Sweeton's Plans: Finished and Future
Michael Sweeton explained his path as Town of Warwick supervisor for 21 years and what that will lead to in his future.
Listening through the wall to someone burgling the Brooklyn building where he lived is a memory that has lingered for Mike Sweeton from his single-digit years . His Scotch-Irish mother had come to the U.S. from Ireland with a contract to be a nanny for an American family when she gave birth to him. Her women friends shared his care, and one invited him to stay with her in Warwick during his summer after second grade. Those early Warwick days left an impression that contrasted brightly with his boxed in Brooklyn life.
“It was a magic summer. I wandered with my friends in the woods. I went out in the morning and didn’t come back until dark,” Sweeton said. “Families welcomed me. I got to see parents and siblings, an experience that was foreign to me.”
Warwick became his home when the woman who hosted his happy summer arranged for him to continue staying with her. Perhaps that early liberty and delight underlay his advocacy for open space, farmland and community recreation areas as Town of Warwick supervisor for 21 years, concluding in December. Shortly before he left office, he explained how his Warwick role evolved, his challenges and choices.
Sweeton met his wife, Deborah, when he was a senior in high school. He planned to go on to the U.S. Naval Academy, to which then Congressman Ben Gilman appointed him, but vision problems impeded that path. So he made use of a math scholarship at Clarkson College of Technology to get a degree in chemical engineering.
Those skills brought him to Union Carbide, where his father-in-law worked, to intern in a department using isotopes for medical testing, while Deborah went to college at SUNY Geneseo. But she left school to work with her father in a business he launched, Techni-Growers Greenhouses, using special soil he developed to keep plants moist in insulated greenhouses that were functional year round.
Sweeton graduated from college in 1978 and intended to go to graduate school, but he and his wife already had a child, so he worked at Union Carbide in Tarrytown for a decade, although he did take time, in 1980, to pursue an MBA in marketing at Manhattan College. Those skills would be apt when he joined the family greenhouse business and for later ventures.
“In the early ‘90’s, a friend who was chair of the Orange County Republican Party got me interested in politics,” he said. That was John Hicks.
“Politics was his passion,” said Sweeton. “We were good friends. I was interested in the farmland preservation effort. I wanted it to succeed. I became fascinated with land development. I learned that big government isn’t efficient. Things don’t get done.”
As an example, he said that FEMA took several days to arrive at storm damaged sites and took years to provide money for repairs.
“Local government gets things done. You have to compromise and come to a consensus,” said Sweeton.
Beginning with the 1993 Visioning Fair, he was active in the Community 2000 series of visioning sessions in response to development pressures, as developers increasingly appeared at town planning board meetings with building plans . The resulting consensus was that Warwick’s rural character should be maintained with responsible development.
Sweeton recalled the town then:
“Downtown had many shops, but it looked a little tired. Agritourism hadn’t happened. ‘U-pick’ wasn’t a concept, although Maskers was offering it at their orchard. Farmers sold produce wholesale. Farms and Black Dirt were the focus of Warwick’s long history. But developers were looking at the land.”
A law allowing purchase of development rights (PDR) passed in New York in 1992, sparking controversy. The state could buy development rights for undeveloped land for 75-100% of its development value.
Sweeton recalled the “big push,” using a video by Broadway Man of La Mancha star Richard Kiley, promoting preservation of open space, which Sweeton felt should be reflected in zoning in the comprehensive plan revision . But landowners opposed the open space focus. They wanted big lots for each house.
Sweeton recalled how owners of the Brady Farm were “vocal opponents” of PDR, claiming the strategy was “stealing land value.”
“Then they sold their development rights, and others followed,” said Sweeton.
At a time when dairy farms had become unprofitable, the land could be preserved rather than developed, and later used for other kinds of farming. Warwick provided $9.5 million in bonds to fund the program.
Meanwhile, a Long Island town had made use of a European concept, cluster zoning, described by Randall Arendt in his book, Rural By Design, that caught Sweeton’s attention.
“It was a new idea to New York State and the Hudson Valley, but it was common from the 1700’s and 1800’s. In the 1950’s, people lost sight of it,” Sweeton said. “Middletown had been surrounded by fields. Then there was highway construction, and businesses increased along the corridors. Warwick was off the beaten path, but people were worried.”
A housing boom began in Warwick in the 1960’s, prompting the first zoning code in 1965. With the introduction of cluster development, Sweeton said, “Catch phrases were ‘too big to mow, too small to farm.’ If we introduced the cluster policy, you get what you want with open space,” he said. “It’s responsible zoning. It preserves 60% of the land.”
Then, in 2001, as the town board considered cluster development in zoning changes for the town comprehensive plan update, three Town of Warwick positions opened up—two council seats and the supervisor. Annie Rabbitt and Kevin Schuback won the council seats, and Sweeton became supervisor.
After the election, as the zoning code was revised, Sweeton advocated for cluster zoning with incentives to make it more appealing to developers than large lots that “eat up land.” Rather than a big house on four acres, cluster zoning would gather a few houses on less land, up to an acre and a half each, with more land surrounding them. Soon after Sweeton took office, cluster zoning was adopted in the comprehensive plan.
Geoff Howard, who chaired the Community 2000 Committee, later Community Together, remembered realtors’ opposition to cluster development. They contended it would prevent big sales. But buyers were attracted to Warwick’s open spaces, he said. “People were standing in line for Warwick properties.”
“Ironically, in 2005, the New York State Realtors Association gave Warwick the Smart Growth Award,” said Sweeton. Smaller lots used less land, less roads and less resources.
Pride in greenery prompted spiffier public spaces. Amid increasing attention to Warwick, “Entrepreneurs upgraded their stores,” said Sweeton. “It caught on organically. The Village Green was revamped for gatherings, and upgrades spread to the side streets. People valued the village center and wanted it to be vibrant, with green spaces around the village.”
However, the money to purchase development rights for green space became scarce after the town spent $9.5 million in bond money on it.
“So we looked for other sources of funding,” said Sweeton.” The east end of Long Island got state authorization for a transfer tax. Only the state legislature can authorize that.”
As an assemblywoman, Annie Rabbitt, and a state senator, Tom Morahan advocated for the measure for Warwick, and Governor George Pataki signed into law the transfer tax of .75% paid on developed property beyond the first $100,000, and undeveloped property beyond the first $50,000. That tax money was then added to the Community Preservation Fund for acquisition of land development rights. In 2007, Warwick was the seventh town to enact a transfer tax.
However, the recession in 2008-9, with lost jobs and mortgage defaults, challenged the town budget.
“Services were hard to maintain. Police and highway costs were 45-50% of the budget,” Sweeton said.
Then in 2011, Cuomo downsized prisons, and 450 Warwick prison employees lost jobs when the prison closed. But opportunity lurked in the loss.
“The prison’s 733 acres was a beautiful property, too valuable to leave in the state’s hands,” said Sweeton. “We had a panel of farmers and others who wanted to repurpose the property in two ways, for a corporate park to create regular jobs and a park abutting Wickham Lake and wetlands.”
Sweeton’s old friend John Hicks, as attorney, negotiated with the state. State representatives said the park area could be purchased for one dollar if designated for public use, and the 150 acres for the corporate park could be had for $3.7 million.
“We had no idea where we would get the money,” Sweeton said.
Then local entrepreneur Robert Schluter offered to hold the mortgage with minimal interest and be repaid through sale of the property, which became Warwick Valley Office & Technology Corporate Park. The town board pre-approved a “generic environmental impact statement” for ten lots. For these “shovel-ready” parcels, the town could get a $1.7 million grant from the Orange County Industrial Development Agency for sewer, water, fiber optics and natural gas. Last year, sale of the properties allowed the town to pay off the mortgage and infrastructure. A last leased property is being sold.
“The LLC will be dissolved, and money will come back to the town. The jobs created will exceed 450,” Sweeton said.
He reviewed the property history. Under Governor Franklin Roosevelt, guided by his wife Eleanor, the state-owned property had been the site of a rehabilitation center for “wayward boys” brought there to do farm work after the state had swapped Rikers Island for it. After serving this purpose from the 1930’s to the 1970’s, it was closed when the drug culture rendered it inadequate. Then Governor Nelson Rockefeller reopened it as a prison.
Recently, however, changes in drug laws gave the site a new use. Phyto-Farma Labs, in 2020, began doing cannabis testing for component strength and contaminants. Among nine businesses at the corporate park, two medical marijuana suppliers, a brewery, an architectural firm and a sports complex have also inhabited the space. Meanwhile, the park property has become the site of Transformation Trails, and in 2020 the town used PDR funds to acquire Kutz Camp, an old summer camp, and made it the Mountain Lake Park facility for community gatherings.
Asked about the lingering issue of political polarization, Sweeton said he expected that people gathering and talking would alleviate divisiveness, noting the community activities organized by We the People Warwick, some at Mountain Lake Park. They were part of Community Together, the reconvening of Community 2000 in 2015 for further community organizing.
Meanwhile, now that the corporate park parcels have been sold, “One and a half million dollars will come back to the town,” Sweeton said.
How will that be used? Nothing fancy.
“To mitigate the tax burden and stay within the 2% tax cap limits,” he said. “Payroll and insurance needs and infrastructure investment—repave roads, sewer and water facilities.”
For Sweeton, selling the corporate park property completes his mission as supervisor.
“I ran because I thought the job wasn’t done,” he said.
Asked if, in retrospect, he might have done anything differently, he said he had no regrets. As for what he learned from these ventures, Sweeton said, “You learn to get to the goal by keeping the goal.”
He said he took the advice of previous Warwick supervisor and county executive Joseph Rampe—to solve problems in the office rather than at town board meetings.
“Tony Houston had long back and forths at board meetings until 10 or 11 at night,” Sweeton recalled of his predecessor. “But I got up at 5 a.m. for work. So I invited people to the office to hash things out. They left with the satisfaction that they had their say. This is a busy government office. I deal with complaints and neighbor disputes. Most are solved here. I realized that when people complain there’s usually something else going on. Government is a place to unload. The anger level is often not supported by the issue, like their recycling wasn’t picked up. I listen and try to resolve. I see it drain away. My business is customer service.”
Sweeton will miss that, he said. But he has plans.
“My granddaughter was born on Dec. 13. When she’s old enough to vote, I want her to see Warwick as it is now,” he said.
He will work part time for Orange County Land Trust, promoting its expansion in the Hudson Valley.
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