Some good news regarding the Greenbelt Trail...
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By Bill Bleyer STAFF WRITER
April 30, 2003
A surveyor's stake that appeared on a Woodbury hill two weeks ago sent shivers through Long Island's
hikers and mountain bikers.
The groups that maintain the two-decades-old Nassau-Suffolk Trail, a hiking route that runs from
Massapequa to Cold Spring Harbor, as well as a parallel bike trail created a decade ago from
Plainview to Syosset knew developers owned land near the trails and wanted to build houses on it.
But it was only when they saw the survey stake marking a corner of the builders' 5-acre parcel
planted squarely in the center of the trails that it appeared the private property not only
blocked the trails but, in practical terms, also the state's new Trail View State Park through
which they run.
So it was a great relief for the trail users this week when they learned a second survey by
developers Angelo and Silvana Pironi, done to doublecheck the boundaries, determined the hiking
trail is entirely on state and Long Island Rail Road property. And while the bike trail does
cross their land, the owners agreed to give an easement to the state or donate a sliver of the
property for the trail if it cannot be moved entirely off their land, said their attorney, Judy
Simoncic of Mineola.
"The bike trail has to be rerouted but I think we can work it out with them," Simoncic said.
If both trails did cross the private land and the owners had not been willing to compromise, it
would have been a huge problem for the hundreds of people who use the trails each week. Because of
the steep, erosion-prone slope running north down to the LIRR tracks, the Long Island Greenbelt
Trail Conference and C.L.I.M.B., a group representing mountain bikers, said the only way to connect
with the trails north of the tracks would be if the state built a pedestrian bridge over the
railroad or if bikers and hikers detoured along winding and heavily traveled Woodbury Road.
C.L.I.M.B.'s president, Paul Falvey of Syosset, was pleased at the outcome. "We'd rather work with
than against people," he said.
Falvey said about 1,000 feet of trail would have to be relocated to the north and west, a process
that would take several months. He believes a small section of the rerouted trail still would have
to cross the private property. Otherwise, "it would have to be a long serpentine trail zigzagging
back and forth with a lot of reinforcement to prevent erosion."
The developers are seeking to build five houses, reduced from eight because neighboring residents
have voiced concerns about drainage and erosion problems on unpaved and private Whitney Lane, on
which the trails run under the tracks.
One of the five houses would be located on top of the existing bike trail, but no construction would
take place near the edge of the property by the hiking trail. "We're going to try to leave as much
in that area in a natural state as possible," Simoncic said.
Richard Schary, a director of the Long Island Greenbelt Trail Conference, said the Woodbury site is
the only place on the trail where there was a potential conflict with private property. "We are
pleased to find out that the Nassau hiking trail we've been maintaining for over 20 years is not
encroaching on anyone else's property," he said. Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.
- CA-G
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