expanding their occupancy is thwarted,” says Chase, who had hoped to use his property to open a wine and cheese shop but said the tangle of regulations made his ambitions simply unworkable. “Some of the smallest parcels in town are in the business district. But they can’t become a commercial business because of their size.”
“When you’re a businessperson and can’t operate at the max, it makes it harder to thrive,” he added.
The old Library, attractively situated next to the small park on South Main Street, is another testament to the challenges of drawing new business to the center of Pine Plains. The parcel on which its sits – just .11 acres – is too small to accommodate a more capacious septic system.
This has frustrated several business plans for a pet-grooming shop, a wine bar and a brewery, all of which require high-volume water use.
State-Wide Solutions
Some entrepreneurs and local representatives say the creation of a central wastewater system would relieve the burden placed on individual small businesses to find their own solutions. With the encouragement of Dutchess County officials including then-Dutchess County Executive Marc Molinaro — now serving as the U.S. representative in New York’s 19th congressional district – Pine Plains began exploring the issue in 2018. Members of the Town Board, including then-Supervisor Darrah Cloud, who now works with the New Pine Plains Herald, paid visits to New York towns of similar size like Lexington, Prattsville and Hillsdale, which had opted to invest in new septic systems.
Board member Don Bartles, who toured the systems, liked what he saw. A similar sewer system, he said, would help solve some of the problems plaguing the Pine Plains town center by allowing more businesses to set up shop, bringing more revenue to the town and reducing any shared costs the system would incur. “Central septic allows you to have more density, which allows the cost to go down for each parcel,” he said.
In 2019, after securing more than $55,000 in state and county grants, the town began studies to test the feasibility of installing a unified septic system for the business district. In addition to being situated at a regulated distance from residential homes – 200 feet in the case of Pine Plains — central wastewater sites also require permeable soil close to the groundwater table.
Tighe & Bond, the engineering firm that had installed the Hillsdale system, surveyed nine Pine Plains locations and found two viable sites: an undeveloped property on Academy Street, and the West Church Street field owned by St. Anthony’s Catholic Church. Of the two, Tighe & Bond recommended a 5-acre stretch of the Church Street lot, which it said could easily accommodate a small wastewater system with little visual impact and no noticeable odor or noise. The project was expected to cost $4 million and would serve all 32 properties in the Pine Plains business district.
Running the Numbers
In late 2021, the Town Board approached the Archdiocese of New York, which oversees the sales of the state’s Catholic properties, about selling or donating part of the St. Anthony’s land. It also launched public hearings to gauge local enthusiasm and address potential impact on business-district property taxes.
According to the Tighe & Bond study, single-family homes in the business district would pay a projected $1,100 a year in taxes for use of a wastewater system. But businesses would bear the majority of the costs, paying an estimated $3,000 a year and higher. Any taxes related to the wastewater system would be limited to business-district properties alone and would not be borne by other town residents.
Given that the cost of a standalone septic system can range in the tens of thousands of dollars, some business owners facing the potential tax hike say it’s a worthy investment that will draw more stores to the center, and more money for the town with them.
“Central wastewater allows for greater flexibility in the type of business you can bring into the district,” says Thayer Durell, who runs the T.L.Cie upholstery shop on East Church Street just off the main intersection. “Increased business revenues would benefit the town.”
Several steps remain to proceed with a wastewater system, including environmental checks and a definitive map of the business district’s scope. District residents and business owners would then have the ability to vote on whether to approve the initiative. If approved, some members argue the district could then formally petition for the project to proceed, a step that would compel the Town Board to apply for funding and move forward with construction.
Washington’s $1-trillion infrastructure act in 2021 has provided a substantial uptick in funding for projects like wastewater system upgrades. Between 2023-2027, millions of dollars in grants are available through the Clean Water State Revolving Fund, a federal and state program providing U.S. communities with low-cost financing for infrastructure that improves water quality. In Dutchess County, neighboring towns such as Millerton and Amenia have already opted to move forward on septic repairs and expansion and are looking to the Clean Water fund as a potential source of funding.
A Matter of Priorities
The Pine Plains Town Board has yet to apply for Clean Water funding, and has not indicated that it will. (A $33,000 county grant was secured in 2021 to cover mapping and environmental surveys for the business district, but was never paid out because the work was not performed.) Supervisor Brian Walsh, who has prioritized the construction of a new town hall on North Main Street along with some sidewalk and culvert repair, said he believes any wastewater solution may still be 5-7 years off. Walsh also expressed doubts about the suitability of the Church Street lot as the location for a central septic system, saying he appreciated having an open field near the center of town.
Some local observers think $4 million is too steep a price for a system serving a district that currently comprises just 32 properties. “For the amount of money it will cost, it won’t be worth it,” said Doug Weaver, the founder of Superior Sanitation. “It won’t be used by that many places.”
Advocates, however, say adding a robust septic system to the Church Street field could allow more downtown residences to convert into businesses, permit existing businesses to grow, and even sustain additional future properties like affordable-housing units.
Patricia Jean, who together with her husband runs the Champetre restaurant on West Church Street, says the investment would contribute to a vibrant town center by creating more places to live and work, particularly for younger families. For her, the fundamental question of growth or no growth is a simple one.
“I’d be happy to help pay for a town wastewater system,” said Jean, who has seen projected earnings plummet by 30 percent when the county health regulations reduced their legal seating from 36 TO 23. “I can’t understand why people don’t get behind it, when their kids are leaving town because there isn’t work.”