The Pelham Board of Education voted 7-0 Wednesday to challenge in appeals court the Village of Pelham’s use of eminent domain to acquire the use of portions of Julianne’s Playground by gaining easements to some land and taking possession of a smaller parcel.
The motion for the board to “authorize an action to be filed challenging the Village of Pelham’s use of eminent domain” was proposed by Board President Jackie De Angelis.
The district’s appeal will go directly to the appellate division of state court in Brooklyn, as required under state law.
The decision was not a surprise as the school board issued a statement Sept. 26 saying it would appeal the village board’s decision Sept. 10 to condemn parts of Julianne’s Playground for easements and acquisition.
“We’ve been discussing with our attorney the next steps with respect to the formal eminent domain filing by the Village of Pelham for an easement, not ownership, of the Julianne’s Playground property for the purposes of the large stormwater project,” said De Angelis. “The filing is also to take ownership of a piece of the property that will house six large diesel pumps and a public restroom.”
Trustee Will Treves highlighted the fact that rather than take possession of all or part of the park and pay compensation for it, the village board is using eminent domain to, in part, force the school district to grant easements on most of the land the village wants. Easements are exactly what the village asked for from the school board last fall, and the school board rejected in February.
“I believe that if I had to summarize what’s going on, I think that the village is attempting to obtain an easement through eminent domain for two primary reasons. The first is that it’s cheap for them, securing an easement for part of the property is much less expensive for the village than taking ownership of the entire property. The second reason is because they can. I have come to learn that eminent domain is like a bulldozer, a pretty crude but extremely effective way of removing obstacles that may be between you and a goal you want to reach.”
Under the condemnation, the village is seeking to acquire .13 acres of the playground, a permanent subterranean easement for .7 acres and a temporary easement for 1.71 acres. The village plans 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.
Village of Pelham Mayor Chance Mullen has rejected an arrangement where his municipality would pay for the park or swap it for village land as he does not want such a deal to go before school district voters in a referendum, which is required by state law for all real estate transactions.
Separately, the school board also approved the work plan, community survey report and a powerpoint for the five-year strategic plan. They are all available on the district’s website.
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