A development plan to overhaul SUNY College at Old Westbury and save the state institution from folding has drawn concern from many of the same local civic and environmental associations that are embroiled in the movement to preserve the Underhill property.

The groups are complaining that the university's proposal to construct a variety of facilities on 163 of the campus' 600 acres, boosted by a recently-passed state law that facilitates this goal, is yet another assault upon the dwindling open space left in Nassau County. Just like the Underhill property, the SUNY campus is located above Long Island's main water aquifer and is a Special Groundwater Protection Area.

The new legislation (Bill S05308 or A08065) allows the SUNY Board of Trustees in Albany to lease out seven parcels of the Old Westbury campus to the SUNY Old Westbury College Foundation, a non-profit organization created to raise funds for different university projects. It will be the foundation's responsibility to fund the renovation and construction of various buildings on these parcels and also to lease land on certain of these parcels to private interests.

"The state, the state university and the state university college at Old Westbury will benefit if the expenses of operation and maintenance of the identified properties of the college at Old Westbury are assumed by the college foundation," the legislation reads.

Members of local organizations are angry that they knew nothing about the state law until after it was passed earlier this summer. "The civic groups are very upset with the passing of the law and the lack of community input," said Joe Lorintz, president of the Society to Preserve Underhill, a newly-formed organization which may now adopt the cause to preserve the SUNY land as well. Lorintz is also founder and vice president of the United Civic Associations of North Oyster Bay, an umbrella organization representing almost two dozen community groups, which is closely monitoring the SUNY proposal.

"You have, generally, a congested area to start with and you're looking at unspecified development...Do they want the public to sit idly by and say go ahead and develop the little open space we have left in Nassau County?" continued Lorintz.

Critics are also challenging the academic merit of the proposed construction and the tactics of the state lawmakers who sponsored the legislation, Senator Carl Marcellino (R-Syosset) and Assemblyman Thomas DiNapoli (D-Great Neck).

The controversy prompted the two legislators to meet and discuss their law with civic and environmental groups in hopes of soothing fears and debunking rumors.

Marcellino has been trying to convince angered residents that the legislation's intent "is to improve the college infrastructure [which] has been going downhill for years. It has been one of the most underfunded colleges of the SUNY system for over a decade, and it's time that it received some infrastructure help," said Marcellino.

Michael Deering, a spokesperson for DiNapoli, said in an interview, "The design of the legislation is to provide the mechanisms to strengthen the university's position as an area institution."

Nevertheless, Lorintz said, "I'm not convinced that the reason for development here justifies building on a Special Groundwater Protection Area."

Plans for the seven parcels that the college foundation assumed can be divided into three categories - renovation of outdated facilities, new development exclusively intended for the university, and the development of facilities to be leased and used by outside groups, which still would serve an academic purpose.

Buildings to undergo renovation include the headquarters of the school president. The role of president is currently being filled on an interim basis by Hubert Keen, but most university officials expect the Reverend Calvin Butts, who has said he is in favor of the development plan, to become the next permanent president.

The university is also seeking to restore its Trainor House as well as its landmarked equestrian facility.

New construction proposed for the university includes additional dormitories and a housing complex for graduate students, faculty members and their families. Currently there are no facilities for graduate students and many faculty members can't find affordable housing in the area. Sports facilities will also likely be added to entice student athletes to enroll. Plans discussed have been as simple as a running track and as grandiose as a brand new baseball stadium.

The most controversial parts of the plan involve the parcels which would be leased out. Preliminary plans call for construction of a training facility for the Nassau County Police, a financial Wall Street institute and a natural history museum.

Civic groups are questioning the academic merit of some of these facilities. For example, a police training institute doesn't fit because Old Westbury has a very weak criminal justice curriculum. Marcellino said the criminal justice program will be improved to coincide with the new building.

School officials promise that every building would serve an academic purpose. The Wall Street center would function as a continuing education program on finance and the museum would be a faculty research facility. All plans are in their early stages and there is no certainty that any of these buildings will actually come to fruition.

Local residents are concerned that the university foundation will allow commercial enterprises on the property. The offices of Marcellino and DiNapoli were adamant that this will not happen. "There have been rumors that the land will be sold. There has been talk that we will allow commercial property on it. That is not true," Marcellino insisted.

The legislation, in fact, excuses the foundation from the state's normal public land laws which require open public bidding among potential lease applicants. The foundation need only seek private interest groups, and has full disclosure as to whom it will lease the property.

However, even if it's not for commercial purposes, any new construction can be damaging to an area's quality of life. Civic groups have been questioning their state representatives as to whether this development proposal will undergo the same rigorous environmental investigation that other development plans experience. The legislators promised that the SUNY development plans will be subject to the State Environmental Quality Review Act, which requires that a study be done before construction can begin.

"It's all subject to current state laws," said Marcellino.

The civic groups are also upset over suspicions that the legislation was "snuck through". The community was never alerted that such a bill was being passed. In addition, critics say the law is deceiving because its language makes it appear to be a land preservation law when in actuality the legislation facilitates development.

The very first goal the legislation gives in explaining the reason for the transferring of land to the college foundation is "to preserve and enhance open space." Yet there is no language anywhere in the document that mandates any portion of the 600-acre SUNY campus be preserved or free from future construction.

Marcellino said that the law does in fact preserve the land, just in an indirect way.

"You're keeping open a college which has been on the hit list for over a decade. If the college closes, and that's not an unreal possibility, that's 600 acres of prime land...and what do you think would happen to that [land]?" said Marcellino. "The state would have no reason to hold onto 600 acres of land so that rich people could ride their horses on it. The land is then sold off, it is developed, and it's not preserved and protected."

The senator continued, "Three years ago, when I was first elected and I was in my first term, people came to me from the SUNY system, and...said, 'Senator, what would your thoughts be if we decided to consolidate the SUNY system and close one of the campuses on Long Island?' It was either going to be Farmingdale or Old Westbury."

"I said...'My business is education, and I'm not in the business of closing colleges. So I would like to see the college stay open, and I would like to see that land preserved.'"