Southeast Town Board OKs Early Land Swap Steps

By Neal Rentz

Over the objection of one councilman and a resident, the Southeast Town Board voted 4-1 on Feb. 22 to take the initial steps in a potential land swap with ProSwing Sports of North Salem, which is looking to construct a recreational and training facility in town.

The owners of ProSwing purchased about 95 acres of property on Starr Ridge Road to construct a baseball and softball training facility. However, that property is zoned residential. They are now seeking to “swap” the Starr Ridge Road property with about 82 acres of land the town owns on Pugsley Road, which is commercially zoned and will allow both passive and active recreational use.

While ProSwing would develop about 10 acres of the Pugsley Road property, the remaining 72 acres would continue to be dedicated open space, say developers.

However, the land on Pugsley Road was originally purchased by the town for the purpose of preserving open space, and both houses of the State Legislature would have to approve the swap and the legislation, which would need to be signed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Councilman John Lord voted against both pieces of town legislation related to the state home rule request last week. The board passed a resolution stating that the land swap would not have a significant adverse impact on the environment, and a second resolution to allow the Pugsley Road  land to potentially be transferred to the developer.

“I believe there will be significant adverse impacts,” said Lord.

Supervisor Tony Hay told Lord there is not yet a formal project proposal before the town and that the board is just seeking a home rule request for the potential land swap. There is no guarantee the State Legislature will even act on the home rule request this year, he said.

None of Lord’s colleagues seconded his motion to add language to the second piece of legislation stating that if the home rule request is approved by the State Legislature, town residents would ultimately decide the fate of the land swap via a referendum.

Resident Ann Fanizzi repeated her strong opposition to the plan.

Regarding the resolution stating that a potential land swap would have no adverse environmental impacts, Fanizzi asked why the board determined that the possible land swap would be a “type one” action, to which Hay responded that Town Planner Ashley Ley made the determination to the Town Board.

Fanizzi said a type one action indicates there is an environmental impact. “That is why you have a type one action,” she said, noting that the board also agreed on a negative declaration, which indicates there would be no negative impact on the environment if the town land was transferred to the developer.

Ley said the State Environmental Quality Review Act established that a type one action indicates a project could have a potential impact on the environment, and the negative declaration determined there would be no negative impacts from the potential swap. So far, there is no project proposal for the town to review, she said – the Town Board is just seeking the right to make the land swap.

If there was a project being proposed there would be a SEQR review, said Ley.

Patterson Concerned About Southeast Proposal

The Patterson Town Board is weighing in on its neighbor’s consideration of the development of a recreational facility on Pugsley Road, which Patterson lawmakers say may lead to an increase in traffic on town roads.

“We have an interest, in that I would say that we probably are opposed to this taking place because it is going to affect this side of Fields Corner (Road) and it is going to impact our town negatively, as far as the traffic goes,” said Councilwoman Mary Smith at the Feb. 12 Patterson Town Board meeting.

“This just puts potentially more traffic on Pugsley and Fields Corner,” added Deputy Supervisor Charles Cook.

He noted that the golf dome that was located on Route 22 closed a few years back. “There’s all that property there… They could put the sports complex there,” he said. “That’s been sitting vacant for God knows how long.”

Cook added that “the second failure, commercial wise,” was the Brewster Sports Center, which closed last year. “They have these properties that they could use,” he said.

Town Supervisor Richard Williams said the project would significantly impact traffic.

“And what I find a little bit disingenuous on everybody’s part is they are basically saying ‘We have no idea what we’re doing so there’s not going to be any impact…’” He accused Southeast town officials of seeking the land swap, and when it comes to the project proposal, they’ll “figure it out later.”

“We don’t believe, at least some of us in Patterson, that all that traffic is going to want to go down to (Route) 312 and sit there for an extended period of time trying to get out through the intersection back to (Interstate) 84,” said Williams. “They’re going to be coming back through Patterson on an unapproved road. So the Town of Southeast needs to commit to substantial improvements to Fields Corners Road – i.e. widening it to 24 feet wide, paved, without the restriction on the road, all the curves, everything. Or, the easiest solution, put up a crash gate. Stop the road, block it off so people can’t go though.”

This way, if there’s an emergency, first-responders can still get through, he said.

“To have the constant flow of traffic on a road that really is not suitable for that volume of traffic is inappropriate,” continued Williams. “What would ultimately happen is, if this continues and we do nothing, over time, the taxpayers of the Town of Patterson are going to have to pay to upgrade that road, solely for the activities going on in the Town of Southeast because they have their head in the sand.”

Councilman Peter Dandreano said he appreciates the desire for additional recreational facilities in town, but acknowledged the traffic nightmare it could pose.

“Dropping them (his kids) off and driving them to these facilities… the traffic is crazy – it’s hard to get in and out, you’re going through residential areas to get there,” he said. “You’re going to increase traffic with people just cutting through to get over to 84.”

Contributed reporting by Holly Crocco.