Watchtower will move world headquarters to Warwick
Warwick - If all goes according to plan, Jehovah’s Witnesses will relocate their world headquarters from Brooklyn to Warwick.
At its regular meeting on Nov. 19, the Warwick Town Board announced the plans by the religious group.
The visual impact of the religious denomination’s plans to refurbish the former International Nickel Company property off Long Meadow Road stand as the primary concern residents want addressed in any environmental impact statement.
The plans for the new headquarters that are before the town’s Planning Board call for almost 90 percent of the 257 acre site to remain in its natural condition. The site consists of approximately 195 acres of forest, 37 acres of wetlands and Blue Lake, and almost 14 acres of roads, buildings and landscaping.
The plans include specifications to meet the Green Building Initiative’s three “Green Globes” standard, a building rating system used in the U.S. and Canada. The proposed Watchtower redevelopment site has been vacant since the mid 1990’s. Two other tax-exempt entities - Kings College and later Touro College - each abandoned plans to redevelop the site.
Supervisor Michael Sweeton said attorneys for Jehovah’s Witnesses invited him to tour its other New York campuses in Patterson and Shawangunk to demonstrate “what they do, what their campuses look like and how they fit into the community.”
The project has received a positive declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review, meaning the town is required to “identify and mitigate the significant environmental impacts” before approving the plans. Sweeton said the proposed campus seems like a good fit for the site and he is “pleased so little land would be disturbed.” The site sits in the Tuxedo School District, which had concerns about children on the campus; however, Sweeton said according to the religious order it only permits members without children to work and live on campus. Members with children would have to leave the site and settle in the community where their children would attend school.
If the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society proposal goes through, it will have a minimal carbon footprint, says Sweeton, and “use all kinds of recycled materials with a vast amount of open space to remain.”
He also said members visiting the campus will stay in bed and breakfasts and hotels, eat in restaurants and shop, bringing tourism dollars with them.
