Home 2/27

Thank you to everyone who attended or helped out with our Informational Presentation on February 22 -- we had a very FULL house!

If you weren't able to attend, you can view (or record) a video broadcast on Penfield Community TV (Channel 15 on cable):

Saturday 7:00 am & 4:00 pm
Sunday 1:00 am & 10:00 am & 7:00 pm
Monday 4:00 a.m. & 1:00 pm.

Click here to see the slideshow and our presentation notes.

We'll post a link to the video when it's available for streaming.

Please encourage your Penfield friends and neighbors to VOTE YES on both propositions in the referendum this coming Tuesday, February 27 at the Penfield Community Center (the library building).

If you can help out with our last blitz of door-to-door lit drops in Penfield neighborhoods, please sign up here and we'll contact you.

Why Should You Vote Yes On Both Propositions?

Failing to preserve Shadow Pines means hundreds of new houses. There is no doubt about what will become of Shadow Pines if the Town does not preserve it. Combat Construction prepared a conceptual plan for 255 houses even before the Town implemented the development moratorium and is still intent on developing Shadow Pines. On September 17, 2017, Michael D’Amico of Combat Construction was quoted in the Democrat & Chronicle saying “We had a conceptual plan for the land in Penfield, but the town wouldn't accept it. Now the town is trying to negotiate a deal to purchase the land for what we were going to buy it for (around $4 million). If they can get residents to put up that money, then they can have it, but my guess is that they won't be able to and hopefully I'll end up with it."
It's cheaper for the Town to buy Shadow Pines! An influx of more than 300 new students would create massive challenges for Penfield’s schools. The high quality of education provided by the Penfield Central School District (PCSD) is part of what makes Penfield a great place to live. PCSD reviewed Combat Construction’s development plan and concluded that the proposed housing development would not generate enough school taxes to cover the costs of the additional students and could result in an annual budget shortfall of approximately $1 million dollars. Given PCSD’s commitment to excellence in education, it would be challenging to eliminate such a large shortfall without a significant tax increase. By purchasing the property and avoiding this school tax increase, the $3.6 million cost of purchasing the property will be “paid back” in just a few years with significant savings thereafter.
Preserving open space maintains Penfield’s high quality of life. Why did you choose to live in Penfield? One reason for many residents is that other area towns are allowing rapid development and experiencing congestion, turmoil, and changes to the character of their community. Preserving Shadow Pines, a beautiful and unique property in western Penfield, the most densely developed part of the Town, will be a wise continuation of the Town’s award-winning commitment to preserving open space.
When it’s gone it's gone forever! Failing to preserve Shadow Pines would be a tragic missed opportunity. For over thirty years, Dolomite has filed public documents stating that Shadow Pines and the adjacent quarry will become a beautiful town park with a large lake, over 100 acres, in the heart of Penfield. For decades, the Town has designated the land for use as “Recreation/Sanctuary” in the Comprehensive Master Plan. This is our opportunity to save this beautiful property.
It is unsafe to allow homes so close to the quarry. New York state would never grant a permit for an open-pit mine with 100-foot vertical cliffs so close to the homes of hundreds of children, but the Dolomite quarry is a “grandfathered” non-conforming use. It makes no sense, however, to allow residential development abutting such a dangerous industrial site when the Town can purchase the property.

Absentee Ballot Information

Important Upcoming Events!

We Need Your Help

Can you distribute info flyers to your neighbors?

Would you display a lawn sign?

This is the home stretch!
Your financial assistance will help us to print flyers and yard signs.

contribute

Vote YES! on both propositions to purchase
Shadow Pines and the Clark House

Tuesday
February 27
6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
at the Penfield Community Center on Baird Road

Great News! The Town of Penfield has signed a purchase agreement to buy Shadow Pines. Now it's up to Penfield's townspeople to approve the purchase by voting YES!

VOTE YES on both propositions that will be presented in the Referendum:

VOTE YES to purchase the Clark House!
VOTE YES to purchase the Shadow Pines Land!

We have to win on BOTH propositions for the referendum to purchase Shadow Pines to succeed.

Which Future Do You Want For Penfield?

255 Houses, More Traffic, and Higher School Taxes

OR

Open Space and a Long Term Plan for future Penfield Lake?

Referendum to purchase Shadow Pines
Tuesday, February 27 from 6 a.m. to 9 p.m.
at the Penfield Community Center on Baird Road

Saving the heart of Penfield means
we must Save Shadow Pines!

Approximately 220 acres of pristine open space in the heart of Penfield are at risk of being converted from a beautiful golf course into a sprawling housing development -- perhaps with as many as 290 houses! We don't believe this is the highest and best use of this irreplaceable green space. Once it's gone, it's gone forever!

Help us stop residential development of Shadow Pines and protect this land for future generations.

Absentee Ballot Information

Here's a link to important documents.

These provide information about the status of Shadow Pines, including the Final Report of the Moratorium Committee and communications from Supervisor LaFountain since then.

What's at stake?

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Shadow Pines serves as an essential buffer for the community from Dolomite's massive industrial quarry across the street. Neighbors further away from the quarry than the proposed development already complain about noise, dust, truck traffic, and dynamite explosions, which rattle their homes and sometimes break windows or crack walls.
Penfield does not have the infrastructure to support more development in the area. Do you want more traffic on Whalen, Browncroft, Atlantic, Five Mile Line Road and Huntington Meadow? Do you want higher school property taxes to accommodate more students than we can currently provide for?
Shadow Pines is an extraordinary and beautiful golf course. There are many who believe that it can prosper as a golf course with new management. Even if Shadow Pines doesn't remain viable as a golf course, it is a critical parcel of open space that should be preserved.

Save Shadow Pines

Click to see larger.

Information

Click on the photo above and you can see the important role Shadow Pines and Shadow Lake play as buffers to the quarry/industrial site. There is an asphalt manufacturing plant within the quarry.
Here's a link to important documents.
These provide information about the status of Shadow Pines, including the Final Report of the Moratorium Committee and communications from Supervisor LaFountain since then.
Shadow Pines and Shadow Lake are owned by the quarry company Dolomite/Oldcastle, a division of CRH PLC, a $30 billion building materials conglomerate headquartered in Ireland that has more than 90,000 employees in 4,000 locations around the world.
In 2016, Oldcastle put Penfield golf courses
Shadow Pines and Shadow Lake up for sale. Shadow Lake was sold and remains as a golf course. Shadow Pines, however, was being marketed for residential development until town residents created Save Shadow Pines to preserve protect this beautiful open space in the heart of Penfield.

Both golf courses were zoned residential back in the 1920's. Although the town's 2010 Comprehensive Plan designated the future use of both golf courses and the quarry as "recreation and sanctuary," they were never re-zoned with this protection.

Learn More

News

Please let the Penfield Town Board know you want to save Shadow Pines as open green space!

Learn More

Get Involved

We Need Your Help and Your Talents!

Fill out our contact form and tell us about your interests and skills. You can work on your own or join a team. We have teams working on communications, research, legal issues, environmental issues, and finance. There will be big and small projects so you can volunteer as much or as little as you wish.

Why Should You Vote Yes On Both Propositions?

Vote YES! on both propositions to purchaseShadow Pines and the Clark House​​TuesdayFebruary 27​6 a.m. to 9 p.m.at the Penfield Community Center on Baird Road

Which Future Do You Want For Penfield?255 Houses, More Traffic, and Higher School TaxesOROpen Space and a Long Term Plan for future Penfield Lake?

Saving the heart of Penfield means​we must Save Shadow Pines!