The Rye Nature Center is moving ahead with an $8 million expansion that includes a new building, a new driveway and a Blind Brook restoration.

The project could help reduce flooding along the brook, a persistent concern for nearby residents and schools.

Executive Director Christine Siller, who has led the center for 17 years, told The Rye Record that program participation has jumped 60% in recent years and the 47-acre property on Boston Post Road cannot keep up.

"We just don't have the space to have the variety of ages and program users up here simultaneously," Siller said.

The expansion calls for a 4,500-square-foot building, upgrades to the existing structure and expanded preschool, after-school and environmental education programs.

A new 18-foot-wide driveway would start from an existing unpaved lot off Boston Post Road, about 500 feet south of the current entrance, replacing a narrow road that crosses a weakening bridge over Blind Brook.

The driveway project would remove 42 trees and replant 46 trees, including native red oak, white oak, shagbark hickory, tulip tree and American sycamore, The Rye Record reported.

It would also add eight to 10 parking spots. Siller said the center is exploring whether wood from the removed trees could be used in the new building.

The project's centerpiece for flood-prone neighbors is the Riparian Project, an ecological restoration of Blind Brook as it passes through the property.

Siller presented a state Department of Environmental Conservation grant for the restoration to the Rye City Council on Jan. 28.

The Council, the Rye City School District Board of Education and the Rye Neck School District Board of Education held a joint meeting April 11 to discuss the nature center's work and its impact on flooding.

The brook restoration is awaiting one more permit and is expected to begin in 2027. Building and driveway construction should start around the same time.

Siller said the center has raised nearly all of the $8 million through private pledges and grants.

The Rye City Council on Aug. 12 unanimously authorized the center to move forward with its funding campaign and to create naming-rights policies, according to council records.

Those procedures will come back before the Council for review at a separate meeting.

The Wednesday, Sept. 16 Council agenda includes a vote on a SEQRA (State Environmental Quality Review Act) Negative Declaration and coastal consistency determination for the driveway project.

The City Planning Commission, after reviewing the plans on June 23, July 16 and Aug. 11, said it would await completed plans before fully endorsing the project.

The plan has drawn at least one neighbor's concern. Father Mark Haydu, a priest with the Legionaries of Christ Rye who lives near the center, said he supports the renovations in principle but has questions about traffic.

The new driveway's entrance through a temporary parking lot at Rye High School could add congestion, he said.

"It's an ongoing issue that would probably need to be resolved," Haydu said.

The center nearly closed for good in 2002, when the city council cut its funding. Bob Clyatt, who then headed the Friends of Rye Nature Center, recalled kids showing up the next day to locked gates.

The community rallied, and the Friends group transformed from a small volunteer board into the property's sole operator.

In 2021, the city granted a licensing agreement running through at least 2056, replacing a lease that had to be renewed every five years.

Coming up: The Rye City Council considers the driveway project's SEQRA determination Wednesday, Sept. 16. The center plans to seek public donations at its Oktoberfest event in October.