Parks Watch

Whether your favorite park is out in the countryside or just down the block, it’s comforting to know that it will always be there for you and yours to enjoy. Comforting – but not necessarily true. Park lands can be lost or carved up for other uses, like cell towers or municipal garages. It’s called “park alienation” – the taking of parkland for non-park use.

When that happens in New York State, the general principle is that the lost recreational space is supposed to be replaced, one way or another. This is a reflection of what legal scholars call the “public trust doctrine,” literally dating all the way back to the Roman Empire, which holds that lands, waters, shorelines and other resources held by the public are sacrosanct and cannot be given away.

But it doesn’t always work that way in practice. The current process for taking parkland for non-park uses in New York State is murky and inconsistent. The public has few options for comment and few places to seek expertise and assistance when confronted with an alienation of parkland. In addition, no statewide data exists as to the breadth and frequency of park alienation and its collective ramification.

PTNY continues to advocate for a more rigorous review process of proposals to alienate municipal parkland, as well as a way to track and enforce alienation actions once they have been approved.

On this page, PTNY will post links to proposed parkland alienations currently before the NYS Legislature.

​Current Proposed Park 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