Wednesday, July 24, 2013

A New Plan for Playland With More Rides


© Rye Playland
The plan for the future of Playland Amusement Park has continued to evolve, and the latest news is good for fans of the amusement park's rides.  Sustainable Playland, the organization that has been tapped to take over the park, has reversed their earlier decision to remove up to a third of the park's amusement rides.

The news that the organization plans to remove or relocate only a few of the park's rides came on the day they signed a lease to manage the Westchester Children's Museum for a period of ten years.

Sustainable Playland has replaced the previously selected ride operator, Mega Funworks, with Central Amusement International, the operations arm of Zamperla that runs Luna Park in Coney Island.  Central Amusement had submitted a proposal to take over all of Playland (details can be seen here) and now state that their plan will be similar, though scaled back.  Still, based off of the success they have found in Coney Island this development is a good one, indeed.


The latest plan also diminishes the size of the 'great lawn' that Sustainable had planned, which was the major cause of the removal of most of the rides seen above.  The plan for a smaller great lawn is now on the books, with the Log Flume and most of the rides staying put.  The large splash ride seen at the top of the photo will still be removed at some point in the future.  Overall, the vast majority of the current rides will remain and if Central Amusement carries forward with even some of their plans new ones will be added.

The deal still is not 100%, however, as Sustainable Playland has yet to receive final approval for their plans and is currently reworking some details before a final submission.  I'm glad to see that the outcry of folks against removing so many rides has taken hold, however!


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