Playland/SPI: The County Process & Information

This week, on Monday January 27th, 2014, several members of the local Rye community made the trek to White Plains to attend the Westchester County Board of Legislators meeting at 7pm in the County Office Building.

It was a brief, meeting, certainly by Rye standards, but two important things happened: 

*Legislator Ken Jenkins “overed” two agenda items relating to Playand and the SPI Plan, with no opposition from any other BOL members.

*Five Rye residents and one Port Chester resident got up and voiced their concerns about the proposed Field Zone project to a full audience of ALL the Westchester County Legislators at the same time. They were heard loud and clear.

For video of this meeting, click on this link:

January 27th, 2014 Westchester Co. BOL Meeting

At minute marker 3:40 Mr. Jenkins makes the motion to essentially table the two Playland/SPI related items until the next meeting.

Public comments start with Ken Ball of Rye at minute marker 4:55.  (Do yourself a favor and skip over minutes 22:00-29:30 to spare yourself two very dogmatic “right-to-lifers” who I suspect show up at every single meeting.)  The last speaker is Deirdre Curran (myself) starting around minute marker 29:30.

The two Playland  related agenda items that were tabled until the next BOL meeting were: 

15. SI (ID # 6622) Resolution – ENV RES-Playland Improvement Plan: There will be no significant impact on the environment from the adoption of an Act approving the First Annual Playland Improvement Plan (PIP).

Committee Referral: COMMITTEES ON BUDGET & APPROPRIATIONS; PARKS, LABOR, PLANNING & HOUSING AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPEMENT

Committee Referral: COMMITTEES ON BUDGET & APPROPRIATIONS; PARKS, LABOR, PLANNING & HOUSING AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

The term they use in the video is “severed”, the term that was used when I spoke to County folks is “overed”. What this means is that any attention given to these items put on the agenda has been put off until the next BOL meeting. This can only happen one time. At the next meeting the next official procedure is that these items will be “sent to committee” for review. There will NOT be a vote on SPI at the next BOL meeting. It's possible, however (although I think doubtful) that there could be a vote on it at the next BOL meeting after that on Mon. 2/24.  Essentially, a vote could potentially come at any BOL meeting after the one on 2/10/14.  They occur every two weeks.

The three committees that will be looking at the Playland issue are:

Parks, Labor, Housing & Planning

Chair: Pete Harckham (D)

Administrative Assistant: Wendy Wild 914-995-2883

Wendy Wild email:WQW2@westchestergov.com

Pete Harckham email: PBH1@westchestergov.com

Budget & Appropriations

Chair: Sheila Marcotte (R),

Administrative Assistant Sally Schecter 914-995-2832

Economic Development

Chair: Michael Smith (R)

Administrative Assistant Sally Schecter 914-995-2832

The Parks, Labor, Housing & Planning Admin., Wendy Wild, would be the Admin to contact with any questions. You can send her emails voicing concerns and ask that she make sure they are distributed to all members of this Committee as well as Chairman Harckham. If you prefer to call in your concerns you can do that through Wendy, however email is definitely the preferred and more efficient option, so it's strongly advised you go that route if you can. Email Pete Harckham and 'cc Wendy Wild on it.  You can also email her and get on the Committee’s email distribution list to receive info and updates about the committee and upcoming meetings, agendas etc. thus staying on top of the Playland issue yourself.

The next PLHP Committee meeting will be on Tues. February 11th at 10:00am in the County Office Building, 148 Martine Ave. in White Plains (corner of Martine & Court Street).  8th floor. These meetings are open to the public. It sounds like this one-hour meeting on 2/11 will mostly be taken up by discussion relating to the Housing issue, so not likely that Playland will be on that agenda, but if you want to attend, check the agenda first.  The next PLHP meeting after that *should* be the following Tuesday 2/18/14, however the February calendar of meetings is not online yet so either contact Wendy Wild to confirm this or check for meeting info closer to the date online at:

www.westchesterlegislators.com

The next step in the Sustainable Playland PIP review process is to officially have the two agenda items that were deferred this week “sent to committee” at the next BOL meeting on 2/10.  At that time the three committees can start to look everything over. It is not at all likely that any “vote” on approval or rejection of the SPI plan will come before that happens.  Between now and then concerned members of the Rye/Westchester community should make a concerted effort to contact the Legislators to voice their concerns through phone calls and emails and plan to attend the next BOL meeting on 2/10/14, 7pm. 

There is a Rye City Council meeting tonight, Weds. 1/29/14 at 7:30pm (NEW EARLIER TIME – THANK YOU MAYOR SACK!). Agenda Item 7 is a report from the Playland Advisory Committee. Please try to attend and provide you input.