Westchester Legislator Catherine Parker (D-Rye) announced today that she is withdrawing her support for Sustainable Playland, Inc. (SPI) and its plan to revitalize Playland, Westchester County’s historic 280-acre amusement park and recreation facility.
“While I appreciate the time and effort that the SPI members, associates and supporters have put into their plan to revitalize Playland, I am no longer in support of SPI’s current plan and do not believe it constitutes a viable and proper future for Playland,” said Parker.
“SPI has modified its original plan for Playland considerably, based on concerns from residents, municipal leaders and some of my colleagues on the Board of Legislators, but too many answers to important questions are missing,” Parker continued. “Right now, there are no reassurances as to how the County will benefit financially from the agreement, and without this I would suggest that this deal with SPI will be a bad one for Rye, and bad one for County taxpayers.
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“Rye residents living near Playland have been worried, and rightly so, that SPI’s plan poses detrimental problems to the surrounding community in terms of traffic and a lack of parking, as well as environmental issues and a change in the character of the park with the proposed construction of a large field house. As SPI’s plan evolved, and details regarding the size of the field house and green space were made apparent, the plan has lost many supporters.
“All these factors point to the Playland plan being buried in litigation, if approved. This was confirmed during today’s meeting of the Board of Legislators’ Labor/Parks/Planning/Housing Committee with SPI’s attorney and representatives of the Astorino Administration.
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“The County has two other potential partners for the revitalization of Playland waiting in the wings. It’s time to hear more about their proposals, both of which put more emphasis on Playland’s amusement park with respect to its great history.”
