http://www.lohud.com/article/20130705/NEWS02/307050101/Public-land-private-views-White-Plains-wants-trail-neighbors-fear-crime?nclick_check=1

Page 1 of 1 Aug 02, 2013 12:22:16PM MDT

Public land, private views: White Plains wants trail; neighbors fear crimeWritten by Richard LiebsonJul. 5, 2013 | lohud.com

WHITE PLAINS Residents along an unused stretch of the city-owned Greenway are seeing red overplans to extend a walking trail through what they consider their backyards.

Our backyards will become a public right of way where people will not only walk on the trail, they willbring with them all of the problems associated with public property, Gedney Park AssociationCo-president Esther Steinhauer wrote in a letter to the city expressing residents concerns over privacyand safety issues, adding that a dark, public trail next to homes is just inviting crime.

In a packet sent to City Hall that includes three Freedom of Information requests regarding the Greenway,Steinhauer notes that residents think the walking trail will lower property values and disturb wildlife and thenatural habitat. She said the city has yet to respond.

The city says the trail has been part of the Greenway plan since 1996, when the former New York,Westchester & Boston Railway right of way between Bryant Avenue and the Scarsdale border wasdedicated as parkland at the urging of open-space advocates, including some who live along the property.

This plan has been known for decades, Mayor Thomas Roach said. The Greenway is an asset of thecity, and we have an obligation to maintain it and use it for the benefit of all of the residents of the city.

The right of way, officially called the Jack Harrington Greenway City of White Plains Walking Trail, wasacquired by the city in 1943 after the railroads bankruptcy in 1939. After it was dedicated as parkland, awalking trail was built on a mostly flat, 150-foot-wide, 1.7-mile section from Gedney Way to the Scarsdaleborder. The city wants to extend the walking trail another half-mile, along a 250-foot-wide marshy portionthat is bisected by steep slopes descending to a small stream.

Neighbors along that section say they were unaware plans were moving forward until they received aletter in March informing them that the city was going to survey the property. They say the area is toonarrow for a trail, and that if one is put in, theyll lose their privacy and worry about prowlers and burglars.They say the city should spend money fixing their pothole-dotted streets and addressing an ongoingflooding problem rather than on a trailway.