Camp planned
Cabins for the creative



NEW SCOTLAND — Dressed in green Columbia shorts, loafers, and a black fleece, with curly white hair draped over his neck, Steven Cosimano explained to the planning board his proposal to build a professional and creative retreat between Indian Ledge and Castle roads.

Cosimano is a writer at heart and his son is a musician, he told The Enterprise. The two of them run a technology business together, but want to have a woods escape to do their creative work and open up the camp to others. "We can do some good work up there," Cosimano told The Enterprise.

The currently undeveloped 15-acre parcel has a rough terrain. Indian Ledge Road runs parallel to New Scotland Road where it meets up with route 443. It’s a brushy property with three different ledges, Cosimano said.

He wants to build four small individual cabins and one center lodge, with showers, electricity , a telephone, and a kitchen. He hopes to reserve some large space above the lodge or in a barn-like structure for conference rooms. All of the buildings will be on Castle Road, he said.

The cabins will have limited electricity, powered only with solar energy from panels on the roofs, Cosimano said.
"Yeah, you’re in the woods but you wouldn’t know it," he told the New Scotland Planning Board which is considering giving him a special-use permit to allow the camp.

Cosimano plans to have the site equipped for wireless computer service and cellular phone service.

There are at least three existing wells on site, but one is dry, one is dirty, and the third seems functional. Another recently-discovered well has not been fully tested yet, he said.

He thinks at most he’ll be able to host eight people at one time. He’s going to build the lodge first and then build cabins after he sees how much interest he’ll get. The Cabins are proposed to be built within 200 feet of each other.

He’s going to market to artists, writers, musicians, scientists, and amateur astronomers, offering them a place to meet or compose whether it be individually or as a group. He’s trying to draw from the Northeast, including the metropolitan areas of Boston and New York City, he said

The camp will be run as a for-profit business venture, however, Cosimano hopes to allow a few people to stay at a reduced price, such as a starting artist who can’t afford the fees, he said. The camp will be open only seasonally, from spring to fall, and patrons can stay for months at a time, a week, or weekend, he said.

The planning board scheduled a June 6 public hearing on the proposal.

Other business

In other planning board news, the board:

— Scheduled, also for June 6, a public hearing for the proposed 195-foot cell tower off of Pinnacle Road, which requires a special-use permit. The zoning board has already approved the needed variances.

URS Corporation on behalf of Dominion Transmission wants to take down an 86-foot tower and one-story equipment building and replace both; building a new shelter and a much higher tower. The tower is used by Dominion Transmission to communicate information controlling the flow of oil in the area; some government agencies are also co-located on this tower.

— Considered a request fromNew Cingular Wireless for a new 90-foot cell tower on Woods Hill Road next to the village of Voorheesville’s water tank. A 90-foot tower already exists on this site.

Last year, Sprint informed New Cingular Wireless that the highest availability on its tower for an antenna was 70 feet, which is below the tree line. However, now Sprint has sold the tower to Global Signal, which is not a cell-phone company but rather a business that owns and maintains towers. Sprint and Nextel have also since merged.

Global Signal now wants to extend the existing tower, zoning officer Paul Cantlin informed Cingular's representative, attorney Adam Walters. Walters said, at the last planning board meeting, that he has since contacted Global Signal. Global Signal was looking into extending the tower in order to host Verizon, and is also now willing to consider extending the tower even more to offer space to New Cingular Wireless as well, Walters said.
The town's planning and zoning boards now have two scenarios to consider: Does New Scotland want one very tall tower, or two 90-foot towers next to each other"
"It’s a trade off," Walters said.

Walters said that his company has already worked out a lease for the proposed new tower with the village of Voorheesville so that would have to be re-negotiated.
Walters also said, while considering all the options, his client does want to move forward with the current new 90-foot tower application. However, if it is possible to extend the existing 90-foot tower, this "probably would be more favorable" to his clients, he said. New towers are extremely expensive.

Planning board chairman Robert Stapf said that he would still like alternative sites to be investigated.