This month, State Supreme Court Justice William LaMarca tossed out of court a lawsuit Peter Negri, a former village trustee, Thomas Poole and James Edmund Keating filed against the Village of Garden City to prevent the possible sale of the Main Building at St. Paul's to private developers.

The plaintiffs sought a judicial determination that the village could not "lawfully expend public funds to market the sale of the historic St. Paul's School Main Building" and a finding that "payments to co-defendant, K. Backus & Associates, Inc. to market the historic Main Building have been an illegal expenditure and a waste of taxpayer money."

The residents further sought a repayment of monies to the village and an injunction against making further expenditures to market the historic Main Building to private commercial developers without prior state legislative approval.

The plaintiffs said that in order for the village to "alienate dedicated parkland," it had to first "satisfy stringent state guidelines, which require that the municipality first fully explore all other alternatives, conduct a SEQRA [State Environmental Quality Review Act] study, complete a detailed questionnaire and propose a dedication of substitute lands or the dedication of money in an amount equal to the appraised fair market value of the property."

Negri, Poole and Keating said the village had "not even begun the necessary preliminary steps toward obtaining state approval under the state's alienation guidelines" and "crossed the line from a feasibility study to an impermissible attempt to make a conditional sale."

Judge LaMarca denied all the residents' motions for a judgment in their favor and granted the village's motion to completely dismiss the suit. The village asserted and the court agreed that K. Backus & Associates, Inc. expenditures do not amount to "waste, alienation or a conditional alienation of the property but rather a permissible exercise of its municipal authority."

The ruling further states that while the plaintiffs may "strongly disapprove of the approach adopted by the village, and would obviously prefer that it proceed in an entirely different fashion, the court cannot describe the village's strategy of first gauging and/or proactively soliciting developer interest and involvement as waste, entirely illegal or undertaken in excess of its legislative authority."

Garden City Mayor Gerard Lundquist, in a written statement, said, "We are pleased that the court has agreed that the village acted properly in all respects in its efforts to find a productive use for the Main Building at St. Paul's that will not impose an intolerable tax burden on our residents."

Mayor Lundquist continued, stating, "We expect to issue Request For Proposals [RFPs] soon to convert the building to upscale condominiums. The proposals will be returned in the fall and the village trustees will determine if one or more meet the village's criteria. If a decision is made to go forward with a proposal, the village will ask the state legislature for permission to sell the building for a private use." RFPs will be sent out within the next two weeks. They will be returned in October to allow the board of trustees to evaluate.

Negri told Garden City Life he would provide a comment on the ruling after consulting his attorney. As of press time, Garden City Life still had not obtained a comment.