Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino on Wednesday announced he had nixed an agreement with the nonprofit that would have taken over day-to-day management of Playland park in Rye.
Sustainable Playland Inc., a Rye-based nonprofit, has withdrawn its improvement plan, which included a much-debated proposal to build an 82,500-square-foot facility that would have housed year-round athletic fields. The group will continue to work with the county on Playland as a fundraising and advocacy entity.
Astorino said his administration had hired consultant Dan Biederman to conduct a review of the amusement park”™s operations, analyze income and revenue, and present recommendations to Westchester this fall. The county, which owns the 280-acre park, will manage Playland for the remainder of the year. Astorino, a Republican, said he was still committed to the goal of transforming the seasonal park into a year-round destination.
“The math is simple,” he said. “More days and more activities mean more dollars to defray costs to taxpayers and invest in preserving the traditions of Playland.”
Astorino chose SPI in 2012 out of several groups that offered proposals to reinvent Playland, which has struggled with declining attendance, deteriorating art deco infrastructure and operating losses (it lost $4.3 million last year, the administration said). At first the group sought to significantly downsize the amusement park area and replace it with a more passive function, but amended its plan to leave the size of the amusement park nearly intact.
SPI has faced heated scrutiny ever since ”“ with push-back from the community criticizing the field house plan and questioning the group”™s financials and ability to manage the park without any prior experience. The city of Rye asserted its zoning authority over any proposed construction at the park, setting the stage for a dispute over jurisdiction between Westchester and the city and forcing SPI to brace for the possibility of a lawsuit or lawsuits.
In recent weeks, it became clear the plan wouldn”™t receive a majority of support from county legislators if it came to a vote. County Board of Legislators Chairman Michael Kaplowitz, a Democrat, said SPI”™s plan wasn”™t “detailed and comprehensive” enough to support. Legislator Catherine Parker, a Democrat, originally supported the plan but eventually reversed course. She said she hoped Biederman”™s firm didn”™t resurrect the notion of the field house, which she called “a non-starter.”
“I want to believe that this new turn of events will not end up prolonging the uncertainty over how to revitalize Playland, but each day that passes without a good plan in place diminishes the possibility of a fresh start at Playland for 2015,” she said.
Legislator Peter Harckham, a Democrat who chairs the county board”™s parks committee, called the withdrawal of the plan a setback to revitalizing the 80-year-old amusement park. He said “the amusement park must remain the focal point; the impacts to the environment and the neighboring community must be thoroughly vetted and the numbers need to add up and be realistic.”
Deirdre Curran, a Port Chester resident and member of the group Save Playland, said she considered the withdrawal a “pseudo victory” but feared the new analysis of the park could once again threaten the amusement area.
“We would greatly prefer to see SPI no longer have any involvement whatsoever and hope that while weighing his observations Mr. Biederman understands that he will not be accepted as any type of Trojan Horse cover for SPI to stay involved behind the scenes,” she said.
Curran said she would have preferred the county instead sign a deal to hand over management of the park either to Central Amusements or Standard Amusements, two groups that issued proposals to take over the park but were passed over in favor of SPI. Both of those groups have amusement park management experience.
SPI will now serve as chief private fundraiser for Playland and will work to safeguard the historic nature of the park, the administration said. The group”™s president, Kim Morque, said in a statement, “While SPI”™s role is evolving, its vision and commitment has not changed.”
The county executive also announced that his administration had reached a 10-year contract with American Skating Entertainment Centers to run the Playland Ice Casino. The company will pay $300,000 in its first year, $250,000 the second year and see 2 percent increases each year after. It will also make $640,000 in capital improvements that will be in addition to the $4.5 million the county spent to reopen the rink after it was closed due to Hurricane Sandy-related damages.
Another very concerning question that gets raised here is: Why did the CE choose to proceed forward with ONE of the Operators SPI had planned to use (American Skating for the ice rink) but not the OTHER one (CAI for the Amusement Park)? This seems to me to foreshadow what we all fear, which is that the goal of eliminating the Amusement Park is alive and well and lurking beneath the surface. It also begs the questions: Doesn’t he need BOL approval for a ten year contract, and where was the bidding process to find an operator for the Ice Rink?
The math is, indeed, simple, Mr. Astorino: don’t spend upwards of $80,000 of taxpayer money on a consultant who has no experience in amusement parks. The title of Mr. Biederman’s firm is Biederman Redevelopment Ventures. Playland is not in need of redevelopment but simply some TLC and wisdom. As for Mr. Astorino’s bringing down the cost of Playland for the average taxpayer, the park costs $6.42 per family per year in Westchester. I’m all for making it a year-round destination, but if he were to reduce my family’s financial support by as much as 50%, what does Mr. Astorino propose I should do with my windfall of less than a penny a day? There are many families who would be delighted to double that $6.42 to help this glorious public park thrive.