Camp FIMFO

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Update Jan. 22, 2025:

At the January 22 meeting, the Town of Highland Planning Board announced that the written comment period on the Camp FIMFO draft EIS will be extended to March 11 thanks to a strong advocacy push and several letters from Delaware Riverkeeper Network and concerned members of the public detailing legal inadequacies with the original public comment proceedings. This is a win, giving the public additional time to submit new comments or expand on their original comments.

If you haven’t had the chance to write a comment, or if you have additional thoughts that you were unable to adequately capture during the first part of this comment period, we urge you to submit a written comment. Comments can come from any concerned person—not just Town of Highland residents—and can be submitted to the Planning Board at planningboardzba@townofhighlandny.com. You can read Delaware Riverkeeper Network’s first submitted comment here.

Read more on the comment extension news here.

“Say NO to Camp FIMFO” lawn signs are available.

As everyone is well aware we need to continue to scream from the rooftops our opposition to Camp FIMFO. Yard signs put on public display to the Town of Highland Planning Board and Northgate Resorts that we are saying NO to Camp FIMFO. Additionally, this will help us spread the word to those who may not yet know about Camp FIMFO and help us raise broader public awareness.

A community member has generously offered to help serve as a pickup point for those interested in getting a yard sign. We ask that you join our No Camp FIMFO – Protect Our River Action Platform where we will be sharing the information on how you can get in touch to get a yard sign. This platform is a secure social media space so we can keep this information from opposition. By clicking the link you will be taken to a page where you can create an account. The bonus of joining this action platform as well is it is a closed community with our allies against Camp FIMFO where we will be able to quickly and easily share information and action items with you.

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Update Dec. 18, 2024:

On December 18, the Town of Highland held the only public hearing on the Camp FIMFO draft EIS. Following the hearing, Delaware Riverkeeper Network reviewed the transcript to discover it was an inadequate and potentially inaccurate record of the public testimony and notified the Planning Board with a letter.

Watch the video below to hear the powerful testimonies of community members telling the Planning Board to just say no to this project and protect the Upper Delaware River from overdevelopment.

Update Dec. 4, 2024:

On December 4, the Town of Highland announced that the draft Environmental Impact Statement was complete and ready for public comment. This came after months of review with input from NPS, UDC, and professional engineers that highlighted several of the inadequacies of the draft EIS. Once again, this public comment period was slated to span the busy holiday season, including a single public hearing held on December 18, 2024.

Background

In the Town of Highland, Sullivan County, New York, Northgate Resorts is proposing to overhaul the former Kittatinny Campground with an operation they call Camp FIMFO. The proposal would transform most of the existing low impact tent campsites to RV sites, cabins, and glamping structures with water, sewage, and/or electric hook ups; adding water slides, multiple pools, mini golf, more parking, more septic systems, propane distribution and utility lines, as well as demolishing some of the existing buildings and adding new infrastructure. According to one official on the Upper Delaware Council, this is the largest development project ever to come to the region.

Overall, the true scale and impacts of the project are being masked by a lack of clear information or transparency about project details. And if Northgate gets its way, we will be seeing more large scale theme-park-like operations invading our Upper Delaware region and amplifying the harm.

Northgate’s proposal is in the federally protected Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River Corridor. The National Park Service helps protect the River by reviewing many proposals in the Corridor to ensure they conform with the values in the River Management Plan (RMP) and Land and Water Use Guidelines (LWUG). After careful review, on May 25, 2023, the National Park Service issued a letter stating its determination that the project fails to conform with the RMP and LWUG for the Upper Delaware Scenic and Recreational River. You can read about it in the River Reporter here.

The National Park Service complemented its letter with a detailed Significant Project Substantial Conformance Review issued June 26, 2023 . In response, Northgate sent a highly inappropriate letter to the Town of Highland Planning Board. To which Delaware Riverkeeper Network submitted its own response.

The timeline of past events has been:

September 14, 2023 – Delaware Riverkeeper Network held an informational meeting with residents in the Upper Delaware River region to discuss the proposed Camp FIMFO site changes.
September 26, 2023 – Delaware Riverkeeper Network secured the expert analysis of an urban planner with 30 years of experience. The findings were clear: The Town of Highland Planning Board must require a full Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), anything short would be a violation of state law and a betrayal of the public trust.
September 27, 2023 – Town of Highland Planning Board voted 3-2 in favor of conducting an Environmental Impact Statement for the project.
October 25, 2023 – Town of Highland Planning Board voted in favor of the proposed Scoping document for a full EIS initiating the public comment from Nov. 3 to Nov. 22.
October 27, 2023 – Delaware Riverkeeper Network sent the Planning Board a letter stating the public comment period was not enough time while also occurring in the middle of the holiday season.
November 9, 2023 – Delaware Riverkeeper Network submitted its comment on the draft Scoping document identifying several important areas for the draft EIS to address.
November 18, 2023 – Delaware Riverkeeper Network submitted a supplemental comment in support of all the issues identified by community members and highlighting several concerns raised by the National Park Service.
November 21, 2023 – Delaware Riverkeeper Network submitted a supplemental comment explaining the importance of considering all submitted comments in its decision making process.
December 20, 2023 – Town of Highland Planning Board approved the Final Scoping document for the Camp FIMFO draft EIS.
June 12, 2024 – Camp FIMFO submitted its first draft of the EIS.
July 24, 2024 – Town of Highland Planning Board, Upper Delaware Council, and the National Park Service issued comments necessitating revision of the draft EIS.
August 28, 2024 – Camp FIMFO submitted its second draft of the EIS.
September 25, 2024 – Town of Highland, Upper Delaware Council, and the National Park Service issued comments necessitating further revision of the draft EIS.
October 23, 2024 – Camp FIMFO submitted its third draft of the EIS.
November 20, 2024 – Town of Highland adopted the third draft of the EIS as adequate for public comment and set the deadline for public comment as January 10.
December 18, 2024 – Town of Highland Planning Board held the only public hearing on the Camp FIMFO draft EIS.
January 8, 2025 – Delaware Riverkeeper Network notified the Planning Board of the inadequacy and errors in the public hearing transcript.
January 10, 2025 – Delaware Riverkeeper Network submitted its first comment on the draft EIS detailing many flaws and inadequacies in the draft EIS.
January 22, 2025 – Town of Highland Planning Board decided to extend the public comment period until March 11 citing legal inadequacies.

On September 27th, the Town of Highland Planning Board held a meeting and voted 3-2 in favor of conducting an Environmental Impact Statement for the project.

The Delaware Riverkeeper Network has secured the expert analysis of an urban planner with 30 years of experience. The findings are clear, the Town of Highland Planning Board needs to require a full Environmental Impact Statement, anything short is a violation of state law and a betrayal of the public trust.

The Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) process is now getting underway. It begins with a public process call “Scoping”. This is where all of the issues of concern that must be addressed in the EIS are identified. You don’t have to provide the analysis of the issue at this stage, just clearly identify the issue to be analyzed. The Town has announced it will accept comments on the draft scoping document between November 3 and November 22. The Delaware Riverkeeper Network does not think a mere 20 days –particularly when they include travel days typically associated with Thanksgiving as well as election time — provides enough time and has submitted a comment urging the Town Planning Board to extend the comment period until December 21. You can review the Delaware Riverkeeper’s letter here. We are also urging others to demand this important extension of time.

The Delaware Riverkeeper Network has submitted comments regarding the Scoping Document. You can review our comment here. Feel free to use our comment as a guide for what you may want to say in a comment you submit.

Submit your comment on the draft Scoping Document to: Ms. Monica McGil, Planning Board Secretary at email address planningboardzba@townofhighlandny.com

–> You can review the notice regarding the public comment process by clicking here.

–> You can see a copy of the proposed document up for comment by clicking here.

–> You can read the Delaware Riverkeeper Network’s comment on the draft Scoping Document by clicking here for our November 9 Comment and by clicking here for our Supplemental November 18 comment. Feel free to use our comments to help inform what you might include in your own comments.

Holding tanks from an old landfill – the Barnes Landfill, has been discovered to have leaked tens and thousands of gallons of leachate to surrounding streams:

Some Basic Facts:

The campground is ~223 acres and has many areas of wooded steep slopes and fronts along the Delaware River.
Beaver Brook, a stocked trout stream, flows through the central portion of the site.
In addition to the Delaware River and Beaver Brook, there are 7 wetlands and 6 streams within the campground.
The campground is home to many species, including endangered and threatened species such as the Bald Eagle, Orchid-of-the-Waterfall, and Dwarf Wedgemussel.
Much of the project site is located within the 100-year and 500-year floodplains.
Camp FIMFO has multiple locations, including two in Texas, that show the large size and magnitude of these projects.
Of the 342 campsites that exist currently, only 56 will remain tent campsites. The rest will be turned into sites for RVs including with water,sewer, and electrical hookups, permanent cabins, or sites with constructed glamping pods or safari type tents.
The proposed project would transform a great portion of the campground to pavement, resulting in roughly 7 new acres of impervious surface.
Camp FIMFO anticipates an increase in visitors, which would be three times the number of visitors the current campground has each season.
Holding tanks from an old landfill—the Barnes Landfill—has leaked tens and thousands of gallons of leachate to surrounding streams.
The proposed project would alter 41.5 acres of land with earth disturbance activities and clear nearly 15 acres of trees.