A Yorktown property owner has petitioned a state Supreme Court judge to annul a license agreement granted by the town board this year to the company doing construction on the Algonquin natural gas pipeline through the region.
The temporary license, granted in May by the Yorktown Town Board to Spectra Energy Partners LP, the company replacing the roughly 60-year-old pipeline, gives Spectra access to 7.5 acres of town-owned land in portions of Sylvan Glen Park Preserve and Granite Knolls Park West.
Algonquin Gas Transmission LLC, a Spectra subsidiary, has been named as a defendant in the suit as well as the five members of the town board.
A spokeswoman for Spectra said the company does not comment on pending litigation.
The petitioner”™s attorney, in a lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court in White Plains on Sept. 18, claims the license issued to Spectra is part of an “illegal end-run around the requirement of obtaining legislative approval” from the state Legislature when a municipality seeks to remove park land from public use. The agreement was dressed as a license for temporary use rather than a lease to alienate public land, which requires approval from Albany.
Yorktown Supervisor Michael J. Grace told the Business Journal that though the town had not yet been served the Article 78 lawsuit, the opponent”™s petition is “garbage” based on what he had heard second-hand about its content.
Grace said the town board pursued the use of a license purposely to avoid the state”™s parkland alienation process because the latter would cede more control of the land to the private user.
“Their intonation is it was done nefariously,” he said. “It was done absolutely openly and with the absolute intent to give Spectra something less than a lease on the property.”
Almar LLC, a company that owns residential properties near the Yorktown parks, is the petitioner in the suit. The company”™s sole member, the Marjorie N. Kopple Revocable Trust, owns the Stoney Street Home across the street from Granite Knolls Park West.
The home has been the residence of Kopple family members for more than 80 years, according to court documents. Yorktown resident Barbara Kopple, a family trustee, has been an outspoken critic of the Algonquin pipeline project.
Almar is represented in the court case by the New York City law firm Robinson Brog Leinwand Greene Genovese & Gluck P.C.
Philip T. Simpson, a lawyer for the firm, said in a statement that the lawsuit was filed “to protect the integrity of Yorktown”™s public parklands and to protect the health and well-being of park users and residents, including my client.”
The lawsuit also claims there are environmental and health risks posed to users of the park and nearby residents by structures being built by Spectra on a part of the property apart from what the temporary license allows.
Parts of Granite Knolls Park West and Sylvan Glen have pre-existing easements that date to 1952 when the original Algonquin gas line was being installed.
In the lawsuit Simpson claimed the energy company”™s activities at the two parks would “pollute the air and expose petitioner”™s occupants and guests and the other residents of the Stoney Street area to carcinogens and other hazardous material.”
He was referring to permanent units Spectra will construct on the existing pipeline easement on the parkland property. They include a launch and receiver facility, also known as a pigging station, used to periodically clean the pipeline. The lawsuit claims the pigging station “also presents a very real risk of cancer and environmental harms.”
A metering and regulating structure is also going to be built on the pre-existing easement corridor.
Spectra in March received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for its pipe replacement and expansion project that spans four states. The company in June paid $1.5 million for the license granted by the town. Under the Yorktown agreement, Spectra has 11 months to complete construction and five years for post-construction monitoring and restoration.
The Algonquin pipeline construction has been opposed by some environmental and community groups in part because of alleged risks and dangers posed by its proximity to the Indian Point nuclear power plant in Buchanan.
