(Updated Friday, 10:15pm)
Neighbors of Nursery Field filed a lawsuit on Friday against the City to stop the artificial turf plan for Nursery Field at 421 Milton Road. The suit was filed by the Friend of Nursery Field (FNF) group and six families that live adjacent to or nearby Nursery Field. The public discussion about the lack of playing field time and the debate about the conversion of Nursery Field to artificial turf has been highly contentious.
The new lawsuit comes just 12 days before an expected Council vote on Wednesday, April 17th in regards to moving ahead or shelving the artificial turf plan. FNF member Dan Adler said the group told City officials last fall, and in a number of letters, they would be filing an Article 78 proceeding if the City’s approach did not change.
“Unfortunately, nothing changed,” said Adler. “This was not something that was surprising that we tried in many cases to prevent. The current Council has been so open to both sides listening to all of us and trying to find compromises. It’s just the ticking clock of when they first started SEQRA [State Environmental Quality Review Act] that unfortunately we can’t hold anymore. So we gave them the heads up again that we were going to be filing and that our hope is to withdraw very soon.”
The catalyst for withdrawal of the suit would be the abandonment of any artificial turf plan and a focus on increasing overall field time by better management of natural grass turf.
“Six families controlling the outcome of a public property is mind boggling,” said Let Them Play Board Member Matt Pymm. “The NIMBY theory is proven to be accurate.” Let Them Play has been a proponent of the artificial turf conversion plan for Nursery and has pledged private funds to cover the cost of the project.
The FNF suit is an Article 78 proceeding – essentially charging the City has not followed various rules – in part by the City declaring a negative declaration under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. It also says Building Inspector Guy Carpenito was wrong to determine the project was not subject to local zoning code compliance, and that the City did not comply with various FOIL (Freedom of Information) requests from the FNF group.
The families names as petitioners in the lawsuit are Dan Adler (62 Elmwood), Mark Hayes and Gwen Boyce (68 Elmwood), Lynn and Jessica Kau (66 Elmwood), Paula and Drew Fung (84 Elmwood), Shannon Smith and Lorne Smith (287 Rye Beach Road) and Lauren Rich and Agnes Rich (281 Rye Beach Avenue).
In the wake of the new City Council in January and the Mayor losing his majority grip on decision making, the decision making around the turf plan has become unclear. The lawsuit injects more FUD into how things may – or may not – move forward.
Read the lawsuit.
