As president of the Urbanetics Corporation, an environmental land planning firm active in Nassau County and the North Shore, I was commissioned in 1984, by the Town of North Hempstead, to study the "Land Use Options for Greentree (Payson and Whitney Estates)." Of the dozens of options studied, ten were presented to the town for their evaluation and public discussion. The fiscal and physical impacts of each option were assessed. The important political-social impacts were explored and debated at spirited public meetings. The town picked what they considered to be the option with the best balance of fiscal, physical and political social impacts.

The option that was currently presented by the Greentree Foundation nearly 17 years later, was not originally considered, nor was it in the town's fondest dreams. As I understand it, the essence of the Greentree Foundation proposal is an International Peace Studies Retreat, together with one of the largest limited access open space preserves in our county. I am certain that this option, if considered at the time of our study, would be a slam dunk preference by the town over all the other options studied, including the zoning option that was then adopted by the town and currently in place.

I understand completely the frustration of the young families, who are troubled by the lack of parks, playing fields and playgrounds in Manhasset. Ten years before I made the Greentree Study, I was chairman of the board of the North Shore YMCA and recreation chairman of the Manhasset Community Relations Council concerned with the recreation needs of the families in Manhasset Valley. Manhasset Park District officials ridiculed the need for more playgrounds citing "our country clubs and the recreation properties of the Manhasset School District." No support for new non-school recreational facilities was evident in the Manhasset School community. In a Manhasset School District election, sale of the Plandome Road School to the YMCA, the highest bidder, to build a community recreation center, was turned down because "outsiders would be using the YMCA." With the cooperation of Nassau County, we were able to develop the playground at Whitney Pond Park, on lands donated by the Whitney Family. With the cooperation of the Town of North Hempstead, we created a "green belt" along Manhasset Bay by acquiring all vacant bayshore land from Manhasset Park to Plandome Heights. Unfortunately these positive actions did not fulfil the needs of our community.

While debate is healthy, we should also be grateful that under the Greentree Foundation proposal, the largest piece of open space left in Nassau County will remain open space.

I sincerely hope that the young recreation advocates, with whom I sympathize, will also accept that open space is a competing environmental and social value of the highest order.

Raymond J. Rice

It looks like Tuesday, Jan. 29, is the date where the Greentree Foundation will try and sneak a Land-Use Change request past Manhasset citizens and get approval (probably unanimous) by the current Town Board. The meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. at Town Hall on Plandome Road. We should be very vocal in our opposition here.

Regardless of the outcome, it will not slow down the pace of meetings, calls, letters, etc. with the purpose of stopping the Greentree Foundation from burdening Manhasset with essentially an $800,000 per year tax increase. I propose that dealing with Greentree on a neighborly basis is out the window. I strongly urge the Park District, School District and Water District to coordinate efforts to divide all 400+ acres of the old Whitney Estate via condemnation proceedings, and do it this month.

In the past several weeks, I have received over 100 calls of support for action against Greentree and I particularly appreciate the calls from various professionals offering assistance in many ways that will surely become useful as we move forward in a long fight.

On the other hand, Greentree is not standing still, waiting for its zoning change. There were secret meetings held with North Shore University Hospital (NSUH) regarding Greentree's intent to play host to an array of United Nations functions. One item that is now high on Greentree's list of to do's, is security. Namely, in light of the recent terrorist attacks, Greentree is now looking for assistance in HAZMAT coverage. In other words, if Greentree holds a "Kosovo Managers Meeting" on the Whitney Estate, like they did last spring (before the zoning change - was that legal?) and some unhappy Serbs or Bosnians decide to release some biochemical bomb on the proceedings, will the foundation's security force be prepared to detect it and protect their guests? This is a big enough topic for them to meet in person with NSUH executives.

But Greentree is plowing ahead and is very anxious to get this going. They have hired a public relations firm (and they do need one,) Howard Blankman Associates, and they have brought in a new director, who was a main spin doctor for Hillary in the Clinton Administration. Rumors abound that Greentree is going to make a one-time large cash donation to Nassau County, to try and buy their way out of the tax mess they've started and to try and settle with the county assessor's office as quietly as possible. Even more, is that a firm called Roslyn Associates is finishing up the architectural plans for the new buildings to be erected on the Whitney Estate and two new boilers (very large ones) have recently been installed. There is lots of activity going on here, all in preparation for the United Nations to bring the Israelis and Palestinians to a proper bargaining table. And on Manhasset's tab.

There are federal guidelines for the amount of park space suggested per town in the US. Manhasset is way under-represented and the old Whitney Estate is the right place to look for more parkland. The Manhasset School District, the Manhasset-Lakeville Water District, the Manhasset Library, Manhasset EOC, as well as St. Mary's, all have very real and specific needs that can be well fulfilled by land acquisition on the Whitney Estate. I urge all residents to make a strong appeal to the Greentree Foundation, and to all our publicly elected officials, to help in our fight against United Nations nonsense in our backyard and make productive, yet protective, use of the estate.

Jim Judge