Massena ditches plan for housing on former school site; land may be made into park, sold

MASSENA — A plan to build 12 single-family dwellings on a parcel that once housed the Lincoln School is officially dead, and the village Board of Trustees now is debating whether to sell the empty tract or turn it into a park for neighborhood children.

In 2006, the village was awarded a Restore New York Communities grant from Empire State Development Corp. for a two-phase community revitalization project.

The first phase, which was completed this year, involved demolishing the abandoned Lincoln School and old Department of Public Works building.

The second phase of the project was supposed to fund the construction of a dozen single-family dwellings on the site to be marketed to low- and moderate-income families. The $540,000 in state funding was intended to help with construction costs as well as provide a small subsidy to lower the cost of mortgages for aspiring homeowners. Village officials had set aside an additional $350,000 in matching funds for the second phase of the project, which they decided last week not to pursue further.

"With the state of our economy and the number of homes for sale in Massena, we just couldn't do it," Mayor Randy G. DeLosh said.

The grant proposal originally was submitted by former Mayor Kenneth G. MacDonnell several years ago.

The move came before General Motors announced its closure, before Alcoa idled its Massena East Plant and before a nationwide housing crisis and spike in unemployment.

Discouraged by the stagnant economy, village officials said abandoning the project and giving up the funding was the best course of action. A resolution to that effect passed unanimously last week.

Village officials agreed the grant project would not move forward, but board members diverged in their views on what should be done with the Lincoln School parcel.

Trustee Albert C. "Herb" Deshaies asked whether the mayor had given any thought to turning the site into a playground or park, while Trustee Joseph A. Macaulay suggested getting an appraisal on the property and offering it for sale.

"Personally, I would like to see a 'for sale' sign on it tomorrow morning," Mr. Macaulay said. "We should put it on the market and see if we can get any interested buyers."

Mr. DeLosh said there had been some interest expressed by neighborhood residents in using the area as a park, as Mr. Deshaies had suggested. Since Mr. Deshaies serves as the board's liaison to the Joint Recreation Commission, officials asked him to take the issue to the commission at its next meeting to see if there were any suggestions for its use.

Brighton Street resident Larry Ralston, who lives near the site, has been urging the board to abandon the plan for more than a year. He was at the meeting and suggested neighborhood children already had been using the large, grassy area as a park for games and sports.

"The kids already play up there — flying kites, playing baseball and football," Mr. Ralston said. "They are using that to run around and play."

Trustee Patricia K. Wilson suggested that if children already were enjoying the property as green space, it might not need any more than a few park benches and trash cans, rather than a full-scale playground.

Mr. DeLosh suggested speaking with the Recreation Department about plowing out a section of the property this winter and creating a skating rink there.

"I wouldn't mind seeing more than just a bench or a trash can," he said.

Mr. Macaulay agreed the village should look into those options, but said selling the parcel should not be ruled out.

"I'm not opposed to any of that, but if someone came in and wanted to put in a development and add to the tax base, it would save all the residents there a lot of money," he said. "I think we'd be foolish not to at least look at that. It's a huge piece of land."

Village Administrator Everett E. Basford said the neighborhood had seemed opposed to the housing developments originally included in the grant proposal and questioned whether other types of development wouldn't also be frowned upon by residents.

"When we talked about this two years ago, the development we proposed would have added $1.2 million to the tax base," Mr. Basford said. "That was our intention, but the residents didn't want that."

"Two years ago, we had GM, we had Reynolds," Mr. Macaulay said. "The world has changed."