Greenbelt law strengthened as area is pressured

1980

Preserving the land

In the years since its passage, the Special Natural Area District law — creating a protected “greenbelt” west of the Henry Hudson Parkway and in Fieldston — was a continually tested brake on large scale development. Its adherents formed an organization, Friends of the Greenbelt, to monitor every application that came before the community board and give it a thumbs up or thumbs down.

The Friends most notable successes came in battles against townhouse complexes at the Delafield Estate on West 246th Street and at Chapel Farm, just north of Fieldston. The group forced delays in construction at Delafield, for instance, until zoning laws were tightened, permanently preventing high rises from being built on the site.

Not content with the role of watchdog, the Friends also actively campaigned for changes in the law to further curtail development and enlarge the boundaries of the greenbelt and down-zoning of sites where high-rises might be built. They found enthusiastic allies, not just on the community board, but at the City Planning Commission, as well.

Though land use was the big story of the year, other controversies cropped up, too. Among them was the question of what to do with the Holland Care Center, a nursing home developed by Eugene Hollander, disgraced in a scandal surrounding a state school for mentally handicapped children. Eventually, the West 231st Street building did open as a nursing home under different management.

Also in the news was the outrage of the North Riverdale community at the attempted conversion of the historic Riverdale Inn to a topless discotheque, resistance to construction of group homes for “retarded” adults and frustration with the crippling affects of a transit strike.