Three Falls Woods

[Matt]

Board names ‘Three Falls Woods’ CEA

Manlius residents gathered for an Aug. 12 public hearing where the Manlius Town Board ultimately approved the designation of “Three Falls Woods” as a Critical Environmental Area. The board approved the label 4-2 with councilors John Loeffler and Sandy Schepp voting against the designation. Councilor Dave Marnell was not present. The CEA label ensures an added layer of protection from any future developmental plans.

As the residents who live near Three Falls Woods shared stories and memories involving their love and appreciation for the land, the property owner, William Camperlino, expressed his anger and lack of support for the extra layer of protection. He said the action imposes on the property owner’s rights and will cause a much larger burden on him when it comes to any type of development. Camperlino has already invested millions of dollars into developing the land and promised he is only looking to improve the land rather than hurt it.

A town resident expressed her concern that the water streams would be tampered with because her family drinks water from a well.

“If we were to lose the water for our home or the water for our pond that would immediately affect the health of the humans living on the property” she said.

Camperlino responded with the reassurance that no development plans would affect the waterfalls or streams as he is looking to improve the purity of the water.

Read more at the link below.


http://www.cnylink.com/cnynews/view_new ... 1250539930

[Dawson]

Though I appreciate nature & sharing it as much as anyone I will ask you, nicely I hope herein, to REMOVE today all references and information of what you call Three Falls Woods from, and all references to this PRIVATE PROPERTY from your nice website.
This is PRIVATE PROPERTY owned by one of the nicest individuals you would ever want to meet, BUT their are groups of individuals who have made several posts of maps of this property and assumed some incredible forms of (nearly assumed rights) and nearly indicating ownership and property rights that they clearly do not have. One would assume these folks would be greatly offended, if their own properties, were published as public domain and would not appreciate creating invitations to tresspass.

There have additionally been published in print, and on internet videos, extremely unsafe and dangerous activites taking place on this property while they were actually TRESSPASSING on it. This includes a number of groups climbing high on sheer faces of the rocks and Mountain Bikers setting up jumps, removing rocks on the rock walls, and videos of crashes. There has been also damage to areas of this private property.

This land has been Posted for sometime & those postings have even been removed so this will unfortunatly need to be policed.

Essentially there is a group that claims to be a "green" interest group creating much of these misnomers and assuming this as "Our Greenspace". It could certianly be "their" greenspace should they purchase it but it only appears that their only choices have been to undully infringe on the property rights of others and tresspass and encourage others to do the same. Private Property rights are a very specific provision in the United States Constitution and a very important provision placed there for all of Americans by our Founding Fathers.

An even more unseemly effort by some Leaders in this "Malius Greenspace Coalition" has been made, by their personal requests (to the proper parties) that IF, a few acres of this beautiful land were to be deeded over to them personally, their groups efforts to prohibit this land being legally and properly used would, as they stated, that this Group's efforts ".......will all go away." This type of Blackmail is not what the owner ever would be a part of.
Moreover, those very "Greenspace Leaders" (private land grab behind the scenes dealing efforts) appear to therein fully entertain a betrayal of the efforts and costs they encourage others to make. This fully seems to "fly in the face" of their rhetoric and be thoroughly be disingenuous both to their "group" and to the public officials whose time thay have considerably taken up, at the public's expense.

I am sure the Ownner of this Private Property will appreciate your taking the Three Falls Woods references off all your publications, Website and otherwise.
If that is a rpoblem please contact us & thanks in advance.

[Brenda]

Hello Dawson,

I appreciate you bringing this to our attention. The site administrator is currently out of the country, but he is checking in periodically. I'm sure that he will address this issue as soon as he reads it, but I just wanted to let you know that it won't likely be today. Thank you for the information.

[bremer]

I was here on Friday and encountered 2 separate groups of teens/preteens who were basically causing a bit of havoc, or just being unsupervised kids, depending on your definition. One group of about 6 was playing paintball and another group of 3 was running around the falls throwing rocks and garbage around. Anyone who has been here knows there are piles of beer cans and garbage cans full of trash. (The village of Manlius actually owns an isolated section in the middle of 3 falls woods. Perhaps they placed the trash cans?) This site also has trails that are more worn that those you might see at a county park and parking areas for many cars.

Anyhow I have no problem with the owner requesting that the site not be listed on a website as private-open if that is not desired. However, if this were my land and it looked the way it does (garbage everywhere) I wouldn't be worried about keeping out responsible hikers. The only harm the people on this board might do is pick up some of the trash for the owner. If Mr. Camperlino requests that his land be removed from the web I would support it, but that alone isnt going to solve any of his problems.

[hobkyl]

I have to agree with Bremer. I totally respect Mr. Camperlino's rights, however you are going after the wrong people. The people that are the problem are the locals. I'm not going to drive over an hour to hike to a waterfall to trash the land. When I did try to find the falls last year, I got lost on the maze of well worn trails going every which direction. I never found them.

Persons using this site are respectful when it comes hiking private and publicly owned land, and as Bremer pointed out more than likely help pick up trash on these privately owned properties. I always carry a backpack when hiking and carry out what I can. It disgusts me to see trash strewn across creekbeds.

However, if that is Mr. Camperlino's stance on respectful hikers, I will abide by it. Unfortunately, I never got to visit the falls. I can only hope that the Manilus Green Space Coalition can gain this land and set aside as park land for all to enjoy (minus the kids who will always be the problem).

[champy1013]

Number 1. There is not a posted sign to be seen at any of the entrance points. That is the responsibility of the landowner.
Number 2. There are numerous publications with Three Falls Woods - including an article from Life in the Finger Lakes Magazine http://philbosphotos.com/finger_lakes.html
Number 3. There is what is called a 'covenant' in place (that has been upheld by the State Supreme Court) stating that the land had to be 'forever' wild and a buffer between the mining company and the village/town
Number 4. Not sure who the guy is who is claiming to speak for or know the owner.
Number 5. Not sure how the current owner actually obtained the land
Number 6. If the covenant is still in place, then he should NEVER BE ALLOWED TO DEVELOP IT.

[hobkyl]

Hey Matt...good to see you here...its been awhile I miss your pics. I agree with you, but since I didnt have all the information that you do, I didnt want to claim I knew stuff I didnt. Can someone explain to me what part of the area is a CEA? From my understanding it includes the falls. How does that affect the property? Is it the towns or Mr. Camperlinos?

[George]

The CEA designation and the restrictive covenant merely restrict the development of the property. It does not affect the ownership of the property, which remains Mr. Camperlinos, with the exception of a small isolated portion reportedly owned by the town. I agree with Bremer - local miscreants have ruined a beautiful place and forced a landowner to restrict access to everyone. There is a role for government here to acquire the property and enforce the proper use.