CAMPHILL COMMUNITY PROPOSED FOR GHENT
Mike McCagg
ccSCOOP News
02-25-10 - 6:40 p.m. - Developers of a Camphill Village proposed for the Town of Ghent are expected to bring building designs to the Ghent Planning Board at its meeting next week. The board is scheduled to meet at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at the Town Hall.
Planning Board Chairman Jonathan Walters told ccSCOOP that officials from the organization, which also operates a community in Copake, are scheduled to appear at the meeting to discuss Camphill Ghent, after conducting preliminary discussions in recent months. “They will be here in March with some building designs,” said Walters.
Camphill Village officials said in a newsletter that the Ghent project will be rolled out in phases, with the $20 million first phase involving three “frail care" houses, twenty-four co-housing apartments, and twelve independent living cottages. Walters said “some sort of retail” construction is also planned on the farm, which is consistent with Camphill’s stated mission of having residents create their own neighborhood. A community center and medical offices that will be accessible to residents of the town and larger community is also planned for the site. The village will grow some of its own food and create a sustainable environment, Camphill officials stated. |
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The project, which is expected to serve about 100 residents, is to be constructed on the former Borden Farm, located north of the hamlet of Ghent off state Route 66 near the former tack shop.
Camphill Ghent will serve a population “in need of services and support in their daily lives." The construction will be mostly financed by a New York State Department of Health Care Efficiency and Affordability grant of about $10 million, but in order to receive the grant, Walters said, construction must begin by September 2010. “They have to start moving dirt in September or they will lose their funding,” said Walters.
According to Walters, among the concerns of Planning Board is ensuring that the historic barn and house on the site remain.
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