On August 7, the Town Board announced that the Town of Orangetown had agreed to terms on the most significant land transaction in the Town’s 300-year history.  On August 16, Supervisor Kleiner signed the agreement with K. Hovnanian, Inc. of Edison, New Jersey who will pay the Town $24 million to redevelop about 80 acres of Town-owned land at the former Rockland Psychiatric Center site.  The Town purchased 348 acres from New York State for $5.9 million in 2003.

After the Town purchased the property, it prepared a Master Plan which outlined the goals for the redevelopment of the property.  Eleven developers responded to a Request- for-Proposals issued by the Town Board.  After analysis of the proposals and interviews, the Board narrowed the list to three developers and finally to K. Hovnanian, a nationally recognized homebuilder.

Hovnanian will construct a total of 575 units:

• 511 market rate units for active adults (over age 55)
• 32 affordable housing units for active adults
• 20 apartments for emergency service volunteers
• 12 market rate single family homes for families

Looney, Ricks and Kiss, the architects for the project, have designed a range of housing types including townhomes, single-level units and some single family homes.  They are nationally known for their design of traditional or new urbanist communities.  When fully built out, this $325 million project is expected to generate about $6.2 million in annual tax revenue for the Town, Pearl River School District and Rockland County.

The Broadacres Golf Course will be reconfigured, and several of the new holes will act as a natural buffer between the new housing and the existing psychiatric center.  A walking trail will be built along Lake Tappan.

One of the most attractive aspects of K Hovnanian’s proposal is that they do not propose developing the lake front property.  The lakefront area and the land adjacent to Staff Court on the southern part of the property will not be used in this development and will be made available for future reuse and environmental protection.