New Rochelle, NY— The Davids Island Task Force will hold a Public Outreach meeting on Thursday, February 17, 2011 at 7 pm in the City Council Chambers of City Hall. The public is invited to attend.
The Davids Island Task Force was formed in September 2010 to shape and achieve a vision for Davids Island as both a destination for residents and the surrounding region. It is comprised of city-wide representatives from neighborhood associations, county and adjoining municipalities, the school district, regional environmental groups, as well as experts in sustainable design and development. Following their kick-off meeting in October 2010, the Task Force formed into two subcommittees: the Re-use committee, to determine future land use options; and the Current Conditions/Challenges committee, to evaluate existing challenges and conditions at the site.
At the February 17th Public Outreach Meeting, the subcommittees will present information on those discussions and provide an opportunity for the public to comment. Following the meeting, the task force will develop policy recommendations for the City Council.
Davids Island is located in western Long Island Sound, a short distance from the New Rochelle mainland. Approximately 120 acres in size (80 acres upland and 40 under water), the island was formerly home for more than 100 years to Fort Slocum, a United States Army base, until its deactivation and closure in 1966. To date, all buildings- including the water tower- have been removed under the direction of the US Army Corp of Engineers.
To view the Interim Report of the Davids Island Task Force, click here.
For further information, contact Suzanne Reider via email at Suzanne Reider or by phone at 914.654.2023. Comments will be accepted until Monday, February 28, 2011.
RELATED:
Davids Island vision: hotel, marina, conference center
Interim Report of the Davids Island Task Force February 2011
The Davids Island Task Force proposes the following vision;
A hotel/marina with a conference center to be surrounded by land reserved for simultaneous or eventual conversion to a public park for passive recreation. This facility should be of such scale and luxury rating as to attract regional business conferences as well as seasonal vacationers.. The vision seeks to achieve a balance between developments that provide a fair economic return while simultaneously respects the preservation of the natural environment.
The vision is accompanied with the following elements:
Concentrate initially on short-term steps that can be self-contained, sustainable and serve as a catalyst for future development. Allow further development to unfold on a phased basis.
Blend private development with public use and access, with the intent that the former
should partially or wholly support the latter.
Prohibit cars.
Maintain a degree of public ownership and/or perpetual public access.
All development must be energy neutral.
Create a destination.
This brief summarizes the activities of the Davids Island Task Force (DITF) and provides an outline of the next steps for public outreach.
BACKGROUND
Davids Island (“the Island”) is located in western Long Island Sound, a short distance from the New Rochelle mainland. The Island is approximately 120 acres in size, of which 80 acres are upland and 40 acres are underwater. With the exception of a 5 acre Consolidated Edison easement, the Island is owned entirely by the City of New Rochelle (“City”) and is currently vacant and inaccessible. For more than 100 years, the Island was home to Fort Slocum, a United States Army base. In 1966, the federal government deactivated Fort Slocum and subsequently sold the Island to the City. Since then, a variety of uses have been entertained. These include an atomic energy plant, high-rise multifamily housing, single-family luxury housing, and County parkland. Each of these potential uses was ultimately rejected or abandoned in the face of environmental concerns, economic obstacles, political opposition and/or lack of adequate resources for implementation.
DAVIDS ISLAND TASK FORCE
In September 2010 the City of New Rochelle convened a city-wide task force which included representatives from neighborhood associations, federal, state and county elected officials, local school district and city council representatives, regional environmental advocates, representatives from adjoining Sound Shore municipalities as well as experts in sustainable design and development.
Stakeholder participation in these discussions signaled the City’s desire to seek input to help shape a new vision for the Island. The DITF was initially broken into two sub-committees; the Re-use committee and the Current Conditions/Challenges committee. Following public outreach, the
entire task force will reconvene as a whole to create an action plan to advance the use of the Island.
Rob Balachandran
David Blumenfeld
Noam Bramson – Mayor of New Rochelle
Ted Ferrarone
Ellie Fredston
Terence Gargan
Doug Hocking
William Janeway
Kathy Jensen-Graham
Tom Lang
Steve Levy
Cesare Manfredi
Gregory Merchant – NRIDA, Spouse of Lianne Merchant NR BoE
Bonnie O’Brien
Richard Organisciak – Superintendent, City School District of New Rochelle
Sara Richmond – New Rochelle Board of Education
Christine Sculti
Albert Tarantino – New Rochelle City Council Member, BID Board Member
Gary Trachten
Michael Yellin
NOTE: if you have additional descriptors for some of the people on this committee please add a comment or contact Talk of the Sound and the list will updated.
GOAL
The City wishes to shape and achieve a vision for Davids Island that:
• appreciates and takes full advantage of the unique nature and value of the site;
• draws upon and is consistent with public input from residents of the region;
• appropriately balances environmental and economic concerns and objectives;
• enables the public to better achieve and enjoy access to Long Island Sound;
• demonstrates and advances a commitment to sustainable design and activity;
• is achievable within foreseeable economic and fiscal constraints;
CURRENT CONDITIONS/CHALLENGES SUB-COMMITTEE
This sub-committee focused on issues pertaining to infrastructure concerns including sewage treatment, a Con Ed easement, and access/ transportation challenges, as well as, environmental conditions, such as soil contamination, ecology/habitat, and projected increases to existing sea-level; the group also reviewed existing policy documents outlining current land-use. The sub-committee met several times last fall with members taking on issues where individual expertise or interest could be applied.
Consolidated Edison Easement
An easement consisting of approximately 5.20 acres has been identified. It must be retained by
Consolidated Edison Co of New York for the purposes of providing access to an electrical cable line
that traverses a portion of the southwest corner of the Island.
Access/Transportation
Access to Davids Island is currently limited to waterborne transportation via the beach area located
on the southwestern shore of the Island. Fort Slocum was served by a ferry. Bridge access to the
Island has been proposed in some past development schemes, but opposition to a bridge has been a
contributing factor to the termination of those projects. The City’s LWRP expresses a preference
for water-borne access, but does not rule-out bridge access. In the context of considering the
establishment of a County park on the Island, City and County officials contemplated the
construction of a pedestrian bridge that could also serve emergency vehicles linking to Glen Island.
Site Contamination
Between November 2005 and February 2009, the US Army Corps of Engineers (The Corps) performed the demolition and asbestos abatement project, razing 94 on-site buildings and structures. The Corps secured funding from the Department of Defense Office of Economic Adjustment. Concurrent with the building demolition activities, a Site Investigation was performed jointly by the City of New Rochelle and County of Westchester, as part of the Davids Island Environmental Restoration Project. The primary objective of the Site Investigation (SI) was to delineate the nature and extent of site contamination. Using this data, remedial alternatives could then be evaluated and a remedy proposed under the Environmental Restoration Program (ERP). The SI revealed that areas across the Island have been impacted by polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), pesticides and metals in soil as well as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in select areas (typically in former transformer areas). Groundwater sampling revealed no elevated concentrations of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) or semi-volatile organic compounds (SVOCs). In addition to the areas of soil contamination discussed above, an on-site landfill was identified along the southern tip of the Island. The landfill contains significant quantities of ash and slag from past on-site incineration practices.
Ecology/Habitat
The Long Island Sound Stewardship Initiative, a partnership formed by the Long Island Sound Study to identify places with significant ecological or recreational value throughout the Sound has developed a strategy to protect and enhance these special places, of which Davids Island has been included. The goals of the Stewardship Initiative are to conserve natural areas, increase access to the Sound, protect important habitats, and plan for multiple uses. Please refer to http://longIslandsoundstudy.net/issues-actions/stewardship/background/ for further information.
In addition the Bronx River Sound Shore Audubon Society has prepared the Davids Island Audubon Report which outlines the Audubon’s desire to keep Davids Island as passive recreation.
Sea-Level Rise
The State of New York has adopted one set of projections for sea level rise for all three of the major adaptation reports currently underway or nearing completion. The projections were generated by Columbia University/NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. New York City, in partnership with the state, commissioned the development of these projections for a major infrastructure adaptation study. Municipalities should plan for two feet of sea level rise by 2050 and four feet by 2080. As the vision for the Island evolves, it will be necessary to further the engineering assessment of any likely sea level rise to determine the impact on the mean high tide line and related shore area change; with the development of effective adaptation methods being critical to the long term re-use of the Island. The entire Sea Level Rise Task Force Report can be found on the DEC website at: http://www.dec.ny.gov/energy/67778.html.
Nitrogen Levels
One of the major issues of concern over the last decade has been hypoxia, which has been linked to an overabundance of nitrogen combined with the naturally occurring density stratification of the water column. While nitrogen is essential to a productive ecosystem, too much nitrogen fuels the excessive growth of algae. Discharges from sewage treatment plants, atmospheric deposition, and runoff are the primary sources of nitrogen enrichment to Long Island Sound. In December 2000, the LISS prepared the Total Maximum Daily Load Analysis which provided limits to municipalities pertaining to the allowance of nitrogen to be discharged into the Long Island Sound.
The maximum daily load for all of Westchester County is 1780 lbs/day of nitrogen and any additional nitrogen discharge from a proposed development on Davids Island must be included within this total. As a practical matter, this means that any sewage discharge from Davids Island would need to be returned to the mainland for treatment at the New Rochelle Sewage Treatment Plant, rather than treated at a new Island-based treatment facility. For a full copy of this environmental analysis please refer to www.ct.gov/dep/lib/dep/water/lis_water_quality/nitrogen_control_program/tmdl.pdf.
RE-USE SUB-COMMITTEE
This subcommittee focused on visioning future uses for Davids Island. Visions encompassed keeping Davids Island as is, as a place for passive recreation and a preserve for existing wildlife to proposals for intense development with full build-out of a variety of mixed uses including,
residential, office and recreational. The following describes the spectrum of ideas covered by the subcommittee and the final consensus reached.
Development of the Island as a passive recreational destination was a popular idea. This included preserving the area in its natural state, with an emphasis on the protection of flora/fauna with any development focused on marine biology. Another idea was the development of the Island as a
public park to include playgrounds and picnic areas. A focus on recreation for young children and more active recreational uses were also suggested; chiefly, miniature golf, a driving range or a par three golf course. Education was another theme and the creation of a museum on the Island and having the Island host arts, music, and theatre events were also proposed.
More intense development proposals included restaurants, a conference center including housing, hotels, offices, medical and science facilities, and a country club. Development suggestions consisted of a variety of residential developments including the exclusive development of private homes, a larger development of residential units, mid-rise (five stories) loft/warehouse development and a townhouse development.
Conversion of the entire area into a solar farm was suggested and committee members were open to utilizing parts of the Island, especially those that are considered difficult for development as a potential location for sustainable energy system to serve the Island.
As previously mentioned, the vision of the subcommittee is one that sought to achieve a balance between developments that provided a fair economic return while simultaneously respecting the preservation of the natural environment. From this broad palette of possible visions, the
subcommittee reached a preliminary consensus, with the following elements:
General Principles
Concentrate initially on short-term steps that can be self-contained, sustainable and serve as a catalyst for future development. Allow further development to unfold on a phased basis, in flexible response to conditions, opportunities and public interest. Therefore, the first phase uses listed below are envisioned as occupying only a portion of the Island’s total area.
Blend private development with public use and access, with the intent that the former should partially or wholly support the latter.
Affirm the major goals of the City’s Harbor Management Plan and LWRP, which are to promote economic development, preserve environmental resources, strengthen the City’s fiscal condition, and provide public access to the shore
First-Phase Development Objectives
A hotel/marina with a conference center to be surrounded by land reserved for
simultaneous or eventual conversion to a public park for passive recreation. This facility should be of such scale and luxury rating as to attract regional business conferences as well
as seasonal vacationers.
A possible educational component, such as a children’s museum, to attract families;
A possible venue for public viewing of large events, such as July 4th fireworks or major concerts.
A solar farm on undevelopable portions
General Guidelines for Initial & Future Development
Prohibit cars. On-Island mobility should be restricted to walking, cycling or small electric vehicles, such as golf carts
Maintain a degree of public ownership and/or perpetual public access
All development must be energy neutral
Create a destination
PUBLIC INPUT
The purpose of this brief is to provide a foundation for public outreach. The DITF will reach out to larger community with hearings to gather input and ultimately to present findings of the DITF. It is anticipated that public outreach will begin during the month of February where citizens of New Rochelle and the surrounding region will have an opportunity to voice concerns and/or provide additional feedback to the City.
A solar farm? Are you kidding me?
I guess that’s part of Bramson’s GreeNR plan but what a wasted opportunity if the city moves forward with it. My understanding is that solar farms are better suited for sunny desert areas, not metropolitan NY with its expensive land. And let’s not forget the city owns many, many buildings it could put solar panels on if they so desired so why don’t they?
Simple reason, Bramson & Strome have proposed and passed a very, very unbalanced buget that incorporates an even larger budget deficit into next year’s budget because we won’t have the $4.5 million pumped into this years budget by the sale of Avalon I. So basically, there’s no money to do anything and unfortunately Bramson didn’t have the courage to actually cut any kind of spending or expense, we’re just causually rolling along like everythings ok. What BS.
We need to get rid of Bramson, but is anyone running? Without a qualified candidate running against him, expect more of this BS.
That’s the problem–nobody to
That’s the problem–nobody to run against him. BTW, I have a garden at home where I grow my own solar panels. It’s right next to the tomatoes. What a joke. Solar farm.
Obviously, Davids Island Should Become a Public Park
It is interesting that the NR Democratic Committee has scheduled tonight, Thursday Feb 17, for its monthly meeting. No doubt it is a coincidence, although I wonder whether and which of New Rochelle’s four Democratic members of the City Council will attend the David’s Island Task Force meeting, and which will attend the NR Democratic Committee meeting. Really, one of these two meetings should have been scheduled for another night.
As such, I will be attending the New Rochelle Democratic Committee meeting, and will miss the Davids Island Task Force meeting.
Therefore, I am making a statement here at ‘Talk of the Sound’, regarding Davids Island.
My own long-standing perspective is that, there should be no residential development on Davids Island, as New Rochelle’s infrastructure is already overwhelmed by such existing and misplaced construction such as the two Avalons and Trump Plaza, not to mention 60 years of over-development throughout New Rochelle, and an aging infrastructure.
The question arises, if Davids Island is developed in any way, how will taxpayers finance the necessary services for it, such as an expansion of the Fire Department, Police Department, and the means of commuting to and from Davids Island. A bridge is out of the question, for numerous reasons, including massive costs, and abusive environmental destruction. A ferry is also unrealistic for servicing a large population. I remember Ft Slocum having two ferries, but such transportation is unrealistic for a non-military residential population.
Certainly, the New Rochelle School District was already overwhelmed, even before Gov Cuomo declared he was cutting NY State Subsidies to New Rochelle by $10.8 million (Sound Shore Express 2011-02-17).
As such, there should be a lengthy city-wide moratorium on residential development, except to replace existing necessary housing, such as at Hartley House.
This leaves two alternatives for Davids Island development. One possibility would be commercial development, but destroying the beautiful Davids Island with ugly corporate parks is out of the question. We all know from experience that City Hall likes to build ugly buildings that can be seen from many miles away, and our government should not be permitted to develop commercial property on Davids Island. I suspect any Hotels or Conference Center would be inappropriate, and that any buildings there should be permanently limited to no more than two stories high.
This leaves the only rational alternative for Davids Island development. Davids Island should be developed as a park. A park would enhance and preserve Davids Island, and allow the good people of New Rochelle and surrounding areas to enjoy its beauty. However, I think New Rochelle cannot afford to develop anything, even an island park. It’s quite obvious that New Rochelle cannot even afford to maintain New Rochelle’s current plumbing, sewage and roads.
As such, I suggest that New Rochelle trade Davids Island for Glen Island, that is, New Rochelle should take possession of Glen Island in exchange for Westchester County taking possession of Davids Island, with both Glen and Davids Islands remaining as public parks. Under NY State law, it is near impossible to convert an existing park into commercial or residential property, and this would protect both Glen and Davids Islands from future inappropriate development for decades to come.
Cant wait to see what is done
Cant wait to see what is done with the Island, Hopefully it is something that everyone can enjoy but at the same time I guess the residents shouldn’t hold there breath, Will probably take a decade for anything the get done.
Count the Museum out although that would be a great idea, Our Buddy Noam already had everything of any sentimental value destroyed out there.
A Golf Course Would Be Nice
Why not wind!!
What about producing electricity and selling it to help pay our city expences.
Why not wind power too???
Take the island and let it produce revenue for our town and help keep the taxes down!!
It is only just sitting there for how many years now.
Let’s put it to work in the green industry.
you dont need ferry’s or bridge’s to do that!!
I will bet you there is all kinds of fedral and private money to pay for that !!
Watch out for those politician’s now!!
Don’t forget Green is the Gold of the future!!!!
wind
That’s all you get from the people in office in this city is a bunch of wind.Move city hall there and you will get plenty of wind and guess what else plenty of bull;[]’. Have a great day.