| PEPA - Purchase Environmental Protective Association

Chairman’s Letter to the Planning Board

Mon, Apr 21, 2014 • General

Dear Chairman Heaslip and members of the Town of Harrison Planning Board,

I am Chairman of the Board of the Purchase Environmental Protective Association, which is commonly known as PEPA. PEPA is a community organization founded by citizens of the community in 1917. Its primary purpose is to protect the quiet country lifestyle and environment of the village which is part of the Town of Harrison. PEPA is a registered 501(3C) organization representing more than 6,186 Purchase residents. For many years it has fought for the preservation of the lifestyle of our residents.

We write this letter on behalf of our membership and our fellow friends and neighbors. Our purpose is to bring to your attention the gross inconsistencies and deceitful presentation that the New York Soccer Club has brought forth in its application. It is with concern and determination that we make you aware of what we believe is a series of presentations intended to mislead the Planning Board and the community as to the actual intentions of the New York Soccer Club.

I have 35 years of international business experience including on the Board of Directors of major corporations with market capitalizations as high as $35 billion. I also have extensive experience with small companies. I have been the lead bidder for a professional sports club (the Chicago Cubs) and I can tell you from experience that no organization is willing to spend $10 million to renovate a “temporary” practice field and a locker room. The community and I VOTE “NO” on this project for the reasons referenced below and as described more fully in Attachments A, B and C.

This letter and its attachments will provide support that causes us to demand total rejection of the New York Soccer Club's application: (see “Attachment A” for information in support of each item)

I. Deceitful Application and Process

A. Initially filed application as a (“Type II”) simple interior renovation of an existing building
B. Represented the project was good for students

i. Omitted disclosure of the permanent loss of all college tennis facilities
ii. Omitted the permanent loss of the college's only swimming pool
iii. Omitted the permanent loss of the Kennedy Gymnasium's normal student use
iv. Failed to disclose the nature of a Professional Sports “feeder program”

C. Misrepresented its application as a “several year temporary facility”
D. Failed to disclose the scope of the project is $10 million
E. Failed to disclose a lease with renewals exceeding 10 years
F. Failed to disclose that the Soccer Club's Headquarters would be co-located at Manhattanville

i. Omitted the corporate office traffic impact
ii. Omitted that management considered the practice facility as permanent
iii. Omitted that management considers Manhattanville its permanent “home”

II Change in the character of use of the Manhattanville College Campus

A. Failed to permit examination of lease to determine its character and scope
B. A significant portion of the College Campus will be dedicated to professional sports
C. Represents a corporate takeover of a college campus
D. Represents for-profit use of a not-for-profit college campus
E. Failure to disclose the reasons the club's facility has been rejected by other towns

i. Queens
ii. Bronx
iii.Yonkers

III Violation of the 2013 Town of Harrison Comprehensive Plan

We ask you not to be tricked by “minimization and distraction” and encouraging statements about this $10 million project. Please don't think that you can differentiate between players, coaches and administrative personnel and control who drives in which entrance at Manhattanville College over the next ten years. This is a $10 million project that converts the use of a college campus into the permanent headquarters and training center of a professional soccer club. There's nothing temporary about this activity. Don't be “duped” looking at the small things presented that might please the community and miss the big picture. After all, a small project doesn't require NINE professionals to present, explain and defend the application at each meeting.

Finally, where will the headquarters and administration offices be located on campus? REID HALL, a historic landmark, has beautiful views of Manhattan.

Deny this application.

On behalf of the members of the Purchase Environmental Protective Association and the community at large,

Michael Tokarz
Chairman, Purchase Environmental Protective Association

Attachment “A”

Dear Planning Board Members,

The following paragraphs are referenced to the outline I presented in my letter. All statements represented below were taken from the tapes of the Town Planning Board meetings on the subject application except those quotes taken from the Empire of Soccer Article.

I A. Deceitful Application and Process:

First, the Club presented to this planning board a proposal to do a “Type II” application for its project. As you know the “Type II” application is one in which only the interior of a building is renovated. It presumes the building will be used in the same way. Therefore the “Type II” application requires only a limited review of the Planning Board. This usually is easily approved. This is the first inconsistency and was an intentionally misleading representation of the project. The Planning Board appropriately required the Club “refile” the application as a “Type I” which requires a more intensive review.

I B. i. Represented the project was good for students:

At the Club's initial presentation at the January 28, 2014 Planning Board Meeting, I asked several questions. First, the presenters stated that they were going to renovate and rebuild the soccer fields at Manhattanville College for the purpose of using them as a temporary practice facility. What they did not say but we learned later, is that in doing so they will remove the tennis facilities of the college, which will not be replaced.

I B. ii.

Similarly, they will remove the college's only swimming pool, which will not be replaced. They will “renovate the well-known and revered Kennedy Gymnasium” for the purpose of making it a locker room for the professional players of the club. Based on the presenter's statements these locker rooms will not be available for use by the students.

I B. iii. and iv.

The benefits to the college were represented (or implied) as a renovated gymnasium for student use, and the terrific new soccer field(s) for student use. The Professional soccer season is from March to December, leaving only January and February free. They also indicated there would be a summer program for “students” which was later explained as a “feeder program”. In professional sports a “feeder program” is one which provides a “camp” where “students” participate in an educational soccer program for the purpose of developing them into talent for the sport. However, feeder programs are also known as programs where college athletes and “other” athletes are brought into a camp for the purpose of determining their suitability as a professional player. The ages of these students and athletes are generally in their late teens. The new soccer summer camp proposed for children is represented to be “smaller than the previous summer camp” for children.

I B. i., ii., iii.

The students suffer! They are left without a swimming pool, tennis courts and must live with the tortuous conversion of a classic, Kennedy donated, gymnasium to the campus. If you want to pull the strings of your heart go to the Manhattanville website, click on the Kennedy Gymnasium and look at the recent renovations they put into the gymnasium. They show you before and after pictures. All this is to be converted to a professional use FOR PROFIT enterprise to the detriment of the students and the community which attended Aqua Tots classes there. We highlight the fact that this is an extraordinary investment in the college which is a not-for-profit educational institution. The College's mission is defined as the education of students. Please see attached the College's mission statement (Attachment B). On the college website we found nothing about professional sports and related benefits to the students.

I C., D., and E. Disclosure $10 million, 10 year plus lease with renewals vs. Type II temporary facility
Most appalling is, over the course of the meetings we have come to learn that this project is a $10 million project. Also, the professional sports club does not have a “several year lease” as initially represented, but a five-year lease, with renewals that extend at least another six years for a total 10 plus years.

I F. Failed to disclose that the Soccer Club's Headquarters would be co-located at Manhattanville

Let me bring to your attention to the attached article (Attachment C) which states, just days before the first planning board meeting, that the soccer club is close to announcing a “Permanent Practice Facility, a Permanent Administrative Office Headquarters and a Temporary Stadium”. This makes more sense if you're spending $10 million.

The executives of the soccer club are quoted in this article. There is absolutely no doubt, after reading their quotes in the industry newspaper “EMPIRE of Soccer”, that this is a corporate takeover of a college campus.

Neither you nor we have seen the lease because the applicant has claimed it is “proprietary”. This lease is very relevant. As quoted in the article by Dir. of football, Claudio Reyna, “we are very close to making an announcement on (the training center)”. “We feel (the head coach) and I, that it's as important as a Stadium. When you talk to coaches and players – that's your home. That's where you spend all your time. it's critical, as critical as a Stadium.” This article states that Claudio Reyna stated the training center will also serve as the main hub for the team's entire administrative offices.

II. Change in the character of use of the Manhattanville College Campus

Clearly this is NOT a “quiet, little activity”. It is designed to assist the New York Soccer Club, owned by the New York Yankees and the Manchester City Soccer Club of the UK, to make money from crowds, media and events. This organization is for profit and wants to make money. They make money by attracting attention and people.

No one would make a “temporary investment” of $10 million. Certainly not just for a renovation of Soccer fields and a small building into a locker room. What you have before you is a lease for a professional for-profit organization of a significant portion of the Manhattanville campus.

As to our community, we are left with a 10 year, unsupervised pledge to have the players enter in the Manhattanville College Road entrance. Like the “Type II” application, nothing has been said about the administrative offices and those personnel. The community will experience the wholesale change in character of the Manhattanville college campus from what it is today. It will have become dominated by a world-class international organization administering their empire from their self-described “Headquarters Hub” in the Manhattanville College offices.

III. Violation of the 2013 Town of Harrison Comprehensive Plan

On December 19, 2013 the town and Village of Harrison issued its comprehensive plan. The plan reads “Harrison will preserve the existing low density open and rural character of Purchase and ensure future development expects this character.” The plan also reads "Harrison will continue to seek cooperation between the colleges in the town/village of Harrison, to protect the interests of residents."

To reiterate:

Deny this application.

On behalf of the members of the Purchase Environmental Protective Association and the community at large,

Michael Tokarz
Chairman, Purchase Environmental Protective Association

Empire of Soccer January 10, 2014 "NYCFC near deal for permanent training grounds, temporary stadium"
Excerpt: "the training facility will be located outside of the 5 boroughs…will also serve as the main hub for the team's administrative offices"

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Chairman’s Letter to the Planning Board

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