WESTCHESTER COUNTY SHOULD REQUIRE DEVELOPER OF PROPOSED NEW BIOSCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COMPLEX ON COUNTY OWNED LAND TO BUILD AT THEIR EXPENSE ATHLETIC FIELDS ON SOME OF THE 43 ACRES THAT WILL BE PRESERVED AS OPEN SPACE THERE IS A LACK OF ATHLETIC FIELDS IN WESTCHESTER COUNTY---LET'S PROVIDE STUDENT ATHLETES WITH MORE FIELDS AND PRACTICE TIME--TRAIN THEM SO ONE DAY SOME CAN BECOME SUPER BOWL CHAMPS There is a great need in Westchester county for more athletic fields. All the fields in the county are used by interscholastic, recreation and physical education programs. There is little downtime and many sports teams are begging for the opportunity to practice/play on fields. In many communities fields are used during the day, nighttime and weekends. Football, soccer, field hockey, baseball, softball, lacrosse teams use the fields during the fall and spring seasons. Let's provide student athletes with more fields and practice time - train them so one day some can become super bowl champions. Earlier this year the County Executive announced a $1.2 billion private investment to build a bioscience and technology complex on a vacant site owned by the county in Valhalla adjacent to the Westchester Medical Center and New York Medical College. I believe that since the land is owned by the county and since the county desires to make this a public/private venture that some of the 43 acres that will be preserved as open space should be developed as athletic fields --for use by students and sports teams based in Westchester County. The developer should be required to pay for the costs of the construction of the fields and a field house. I will be reaching out to the County Executive, Fareri Associates and the County Board of Legislators as well as the Mount Pleasant Town Board and sports enthusiasts to generate support for this initiative. Called the Westchester BioScience & Technology Center, the nearly 3 million-square-foot, mixed-use complex on 80 acres would be developed by Fareri Associates Fareri Associates would develop the complex on 20 acres it owns and on an adjacent 60 acres owned by the county, known as the North 60 on the Grasslands Reservation, which it would rent from the county under a long-term lease. The lease now goes to the Westchester County Board of Legislators for approval. The project is also subject to approvals by the Town of Mount Pleasant. The development comprises three major, multi-phase components: West Research Village, Central Village and East Research Village. Fully built out, the new center would include 2,252,600 square feet of biotech/research space; 400,000 square feet of medical offices; a 100,000-square-foot hotel with 100 rooms; 114,000 square feet of ground-level retail space, and a 34,000-square-foot Children's Living Science Center. The first phase of the project will include 220,000 square feet of biotech/research space, 100,000 square feet of medical space, 80,000 square feet of shopping/ground-level retail space, and a 100,000-square-foot hotel for a total of 500,000 square feet. The plan will incorporate many sustainable features, such as green roofs, demonstration gardens, preservation and improvement of on-site wetlands, bio-swales and rain gardens, interpretive trails and preserving and improving forest land on site. Approximately 54% of the property—or 43.6 acres—will be preserved as open green space. What do you think?
PAUL FEINER
Greenburgh Town Supervisor