HARTWICK - The Hartwick planning board gave its final approval to the Cooperstown Dreams Park's three-year, $3.67 million expansion plan during a special meeting Thursday night.

The decision paves the way for a more than 20 percent increase in the number of players coming to the park each week by the time the expansion plan is completed.

But most of what park management had hoped to complete on time for the new season, which begins June 16, will not be done.

Following the meeting, Dreams Park CEO Louis Presutti said that as soon as the building permits are issued, they will begin work on the new railroad depot. The depot, he said, is a priority and will allow Dreams Park visitors to board the Leatherstocking Railway Historical Society's Cooperstown and Charlotte Valley Railroad excursion train to travel to and from the village of Cooperstown.

The park had also hoped to complete new buildings, expand a parking lot and erect fencing and screening before players arrived, but the approval process and an archeological study took longer than anticipated and those projects are now on hold until after the season.

"We will assess at the end of the season, the possibility of adding year one aspects of the plan into phase two which would allow us to stay on schedule with the plan," Presutti said.

Before approving the project, the planning board listened to comments from the public during a 20-minute hearing. No one spoke in favor of the project and most comments were reiterations of complaints and concerns heard throughout the application review process.

Hartwick dairy farmer and Glimmerglass Coalition advisory board member Cliff Brunner told the board he was worried about traffic on Route 28 that he said has already reached "capacity."

Hartwick Seminary resident Dorothy Field echoed Brunner's comment when she called the traffic "horrendous."

A letter from Glimmerglass Coalition Steering Committee Interim Chairman Jim Bernegger was read into the record by coalition spokepersn Martha Frey.

The coalition strongly disagreed with the negative declaration given the project during its environmental review in a number of areas, including segmentation, traffic, noise and lighting. The letter questions the accuracy of the traffic study completed by the park and also suggests water usage was underestimated.

Noise and lighting, the coalition claimed, remain a problem with the park. "The town's own records reflect recurring complaints about noise and light spillover into the neighboring community. Earlier this year, over 60 residents, some of whom are neighbors to the Cooperstown Dreams Park project, individually signed and submitted a letter to the planning board asserting that noise and lighting generated from Cooperstown Dreams park are, in fact, a problem for them. The applicant has not adequately addressed these issues," the letter stated.

Bernegger also addressed the board as a Middlefield resident and Cooperstown businessman and asked the board to table the application until the intermunicipal generic evironmental impact statement (GEIS) is completed and puts into perspective the regional issues of capacity, resources and environmental values.

He admitted that few people had the foresight to comprehend the impact the park would have on the area.

"Clearly Dreams Park has brought a flush of cash to the area. Many in the region, including some on this township's planning and town boards enjoy an important influx of rental income from the families that have responded to the week of tournament play and immersion into the Main Street mystique celebrated by the Hall of Fame," he said.

Dreams Park neighbor Jan Scrafford expressed her frustration with the park and the site plan review process and Andre Conklin asked the board if the town wants Route 28 to look like Southside in Oneonta. "Do we want a four-lane highway with lights?" she said.

"The village of Cooperstown is advertising every day for more people to come to Cooeprstown. Isn't this a contradiction," planning board member Ferd Thering said in reply.

Planning board co-chairman Dick Kelly asked board members if they were satisfied with the review of the project and were ready to vote on the application.

"The main thing is they produce everyting they're promised. If what is promised in the application - if those things are followed - it should help mitigate problems," said planning board member Orrin Higgins.

The biggest problem, he said, was traffic. "Other than that, I'm satisfied with everything."

Board member Bob Covert said, "If state engineers who control the highway are satisfied, I am."

"When I look at the Dreams park, it's not the eyesore that some other things that could have been built would be," said Lynn Green. "This is up and running for a short time and when it is not, it's not an eyesore. I think they try to make it appealing."

Green made the motion to approve the application and it passed unanimously.