Town Seeks Input on Plans for Katonah Memorial Park

For many local families, the neighborhood park becomes an extension of the family home, a place to gather, play, compete and socialize.

The Katonah Memorial Park is one such park—snugly situated in-between residential neighborhoods on 46 acres, it is seen as an emerald in the town’s park system.

But the 61-year-old park is not without its problems—parking and storm water runoff, among others—and town officials have long-planned to address these issues, along with a smattering of requests for park improvements, in a cohesive way.

Developing a master plan for the Katonah Memorial Park and the adjacent Zema Property is becoming a reality, and community input is an important part of the process, said William Heidepriem, parks superintendent.

The nine-acre Zema property which abuts the park’s northern border was purchased by the town about ten years ago through its open space fund and is currently undeveloped.

“What we’ll have is a guide to plan the future of the park, whether it’s basic maintenance or expansion or renovation,” he said. “And it should be a result of the input of residents, park user groups, the parks department and our consultants.”

The town has engaged The Chazen Companies, a landscape architecture and environmental consulting firm with offices in Poughkeepsie, to conduct a review of the park and its uses, including public forums and interviews over the next several months. Chazen representatives will also study the park at its peak usage this summer—for example, observing the flow of people and traffic on a night where there is a softball game and picnic, swimming and tennis playing—and provide recommendations to a steering committee this fall. 

“We’ll spend time there to see how people circulate, where they’re dropped off, where the overflow cars go,” said Stuart Mesinger, Chazen’s senior director of municipal services. “It’s obvious that this park is part of the fabric of the town, and we will facilitate conversations with different audiences so we can understand where improvements need to be made.”

Just what the recommendations will be will depend on the group making them, said Heidepriem.

“Our town planner and highway commissioner, Jeff Osterman and Kevin Winn, have concerns about stormwater runoff and drainage, particularly from the park to the Zema property. Others might suggest a better use of the upper sports field and reconfiguring it in some way—or better parking or more signage…that’s what we hope to find out,” he said.

Brian McCabe, chair of the town’s recreation and parks committee, said the plan will give the town a consistent way of evaluating requests for park improvements in the future.

“For example we were approached by a group interested in planting community gardens on the Zema property, which sounds like it would be a good fit for the land and the town—but we need to make sure it’s what the community wants. This process will get us a set of guidelines to look at evaluate requests like that.”

McCabe said he’d personally like to see an expansion of Razor Field and improvements made to parking without compromising the character of the park.

Ann Hanley said she didn't think locals would want to change the look or feel of the park.

“We don’t want to build more on the park—we just want to make it better,” said Hanley, a member of the steering committee and president of the 64-year-old Katonah Memorial Park Association, which recently raised money to install skylights in and repair the roof of the park’s fieldhouse.

Making the bathrooms ADA-compliant, improving pathways for people with disabilities or moms with strollers and improving signage in the park were some of the suggestions Hanley said residents may make. “We just want everyone to attend and bring their wish lists,” she said.

The town completed a master plan for Bedford Village Memorial Park in 2009 and has plans to address the Bedford Hills Memorial Park following the study in Katonah. Funding for this project, totaling $27,750 for Chazen’s consulting services, was budgeted in the 2010 Katonah Memorial Park Capital Projects budget.

The first meetings are scheduled for Thurs. Mar. 24, when Chazen will meet individually with an array of representatives from sports leagues around town. On April 4 beginning at 5 p.m., separate forums will be held for each neighborhood close to the park. And on April 13 a public forum will be held at the Katonah Village Library. See the fliers posted with this story for details.