To sell or not to sell: An East Ramapo question
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- September
- 7
The question of whether to sell unused school district land in Wesley Hills has divided residents of the East Ramapo school district for at least two months. (Most recently, the district’s Board of Education announced that it would put off voting to sell the land to a developer “after talks with elected officials who want to preserve the land as green space”:http://www.thejournalnews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060907/NEWS03/609070323/1019/NEWS03.)
Some want to see the land sold and used for housing while others worry about how a development would affect quality of life in the area. Sale proponents say selling the land to the highest bidder is the fiscally responsible thing to do, while opponents argue that if the land is sold to a developer, area children will miss out on opportunities to learn about nature on the wooded parcel.
But exactly who supports a development and who doesn’t isn’t as obvious as some might believe, says Wesley Hills village trustee David J. Gantshar. Gantshar tells the Hall Monitor that many are inclined to believe that the district’s public school parents are uniformly opposed to the sale â€â€Ã‚ the land is adjacent to East Ramapo’s Lime Kiln Elementary School  and that private school parents uniformly support it.
That’s not true, Gantshar said. He said he’s received e-mails from both private school parents opposed to the sale and public school parents in favor of it.
It’s not, he said, “a private school vs. public school issue.”
What do you think? Does which school (public or private) your child attends help determine your opinion on the potential sale?
This entry was posted
on Thursday, September 7th, 2006 at 6:16 pm by Alice Gomstyn.
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I am SO tired of all the “development” and the McMansions. Enough already. How bout we enjoy the acreage.. oh wait, that’s right the developers have their heads planted securely up/in govt.
Also, if they want they can talk some offical in their pocket to pull eminent domain thanx to CT. Its will always be about $. It will never be about what is good for the town/people/wildlife.
steps off soap box
On Monday evening, September 18th the School Board will be meeting again to decide the future of this parcel of land. Based upon the volume of e-mails I have received, the vast majority of Wesley Hills residents are in favor of keeping the space “green.”
However, as Ms. Gomstyn stated correctly, ”...exactly who supports development and who doesn’t isn’t as obvious as some might believe.” As reported in the Journal News, the Town of Ramapo and the Village of Wesley Hills are working together to present the school board with a proposal prior to the September 18th meeting.
The proposal would be a “win-win” and satisfy most parties. In short, it would call for the sale of the land to a consortium involving the town, the village and a third body. It would keep the space “forever green” (satisfying the concerns of the residents of Wesley Hills), it would still allow for the sale of the land (satisfying the needs of the School Board), and it would allow for the continued use of the land by the public schools for environmental purposes, nature walks and other related activities.
Such a proposal would also allow for the private schools to utilize the land for these same environmental activities and obviously it would preserve the land for the animals that call these 20.7 acres home.
It is my belief that we need to utilize opportunities such as these to bring our communities together and not to tear them apart. The divisiveness expressed at the School Board meeting the other night was unfortunate and unnecessary. Let us, the citizens of East Ramapo, take this opportunity to heed the words posted outside the Lime Kiln School….”One Community.” Let us work together to keep the land green while preserving it for our children for generations to come. Feel free to share your comments with me by e-mail: david@wesleyhillstrustee.com
David Gantshar
Trustee
Village of Wesley Hills
Wesley Hills was incorporated for the very purpose of PREVENTING higher density housing and maintaining a rural atmosphere. This is not a religious question or a question of public school parents versus private school parents. It is simply an issue of keeping a woodland as a woodland.
The 7 million or so dollars is a drop in the ocean given the size of the annual East Ramapo School District’s budget.
Remember, you can NEVER reclaim woodlands.