Save Marlboro Ridge

About

How privileged are we to live in the "Tuscany" of the Hudson Valley?! The people of Marlborough have long recognized how special our community is because of its proximity to the Hudson River, on the East, and the Marlboro Mountains to the West. The Marlboro Mountains are a forested area that provide a unique microclimate that helps the growth of the grapes and stone crop fruits that the area is known for. Agriculture and agritourism are Marlborough's economic engine. That is why, even 20 years ago, the Town identified the protection of the Marlboro Mountains to be important enough to protect by the Ridgeline and Steep Slope Law it enacted.

Now the Town Board is proposing to lessen the protection in such a way that it could negatively impact the development on the ridgeline leading to clearing and houses instead of forested viewsheds.

The proposed change to the current law would have a significant impact to the community by allowing additional stormwater runoff, fragmenting forestland, and ruining the viewshed which would impact agritourism and the economic vitality it attracts. When people come to Marlboro and Milton to the “pick your owns”, the wineries and the restaurants, they are coming because they are attracted to the beauty of our region.

When they step off the boats at Milton or drive up from urban spaces, they are here to enjoy the natural scenery that some of us take for granted. That scenery attracts dollars.

Remember the Joni Mitchell song “Don’t it always seem to go - that you don’t know what you’ve got till it's gone…”

We need to do better than this for Marlborough!