Will Flood of Development Proposals Be Dammed Tuesday?

This Tuesday evening is a big night for two real estate development projects in the 11th hour of approvals and both are all about water.

First stop is 7pm at the Rye City Planning Commission at city council hearing room of Rye City Hall. On the agenda is the final subdivision and wetlands permit for the Durland Center on Stuyvesant Avenue. This is the final step in robbing the children of Rye access to the Durland Scout Center with its pool and waterfront access onto Milton Harbor so a developer can build a multi-million dollar home. Read this comment on MyRye.com from the daughter of the Durland caretaker to see what we are all about to lose.

Second stop is 7:30pm at Village Hall in Rye Brook (938 King Street) for what could be the final smackdown on the four acre Bowman Avenue property owned by developer Kip Konigsberg’s K&M Realty.  Carolina Johnson of the Rye Flood Action Committee (RFAC) and a Mendota Avenue resident of Indian Village reports this is last public hearing before Rye Brook may grant site plan approval for Konigsberg’s development:

"County officials have approached the developer to negotiate purchasing the land and they are starting to talk. If he gets the permits his price will be hard to meet. We must be there to show how many people would benefit from using that land to expand our water retention upstream. We’ll be standing along with Rye Brook residents with a unified message but we need all of you to come."

According to the Rye Brook Westmore News, Rye City has tried to acquire the four acre property in the past. The city owns the adjacent 34 acres:

"(Rye Mayor) Otis said Rye City has had an interest in buying the property for the last three years and there was a plan being worked on by which the county and Village of Rye Brook would purchase the property and do flood mitigation infrastructure improvements including a flood gate. The city was also willing to open up access to land the city owns in the area—34 acres including 2/3 of the pond and land around the Bowman Avenue dam—for a nature trail."

The Bowman Avenue property is sandwiched between the Rye Ridge Shopping Center and Interstate 287 as you can see from this aerial map. Interested readers can view the final environmental impact statement for the K&M Realty Bowman Avenue development prepared by Armonk’s John Meyer Consulting.