Tupelo Community Forest

02/27/2024

Hi folks. The Town had a glitch posting their Planning Board meeting agenda on time, so they’re moving Tupelo’s updated site plan meeting out to Tuesday, March 12. Thanks for your patience, and we hope to see you at Greenfield Town Hall then!

02/24/2024

This Tuesday, Feb 27, come join us at Greenfield Town Hall at 7pm as we present our latest site plan update. We’ve been working closely with DEC to ensure Tupelo’s parking lot complies with stormwater regulations, and will present that work, along with our plan to add two log bridges and a boardwalk to Long Cut, Tupelo’s perimeter trail, with help from WPM Trails, later this spring. It’s been a long journey to get here, but we’re hopeful that these additions to the site plan address every last piece of feedback from the Town Planning Board. Thank you to everyone for your help with Tupelo! We can’t wait to welcome kids and families back to the trails, hopefully this spring. Thank you, John Cannie from SKTCC and Aaron Vera from Verity Engineering, for your work.

06/12/2023

06/01/2023

Update from last night’s Planning Board meeting. THANK YOU to everyone who came, spoke, or wrote in support. We’re getting closer. 🙏🏻

05/30/2023

See you at Greenfield Planning Board tonight at 7pm, Greenfield Town Hall! ❤️🥾🚴‍♀️

02/13/2023

Happy Valentine's Day from Tupelo. Tupelo is still closed, but this Tuesday night (yes, it's Valentine's Day!) at 7pm we are hoping to get a vote on our Site Plan Review and Special Use Permit to allow Tupelo to reopen to the public. John Cannie will be representing us again, as we show how we've followed up on the Board's requests. Your letters of support, and your appearing at public meetings (like this one coming up Tuesday night!) make a big difference. If you can attend this Tuesday night, please send me a photo, either here or on Instagram .
If you haven't sent a letter of support to the Planning Board yet, our public hearing is still open, and your letter will help! You can email your letter to town staff (Kim McMahon ) noting your support for Tupelo due to its alignment with the Greenfield Comprehensive Plan, and the quality of its professional trail build.
Once again, a resounding thanks to our Planning Board members, who are volunteers, doing hard work.
Thank you again for your support, and I hope to see you on the trail soon, and maybe this Tuesday night at Town Hall if you can!

11/27/2022

I hope you all had a peaceful Thanksgiving with family and friends. Tupelo is still closed, but I was giving thanks for you, and the support you've given me and my family as we've been working toward getting a Special Use Permit to allow Tupelo to reopen to the public. I also gave thanks to John Cannie, who successfully won our appeal at the Zoning Board November 1, affirming that no setback applies to a trail system. (Thanks to the many Friends of Tupelo who appeared at the Zoning Board meetings on this topic!)

John Cannie will be representing us again at 7pm this Tuesday, November 29, at Town Hall, as we return to the Planning Board to continue our Site Plan Review, and learn what other conditions the Board might ask us to meet. Since July, we've conducted 2 civil engineering studies of several other nearby trail systems in Saratoga County, focusing on parking lot capacity, and plan to share those studies with the Board. We've removed our roadside sign, which did not comply with Town Zoning Code. We've prepared updated survey maps of the property showing how far the trails are from the neighboring property. We've secured a letter from Creighton Manning (civil engineers) confirming that we meet the sight-line requirements for a 55mph road (although Greene Rd has a 40mph speed limit).

Many of you have asked when we might get through our Site Plan Review, and get our Special Use Permit. The truth is I don't know. But your letters of support, and your appearing at public meetings (like this one coming up Tuesday night!) make a big difference.

If you can attend this Tuesday night, please send me a photo, either here or on Instagram .

If you haven't sent a letter of support to the Planning Board yet, our public hearing is still open, and your letter will help! You can email your letter to town staff (Kim McMahon ) noting your support for Tupelo due to its alignment with the Greenfield Comprehensive Plan, and the quality of its professional trail build.

This goes without saying, but our Planning Board members are volunteers, doing hard work, and they are worthy of our respect.

Thank you again for your support, and I hope to see you on the trail soon, and maybe this Tuesday night at Town Hall if you can! (Thank you, North Country MTB for this photo of Tupelo.)

10/08/2022

Thank you to the many Friends of Tupelo who joined us at Tuesday night's Zoning Board of Appeals to ask the Board to reconsider the determination that a trail should be considered a building. We made our case and the Board did not ask for additional information.

We're on the agenda for November 1, which should allow community members to make public comment. Please join if you can. (Comment below to let us know if you can come!)

Thanks to the Friend of Tupelo who snapped this photo of the foliage off Pay It Forward trail. Enjoy the sweater weather!

10/03/2022

Sadly, Tupelo is still closed (for now). Thank you to all of you who've been reaching out asking how you can help. Here's the latest.

After our Planning Board Public Hearing on July 12, the Town's Zoning Administrator got back to us September 14 on 2 key determinations, one good and one...bad. The good news is that our parking lot does not need to move. The bad news is that the Zoning Administrator asserts that a trail is equivalent to a building, and therefore is subject to a building's setback requirements. This determination is, in our view, not supported by the Town's Code, and, if applied, would result in absurd outcomes that would contravene the Town's Comprehensive Plan. For example, Tupelo's trails connect to a new DEC trail on Lincoln Mountain State Forest—which we are delighted about—but such connections would be prevented if a building's setback rules applied to trails.

Tupelo's lawyer (John Cannie) will be presenting our case to the Zoning Board of Appeals at 7pm this Tuesday, October 4, at Town Hall. Please come to show your support for Tupelo, and for sensible and fair application of the Town's Code.

A final note: you may have heard that Tupelo Community Forest's co-founder and inspiration, Phyllis Aldrich, died peacefully on August 5, at the Wesley Community. Her obituary in the Times Union mentions her work on behalf of kids and open space in Greenfield. I was moved to see so many Friends of Tupelo at Phyllis's visiting hours and memorial service 2 weeks ago. Among the readings she encouraged us to use at her memorial, this quote from the Talmud resonates: “Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world’s grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it.”

In that spirit, see you on the trail—and at the Zoning Board! 😜

08/04/2022

It turns out we needed to cut more saplings, limbs, and brush to fully meet the 610’ sightline AASHTO standard. Thanks (again!) to Dean and Dan of Good Wood Tree Service, and Matt from .manning for the on-site feedback and precise measurement. It was HOT 90+ out there, but they got it done. Do you notice the difference?

07/21/2022

We had a great public hearing on July 12. THANK YOU to the 22 people who spoke in support of Tupelo’s Special Use Permit application. We hosted members of the Planning Board for a site visit last Saturday (pictures below), and are working to respond to the Board’s questions about parking, and coordinating with Town staff on some follow-ups.

We don’t know yet if or when we will get a Special Use Permit to allow us to reopen, but I am optimistic.

Public Comments about our application will help! Please send a letter of support to Town of Greenfield Planning Board, by email to Kim McMahon at [email protected]

I have been impressed by the professionalism of the Town Staff and Planning Board through this process. They have hard jobs, and Planning Board members are volunteers. Thank you for continuing to show support for Tupelo!