Fallsburg, NY – Town Supervisor Under Pressure on Development Issues

Fallsburg, NY – Development is one issue that makes people itchy in the Town of Fallsburg.

For the past 10 years, Fallsburg's supervisor, Steve Levine, has borne the brunt of the criticism, and the praise, on development issues.

"Fallsburg is not like anybody else," Levine said. "We have bigger issues and bigger problems than anybody else."

There were bad years in Fallsburg after the hotel industry essentially collapsed, Levine said. "For a while, we basically had nothing," he said. "We started to develop, like everyone else."

A big chunk of growth came from developments built for an Orthodox Jewish clientele, the vast majority of whom use these second homes no more than three months of the year. Hundreds of the homes are condominiums, which reduces their property taxes by about 50 percent and generates some ill will from other residents in a town with high tax rates and a large number of properties off the tax rolls.

In reality, Levine says, the Orthodox developments pay between 40 percent and 50 percent of the town's total tax revenue.

But Levine and his family own Fallsburg Lumber, and for some people that's enough to make his motives suspect.

Frequent Levine critic and smart-growth advocate Kenny DeMars is among them. "I think the thing about Steve that everybody knows, but nobody talks about, is he owns the lumberyard," DeMars said. "I think Steve's lived here all his life, and he's used to the way things are, and he doesn't have a vision of how it could be."

Levine's well aware that's how some people perceive him.

Fallsburg Lumber does most of its business outside the town, he said, and the only motive behind the zoning proposals is that he's trying to help his hometown.

"Unfortunately, a lot of people have been fed a lot of false information to inflame the public," he said. "That's why I'm such a lightning rod. Because people aren't seeing the truth." [Record]