The Save Shadow Pines Campaignj

Background Info

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 explore options for our community to protect this land for future generations.

A Quick Synopsis of the Issue

Shadow Pines Golf Course was put up for sale in 2016 and a large developer had plans to build more than 250 houses. A group of concerned citizens created Save Shadow Pines group to save this land as open space and many people joined. After overwhelming public support for open space at a hearing last year, the Town of Penfield implemented a moratorium on development of the land and created a Moratorium Committee to investigate options for the community. The Moratorium Committee recommended that the town purchase the land and issued a report that was strongly in favor of preserving the land as open space.

After conducting its "due diligence" in respect to the purchase and future land use for Shadow Pines, the Penfield Town Board extended the moratorium a second year "because all the ideas on the table require formal steps that will exceed the remaining time of the original moratorium period." Supervisor LaFountain said that at the end of this process, the town’s actions would be determined by the will of Penfield residents through public referendum.

The Save Shadow Pines group is concerned that in spite of the Moratorium Committee's favored recommendation to preserve all of Shadow Pines as open space, the Town has indicated it may still consider development of Shadow Pines as a large retirement community.

While this would have a smaller footprint than the original housing project proposed, it would still remove a significant portion of the last remaining open space in the heart of Penfield. This development would also add traffic to our already overburdened thoroughfares, especially Browncroft/Atlantic Boulevard and Penfield Road, which are about to get additional traffic from the new residential development currently under construction at the corner of Atlantic and Five Mile Line Drive.

Another reason for preserving this land is that there is a quarry across the street from Shadow Pines that will eventually close. The owner's reclamation plan says that when it ceases operations the quarry will quickly fill with water to become a 150 acre lake. The Town should think ahead and have a long term vision for Shadow Pines that incorporates the tremendous recreational and limited "smart-development" opportunities this lake will mean for Penfield. To provide maximum utility and value of the land bordering the lake may require future re-routing of Whalen Road. Shortsighted development of Shadow Pines land now would prevent that option and jeopardize many other options for recreation and smart waterfront development in Penfield's future.

Help Save Shadow Pines As Open Space

Here are the core arguments for why the Town of Penfield should purchase Shadow Pines:

1. Penfield townspeople will pay one way or the other . . . purchasing Shadow Pines is the wise investment:

A) The school district estimates that the cost of new pupils from the 255 house development plan developers have shown them will cost $1 million per year more than the school property taxes that will be generated. We taxpayers will pay for this and the cost will likely increase every year . . . And we pay by losing Shadow Pines as open space . . . forever . . . And we pay with our time and quality of life because of increased traffic and congestion . . . And we pay by losing future options for the land when the quarry across the street eventually ceases operations – Oldcastle’s reclamation plan calls for the quarry to become a large lake suitable for recreation.

B) Alternatively, the town could purchase Shadow Pines for about $3 million, an estimated price discussed by the moratorium committee. This would cost the town less than $200k per year to service a bond for 20 years (which would be a fixed cost that doesn’t increase). This is a net savings to tax payers of more than $800,000 per year compared to development.

C) The lost property taxes from the golf course, about $55k to the school district and $25k to the town are trivial compared to the extra taxes we’ll pay every year if this development is allowed to occur. If Penfield purchases the land, it could leave it as open space or possibly lease it to a golf course management company to restore the golf course and generate income to the town. Either way, the value of the land, recreationally and financially, will increase for the benefit of the town.

2. In 2002, the town held a referendum to fund the preservation of open space that passed by 2 to 1. Most of the property that was protected thereafter was on the east side of Penfield where there is already plenty of open space. A much smaller portion was protected on the west side of town. Shadow Pines is a unique opportunity to protect land on the west side, in the heart of Penfield, and it fits perfectly with the objectives stated by the town in the Master Plan and the Open Space Plan.

3. Every description of Shadow Pines land use in the town Master Plan and Open Space Plan, and Oldcastle/Dolomite’s Land Use Plan for permitting the quarry has presented Shadow Pines as recreational land or as a buffer from the quarry. Dolomite’s land use plan submitted and approved for NY DEC permitting states that the Shadow Pines land “serves as a buffer zone, protecting adjacent land from quarry activities.” Furthermore, it says “population changes are not expected to occur in the immediate vicinity of the quarry until excavation operations cease. By that time the area will have been developed in accordance with a restoration plan . . . [the quarry will fill to become a] recreational lake . . . [that] will service the townspeople well, adding to the recreational opportunities in the town.”

Why should this plan be changed? Excavations (and blasting) have not ceased at the quarry and reclamation has not begun. There is no compelling argument for development in close proximity to the active quarry. And development only promises greater losses than benefits for the town.

The developers, of course, would profit, but at our expense.

Let’s Make the Smart Investment for Penfield’s Future!

Penfield Should Purchase Shadow Pines!