Local Parks

Protect our local parkland—enact legislation to protect communities from a loss of parkland

local-parks-header.jpg

Parkland alienation occurs when a municipality wishes to sell, lease or discontinue the use of municipal parkland. Parkland can be lost or carved up for other uses, like cell towers or municipal garages. As a matter of policy, PTNY opposes any alienation that results in a net loss of parkland for a community. The current process for taking parkland for non-park uses in NY is murky and inconsistent. The public has few options for comment and few places to seek expertise and guidance when confronted with an alienation in their community. Also, there is no statewide database to track and monitor the alienation.

PTNY continues to advocate for a more rigorous review process of proposals to alienate municipal parkland which would be administered by OPRHP. All parkland legislation should be required to include a detailed description of the parcel to be alienated and the replacement parkland, and a requirement that alienation authorization not become effective until a municipality has first acquired and dedicated replacement parkland. When replacement parkland is not available, there should be the dedication of an amount equal to, or greater than, the fair market value of the alienated property dedicated for park improvements. In addition, a process for tracking and enforcing alienation actions once they have been approved is essential to holding municipalities accountable and providing for transparency.

The Senate has passed a bill supported by PTNY and sponsored by Sen. Jose Serrano for the past three years that would provide greater accountability and transparency regarding approved park takings (alienations). It’s time for the Assembly to act.


Park Watch - Current Proposed Parkland Alienations

A4373 (Pretlow)/No Same As Authorizes the county of Westchester to alienate and convey certain parcels of land used as parkland

S5315 (Murphy)/A7136 (Byrne) Authorizes the town of Yorktown, in the county of Westchester, to alienate certain parklands and to dedicate certain other lands as parklands

S1138 (Marcellino)/No Same As Authorizes the county of Suffolk to alienate certain parcels of land used as parkland and to acquire other parcels of land to replace such parkland

S5200 (Croci)/A6742 (Thiele) Authorizes the alienation of certain parklands in the Town of Brookhaven, county of Suffolk

S5305 (Croci)/A7064 (Ramos) Authorizes the alienation of certain parklands in the town of Islip, county of Suffolk

S5630 (Larkin)/A7631 (Miller,B) Relates to alienating and replacing certain parkland in Orange county

S6401-A (Tedisco)/A8339 (Santabarbara) Authorizes the city of Schenectady to alienate certain parcels of land used as parkland and to acquire other parcels of land to replace such parkland

S6368-A (Ranzenhofer)/ A7888-A (Walter) Authorizing the town of Amherst, county of Erie to alienate and convey certain parcels of land used as parkland

S6330 (Kennedy)/A7889-A (Wallace) Authorizes the town of Cheektowaga to discontinue as parklands and alienate certain lands and to execute a lease agreement for parkland

S5819-A (Kaminsky)/A7649-A (Miller ML) Authorizes the alienation of certain parklands in the town of Hempstead, county of Nassau

S6266-a (Larkin)/A7840-a (Skoufis) Authorizes the alienation of certain parklands in the town of Cornwall, county of Orange

S6338 (Griffo)/A7845 (Brindisi) Relates to alienating parkland in the city of Rome, in Oneida county

A8059 (Jenne)/No Same As Authorizes the village of Massena, town of Massena, county of St. Lawrence to alienate and convey certain parcels of land used as parkland

S4658 (Marchione)/A6420 (McDonald) Alienates and substitutes certain parklands in the village of Waterford, county of Saratoga

S6642 (Tedisco)/A8347 (Steck) Authorizes the city of Schenectady to alienate certain parcels of land used as parkland and to acquire other parcels of land to replace such parkland