Reliving the 2003 Alienation of Van Cortlandt Park
June 25th, 2017 Posted in Front Page News, Parks Committee, Van Cortlandt Park, Water Committee
Almost 14 years ago, we were battling the taking of parkland in Van Cortlandt Park. This was the continuing fight started in the late 1980’s with the Jerome Park Reservoir. Although time has passed, little else has …….except there has been a lot of construction going on.
Definition: All parkland is inalienable under the public trust doctrine and should remain in the public domain. If it is going to be taken for a non park use, it has to be removed from the inalienable protection and that is a New York State process.
First here is the Legislation, including the summary, the memo, the vote, and the text.
NYS Alienation of VCP 2003 highlighted
This map was provided with the Legislation.
Here is an interesting file of who was for or against the alienation. The community and Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz was against the Alienation.
NYSA_12590-04_L2003_Ch0175_representation_34150_original
It was a tough fight. There are still inconsistencies that exist. In the end, this construction project which started in 2007, did little to spur the economics of the community. They just took our park. The Golf Course is not built. The pedestrian bridge is not built. Making Jerome Park Reservoir into a park is not even being discussed. Jerome Park Reservoir continues to be in the eye scope of the DEP as work will continue for at least 5-10 years.
Not only does this fight continue, it opened the floodgates for others to follow. :-(
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