The Land - Located in the hamlet of Orangeburg and the Pearl River School District, in the central portion of the Town of Orangetown, the RPC site encompasses approximately 550 acres, and contains both land and water uses. Approximately 47 acres of the property are located beneath Lake Tappan, the remaining acreage consists of undeveloped land and land that houses buildings, structures, roadways, and utilities.   The RPC grounds are bounded by Convent Road on the North, Orangeburg Road on the South, Blasidell Road to the East, and the Lake Tappan reservoir on the West.   Until January of 2003, the entire RPC property was owned by New York State and operated by the State Office of Mental Health.  In the past, the entire site had been utilized for the purpose of providing mental health services for children and adult patients.  Since its opening in the early 1930s, RPC has served over 93,000 patients, with a peak yearly population in 1956 of approximately 9,650 persons. However, beginning in the 1970s, New York State began to de-institutionalize its inpatient population and declare some mental health properties as surplus lands, resulting in the major downsizing of a number of mental health facilities. 

The Sale - In 1998 NYS started the process of selling 550 acres of the RPC site, and through a bidding process eventually sold 348 acres to Gerald Wolkoff, a Long Island developer.  Needing significant zoning changes to develop his vision, he eventually decided to forego pursuit and through a series of negotiations, he eventually backed out and the Town of Orangetown offered to buy the 348 acre parcel.  Consistent with the State’s intention to sell portions of the property, the Town entered into a contract with the State to purchase land at the RPC site, and on January 22, 2003, the Town acquired that land, which included a total of 69 buildings and structures, for $5.95 million dollars. The State will retain approximately 50 buildings and structures on approximately 200 acres.   Pursuant to the contract with the State, a minimum of 216 acres of the 348 purchased by the Town must be set aside for passive and active recreation use; the remaining acreage may be used for private development. 

The Triangle - Back in 1986 OMM signed a revocable lease to use a portion of a small piece land known as the Triangle, which is about 29 acres of the RPC land that is bordered by Old Orangeburg Road, Blasidell Road and Orangeburg Road (or Veteran's Highway).  OMM had the lease on about 1/3 of that 29 acre piece (the Triangle) or about 10 acres, the rest of the 29 acre parcel was and is still owned by NYS, most of which is taken up by a food processing plant called the Cook-Chill Facility.  NYS revoked the OMM lease in 1997 when it decided to sell the land and in 1999 OMM approached the Town of Orangetown with its growing enrollment and need for additional fields, seeking to use the same 10 acres on the Triangle to accommodate those needs. 

OMM's Field Needs - From 1994 to 2000 OMM had increased enrollment by 87% to 1900+ players and was projecting more growth, and by 2002 enrollment had risen by 130% (to 2400+) over the 7 year period (our team count had gone from 82 to 173).  By this time OMM, working with the Town, was using all available tracts of land in the Town suitable for soccer fields, including fields in the Pearl River and South Orangetown school district's inventory.  The predictable utilization of the school fields, however, was and remains inconsistent at best, partly because the same growth spurt that OMM experienced happened within the school athletic teams as well and their fields were under great demand. Obviously the Triangle was a potentially great solution.

Legal Issues - Our first endeavor was to try to purchase the land from the town and fund the development of the fields privately; but this was eventually squashed because through the contract with NYS the 216 acres designated for recreational use was essentially re-classified as parkland and unavailable for sale (without an act of Congress).  Our second option was to try to lease the 10 acre parcel, and the Town was open to that solution until a small group of self appointed "watchdogs" forced the town to seek a state opinion on the legality of a public entity leasing land to a private group (OMM).  Despite the fact that numerous neighboring towns do exactly that, the state followed the letter of the law and provided an opinion to the Town that it could not lease the land to OMM either.  At that point OMM had no choice but to rescind any offer or intention to fund the building of the fields as we would never own the land. 

The Solution - Rather than let it die though, OMM worked with the Town to arrive at a compromise solution; the Town would fund the field development efforts on the Triangle and OMM, working under a Land Use Agreement, would commit to build a "clubhouse", and add as many amenities as we could afford to make the site a true soccer facility.  Challenged again by that small self important group, the Town put forth a referendum vote in June of 2006 that was passed handily, allowing the development to begin.  The land use agreement calls for OMM to have a "right of refusal" through the current town field permit process from April through November.  This will allow OMM the opportunity to consider establishing a Travel soccer program which would use the fields in the spring, as well as use the fields for the current fall season.  In addition, as a condition of the agreement anything that OMM places on the acreage, lights, turf, a clubhouse, restrooms, etc., will become property of the Town, and OMM also has the responsibility to maintain the fields from April to November.

The Development Effort - The Town is committed to creating 7-8 fields on the Triangle, designed to allow OMM to use portions of a larger field for smaller sided games, so we could end up with the utility of 10-12 smaller fields.  The fields will be natural grass, unless OMM can fund one or more turf fields.  This number of fields will not add enough to our inventory to allow us to leave Veterans. but with shifting game locations around it should remove our dependency on the school fields entirely.  The Town will essentially be responsible for the fields (and substructure), a parking lot and fencing.  OMM plans to fund and build a clubhouse with restrooms, a meeting room, a kitchen, a "coffee room", a large deck, and a large storage area.  This clubhouse will replace the current OMM office on Van Wyck Road and allow us to operate all league business from this new location.  This clubhouse is being built upon an existing structure, fondly known as the "rusty barn".  Far from a barn, the existing structure is really 2 floors, the first is just a dirt floor storage area, and the second floor is just a corrugated roof that is way past its prime.   The foundation is of very attractive stone and the plans call for a structure where the stone is maintained and a new floor is built atop the current foundation and a cement floor is poured in the ground level portion.  This "basement" will be used for utilities and storage, both for OMM equipment currently stored in the office and the sheds we use, as well as for any maintenance equipment like lawnmowers.  This clubhouse is beautifully designed by our architects, Colgan, Perry, Lawler, & Aurell; they have been with us since the beginning and have brought great value to the project already. 

Click here to check the site pictures for ongoing views of the project as it moves along.  

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