We Must Stop Overdevelopment

In many of our local neighborhoods, and in a broad sense throughout Westchester, we have seen the darkest side of development, human behavior, greed and social engineering run amuck. For example, in the Town of Greenburgh, we've witnessed uncontrolled development with the "sanction" by all the subordinate departments following Paul Feiner's misguided statist lead toward subsidized housing.

In fact, the Greenburgh Planning Board prejudiciously closed the public hearing as a proliferation of questions of the project site plan at 22 Tarrytown Road abound. Several people in the audience objected vehemently when Planning chairwoman Mclaughlin ignored their and several board members' pleas to hold the hearing open, insisting and receiving a motion to close the hearing at breakneck speed. Mclaughlin, whose strings are ostensibly dragged by Supervisor Feiner, could not seem to move fast enough to ignore the objections of so many and hand the silver platter to the developer! I don't know why she continues so anxiously to please the King and his “court” as he and his jesters have already disregarded the Planning Board's recommendation to not change the zoning for this property and then changed it right after reading the recommendation letter openly at a Board meeting. This charade must stop!

In Tarrytown we're witnessing the over-saturation of one of the most beautiful and significant waterfront areas in Westchester with immensely scaled condominiums. To the best of my knowledge, they are expensive; and many units remain vacant. Sleepy Hollow is wrestling with it's own demons as their waterfront property has had a bulls-eye placed on it by developers and their superstructure schemes slowly evolve into more than the area can handle. Why are we allowing developers such a free rein? Many suggest if we don't, then they will leave and build elsewhere. Okay, does that mean there is only one developer in Westchester and we should feel honored that they are here? I don't think so.

Another question is why were none of the housing units there designated as affordable or low income housing A.K.A. subsidized housing? Perhaps because the Village a) didn't think of it; b) thought of it and knew it would devalue the rest of the area they are trying to improve; c) realized that the housing that doesn't get sold might be rented and become Section 8 voucher housing or d) did not want the crime that follows so many of these lower socio-economic renters. Maybe there is an “e, f, g” and more.

There was a study that was conducted recently in Memphis, Tennessee that tracks Section 8 housing, it's voucher participants and the crime that travels with them. In what the study calls the “rabbit ears” affect, when you overlay the high crime areas on top of the Section 8 housing, now located in the suburbs from the inner city, it's the “rabbit ear” exact match! Crime is proven to go up commensurate with Section 8 housing. But that doesn’t mean let’s simple do away with Section 8 housing. Of course there are valid reasons to support some of it.

Just because there is a parcel of land without a building on it, doesn't mean we must build something on it and maximize its use with an out-of-character, over-sized building placed on it. This is why most neighborhoods and thinking people object to many developer plans. It's what has been the over-riding issue at 22 Tarrytown Road. After being punished with Westhab's hapless homeless facility for over 25 years, the neighborhood started to see some relief once the County closed the facility. But giving back to the neighborhood isn't in the cards for this workforce group of people. As they say, no good deed goes unpunished. So, the county purchased the property and gave it to Westhab to develop.

Supervisor Feiner endorses subsidized housing, and came to the neighborhood and said this was workforce housing for Greenburgh's municipal employees and teachers. Then it wasn't. Oops. He lied. Then Westhab’s Robert Sanborn perpetuated the same lie, obviously believing if they say it enough, “everyone” will believe it. But the neighborhood and the surrounding area organizations didn't drink their Kool Aid (not to give Kool Aid a bad name), and knew they had been politically, blatantly, and openly lied to. To spread his standing with the lame-stream media, the supervisor wrote several op-ed pieces pining how the Fulton Park neighborhood were NIMBY's. And yet, all they ever said was build something to scale in the area at 22 Tarrytown Road.

The often pushed-aside-by-Supervisor Feiner, Greenburgh Comprehensive Plan would be a step in the right direction in the Town of Greenburgh as well as one for the County. The Town Board seems to have no issue urinating away $405k on it and then doing what they can to circumvent it before it's adoption for one law firm and it's developer client. People at the Comprehensive planning meetings continue to say the same thing: give us less impervious space, smaller buildings or same-sized buildings to replace what's torn down, more sidewalks, bike paths, parks and green space and less congestion. But alas, the Greenburgh Town Board won't listen. And, they'll continue to travel to the Villages, where they are greeted with open arms as Supervisor Feiner, who continues to praise the Villages he cannot destroy, mock the unincorporated areas he can destroy, and paint the people and findings who participate in the Comprehensive Planning meetings openly as kooks. There's only one real kook here and it’s not the residents.

It's time we change the way government operates. It's time to take out the career politicians and the wannabes who have worked with them for years. We need fresh ideas and people who know how to make tough decisions and take government back and hand it over to the people, where it rightly belongs.