Current Status of "Stabilization".

The article 78 petition by the "Friends of Oatka Park" for the purpose of terminating the construction of two terraced soccer fields at the main entrance of Oatka Creek Park was continued on 16 September 2009 at which time the justice presiding in the first hearing was replaced by a new justice. The decision consisted of two orders by the new justice after hearing motions by the "Petitioners...Friends of Oatka Park" and the "Respondent...County of Monroe".

The first order in the decision stated that the initial temporary restraining order be modified to allow the Respondent to perform work at the subject site consistent with its stormwater prevention plan (SWPP), including but not limited to grading, seeding, and measures intended to minimize or eliminate exposed soils, erosion, and runoff.

The second order stated that the temporary restraining order as modified by the first order shall remain in force until such time as the Court rules on the balance of the parties' motions and cross-motions.

Offhand, this sounds like a victory for the Petitioners, however, it amounted to giving the driver of a car the permission to apply his brakes only after the car was plunging over the side of a cliff. Big help! The Respondent's interpretation of the order resulted in a logical continuation of the project as if nothing ever happened at all. The "balanced cut and fill" procedure in which the upper terrace was being constructed, continued exactly as it had originally commenced only with additional cuts into the parking lot berm and deeper cuts into the top terrace level in order to achieve a volume of fill suitable for leveling the upper terrace level. The concept of adding insult to injury comes to mind!

This was indeed a hollow victory for the Petitioners! The only future bright prospect imaginable was that the next hearing might actually produce a resounding decision to prohibit the playing of soccer on this site regardless of the extent that the fields were developed at the end of alleged "stabilization".

The ideal decision in my imagination would be that not only the project be ceased and never continued but that the Respondent be obliged to restore the site to original grade by means of hand tools and at his own expense with final inspection and approval of the restoration by the Petitioners.

The pictures associated with this text show the present status of the "stabilization" procedure which has basically completed the upper terrace level field and reapplied the top soil there. The lower field remains uncompleted and apparently was not "stabilized" as a result of the monsoons which have descended upon the area for the past few weeks or the consideration by the Respondent that doing work to complete the lower terrace level might actually fly in the face of "stabilization" and be ruled as contempt of court.

Regardless of outcome, Oatka Creek Park has been severely raped in terms of the original natural place it had almost returned to as a result of cessation of human effort to "improve it". Mother nature had almost prevailed but got beaten in the end game.

DECISION:

On 16 October 2009, Judge John J. Ark, Supreme Court Justice made the following ruling:

"The Court, while acknowledging petitioners' legal standing, and granting them leave to file and serve their Amended Verified Petition, is nevertheless unconvinced that respondent acted in an arbitrary and capricious fashion.

Accordingly, it is the Decision of the Court that petitioners' superseding Article 78 Amended Verified Petition be, and it is hereby, DISMISSED, with prejudice.

It is the further Decision of the court that the Temporary Restraining Order halting construction in Oatka Creek Park of two proposed soccer fields be, and it is hereby, VACATED.

This Decision shall constitute the Order of the Court."

Since this decision was made, the "stabilized" upper mud flat/soccer field was seeded and work appears to have been suspended for the winter. In spite of considerable drying time and efforts by Monroe County Parks Department to drain large puddles on the upper terrace, the field appears to be a potential swamp in the future unless more investment in drainage features is installed. Thus the construction of something of this magnitude on the cheap and in an inappropriate location has come home to roost and it is not pretty.

The Friends of Oatka Park have filed an appeal to the decision by Judge Ark which seems in his own words to be equally "arbitrary and capricious".