Village of Russell Gardens trustees declared last Thursday that the transfer of 1.15 acre of parkland from a 2013 agreement with a village homeowners association would have no environmental impact on the community.
Deputy Mayor David Miller, who was filling in for Mayor Steve Kirschner, who was not at the Board of Trustees meeting, said the 1.15 acre parcel was the last piece of property that the village would receive as part of an agreement with the Russell Gardens Association, a homeowners group that had previously leased the facilities to the village to shore up its finances.
In March 2013, the village agreed to purchase parkland and tennis courts from the Russell Gardens Association.
“There is no environmental impact of transferring this land because it is parkland and it will be forever used as parkland and it will go to the village as parkland and it will be maintained as parkland,” Miller said. “So there is really no change in the treatment or transfer of this piece of property.”
Although trustees approved a negative declaration for the State Environmental Quality Review Assessment for the transfer of the property, the parkland is still not officially the village’s.
Miller said the Russell Gardens Association needed to apply to both the Nassau County Planning Commission and the Village of Thomaston to subdivide a 3.6 acre property to give the village the final 1.15 acre of parkland, which is located at the intersection of Melbourne Road and Wensley Drive.
Since the parcel is within 300 feet of the border of Thomaston, he said, the village’s approval is needed for the parkland transfer.
Also at the meeting, the board voted to cancel its scheduled meeting on July 7.
Miller said it was the village’s “usual summer recess” and that the board would hold its next meeting in August.
