Preservation of a pristine area starts as state buys
South Shore site
Acquisition of 20 acres is the first step; 75 more near Mt. Loretto
are next
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
BY KAREN O'SHEA
STATEN ISLAND ADVANCE
The state has bought 20 acres of privately owned woods and wetlands
located just below Hylan Boulevard in Richmond Valley -- the first phase
of a two-part, $19.5 million acquisition that is expected to end just to
the north with the purchase of 75 more acres of Archdiocese of New
York-owned land at Mount Loretto.
Both sites have long been included on the state open space
conservation plan as environmentally sensitive places that government
would like to preserve for the future, but most local residents worry
more about the potential for dense housing development on such large
wooded tracts.
Yesterday, local leaders and a national land conservation group
helping negotiate both deals said they were close to securing the second
part of the land purchase, with an anticipated signing of a $12.5
million contract for the 75 acres known as North Mount Loretto Woods,
which is owned by the archdiocese and located on its 200-acre campus.
The nonprofit Trust for Public Land brokered a $7 million deal late
last month for the state to buy nearly 20 acres known as Butler Manor
woods, a wet and wooded area located between Hylan Boulevard and Surf
Avenue, from R. Randy Lee, an attorney and developer who chairs the
Building Industry Association and serves as vice chairman of the Staten
Island Economic Development Corp.
Butler Manor and the anticipated purchase the North Mount Loretto
Woods are expected to add to a growing portfolio of public land in the
area. In 1998, the archdiocese sold 125 acres of its waterside Mount
Loretto property to the state for $25 million. The new properties will
be added to that state park preserve, also known as the Mount Loretto
Unique area, and controlled by the state Department of Environmental
Conservation.
OPEN SPACE
South Shore residents, however, can expect to see little change.
"I think it's going to be used as open space. My understanding is it
will be treated just the same," said Rep. Vito Fossella (R-Staten
Island/Brooklyn), who made the announcement yesterday.
Fossella, whose office secured about $2.7 million in federal funding
for the Butler Manor purchase, said he expects the archdiocese property
to close by December. The state has also agreed to dedicate a lighthouse
located on a bluff inside the waterside Mount Loretto park to the memory
of Cardinal John J. O'Connor, who often retreated to the spot during his
tenure, when the land was still owned by the archdiocese.
Fossella said it would be a fitting tribute to both O'Connor and
Cardinal Edward Egan, both of whom he said had worked with the state to
keep church land from falling into developers' hands. The Advance first
reported last spring that the state was considering acquiring land once
again at Mount Loretto.
The archdiocese has been less forthcoming about its plans.
"We have no deal in place at this time regarding the Mount Loretto
Woods. As always, until a deal is finalized, we cannot comment," said
Joseph Zwilling, an archdiocesan spokesman.
Erik Kulleseid, New York state program director for The Trust for
Public Land, said Zwilling is right.
"We have the outlines of an agreement and what we think is an
understanding, but it's not documented and it's still subject to plenty
of approvals," said Kulleseid, whose group also helped broker the
state's 1998 $25 million acquisition of 125 acres of Mount Loretto
waterfront.
AGENCYMONEY
One of those expected approvals must come from the board of directors
of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which is expected to
pay for the sale from a special fund established in 2002. The Harbor
Stewardship Fund, established by Gov. George Pataki, enables the Port
Authority to buy ecologically valuable land.
Port Authority money also was used in the purchase of Butler Manor
woods, as were dollars from a special federal settlement fund set up by
Mobil Corporation after the government alleged it was disposing of
hazardous waste at Port Mobil in Charleston.
Assemblyman Vincent Ignizio (R-South Shore) and South Shore
Councilman Andrew Lanza (R-South Shore) also lobbied the state for the
purchases of Butler Manor and Mount Loretto woods.
Lanza has wrangled with the archdiocese in the past over how to
rezone much of the church's underused land at Mount Loretto, but last
year reached an agreement with archdiocesan officials allowing them to
expand their cemetery and create denser, townhouse-style housing there
in the future only if it's senior housing. Much of the land there will
get a zone switch requiring detached housing on 3,800-square-foot lots,
should land there ever be sold for development.
That downzoning application, which makes other recommendations for
much of Pleasant Plains and Prince's Bay, is expected to be voted on by
the City Council in November.
"I think it's still a considerable parcel of land," Lanza said
yesterday of Mount Loretto. "That's why that [downzoning] was so
critical, because it is sizable and every bit is developable."
Merike Kerner lives in the small neighborhood that calls itself
Butler Manor, named for the family that once controlled nearly 100 acres
in the area in the early 1900s. A carriage house for the estate still
stands today at the foot of Butler Boulevard.
"As a community and a civic association, we are ecstatic the state is
acquiring this land," Mrs. Kerner said yesterday.
Karen O'Shea covers real estate news for the Advance. She can be
reached at oshea@siadvance.com.
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