No. Castle Town Board Holds Off on Landscape Plan for New Park

Heavy criticism of recent tree clearing on a town-owned parcel in Armonk in hopes of turning it into additional park space has forced the North Castle Town Board to seek input from other boards and committees.

Last week in a 3-2 vote, the town board agreed to have Director of Planning Adam Kaufman coordinate which of the municipality’s boards will be consulted regarding the landscaping and future use of the roughly three acres near Maple Avenue and Bedford Road.

A resolution to award the landscaping bid was tabled at the Nov. 20 meeting when Supervisor Howard Arden joined councilmen Michael Schiliro and Stephen D’Angelo in agreeing to have the appropriate boards participate in the effort.

Town Administrator Joan Goldberg also announced that the third and final phase of the tree and brush cutting closest to the stream had been canceled and other portions had been modified to protect against runoff.

Following the tree cutting on Nov. 14 and 15, some neighbors at Wampus Close and the chairs of the Conservation Board and the Open Space Committee questioned whether the board had done all of the work needed in order to protect the environment, lessen the impact of the loss of screening on nearby residents and fully research the most suitable types of trees and shrubs that should be planted.

Conservation Board Chairman John Fava told the board he believes many residents are upset because of the significant buffer loss. He also said that the plans don’t seem to have sufficient screening from Route 22 and questioned whether the proposed planting of birch trees, for example, was a wise choice.

“The main concern here is that procedures were not followed,” Fava said. “Boards were not involved, only the parks board and the town board. It seems that after other projects didn’t run smoothly that somebody learned their lesson to involve other people on the other boards (which) could get a heck of a lot better product without all of this ceremony.”

Motivation to turn the parcel into a usable recreation space was prompted after the loss of dozens of trees at the site during Superstorm Sandy. At first, the town board majority of Arden and council members Diane DiDonato-Roth and John Cronin proposed a dog park but there were strong objections to that idea.

Then Cronin publicly proposed in September to have the town clear many of the remaining trees and turn the property into a lawn or event space. He said the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board unanimously endorsed the proposal.

“I honestly don’t understand the objection of taking what was an eyesore for the 20 years that I’ve lived here, an absolutely derelict piece of property, and we have one of the foremost landscape architects in the country put together a plan…and we’ve got nothing but complaints,” Cronin said. “It’s really beyond comprehension.”

Cronin was grilled by several residents at last week’s meeting who suggested they were kept in the dark on what the town intended to do with the property. Thomas Arnold, a Wampus Close resident, said the residents needed to be better informed of the town’s intentions.

Also, the trees that were removed also provided critical screening for residents in his community, he said.

Others wondered why Cronin was willing to rely heavily on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board but failed to reach out to the Conservation Board, Open Space Committee and the town’s engineering and wetlands consultants, all of which could have provided assistance.

Resident Ann Danzig asked what type of events the town was hoping to hold there and why Cronin seemed to be in a rush to move the project along.

“You’re going to be out of here by the end of the year,” she said. “What are you rushing for? Do you want to have this done while you’re still in term?”

The motivation was to prevent the property from becoming “a muddy, empty mess,” Cronin said.

Arden said the urgency was to try and plant before winter to prevent it remaining an open area for several months.

“But I do think that we do need to review this based on (the revisions),” he said.

The board unanimously approved the purchase for $1 of a half-acre of state land adjacent to this parcel.