Ulster ZBA Hears Appeal on Zena Homes Jurisdiction; Written Comment Period Open Through August

WLC argues project was restructured below review threshold—and that Planning Board’s own 2025 referral vote was never reversed

WOODSTOCK, N.Y.—The Ulster Town Zoning Board of Appeals held a hearing Monday evening on Woodstock Land Conservancy’s appeal of a June 8, 2026, determination by Ulster Building Inspector Warren Tutt. At issue: whether the developer of the proposed Zena Homes subdivision restructured the project to avoid Town Board review—and whether the Planning Board’s own 2025 vote to send the project to the Town Board was ever legally undone.

The hearing itself raised procedural concerns before arguments even began. The ZBA’s own agenda listed no public hearing for the matter—though the board’s agenda does include a designated public hearing section where other items appeared. Notice of the hearing ran in the Daily Freeman, one of the Town of Ulster’s two officially designated newspapers of record. No notice has been located in Hudson Valley One, the other paper designated by the Town Board’s January 2026 organizational resolution. The hearing was initially opened without public comment; after advocates raised the issue from the floor, the board accepted testimony from residents before voting to close the oral portion and accept written comments through its next meeting in August.

WLC’s attorney Cassondra Britton of Rodenhausen Chale & Polidoro LLP laid out the case. Ulster’s Town Code requires aggregation of all proposed structures when assessing whether a project exceeds the 2,500-square-foot threshold that triggers Town Board review. The Zena Homes project—30 lots, a recreation center, a half-mile trail loop, roads, and shared infrastructure—clearly exceeds that threshold when evaluated as a whole. Ulster’s own official website lists Zena Homes as a “large-scale project” alongside other major developments reviewed by the town. Every other project on that list has gone before the Town Board. This one has not.

Britton argued that the record shows why. On May 13, 2025, upon the advice of counsel, the Planning Board voted to refer the project to the Town Board—recognizing that the project’s recreation center exceeded the threshold. The developer subsequently reduced the recreation center to just under 2,500 square feet. The Planning Board then resumed its review with no formal vote to undo the referral that remains in the official record.

“The May 13th, 2025 planning board meeting minutes state that upon the advice of counsel, the planning board voted to refer this project to the town board,” said Patty Goodwin, president of WLC’s board of directors. “That referral is part of the official record. It has never been formally reversed by any vote.”

The stakes extend beyond this project. Britton warned that if the Building Inspector’s interpretation stands, any developer of any large-scale project could restructure it as a series of individually sub-threshold components and avoid Town Board review entirely. She characterized this as akin to SEQRA segmentation—the unlawful breaking of a project into smaller parts to evade a more rigorous review—and noted that the town code’s use of the plural in referring to structures clearly contemplates aggregation.

“The planning board has neither the mandate nor the tools to adequately weigh the impacts of a project of this size and scale on lands that have been designated for protection by the town itself,” said Andy Mossey, WLC’s executive director. “The town board is the appropriate body for review.”

WLC, whose Israel Wittman Sanctuary—more than 210 acres—borders the proposed development to the north, filed the appeal as an adjacent landowner with a direct stake in how the project is reviewed and by whom.
Community members wishing to weigh in may submit written comments to the Town of Ulster ZBA at [ZBA contact info] through its next regular meeting in August. Comments should address the interpretation of Chapter 145 of the Town Code and the question of aggregation.

The Woodstock Land Conservancy is a nonprofit land trust protecting the woodlands, wetlands, and habitats of the Eastern Catskills. WLC owns and manages more than 210 acres in the Israel Wittman Sanctuary, directly adjacent to the proposed Zena Homes development site.