"Reis Park is the center of the Somers universe," Councilman William Faulkner told the Town Board this past spring. "Let's use this opportunity to go from good to great."
He wasn't overstating the park's pull. Reis Park sits on 82 acres off Primrose Street, and it's where the Somers Public Library and the Parks and Recreation Department both keep their offices, the only park in town with lighted facilities, and where the fall community sales land on the calendar year after year. For a project this central to daily life in Somers, the renovation everyone wanted took an unusually long time to arrive. The reason has less to do with money than with a line on a zoning map.
The Wall Somers Ran Into
Reis Park's northeastern edge borders the Angle Fly Preserve, 654 acres of protected open land maintained by the Somers Land Trust, with its main entrance on Route 139, also known as Primrose Street, and its outer boundary running along Routes 35 and 100. Preserve land carries an easement that blocks development, including athletic fields, unless that easement changes. For a town that wanted more turf, more courts, and more room for its youth sports leagues, this wasn't a budget problem. It was a designation problem. You cannot build a soccer field on land that's legally classified as open space, no matter how much money the town board approves.
The Swap That Unlocked It
The workaround took the form of a land swap, finalized after the New York State Attorney General signed off on a conservation modification agreement between the town, Westchester County, and the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The mechanics were precise: an 11.092-acre parcel inside Reis Park changed designation from "Open Space Recreation Area" to "Athletic Field Area," while a 14.240-acre parcel inside the Angle Fly Preserve moved the opposite direction, from athletic-field-eligible to protected open space. The net effect preserved the town's overall conservation commitment while finally giving Reis Park room to build.
That swap is the part of this story that doesn't show up in a rendering of new pickleball courts. It's also the part that explains why residents who've watched this project get discussed for years are only now seeing it move.
What's Actually Being Built
With the land question settled, the town brought in The Landtek Group, a firm that designs and builds athletic facilities, to present a plan at the Town Board's April 9 work session. The proposal, estimated at $10.7 million, covers:
- Two synthetic turf playing fields
- Six pickleball courts
- A renovated basketball court
- A spray park and splash pad
- A new restroom facility
- Lighting upgrades and improved ADA access
The town also hired KG+D Architects to lead feasibility and master planning, a firm Town Supervisor Robert Scorrano described as one that "knows Reis Park pretty well" given its past work on other Westchester public buildings, including Merestead in Mount Kisco, the historic restoration of the Bedford Hills Community House, the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, and the Caramoor Center for Music and the Arts in Katonah. The Reis Park Expansion Committee's proposal for KG+D's services came in at $45,000, plus another $20,000 for the firm's fee schedule and incidentals, a $65,000 planning bill before a shovel touches the ground.
An informational meeting was held on April 30 at the Town House on Route 202 specifically so residents could weigh in before the plan moved further. Councilman Anthony Cirieco put it plainly at the time, saying he was willing to "tap the brakes a little bit" so the public could get comfortable with the scope.
The Money Somers Learned Not to Repeat
Financing a project this size raises the obvious question of what it costs taxpayers, and Town Finance Director Robert Kehoe addressed it directly at the April 16 board meeting. His plan starts with a short-term note, a debt instrument that matures within one to three years, rather than committing immediately to long-term bonding.
Kehoe was careful to draw a line back to the town's own history. Somers once carried $1.4 million in annual bond payments, a period the town emerged from only after working through the fallout of the 2008 financial crisis. "Where we were was not a good thing," Councilman Richard Clinchy said at the meeting. "We don't want to be there again." Cirieco acknowledged the project won't be tax neutral, but called it viable because of how the financing is structured, describing it as a way of creating value at comparatively low cost. That's a specific, dated answer to a question anyone paying town taxes would ask, and it's the kind of detail that doesn't show up in a rendering of new turf.
Why the Fields Kept Filling Up Anyway
Part of what's driving this project is simple usage. Glenn Heschler, vice president of the Somers Youth Sports Organization, told the board that the real constraint isn't a shortage of fields. It's how many of them are actually playable after rain, since grass fields turn unusable in wet conditions in a way turf doesn't. SYSO has also added new programming, including girls flag football, which Heschler credited as part of a broader transformation in local youth sports participation. Patrick Ford, a youth football commissioner, and Highway Superintendent Nick DeVito, a father of five and SYSO member himself, also spoke in favor of the project at the April 9 session.
A Park Inside a Bigger Loop
Reis Park doesn't sit in isolation. It's positioned between Somers High School and Primrose Elementary School, next to Van Tassel Park, and adjacent to the Angle Fly Preserve on its northeastern border. Add it all together and the town is describing more than 880 acres of connected public land stretching upward of two and a quarter miles, all reachable without leaving town-owned or preserve-protected ground. The Reis Park project isn't just a facilities upgrade in isolation. It's one piece of a larger, contiguous stretch of public land that residents already move through for school pickup, dog walks that end at Van Tassel, or preserve hikes that start on Primrose Street.
The Park Doesn't Wait for Construction
None of this pauses the calendar Reis Park already runs. The Somers Women's Club holds its Annual Autumn Sale right at the park today, September 27, and the Somers Chamber of Commerce held an event yesterday at the nearby Somers Towne Centre. A few miles up Route 100, Muscoot Farm runs its Fall Run The Farm race on October 25, the 15th year for that particular event, with proceeds split between Friends of Muscoot, Art in the Parks, and the Somers Volunteer Fire Department. None of these are new additions built around the renovation. They're the fixtures that make Reis Park worth reimagining in the first place.
The renovation is still working through public feedback and final board approval, and the town has been explicit that the process isn't finished. What's already settled is the harder part, the legal mechanism that let this move forward at all after years of it sitting on the wish list.
If you're watching what's happening at Reis Park, or curious how a project like this reshapes the way a town uses its public land, I'd love to hear what you're noticing too. Reach out to Sami Vecchiolla any time.
