Judge Rejects City's Private Ballfield Plan For Randalls Island ... Again

A state judge has again ordered Mayor Bloomberg to follow the city's land use review procedure and hold public hearing about his controversial plan to construct new sports fields on Randalls Island and rent them to 20 private schools. Under the Mayor's plan, private schools like Buckley, Chapin and Dalton would pay $45 million for exclusive access to a part of the new athletic facilities during peak after-school hours — a move that critics contend would turn public land into private land.

A year after a state judge first ruled that the city must hold public hearings and follow standard planning regulations, a State Supreme Court Justice slammed the Mayor's position as "audacious" and said that the city had attempted to “flout and undermine the purpose” of the city's required land-use review procedure and avoid mandatory community input, according to the Times. Justice Marilyn Shafer also stated that Bloomberg's move to have the project approved by only the Franchise Concession and Review Committee — which he controls — showed "more daring than logic." She rejected the Bloomberg's revised deal and ordered the city to pay the legal fees of the project opponents.

Over the years, the project's budget has swelled from $70 million to $189 million, "making it one of the most expensive park rehabs in recent city history," according to the Daily News. But the renovations have moved forward, and the project is now 97 percent finished. However, if the city's Randalls Island plan is rejected as it goes before the local community board, Borough President, City Planning Commission and City Council, the city might be forced to rip up the newly-done work, said lawyer Norman Siegel, who represents project opponents. "We have no objection to the 20 private schools using Randalls Island," he told the Post. "But they shouldn't get a disproportionate priority over everybody else because they're wealthy." Supporters insist the project will be beneficial to public school students by increasing the number of fields available to them from two to 20.