Orangetown Approves Possible Park Land Swap Involving Broadacres

Orangetown continued its pursuit of flexibility in the use of the land currently occupied by Broadacres Golf Course in Orangeburg during a special meeting of the town council Tuesday morning.

The town board is seeking permission to designate another portion of the Rockland Psychiatric Center property as park land in exchange for the ability to designate the 65 acres that Broadacres sits on for other uses.

At the same time, the town is still searching for private management to take over the course, but taking the park land designation off Broadacres would give the town more options.

An exchange works because the town was already looking into a waterfront park by Lake Tappan, but the New York State Assembly, Senate and Gov. Andrew Cuomo would have to sign off on the exchange and the legislative session is coming to an end. Orangetown's representatives were able to work out details of the necessary state legislation, Assembly 8067 and Senate 5840.

Supervisor Andy Stewart called the early-morning meeting to review the legislation in time to get the necessary paperwork delivered to Albany later Tuesday afternoon. 

The Orangetown Council voted 3-0 in favor of a resolution approving submission of the state legislation. Only Stewart and Councilmen Tom Diviny and Paul Valentine were able to make the meeting with Denis Troy and Tom Morr absent.

"This is an important step," Stewart said. "Even if we don't get it passed now, it is ready to go in January and it sends a very clear answer to the question from developers, which is what is going on with Broadacres.

"It really helps. It creates an entitlement that the town needs to have as we look at the redevelopment process."

Stewart stressed that this does not necessarily mean Broadacres Golf Course is closing, though he stated last week that he will not include funding to run the course in his proposed 2014 budget. The alienation of Broadacres as park land would allow more options for private management taking over the course or it would allow a potential developer for a larger part or all of the RPC property to do something else with it entirely.

"As long as it is designated as park land, it is not a particularly attractive piece of land," Stewart said.

The primary point of discussion during the meeting was an interpretation of the requirements from the state of what would have to be declared as park land. The members of the council were not clear if the language of the legislation would require them to have park land all of the parts bordering on Lake Tappan. In the end, they decided that was acceptable either way.

The legislation would call for approximately 30 acres to be designated as park land, not including anything under water or areas already developed for recreation. Rather than matching acre-for-acre, the swap is for land of equal value, and the lake shore property has more value. The details of the waterfront park are still to be determined, but that issue is on the agenda for Tuesday night's workshop meeting.