This Month’s Featured Article

Photo above courtesy of This Old Hudson Team at Houlihan Lawrence. Click here for more info.

For three years now, 22 acres of former farmland in Philmont, NY, have been considered for a conservation development project. Dubbed “The Woods” by Clover Reach, a multi-person LLC whose partners all live within 15 minutes of the project site, this property is located by Summit Lake; the development would build 16 energy efficient homes on the land. Amidst ongoing efforts for the development to be approved, there has also been a push to address concerns for the environment and community.

About CB Design / Build

Spearheading this project are Jock Winch, Jr. and Andrew Personette, who are also the owners of CB Design / Build, alongside their Clover Reach partner Daniel Barry. CB Design / Build was originally Claverack Builders, founded in 1978 by Jock’s father as a construction company to build houses. However, in 2011, when the business was going to dissolve, Jock took over the name and started rebuilding.

After running into Andrew on a project in 2016, Jock explains, “I sensed that there was a growing need for design.” Eventually, the two started partnering on projects, and CB Design / Build brought design in-house, which soon evolved into the design and build services the company offers today. “We have a team of designers and a team of carpenters so that we can handle everything under one roof.”

Andrew has always worked in design fields, with a specific focus on harnessing the power of design to improve quality of life and using his depth of sustainability knowledge to benefit people and ecosystems. Furthermore, his father has built and renovated single-family homes in rural Midwestern America for decades and constructed a sustainable “precursor to a passive house” for Andrew’s family in 1986. Even without air conditioning, Andrew recalls the comfort and low energy bills that resulted from his father’s intentional use of framing, insulation, and sealing.

From decreasing cost of ownership to increasing comfort and health, Andrew observes that environmentally friendly design is a no-brainer: “I’ve been convinced for a long time that it is not that big a leap in terms of skills or in terms of costs to go from a normal house to something that is actually a real benefit to people.”

Encountering Philmont’s development history

With Jock and Andrew both on board with these eco-centric design principles, they felt inspired to take the next step in the trajectory of their business. “We don’t see enough really environmentally friendly housing being built. We would like to see it, and we have the skills to do it, so we set out to make it happen.”

Andrew explains that when he was living in Philmont and looked at a zoning map of the town, it reflected “the sordid history of this parcel that we’re trying to develop.” Indeed, the 22 acres have been subdivided twice before, initially in the mid-nineties as a 57-home subdivision with quarter-acre zoning.

“The [former developer’s] process for subdividing it was going to be to clear 100% of the land and then clear sections of the adjacent conservation area for stormwater retention. They were going to grade the entire thing, really, just complete ecological destruction and then houses smashed in as tight as zoning would allow.”

While this never came to pass, in 2005, a portion of the initial subdivision was constructed on adjacent land, but not The Woods property. And Philmont’s comprehensive plan from 2001 meant that zoning would be lower density on the parcel, changing to half-acre zoning.

“That second developer erased every other line between the lots, but otherwise the plan was exactly the same,” Andrew points out. “I was living in Philmont at the time, and seeing what was on the zoning map scared me. I knew that land. I knew the wooded area, and I saw how they were moving forward with the old way to think about development – just trying to squeeze every penny out of that piece of land.”

The plan for The Woods

This inspired Jock and Andrew to move forward with their vision by conserving as much of the regrowth forest as possible, building energy-efficient homes, and creating a walkable extension to the village. “When I pointed this piece out to Jock and Daniel, we felt confident that we had a better way,” Andrew reflects.

As part of their development process, Clover Reach has also created a new conservation area at the subdivision’s center that legally connects to other Philmont conservation areas abutting this land, including a 10+-acre, landmarked conservation area along the lake with no prior legal access, as well as a 20+ acre conservation area on the other side of the hill.

Jock explains that the land itself has posed an obstacle to making their vision a reality; this has especially been the case as they seek to minimize tree clearing and land disturbance wherever possible. This required creativity, as well as thinking through the plan with their design team and the engineers on the project, to overcome this issue and bring in the necessary road to the property. The more prominent hurdle they’ve faced, however, has been in the form of public pushback.

Summit Lake Conservation Group

In 2022, Summit Lake Conservation Group formed “for the purpose of raising awareness in the community about the potential impacts of The Woods,” as Karen Schoemer, a spokesperson for the group, explains. The organization aims “to provide a forum for those who want to advocate on behalf of this treasured municipal resource.”

The group, she describes, is “a grassroots community organization united in our love of the Village, our natural local habitats, Philmont’s unique history as a manufacturing center, and the many historical artifacts around town, including Summit Lake itself. We meet regularly, attend village meetings, and informally steward the lake, which is a cherished municipal resource for all to enjoy.”

Karen points out that their reasons for bringing two successful Article 78 lawsuits forth in light of the planning board’s approval of The Woods “were community character, safety, environmental impact, and loss of natural habitats.”

In addition to considering the safety of the development’s road and the potential for erosion and stormwater runoff to negatively impact Summit Lake, Karen notes the particular significance of its proximity to the Agawamuck Creek, “which feeds the Hudson River and is a state- and federally protected trout stream.” She also emphasizes that “Summit Lake is home to hundreds of native species of birds, butterflies, flowers, trees, and plants, including many of conservation concern such as bald eagles, monarch butterflies, and two species of endangered bats.”

Keeping in mind the eventual introduction of the Harlem Valley Rail Trail to Philmont and the development of a watershed management plan for Summit Lake and 22 miles of Agawamuck Creek, Karen says, “SLCG actively supports all these measures and works to keep Summit Lake as the central catalyst to Philmont’s redevelopment. Our lake is what makes our village unique – we want to preserve it.”

Moving forward, SLCG hopes for Philmont’s 2019 designation as a Brownfield Opportunity Area and its placement on the State and National Registers of Historic Places to bring about revitalization. “Through the BOA, there are design plans for a new community center on Summit Lake and a historic plaza at the nearby site of a former mill. The community center design, by Rice + Lipka Architects, won a 2024 AIA Westchester Hudson Valley award for community planning,” she states. “BOA grants support the regenerative development of existing sites; they are designed to help communities revitalize and reuse what’s already there.”

Seeking to redefine “development”

Daniel observes that concerns for the community and environment at large are entirely understandable given the history of what it means to develop: “The reality is, there’s been a lot of terrible development over the years. A lot of people have come in with a scorched earth policy.”

However, Clover Reach emphasizes that this is the complete opposite of what they want to bring to the community. “I would say that was one of the real inspirations, to flip that, to do development in an environmentally sensitive way,” Andrew notes.

“If we had a better word for development, we would use it,” adds Jock. “Because this is really not your typical development. Development is very intrusive: people just come in, they clear everything out, they do everything as cheap as possible to make as much profit as possible. We’re doing the opposite. We’re sacrificing returns to make a beautiful neighborhood. I’ve lived in developments where there are no trees. It’s like, ‘Why is it like this?’ I didn’t want to create something like that.”

Andrew admits that another challenge is that The Woods is their first development project. “None of us has been directly, personally involved with a development before. We thought that we were putting so much inspiration, and so many good things that don’t go into a development, into this. We were basically leaving money on the table. By zoning, we could have done 44 homes. We’re doing 16,” Andrew explains.

He also asserts that viewsheds for those looking across the lake are protected within their plan, and that Clover Reach has gone to great pains to ensure the land remains in a preserved condition. Jock describes how although the village of Philmont has no protections in place against tree clearing, Clover Reach implemented covenants, enforceable by the village, to ensure that community members can’t cut down too many trees. “We actually put in laws that don’t exist anywhere else in the village to protect the mature trees because we want to keep the land wooded,” says Jock.

Visions for the future of Philmont

Clover Reach aims for the development to prioritize economical value and prosperity as focal points. Both Jock and Andrew have lived in the town, and Jock points out that he has family who still lives there, and his grandparents owned a farm in Philmont as well: “I’ve known Philmont my whole life. I’ve grown up in and around it.”

With this knowledge of the community, Jock and Andrew recognize that Philmont has a lot of potential amidst the vacant storefronts. By constructing houses that are sold at the market rate and have walking access to the village, they hope to draw in people and families who want to engage with the community.

“Our goal is to provide houses where people can come with their families, and then they’re walking down to the village and say, ‘Hey, look at this empty storefront. Why don’t we open a coffee shop here?’” Jock muses.

Beyond this goal of theirs, in a very practical sense, “adding 16 new houses of tax revenue to a village that hasn’t had a new house in forever is like the village winning the lottery,” emphasizes Jock.

“It would be a real outsized contribution to the village. I’ve been at Village Board budget meetings, and they have to constantly defer maintenance,” Andrew continues. “We could make a huge difference for the village.”

In light of all the community’s needs, Clover Reach plans to pay for the extension of the road, the expansion of the water and sewer systems, the permits for connections, inspections, and more. In light of the housing crisis and shortage of affordable homes in the area, they do not have the same state funding and resources as a nonprofit would, but they are exploring every possible avenue they can to help alleviate local housing burdens.

They are also currently looking into a building system that has the capacity to elevate their project from just a conservation subdivision to “a truly regenerative neighborhood.” Andrew underscores, “It’s something we’re just exploring, but it represents that we are truly interested in making these 16 of the most comfortable, reasonably priced, modestly sized, truly environmental homes in a new neighborhood that represents really the best it could be.”

To learn more about The Woods, please visit cbdesignbuild.us/the-woods. To learn more about Summit Lake Conservation Group, please visit summitlakeconservation.com.