Regarding the recent "transfer of ownership" of 200 acres of the state land at SUNY Old Westbury to the Old Westbury Foundation: This is Nassau County's largest parcel of undeveloped open space to be put on the block in the last 20 years. It sits adjacent to the endangered Underhill tract, which is number one on the county's priority list for acquisition. The fact that sensitive public property, in this state-designated special Groundwater Protection Area, is being transferred to the Old Westbury foundation to develop and lease, as it sees fit, is very troubling.

The foundation has planned $134 million worth of construction on state property, around the perimeter of the campus. This is in addition to the $121 million state-funded Campus Development Plan now under the care of the University. But the Old Westbury Foundation is a closed corporation, which holds no open meetings, publishes no membership list, keeps no open books and doesn't ever give out a phone number to contact. Who are they and where are they hiding?

A very dangerous precedent is being set here by our politicians. Unlike Suffolk, where the state publicly bid out almost 2,000 acres of former psychiatric facilities, Nassau has no "surplus" state land to sell. So our elected officials devised a novel way to "transfer" valuable open-space for development, without providing for any public oversight or input. Suffolk County has more than ten times the acres of public land preserved or in parks than Nassau does. The Nassau County Master Plan, adopted 19 months ago, specifically highlights the protection and preservation of our remaining open spaces and critical drinking water aquifers. If the Master Plan is to mean anything, now is the time to follow its recommendations, and stop the unchecked over-development at SUNY Old-Westbury. This is our drinking water, our land, our open space, our future.

Richard Schary

Long Island Drinking Water Coalition

Board of Directors