By RITA FERRANDINO
Staff Writer

The Springfield town board decided to toss out proposed revisions to a model site plan review law and instead adopted the original version during its meeting Monday night.

Passage of the law prompted the threat of a lawsuit from Dreams Park-style baseball camp developer Victor Alfieri, a Rockland County attorney.

During the meeting, held in front of a packed room, Alfieri sat beside Ross Valenza, owner of the Diamond Tee Golf Range in Springfield which is the site for the proposed camp. A man who sat behind them periodically whispering advice wished to be identified only as "an associate of Valenza's."

Alfieri voiced his concerns that the reason why Springfield was "rushing ahead" to develop a site plan review law was "simply in response to this project."

Town Supervisor Tom Armstrong said that any change to the use of the land is "subject to the law," but Valenza pointed out that there was no law, and that since the property is already being used as a recreational sports facility, there has been no change to the land use.

Councilman Gary Sikkema said that this is not the only project in development in Springfield right now, citing the implementation of cell phone towers, and that the process of developing a site plan review law has been going on for a long time.

"I'll tell you what I'm afraid of," Valenza said. "Time is money. I can't borrow money for a year and a half until this goes through. Everybody's got the idea that this is rosy and fair, but it's not."

Alfieri said that he had been asked to hold off on this project so that it could become subject to the law.

"You're an attorney," said Sikkema. "You're going to be a member of the community. Wouldn't you want to be protected?"

"You think I'm going to feel safe being subjected to this site plan review clearly being enacted because of my project?" responded Alfieri.

"You have a point there," said Sikkema.

"If I got to go to court to interpret a law then so be it," said Armstrong. At the mention of a possible court remedy, people in attendance, including members of Advocates for Springfield, began to demand that the town board pass the original site plan review.

Councilman Richard Rathbun said that the revised site plan review could not be voted upon because a public hearing had not yet been held.

Alfieri, Valenza and "Valenza's Associate" protested when Sikkema made a motion to pass the original site plan review because doing so was not "on the agenda." When Rathbun seconded the motion, the crowd went wild with applause.

The site plan review became law by a margin of four to one. Armstrong was the sole naysayer.

"Since you're passing laws, are you planning to do anything about the smell [of manure]?" asked Valenza.

"It's called the Right to Farm Act," Rathbun responded curtly.

"I just want to go on the record and say that I was the one who wanted to put this site plan review up to begin with," said Armstrong. When his remark was met with laughter he threw his hands up in bewilderment.

"You didn't even approve it," came a woman's voice from the crowd.

Sikkema said that it's been a group effort all the way through.

"I'm going to file a notice of claim," Alfieri said when he left the meeting. "Putting the town on notice that I'm bringing legal action against this. We believe that Mr. Valenza and the Cooperstown Diamonds are not subject to this law because they were organized before the law. We believe that they didn't legally pass the law."