One anomaly in the report is the Village of Valatie which has seen a population explosion, with a 9.4 percent increase in residents, up to 1,882 residents.
“I’m actually surprised it’s not more,” said Valatie Mayor Gary Strevell, who cited a report from mid-decade that indicated the village’s population might have spiked as much as 12 or 13 percent.
County Planning Department Senior Planner Patrice Perry said it’s too early in the process to draw any conclusions from the report. She also stressed that the figures are estimates the Census Bureau develops using a number of criteria and factors and that the 2010 census will provide a more accurate reflection of the county’s shifting population. |
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Perry added, however, “We track these reports, and they are a tool” in guiding municipal decisions on land use and development.
Perry cited several factors for the decline in population in the county including a lack of major residential development in the county over the past decade. “There is new construction in the county, but there haven’t been any large subdivisions in the county, outside of Valatie's Little Falls [Estates],” Perry said. “You see single-family residences and developments with 10 or 20 houses, but no large scale projects.”
Larger developments in Copake and Stockport have been placed on hold in recent years as a result of the economy, though the Stockport development was recently brought back before that town board when the developer, SSD Stockport, restarted attempts to move the project forward. The development calls for 76 single-family residences and 36 age-restricted townhouses to be built in a field between Route 9 and Chester Avenue in the hamlet of Stottville.
As to the population decline in Hudson, many officials have cited the return in recent years of many residences, which had been divided into multi-family dwellings, to their original status as single-family homes. In addition, some business owners have chosen to stop renting out apartments above their shops.
Why Valatie?
Strevell said the county’s northernmost village has been the focus of interest by developers and strategic planning.
The Little Falls Estates on Route 203 is considered one of the largest reasons for growth in the village in the past eight years. Construction of the approximately 80 homes in the development was started in the late 1990s, but the vast majority of the homes were not completed and occupied until after the 2000 census, the mayor said. In addition, he cited the revitalized Main Street and new businesses as drawing residents to the village.
“A lot of people like what we have to offer—nice parks, an active Main Street,” he said. “I have been approached by more than one person who has settled in the village who told me that their family had looked around—in Vermont and elsewhere in the state—and they looked at and chose Valatie. A lot of hard work over the years has paid off.”
And the “pay-off” appears to be continuing for the village. Further developments are being considered in the village, including a senior housing project for Route 203 and a significant-sized development that would bring single-family and multiple-family homes to the village, also on Route 203 near the village’s border with Niverville.
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