Discordant Residents Kill Proposal to Erect Protective Netting at Driving Range

A proposal to protect the residents of an apartment building at 140 East Hartsdale Avenue with Driving Range Protective Netting to be erected by Scarsdale Golf Club, got tangled up at the Greenburgh Town Board meeting and is now being withdrawn.

The application to install the netting was made after the club received requests from residents at 140 East Hartsdale Avenue and Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner, who recommended that the club bundle this application with one to install a temporary tennis bubble and netting behind the 16th green. There have been no objections to these two proposals.

However, residents of neighboring apartment buildings at 80, 100, and 120 East Hartsdale attended the hearings and complained the netting would contribute to flooding and suggested that it would be a danger to wildlife and compromise their views of the golf club.

Scarsdale Golf Club contends that there is no basis for these objections. According to a letter from the Club’s Manager Bill Minard, “The same netting used for bird aviaries and is supported by representatives of both the Audubon Society and Greenburgh Nature Center. The President of the Greenburgh Nature Center actually resides behind 16 green and supports the safety of the nets for birds. The Club would never compromise our wildlife program. The netting will have no impact on other animals. Of course, the DRPN will have absolutely no impact on contributing to their existing flooding conditions and we have already partnered with the town to assist in developing a remediation plan for a much larger flooding issue. Finally, the claims that the DRPN will impact their views are also distorted. Both 80 and 100 will have no views of the DRPN, and only the corner apartments on 120 will see the DRPN from one side but their views of the golf course directly in front of them remain unobstructed.”

Nevertheless, the club has now been advised to separate the application for this netting from the other two proposals for the tennis bubble and the netting at the 16th green. Though they originally feared it would delay the process, they directed their attorney’s to withdraw the application for the netting for the driving range until the other two proposals have gone through.

Though Feiner originally recommended the proposals be bundled, after the withdrawal he sent out a news flash to Greenburgh residents saying, “Scarsdale Golf Club withdraws net proposal (see attached). They are looking at alternatives. Appreciate their responsiveness to the residents of E Hartsdale Ave.” This made it sound like the club was doing something that would negatively impact the neighbors when in effect, the $200,000 in poles and netting was requested by residents to protect them.