Supervisor and Town Board Refuse To Protect
Open Space Properties

September 13, 2007   It’s not what we were told. Both the public and the press have been led to believe that the $24+ million in open space purchases were set aside, protected from the rampant development exploding all around Ramapo. The reality, unfortunately, does not match the rhetoric.

Here’s a sample of the propaganda that has been repeated over and over in the past four years. This editorial comment appeared in the recent (Spring 2007) Around Town mailing sent out from the Supervisor’s office to all the residents of Ramapo.

Note the claim in the second paragraph: "All of our purchases have been officially designated as parkland." That’s what we’ve been told, but here’s the truth:

[Data from a Freedom of Information Act request submitted to Ramapo Town Clerk]

Only one property of 24 has been dedicated as parkland—the Mitch Miller property. It was a gift to the Town back in 1977. Twenty-six years later, St. Lawrence and his board formally dedicated the land with a formal resolution accepted at a public Town Board meeting in 2003. The resolution was requested by "the Parks and Recreation Department, the Town of Ramapo Parks Foundation as well as various Town residents." The dedication by resolution means that "the park thus established is thereby impressed with a public trust and its use for other than park purposes will require specific approval of the State Legislature."

The public owns the Mitch Miller property, and if the Supervisor or Town Board want to sell or develop part of the acreage they would have to go to Albany to get permission from the Legislature. The chances of that happening are slim to none.

But who owns the other 23 open space properties that have cost the taxpayers $24 million? Could Camp Scuffy be sold to developers? Could the acreage on Pine Brook be developed by the Town?

Surely having taken the public stance that all of these parcels were intended as "designated parkland," the board and Supervisor would be willing to set aside and lock down these open space properties.

Operating on this assumption, last Monday night (Sept. 6) at the regular Town board meeting, as a representative of Preserve Ramapo, I made a formal request that the remaining properties be dedicated in an upcoming board meeting, the sooner, the better.

The last paragraph of my statement was:

"I am requesting, therefore, that this board schedule formal resolutions that will dedicate the remaining 23 gifts and purchases for "park purposes and that the parks thus established [should be] thereby impressed with a public trust and their use for other than park purposes will require specific approval of the State Legislature." (Wording from Resolution 2003-597, the Mitch Miller resolution.) The 2003 Mitch Miller resolution was only 218 words, so this should not take up much time at the next meeting, and it is seen by many as absolutely necessary in order to protect these spaces in perpetuity."

The request was read, and there were no comments. The meeting ended a few minutes later, and I decided to press the issue.

As the board members were preparing to leave, I approached Supervisor St. Lawrence and asked the following question:

"Do you have any plans to dedicate any of the 23 remaining open space projects as protected parkland in the future?"

His answer was a curt, "No."

It took a moment to process what I had just heard.

"No?"

St. Lawrence then asked, How am I supposed to dedicate the Torne Valley wellfields as parkland?

The fact that he often refers to this purchase as "parklands" in his brochures and public statements escaped him for the moment.

I asked, Then what about the open field on Pine Brook Rd? Will you dedicate these acres as part of the public trust? I could have also asked about Camp Scuffy, Rustic Swim and Tennis, Stonegate Park, Ramapo Equestrian, etc.

His answer was non-responsive. We’re already leasing that land to the Threefold Farm, he said.

I explained that I was told by state officials, people at the Trust for Public Land, and an environmental law firm that the only way to protect these properties was to dedicate them with a formal resolution in public session.

He then told me if I wasn’t going to listen, he wasn’t going to talk to me. The conversation ended with the question about his future intentions answered (No to dedicating any of these "parklands") and the 23 properties remain in jeapordy.

To get the open space properties out of the hands of the politicians and future developers, there is a simple legal process, and this Supervisor and his board members are unwilling to let the control of these properties shift to a public trust.

If there’s one thing that happens way too often in local politics it’s that what comes out of an official’s mouth might have only the vaguest resemblance to what you will see in the real world around you. But to get an idea of the scope of this open space problem, there’s a banner headline next to the list of open properties in the Around Town brochure referred to above. The headline reads: "The Town of Ramapo is 55% parkland & growing!"

More than half of the Town is now "parkland" and St. Lawrence and his board have no intention of formally dedicating any of these properties to protect them. What the hell is going on? The largest land owner in Ramapo is St. Lawrence and his board?

Personally, I don’t want Christopher St. Lawrence, Ed Friedman, Fran Hunter and David Stein owning more than half of unincorporated Ramapo. Not with their disastrous record of downzoning and overdevelopment with its accompanying destruction of the infrastructure and resources, and brilliant land-use schemes like the Adult Student Housing giveaway to developers.

Nor do I want these properties controlled by future politicians. Purchased by the public for the purpose of preservation, they have to be locked away, now. We don’t have another 26 years to wait to see what will happen to these large tracts of land, camps, clubs, and critical water sources.

So now we are left with several serious questions about the current landlord/politicians:

Michael Castelluccio
Preserve Ramapo