PUBLISHED BY MOSHOLU PRESERVATION CORPORATION

Pataki Has 'til Tuesday to Decide on Plant

By JORDAN MOSS

Governor George Pataki must decide by midnight on July 22 whether or not to sign legislation that would pave the way for New York City to build a $1.5 billion filtration plant at Mosholu Golf Course in Van Cortlandt Park. 

The legislation passed the Senate and narrowly passed the Assembly in the final moments of the legislative session in mid-June. 

In news reports, Pataki expressed some reservations about the project's impact on the community. And there have been rumors that Pataki would like a say in divvying up $243 million in funding for Bronx parks that was promised by the city to the borough's Assembly delegation. (His office did not return a call seeking comment.)

But park and community advocates are livid about the legislature passing the bill, which does not include the $243 million figure, or any real explanation of what the project will look like when it's done. 

"The legislation says there is an MOU [memorandum of understanding] to be negotiated between the city, [Assembly] Speaker [Sheldon] Silver, [Senate Majority Leader] Joe Bruno, and [Council Speaker] Gifford Miller about the amount of money and the projects," said Elizabeth Cooke, president of the Friends of Van Cortlandt Park (FVCP). "The only legal documentation we have is the legislation and it doesn't back up any of  these promises."

Members of FVCP and other park and community groups were scheduled to meet with a Pataki staffer on Wednesday in Albany. And FVCP is devising a legal strategy to fight the project should Pataki sign the legislation into law. Opponents of the plant believe the city has not subjected its plan to the proper land use reviews. FVCP and a group of Norwood residents successfully sued the city two and a half years ago the first time the city tried to build in the park. The state's Court of Appeals ruled that the city could not go forward without the approval of the state legislature. The golf course site was believed to be dead because the Assembly usually defers to the member whose district the project is in, which in this case is Jeff Dinowitz, an ardent opponent of the city's plans. But with the city sweetening the deal with parks money, every Democratic Assembly member in the borough went against Dinowitz.

Charles Sturcken, a spokesman for the city's Department of Environ-mental Protection, said he could not yet comment on the threatened legal action. 

"I can't speculate on any litigation," Sturcken said. "They [the FVCP] had said that [they were going to sue] publicly and we'll have to meet the challenge of that based on the suit they file." 

If Pataki does not act by Tuesday, the bill automatically becomes law.