THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR

WPCNR SOUTHEND TIMES. September 6, 2014:

Two days before perhaps the penultimate French American School of New York public hearing at White Plains High auditorium Monday night, a single page letter signed by 41 residents around the former country club property urges  neighbors accept “that a change in use (of the country club property) is inevitable.”

The letter states, “the time has come to accept that there will be a change and to move forward.”

The letter debunks the notion that the property should be used for housing:

“We have carefuly considered that and have concluded that this would result in losing virtually all of the property other than wetlands and steep slopes to development. It (housing) would add to traffic, burden the local public schools with many more children and would bring no tangible benefit to the community. Whatever taxes would be generated by the residential properties would be more than offset by the increased demands for municipa and school services.”

The letter supports the site plan for the following reasons:

“reduction in the number of students who will attend the school, most of the traffic has been removed from Ridgeway (Avenue), the school buildings have been pulled back from Ridgeway and other property lines, landscaping and buffering have been substantially enhanced, and the overall impacts have been significantly reduced. The plan today is better and far less impactful on the neighborhood thanks to those who have stood up and made their case.”

The letter supports the final open space the site plan provides:

“there is a bit less open space than FASNY had first proposed, but it’s still 78 acres. That’s more than half the property and a lot of that land is very buildable…FASNY says it will put a permanent conservation easement on the open space and maintain and operate it as part of the School, solely at their cost.”

Closing of Hathaway Laner is dismissed  as a casualty of the new site plan, because of the traffic mitigation the closing provides:

“As long as emergency access is maintained, and the City makes sure it will be, we think this actually will lessen the potential for traffic cutting through the adjoining neighborhood streets…any inconvenience it causes is relatively minor while the benefits to lessening cut-through traffic on the adjoining streets is a real plus.”

The letter closes, “We are urging the Mayor and the Common Council to approve the (FASNY application for a )Special Permit: We thank them and the City’s staff and consultants for giving so much time and attention to the future of the Ridgeway CC property, for listening and responsing to the concerns of the surrounding community and for helping to shape the plan into something that should be workable for all. We appreciate the views of all our neighbors and welcome those who so wish to join us in signing this letter or otherwise letting the Mayor and Council know that it’s time to move on and move forward…”

WPCNR PLAYLAND-GO-ROUND. By John F. Bailey. September 4, 2014 UPDATED 6 P.M.:

In a hearing of the County Legislature Labor, Parks, Planning and Housing Committee reviewing the two private operators as possible operators of Playland today, it became clear the county had a choice of two entirely different approaches,:

One promised more money upfront with a larger park than  the other candidate.

The other  promised an upgrade with many more modern rides, efficient marketing and professional ride management.

Central Amusements International, the saviors of Coney Island Luna Park promised a 7% rent of gross revenues to the county,(similar to their arrangement with the City of New York)  and suggested they would revive attendance to the park up to 850,000, and invest $20 Million in capital improvements mainly in a series of new rides,  overhauling the infrastructure, repairing all the collonades, and replacing machinery of a number of the park’s more ancient rides (some of the machinery dates back to 1985). The also promised a marketing blitz based on their successful repositioning of Luna Park in Coney Island

Central emphasized they had the experience in the New York area, having made Coney Island Luna Park a success despite the disruption of Hurricane Sandy,  and stated with emphasis they were the county’s best choice. They said they would generate about $20 to $30 per attendee…with additional revenue coming from ancillary expenditures at the park.

Standard Amusements,  promised the county more money by far:  a flat $5 Million in revenue a year,  in excess of paying the debt service, and promised a 9.2 Million profit overall, saying that if the eventual handle exceeded that, the county would stand to make more than the $5 Million profit. This would begin (the profit to the county) in the first year of Standard operation.

Standard, which is backed by a hedge fund, also promised a billion dollar endowment to be used exclusively to continue to rehab the Park into the future.  Standard noted they had revamped two amusement parks with water oriented themes.

In the course of the conversation, Standard said they had not toured the Playland Park this summer, while Central Amusements executives had toured the park six times.

One principal of Central noted (when a legislator asked him why he only went on three rides in three hours one evening), he said the attendants at the rides took too long to process the lines  and load the rides. He said this would be vastly improved to accelerate ride revenue if Central took the park over.

Standard said that they expected more appealing restaurants to augment revenues, and draw larger crowds. Do accommodate  admissions of over 1.2 Million, Standard said they would require all of the present parking area, with possible expansion of it, including the possibility of a double-deck of parking.  Standard said they would bring three water oriented attractions to the park possibly around the pool area, and restaurents about the Boardwalk area.

Peter Harckham, Chairman of the Playland review process cautioned  as the hearing began, that no legislation was being considered today.

At the close of the meeting, Central Amusements said in response to Ken Jenkins, the legislator who suggested the two companies could work together to run the park in a mutual arrangement, that they had tried previously to see if there was grounds for working together, but “they could not,” and said Central would not work with Standard, as Jenkins had suggested.

The entire hearing may be viewed at

http://westchestercountyny.iqm2.com/Citizens/SplitView.aspx?Mode=Video&MeetingID=3246&AgendaID=3047&FileFormat=pdf&Format=Agenda&MediaFileFormat=wmv