It was a story that the Reporter broke in 2009.
As readers may recall, we reported on the fact of a matching Greenway grant that Mayor Paul Dyster, along with his chief planner Tom DeSantis, sought for Jayne Park on Cayuga Island.
The plans were stalled, following our story, due in large part to public objection to the plan, and perhaps the fact that pushing the unpopular plan on the highly-involved voters of Cayuga Island during an election year might have been bad politics.
The Reporter said, before the election in 2011, that the mayor would revisit the Jayne Park plan if he was re-elected, and apparently, we were right.
Sources at city hall say the mayor is returning to his Jayne Park plan, although it may be modified, somewhat in contemplation of what is expected to be the fairly loud objections from the people who live closest to it.
As a matching grant, it requires the city to spend $145,000 in Jayne Park in return for the $145,000 grant of Greenway funds.
More than 300 residents of Cayuga Island signed a petition in 2009 saying they did not want the changes proposed to the park, as outlined in the grant application for the only park on Cayuga Island.
The plan was/is to convert the presently all-green, neighborhood park into a regional park, with the addition of a parking lot and canoe launches, and the removal of trees and vegetation along the Little Niagara River.
It is believed that the plan will attract park-goers from all over the region, and make it a tourist attraction. Neighbors have objected to what would be a rather significant change to the quiet Cayuga Island, that currently has but one means of ingress and egress.
Presently there is a no parking lot in Jayne Park; most users live on the island and walk there.
The plan calls for paved lots, restrooms and a paved hiking trail.
Dyster has said he will be sensitive to the residents’ concerns, but the Reporter recommends vigilance on the part of Cayuga Island residents, since the original plan is clearly the preferred one for the mayor, and his planner DeSantis.
It is an interesting contradiction in ideals, since the park could be a nice regional park, at the expense of the quiet enjoyment of the people who live closest to it. |