WHITE LAKE, NY — The Town of Bethel Planning Board heard updates at the start of June about two projects being developed in the White Lake area. 

Both are still in the discussion stage, and are presenting more information to the board, said planning board chairman Jim Crowley; no action was taken at the planning board’s June meeting on the projects. Crowley says that the next month’s meeting may be more informative. 

The White Lake Mansion House project, one of the two White Lake projects under consideration, first came before the planning board in 2022. The developers plan to demolish and rebuild the historic structure and add two buildings behind it to create a 72-suite hotel; it builds off an early 2010s proposal that received planning board approval but was never built. 

Glenn Smith, engineer to the planning board, reviewed the project’s submissions in advance of the board’s June 5 meeting, and submitted a letter with his comments to the board. Smith reviewed the applicants’ proposal for a hydrologic study, and found it to be satisfactory. He had not completed review of the project’s Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan, but noted that it included “significant upgrades to the original plan based on revised NYSDEC stormwater management regulations” when compared to the 2013 plan. 

The White Lake Estates project is the second development project around White Lake and the second hotel. The applicants propose to build a three-story hotel with 35 rooms. A version of the project appeared before the planning board in September of 2022, but the new design increases the rooms from 24 to 35. 

Smith reviewed the project’s submissions and found that several of the comments he’d left on the September 2022 plans had been sufficiently addressed. He noted that the project included a proposed mikva, a Jewish ritual bath-site, as well as an indoor swimming pool; he suggested upward revision to the project’s estimated water usage and wastewater flow to account for the additions. 

Both projects describe their occupancy in terms of “rooms”—72 rooms for White Lake Mansion House, and 35 rooms for White Lake Estates. Smith noted that both projects proposed “suites” with multiple rooms per hotel unit, not singular “rooms.”

Surrounding impacts

The potential for development in the area of White Lake has attracted residents’ attention. 

Community advocacy group Smallwood Aware Residents Team (SmART) has organized around the projects, saying in a recent message to supporters, “Smallwood’s sensitive environs, the health of Mountain Lake and the overall quality of life of both Smallwoodians and Bethel residents are at issue here.”

Concerns brought up by SmART include the effect the projects would have upon the area’s traffic, on the sewer system of the Town of Bethel and on the region’s watershed. 

The Lake Association of White Lake (LAWL) has also begun advocacy around the projects. LAWL was founded in August 2022 to address issues concerning the lake’s water quality following a harmful algae bloom that affected the lake that summer. 

In a letter sent in advance of the June planning board meeting, LAWL urged the planning board to consider the impact of development on the lake’s ecology. 

“It has become apparent that further development of currently natural land within the White Lake watershed could have severe repercussions for the lake’s water quality…. Presently, the White Lake watershed is considered 30 percent developed. Discussions with the DEC have indicated that if a watershed exceeds 25 percent development, it is likely to experience an increase in nutrient and pollutant loads, leading to irreversible water quality decline over time,” writes LAWL. 

LAWL called on the planning board to pause the approval process for any large commercial developments around White Lake until an environmental study could be performed on the lake.