Town Board receives Cran Lake petition for large sports-academic campus, moves to act as lead agency

The North Castle Town Board voted on Sept. 9 to receive a petition from Cran Lake Berry LLC proposing a Sports Training Academic Community (STAC) at 1700 Old Orchard Street and to begin the environmental-review process.

Corey Solomon, representing the petitioner, told the board the 36-acre plan would include five athletic fields (three outdoor and two indoor), classroom space and residential beds for program students and staff. "We respectfully request that you receive the petition, declare your intent to act as lead agency, authorize circulation of that notice of intent to all interested involved agencies," he said during the presentation. Project lead Stefan Felgoys described a phased build with initial fields and parking followed by dormitories in a later phase.

Board members and nearby residents expressed sharp concerns about traffic, lighting, environmental disturbance and emergency-service capacity if the site is developed as proposed. Council member [speech label S15] warned the scale could "be disruptive to the town and particularly North White Plains," citing potential noise, lighting up to 25 feet in height and a large parking field. A resident said the state DOT counter used in early traffic analysis may have missed seasonal local school (BOCES) flows.

After discussion the board made a series of procedural motions: it received the petition and supporting submissions, voted in a roll-call to declare the town's intent to act as lead agency for SEQRA review (with recorded yes/no votes), and approved referrals of the petition and supporting materials to the Town and Westchester County planning boards for technical review. The board did not take a final position on the merits; members said outreach, detailed traffic and environmental studies and public hearings will follow.

Next steps: the town will circulate the notice of intent to involved agencies, the planning boards will review the materials and staff will scope traffic, environmental and utility studies. The board recorded the referral and lead-agency votes in the minutes.