Viewing Platform Project Plans on Hold

By DARLA M. YOUNGS
COOPERSTOWN

Discussion of the proposed Lakefront Park viewing platform project has been tabled for the time being, following Monday night’s informational meeting, led by Delta Engineer Director of Landscape Architecture Michael Haas, and the subsequent Village Board meeting. Haas reviewed plans for the platform, which was to be installed at the northern terminus of Pioneer Street, in Lakefront Park. The plans received push back from members of the public as well as some village trustees.

The project was conceptualized about eight years ago as a result of public input, Tillapaugh told Iron String Press, including the 2018 Parks Survey circulated via the village newsletter and numerous public charrettes for the 2016 Comprehensive Plan, which emphasized the need for greater ADA-compliant accessibility and access to Otsego Lake via Lakefront Park for non-boaters, including a walking/fishing pier.

“The public put a great deal of priority on recreation,” Tillapaugh said Monday night. “There is an entire section in the Comp Plan on Lakefront Park.”

“During the course of these meetings, we got tons of feedback,” Tillapaugh added.

According to Tillapaugh, there was a lot of support for a long pier, “but a pier is not something we want there, it’s too much. We wanted something that was ADA compliant and complemented the [Lake and Valley Garden Club] buffer strip.”

A planning grant from New York State Parks and Historic Preservation written in 2018 paid for consultant Haas and, in 2023, the planning grant was closed out and the village applied for a construction grant in July 2023 through the state’s Consolidated Funding Application. A public hearing on the project was held in December 2023. There is no contract as yet—the village is just putting the pieces in place, Tillapaugh said.

During his presentation, which included project schematics and renderings, Haas said the viewing platform design concept took into consideration the size of the overlook, materials to be used, consistency with the village’s Comprehensive Plan and the history of the site. New York State Parks is “very particular about those kinds of details,” Haas said.

“That view at the terminus of Pioneer Street is a gem,” Haas continued. “The platform will not interrupt the view as you approach it. It will be cantilevered over the lake, and there will be some illumination underneath.”

The platform itself would be constructed of native ash, he said, and would be very sustainable.

“The deck area has clear tempered glass panels typical of decks today, very durable, and it would be suspended in the lake with [precast] concrete piers. Trash bins and benches will be the same make and model as those you see around the village,” Haas explained.

“We’re keeping the profile very low—expanding over the sea wall because the sea wall will not support the decking,” he added.

Haas said Delta Engineering had worked closely with both the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation and the Army Corps of Engineers, neither of which saw any problems with the fishery or fish spawning.

The project could be “buttoned up” by the end of May or beginning of June, Haas added, weather depending.

Members of the public in attendance had a number of questions for Haas and village officials.

Watershed Supervisory Committee President Bertine McKenna asked if Delta would be open to working with the WSC regarding plantings and possible impacts on the water resource, to which Haas replied in the affirmative.

Other questions and concerns pertained to the lifespan of the seawall, whose decision it was that a fishing platform would not be part of the project, and whether or not a private property owner would be able to build such a structure in a riparian zone. Perhaps the most interesting question posed was whether the tempered glass at the front of the viewing platform structure could withstand the pressure of ice floes, which Haas said did not occur on Otsego Lake but which members of the audience rebutted.

Ellen Pope, executive director of Otsego 2000 and a member of the village Planning Board, said, “I have serious concerns about this process. I don’t recall this being publicized,” to which Tillapaugh reiterated, “We received lots of comments. Work on this began in 2018. The 2018 park survey results indicated residents did not favor a long pier.”

Pope also said she was surprised to see the project resurface as a “done deal,” based on its low ranking in the NY Forward community feedback.

A lot of the village’s communication was done via e-mail during COVID, Tillapaugh explained. “We received letters of support and held a public hearing.”

“Anyone who would like to see the plan materials can do so at the village,” Tillapaugh said.

Attorney Doug Zamelis said, “I go to a lot of meetings. It was not easy to find information on this project. The public hearing was combined with something else. I have reviewed the minutes and proceedings. No one spoke against [the project], but no one spoke for it.

“I have concerns with how the process went and how the review was undertaken,” Zamelis said.

Zamelis also spoke on behalf of Peggy and Wayne Hymers, who live at 2 Pioneer Street, at the end of Pioneer.

Pioneer Street is essentially a residential street, he continued.

“This is going to attract a great deal more people…able to look into the upper floor of my sister and brother’s house. How have you buffered the impact to immediately adjacent property owners? I’m all for access,” Zamelis said, “but this doesn’t necessarily do much of that. What consideration was given to adjacent property owners who will receive the brunt of this? The character of the street is relatively quiet. The community didn’t really seem to know what was happening. Will the board step back?”

Peggy Hymers was one of the last audience members to speak.

“I was born here, grew up here. It is a beautiful vista at the end of Pioneer Street but [you can see] the same vista from The Otesaga and Council Rock. Why on earth do we need this whatever-it-is right there in the middle of everything? We don’t need it.”

During the regular meeting following the Haas presentation, trustees tabled further discussion on the viewing platform project for now.

“There was no vote from the trustees,” Deputy Mayor Cynthia Falk reported on Tuesday, November 26. “We did not approve the low bid. The decision was not to act, in essence putting the project on hold. We recognized the concerns of the public and the need to set time aside at a future meeting, the date of which has not been decided, to evaluate with public interest at the forefront.”

The next regularly scheduled meeting of the Cooperstown Board of Trustees is Monday, December 16 due to the holidays, Falk said.