SPI Suspends Participation in Review of Playland Plans: Spokesman

By Geoff Thompson

RYE, NY (April 1, 2014) -- Sustainable Playland Inc. (SPI), which has been selected to manage the iconic County-owned Playland Park in Rye, said today that it was suspending its participation in the review process of its Playland Improvement Plan (PIP) for the park until issues involving the City of Rye’s demand to conduct a full environmental review of the plan and a lawsuit brought by the former chairman of the County Board of Legislators are resolved.
 
SPI’s announcement was made in a letter from SPI President Kim Morque that was delivered late Monday to County Executive Rob Astorino and copied to County Board of Legislators Chairman Michael Kaplowitz and Peter Harckmam, the legislator chairing the Legislature’s committee that is reviewing the Playland Improvement Plan (PIP.)

The not-for-profit group said that the uncertainty caused by Rye’s insistence that it has the right to review and approve the entire plan for revitalizing the park made SPI’s continuing participation in the legislature’s review pointless.

“Our primary concern is that unresolved issues threaten to delay SPI’s revitalization of the park in ways that will remove the viability of our implementation plans in terms of both economics and timing,” the letter states. “We are asking the County Executive to use his office to see if the current uncertainty regarding the approval process can be removed.”

SPI “remains committed to our vision and the goals of renewing and restoring the park” and are hopeful that a resolution can be reached that will allow the public-private partnership to move forward. Once the jurisdictional issue between the County and Rye, as well as the lawsuit against the County and SPI that was brought by County Legislator Ken Jenkins are resolved, SPI said it will resume work on implementing the PIP.