CHESTER-BLOOMING GROVE – For years Orange County has entertained and discussed a variety of proposals to develop the former New York City camp for homeless men in Blooming Grove and Chester into commercial space and housing, but after all of that time, it appears the county may be changing direction completely.
County Executive Steven Neuhaus said the county legislature and he are exploring developing the entire 258-acre parcel into a county park.
“We haven’t built a new park on the scale of Thomas Bull in decades, probably before I was even born, so the topography works for it, we have a ton of other commercial projects up the road and down the road from this so it’s not like we are going to be losing anything major and it would make sense for the growing population of Orange County,” he said.
The county executive would like to hire a professional park planner to develop concepts for the new facility.
