WPCNR SOUTH END TIMES. October 24, 2010:
A group calling itself the Ridgeway Watershed Preservation Committee has promulgated a letter which will be furnished to the Common Council Tuesday in a Special Meeting that Mayor Adam Bradley has called to discuss possible city purchase of the club.
Mayor Bradley, asked by WPCNR last Thursday evening if the city has made an offer to the club management, said, “the Common Council has to approve any purchase.” WPCNR also asked if the recent legislation introduced to the Council expanding the wetlands buffer by 50 feet to 100 feet across the city, was put together to put pressure on Ridgeway to sell the club to the city. (Expanding wetland barriers restricts development of the property). The Mayor said he has supported the protection of wetlands by expanding barriers during his tenure as an Assemblyman of the 89th District. Asked when the legislation was first introduced to the Common Council the Mayor said two to three months ago.
Here is the text of the Ridgeway Watershed Preservation Committee letter:
Ridgeway / Watershed Preservation Committee
3 Partridge Road
White Plains, New York 10605
24 October 2010
Mayor Adam Bradley & Members of the White Plains Common Council
255 Main Street
White Plains, NY 10601
Subject: Ridgeway Country Club
In the past few months great concern has arisen about the future of the property now known as Ridgeway Golf Course. The undersigned citizens of White Plains have created this open letter in order to recount what seems to us the clear and established public purposes that will be served by assuring that this 128 acre property remains as open and natural as possible in perpetuity.
We urge our elected representatives and our appointed public servants to review the facts recounted below, to inform us if their understanding of the facts differs from what we recount, and to act with all dispatch to devise practical, durable means to preserve these acres as a vital element in the public and private open space network of our city.
This is what we understand:
1. This property is one of very few remaining sizeable parcels of Open Space left in the City of White Plains.
2. It has been established that preservation of Open Space significantly enhances the value of all properties in a community.
3. The standing Comprehensive Plan of the City of White Plains establishes the preservation of the Ridgeway and Westchester Hills Golf Courses as Open Space as a goal of the plan.
4. This property is part of one of the few continuous Open Space Corridors running through the watersheds of the Mamaroneck & Sheldrake Rivers, and its preservation as open space has been identified as an important element of regional water quality and flood control policy.
5. White Plains has a responsibility to pursue our municipal planning and development processes so as to act consistently with Federal, State and County water quality and flood control plans.
6. Our City is obligated by law to consider the impact on other communities that also occupy the Bronx and Mamaroneck Watersheds with any potential land use changes to aspects of those watersheds under our jurisdiction.
7. Our Municipal Zoning has not yet been brought into conformance with the standing Comprehensive Plan. The current Residential Zoning of this property creates pressure for the conversion of this open space to residential use, in contradiction of the goals of our Comprehensive Plan. This same zoning fails to consider the interests of downstream communities, as well as water quality and flood control policies at a County, State and Federal Level.
Given these facts, it seems clear to us that our municipal leaders must take prompt action to assure that our municipal regulations align with local, regional and national planning policy while fulfilling our obligations as stewards of the uplands of the Mamaroneck River. The most likely solution to this situation appears to be a re-zoning of the property to a Recreational Use.
As you set about devising appropriate public policy and regulations, we encourage you to make sure that our actions in the current moment include provisions of an economic model for the use and upkeep of the property that is sustainable. We also encourage a rapid and thorough review of any proposed policies under the State Environmental Quality Review ACT.
We look forward to your response to our letter, and we stand ready to assist you in your efforts on this matter.
Regards,
Bob Meyerson
Joel Rudikoff
Fran Jones
George Jones
Bice C. Wilson
Riena Kaplow
Lou Bruno
Alan Gassman
Dan Seidel
http://le.uwpress.org/cgi/contents/refs/85/1/51 “Spatial and temporal Variation in the Housing market values of Lot Size and Open Space”, Land Economics 85(1):51-73 (2009) (4 pages of cites omitted); “Open Space, Residential Property values and Spatial Context”, Soren T. Anderon, University of Michigan, Dept. of Economics, Sarah E. West, Macalester College, Dept. of Economics – email: [email protected] ;
BONNIE BRIAR SYNDICATE, INC. v. TOWN OF MAMARONECK, 94 NY2d 96 (1999) – Court of Appeals holding the Town’s rezoning of single family zoned golf courses to recreational land use was NT a taking under the 5th Amendment and Due Process clauses, when the rezoning was accomplished pursuant to Comprehensive Plan and rational governmental objectives of preserving open space, flood control/mitigation, etc. – rezoning is acceptable as land use planning and environmental goals and standards (encouraged by Dwight H. Merriam, Esq., FAICP, CRE, keynote speaker at the April 26, 2010 Flooding and Land Use Planning: A Guidance Document for Municipal Officials and Planners Workshop sponsored by Westchester County).
