Carmel homes in danger of falling off cliff as erosion mitigation plans languish
"Every year they promise, that 'this is going to be the year, this is going to be the year,'" Diana Behan recounted during an interview Friday in her backyard, "and then the year passes and nothing gets done."
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Everything in Diana Behan's backyard at the Woodland Trail Condo Community in Carmel is leaning toward the cliff by Michaels Brook.
She has had to replace her back patio, which she said crumbled due to the increasing incline toward the brook. Her oil tank is about to slide off its sinking cement platform.
Behan first told the condo community association about the erosion in 1989.
The non-profit East of Hudson Watershed Corporation has been in charge of plans to stabilize the banks by adding new culverts and vegetation.
The plans, more than 10 years old, have not yet come to fruition.
East of Hudson previously installed rocks to slow water runoff. Those rocks are now falling into the brook because the dirt around them has disappeared.
"Every year they promise that 'This is going to be the year, this is going to be the year,'" Behan recounted during an interview in her backyard on Friday, "And then the year passes and nothing gets done."
Over several years, a canyon has formed around the brook. The brook runs over rocks and cement in the center of the canyon.
Erosion from storms has created steep slopes on both sides of the brook that have caused trees, plants and rocks to tumble into the brook.
Several large, presumably decades-old trees are leaning over the brook, their roots exposed by decades of erosion.
The condo community association is assembling a volunteer board to keep pressure on East of Hudson to start the erosion mitigation project that has been at least ten years in the making.
Past and present members of the board told News 12 Friday that East of Hudson has sent representatives to board meetings to inform residents that "this is the year" the erosion project would begin, and to be prepared for trucks, bulldozers and noise.
"We said, 'Absolutely. We have no problem with it. This needs to be done for the safety of our community,'" said Karen Fleischman, former board president and current resident, "And it just gets stopped every single year."
The condo association's current president and secretary said Friday that the last they were told by East of Hudson was that the erosion mitigation project should begin this September.
News 12 reached out to East of Hudson's chief engineer several times Friday seeking comment, and is still awaiting a response.
