Golf plan aces with nabe but park access tees off cyclists
The New York Daily News
By Ralph R. Ortega

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An east Bronx community is looking forward to living next to some wide open green space - just so long as there's a fence around it.

Residents near a new public golf course and waterfront park proposed for a closed landfill in Throgs Neck say they wouldn't mind having to take a hike or drive to reach the entrance to the new facilities.

The long-vacant land at the eastern half of Ferry Point Park at the Whitestone Bridge has been a magnet for illegal dumping and other unwanted activity, and fencing it in would be fine with area residents.

For a round of golf, or majestic views of Manhattan, some locals would have to travel between 2 and 3 miles to enter the new park through the bridge's two service roads, which now run into the unsightly 180-acre landfill.

But that plan does not sit well with at least one biking advocate.

"Basically, what they're saying is, 'If you want to get into the park, you're going to have to drive,' " said Rich Gans, chairman of the Bronx chapter of Transportation Alternatives. "We think that's nuts."

The pedestrian and bicycle advocacy group is lobbying for more access from local streets.

The city Planning Commission is scheduled to vote Dec. 22 on the proposal submitted by White Plains developer Pierre Gagne.

Gagne, who would invest $22.5 million in the golf course and waterfront park, as well as various recreational improvements for nearby local public housing, would lease the property from the city. The newly developed Ferry Point Park could open by summer 2001.

Gagne and city Parks Department officials, who are hammering out the deal, said that greater access from local streets is unlikely.

For years, area residents have put up with trespassers using the landfill for dirt bike riding and illegal dumping.

Now, many welcome the proposed park - as long as most of it is closed off by a fence and landscaping.

Thomasina DeRose, 53, who lives across from the tract, which is strewn with mattresses, tires and other illegally dumped refuse, said she has to put up with the almost daily buzz of dirt bikes.

She sympathized with the bike and pedestrian advocates but said she was unwilling to compromise on the access issue.

"They won't mind going a little further to get into the park," she said. "If they're heavy-duty bicyclists, they'll get a little more exercise."

City Councilwoman Madeline Provenzano (D-Throgs Neck) argued that street access might tempt golfers to park in residential areas, creating a traffic nightmare.

"It's also a matter of security," she added. "You don't want people coming in and out of this area whenever they feel like it."

Transportation Alternatives, however, is convinced the community won't suffer from greater access, pointing to relatively few problems with a street entrance to Pelham Bay Park in the Spencer Estates neighborhood.

The group wants to compromise on Ferry Point Park, said Gans, noting that a Bronx greenway plan, proposed by Borough President Fernando Ferrer's office, at one time included a bicycle path through the area.

Ferrer, who gave the golf course and park plan his blessing, has his aides working on finding an alternative to the original greenway plan to keep bicyclists and pedestrians happy, said spokesman John Melia.

Besides Gans and his group, said James Vacca, district manager for local Community Board 10, few others have lobbied for more access.

Board 10 consented to the developer's plans for Ferry Point Park, as proposed now. Vacca noted that a majority of the community has wanted the landfill turned into a golf course since the 1970s.

But some area residents side with the bicyclists and pedestrian advocates.

"We need to be able to walk through there, too," said Tony Rosado, 51, a local townhouse renter. "The place should have access for everybody."

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