Richard Liebson

rliebson@lohud.com

WHITE PLAINS — Saying that city-owned Baldwin Farm has been under-used for decades, a White Plains Common Council member has proposed transforming the bucolic park into a community education and nature center with fruit trees, gardens, a pumpkin patch, chicken coop, bee and butterfly habitats and other amenities.

"It's one of the best places that we have, and a lot of people don't even know it's here," Milagros Lecuona said in making public her ideas for the 18.5-acre Hall Avenue property. "It's one of our most beautiful parks, and we should be putting it to better use."

Karen Pasquale, senior advisor to Mayor Tom Roach, said the administration agrees, and has been working on its own plan to re-establish the site as a working farm.

Lecuona, an architect and urban planner, is chair of the Sustainable White Plains Committee, which advises the mayor on issues such as reducing the city's carbon footprint. She said she provided the city's Department of Works with drawings of her ideas about three years ago and discussed her plan with Roach at a meeting earlier this month.

The property was the last operating farm in White Plains and is located in a somewhat isolated area on the northeast edge of the city near the West Harrison border. Several hundred yards past the park, Hall Avenue becomes Buckout Road, which legend says is haunted.

The farm was purchased by White Plains for $300,000 in 1971, using a combination of federal, state and city funds, and designated as a park. The last of the Baldwin farmers continued to live there until his death in 1979. Two barns on the property burned down in a fire believed to have been started by vandals in the early 1970s; the farmhouse was destroyed in a 1982 arson fire. The site has been unused except for about 30 community gardens tucked in a corner of the property.

Lecuona said the gardens would remain under her plan. She's proposed a number of additions including construction of a nature center at the existing farmhouse foundation, parking areas, a covered outdoor sitting area that could be used for lectures and relaxation, an area with apple and pear trees and a composting site. She also wants to see the heavy brush and vegetation that covers a small stream on the property removed, and benches placed along the stream.

"You start with one thing, and continue to build and improve on it," Lecuona said, adding that the park could be used throughout the year for various education and recreation activities such as a Halloween walk, a maple syrup extraction program and more. "There's a lot of potential."

She did not have a cost estimate for her proposal, but said funding could be drawn from the new recreation and parks impact fee charged to developers. The fee was first charged in February, when the city approved a $275 million mixed-use development at the former Westchester Pavillion mall site and assessed developer Broadway LLC $2.3 million to be used exclusively for enhancement of parks and playgrounds or to create new recreation facilities.

"It's an interesting proposal, and we will take it into consideration as we move forward," Pasquale said of Lecuona's plan. "The mayor has made Baldwin Farm a priority."

She said as soon as special projects director, Jill Ianetta, was hired three years ago she was tasked with "coming up with recommendations that do not require a significant capital outlay on the part of the city and will maintain the rural character of the property."

Ianetta said the administration "is more interested in bringing (the farm) back to its original use, which was agriculture production," adding that whatever is decided will include an educational aspect.

As part of that effort, Ianetta has been looking at municipal farms, nature centers and parks in other communities and reaching out to organizations such as the Westchester Land Trust and other environmental groups.

While the "big picture" plan continues to be formulated, Ianetta said incremental enhancements are underway. A beekeeper has been contracted for $750 a year to establish and maintain two hives on the property, and to educate visitors. The bees were to arrive this week. Plans are also being finalized for the launch of an egg cooperative to be run by local families in the spring.

Frances Jones, co-president of the White Plains Council Of Neighborhood Associations, said the group "would like to hear more on (Lecuona's) proposal, including whether the park is under-utilized and if there is a need for such a facility."

"Ideally, the transformation of a municipal park like this would come from a plan such as a city-wide Parks Facility Master Plan, Comprehensive Plan, etc.," she said, adding that there might be grant money available if the city does decide to make changes to Baldwin Farm.

A $30,000 Recreation and Parks Master Plan created by the Planning Department in 2001 recommended beefing up environmental education programs in the city, with the long-term goal of developing a nature center at Baldwin Farm. A 2006 revision to the city's 1997 Comprehensive plan calls development of a new recreation and parks plan.

Twitter: @RichLiebson