The Village of Pelham Board of Trustees voted 7-0 Tuesday to use its eminent domain powers to condemn parts of Julianne’s Playground for a storm sewer project.

Specifically, the village board approved the determination and findings required under state law so that it can take certain portions of the park from its owner, the Pelham Union Free School District. The school system can seek judicial review of the decision no later than 30 days after it is served with the condemnation papers and two public notices on it have been published in a newspaper. Appeals go directly to the appellate division of state court in Brooklyn.

“As I said many times, eminent domain is a process not an event, and this is the next statutory part of that process,” said Mayor Chance Mullen before the board acted on the determination. 

The vote took less than five minutes, and none of the other board members spoke.

Under the condemnation, the village is seeking to acquire .13 acres of the park, “a permanent subterranean easement” for .7 acres and a temporary easement for 1.71 acres, according to the determination document.

In an email response after the vote, Board of Education President Jackie De Angelis said, “We don’t have any further update about the legal proceedings at this time. The board of education remains hopeful of reaching a reasonable agreement to transfer the Julianne’s Playground property to the village that provides flood relief and protects the district’s interests.”

The village is seeking to build an underground reservoir and an above ground pump station at the Sixth Street park as part of a $39 million storm sewer system overhaul designed to reduce increasingly severe flooding in the north Pelham and Highbrook Avenue neighborhoods.

In February, the school board denied the village’s request for an easement to proceed with the project. After that, negotiations over a possible sale or land swap between the school system and the village ended in late April, when Mullen said the municipality rejected the district’s only offer, a swap of Julianne’s Playground for some portion of the village’s Wolfs Lane Park.

After that, the village began the formal steps to invoke eminent domain, with the state-mandated public hearing held June. 18, where the school district’s attorney reiterated his client’s opposition to the taking of portions of the park.

In the determination and findings approved Tuesday (full text here beginning on the eighth page), the village was required to outline the public benefit that would come from condemning the land as well as any environmental impacts the project might have.

On public benefit, the determination said, “[T]he flooding in the Village of Pelham has become an ever growing public safety crisis, causing ongoing damage to village homes and businesses and threatening the health and safety of village residents… The village has employed engineers, who have determined that an essential and mandatory component of the plan is to construct a wet well and pump station on the subject property, which is currently owned by the Pelham Union Free School District Board of Education, known as Julianne’s Playground designated as Section 158.84, Block 2, Lot 62 on the Town of Pelham Tax Map.”

No Other Locations

No other locations in the village were considered for the underground tanks and the pumps, the document said.

As for the environmental impact, the determination said, the completion of the storm sewer project “will not only relieve flooding, but it will serve to protect the health and safety of village residents and their property, as well as protecting all other property located within the village itself. Upon completion of this flood mitigation project, Julianne’s Playground will not only be restored to its prior condition or better, but will be enhanced by new improvements and facilities that can be enjoyed by the public at large.”

Immediately before adopting the determination and findings, the board of trustees unanimously approved a separate resolution stating the project would not have any negative impacts on the environment and that a Draft Environmental Impact Statement would not need to be completed. The same resolution made the village board the lead agency for the sewer project, under state environmental law.

After that vote, Mullen said, “Based on the determination based on due consideration of the record and the foregoing findings, the village has determined that, one, the acquisition of the property interest in eminent domain is necessary for implementation of the plan and construction of the flood mitigation project, two, the village has the right to proceed with the acquisition of the property interest via eminent domain, three, there will be no significant adverse impact on the environment in the surrounding community as a result of the plan and the effectuation of the project.”

At the meeting, Mullen gave authorization to Duane Morris LLP, the lawyers representing the village, to proceed to condemn the areas of Julianne’s Park. This will include serving the Pelham school district with notification on the taking of the land.