top of page

OUR FUTURE

Please navigate this section of our website for updates and information. 

Updates

Our Vision

Harlem Valley Homestead today is a working, sustainable, and diversified farm connected to the community. We are passionate about taking care of the land and deepening people’s understanding of the story behind their food.

We are creating a place where people can come, stay on the farm, share the farm’s food and drink, and experience what it is like to live a life connected to the land.  

We are starting the process of building places for overnight farm stays, educational programs, and shared meals and events, all of which are central to our vision. This will help us to: 

 

  • tell the story behind where food comes from;

  • help communicate the importance of living a life connected to land, place, and an ecosystem, and;

  • provide a path to ecologically and financially sustainable stewardship of the farm while at the same time contributing to the local economy.

Our Leadership

Co-Founder Josh Viertel has been a farmer, an activist, an educator, and a recognized and celebrated leader in the sustainable food and farming movement for over 20 years. Josh lives just a mile from the farm.
 

Co-Founder Michael Armilio is an Impact Investor with a home across the Ten Mile River from the farm. Michael has a love of shared food and good hospitality and a commitment to environmental and social sustainability.

 

Together they are working with Town of Dover friends and neighbors to develop Harlem Valley Homestead, a farm stay and hospitality center, integrated into a diversified working farm.

Jobs, Revenue, and Community Benefits

Our proposed farm stay and hospitality center will contribute to the local, county, and regional economies through new visitor spending; new property, sales, and occupancy taxes; and construction jobs, earning, and sales impacts. An independent Economic and Fiscal Impact Analysis prepared by Camoin Associates estimated the proposed project would create 84 jobs for the Town of Dover (such as farm workers, landscapers, and educators, food and beverage and hospitality positions) and 118 for Dutchess County plus potentially up to $9.5 million in Town sales and $13.6 million for Dutchess County.

Five Years of Intensive and Independent Review

We began environmental study and analysis in March of 2017 and made our first submission to the Town of Dover Planning Board in fall of 2017.  Since then, there has been extensive and careful review including studies by licensed professionals from archeologists to biologists, to traffic engineers and sound engineers. These studies have already led to modification and reductions in the scale and scope of the Project (as well as associated pauses for evaluation). 

​

Reports generated by these professionals include:

​

  • Preliminary Water Facilities Engineer’s Report 

  • Preliminary Wastewater Facilities Engineer’s Report 

  • Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan (SWPPP)

  • Phase 1A & Phase 1B Archeology Report

  • Traffic Study

  • Sound Study

  • Threatened and Endangered Species Report as well as additional studies on Bog Turtles

  • Wetland Delineations including coordination with the Army Corps of Engineers

  • Site Plan, Old Forge Road Improvement Plans, and Architecture Drawings

​

Independent reviews of the above-mentioned reports and documents have been conducted by:

​

  • Dutchess County Department of Behavioral and Community Health

  • New York State Department of Environmental Conservation

  • New York State Department of Transportation

  • New York State Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation Office

  • Dutchess County Department of Planning and Development

  • Town of Dover Engineer, Land Use Attorney, and Planner as well as the Planner’s traffic and sound teams​.

bottom of page