“Build Here, Build Now, Build Big” – What’s a Consultant To Say?

A letter (posted below) dated November 28^th, the most recent publicity piece from Paul Feiner, comes to residents announcing what ABG believes is another waste of taxpayer dollars. While threatening to lay off Town employees – which ABG believes is nothing more that a publicity stunt, he’s hired yet another consultant! By the way, we’re sure whatever the CSEA agrees to at the bargaining table will not be enough for The Paul, whose ego is starting to outweigh the amount of the Town deficit.

This week he is writing to the neighborhood residents because they’ve experienced significant flooding in recent years. That much is true. Except for the typical environmental buzzwords and quotes about global warming, Indian Point, the Tappan Zee bridge walkway and dog park, he’s at a loss as to why this severe flooding is happening in our Town? Here’s why: over-development throughout the Town and the region. Can it really be that simple? Absolutely!

At the first Town Board meeting after Tropical Storm Irene punished the area with proof of the Supervisor’s disregard for his unbridled over-development of their locales, speaker after speaker went to the podium and discussed the individual impacts that the Town Board has created with it’s “build here, build now, build big” over-development mentality. In the neighborhood across the street from us is Fulton Park, a former gem of a little neighborhood nestled on the edge of the Town near the County Center. However, after Irene came through, it looked like a war zone, littered with sewage, debris, trees, downed wires and the like. It took over a week for residents to get back into their homes to begin cleanup.

The same took place in the now nationally famous Babbitt Court area of south Elmsford. It’s where every media outlet knows to go for pictures of devastation. The residents that spoke from there cited the over developed areas along the west side of Rt 9A, with Fairview Park growing from just Coca Cola to many more businesses, such as the skating rink, FedEx and other trucking companies. They all have massive buildings and large expanses of blacktop/impervious spaces. Farther up is Westy’s Storage, Grainger, Nextel, more buildings and parking in the Eastview Business complex, formerly Union Carbide. In addition, the Town has approved some 400+ condominiums on the former Union Carbide site. They’ve also approved 400+ additional condominiums at Avalon Greene off Taxter Road. Where do they think the water that used to go into the ground will go? Will it just evaporate? Not likely. No, it will go south as it always does and flood the lower lying regions again, such as Babbitt Court.

 The only differences between the Babbitt Court and Fulton Park areas is that FEMA has already raised some of the homes in Babbitt Court. The Town and the County cleaned out the Saw Mill River there, allowing for a more open flow of flood waters. That will help a bit. But on the other side of the Town are the Manhattan River and the Bronx River which need this same attention. Although, now that the media has left, so has the Town and County’s interest in helping. The Paul? Gone!

The next action step The Paul claims to be taking is, and we quote, “HIRING A CONSULTANT TO HELP US OBTAIN GRANTS”. If you follow this site at all, you know we highlight that The Paul is the master of deflection. Well, here he is at it again. Farther down in his letter, he states the consultant will be looking into drainage improvements, buyouts and funds to elevate homes. While this may be a good interim step, it does not address the real problem: over-development of the Town! We’re not saying we disagree with allowing people to build on their properties. Rather, we need realistic studies, including the oft-ignored infrastructure updates and improvements these developers should be making to handle the increased water runoff and to project and protect the impact it will have on nearby residents, neighborhoods, the Town and the Towns and Villages south of them to where the water flows.

When the ill-conceived Westhab project in Fulton Park was fast-tracked through the Planning Board (rejected), the Zoning Board (rejected) and finally the Town Board Lead Agency (approved) processes, the closest semblance to a flood impact study that the developer proposed was a green roof to allow and increased impervious space, basically building from curb to curb, claiming underground cisterns would capture the water and relieve the neighborhood from runoff. That is, as was pointed out by many non-engineer/residents, until they were quickly filled as Fulton Park is low in the water table. Therein lies the issue. 


Many common sense considerations were ignored because The Paul received or will receive something for rubber-stamping this and other developer projects. So flooding in this neighborhood will remain unchanged. Incredibly, our Town Board allowed the developer to write the bill/law for the Town’s Green Roof requirements. While ABG finds most of Councilman Sheehan’s bills generally sloppily written (and adopted), we have a building department, planning and zoning departments that should be able to craft a law. This responsibility should not be casually handed over to an applicant, no matter how convenient it may be for everyone involved.

When the consultant returns to the Town, after being handsomely paid and amid much anticipated hoopla, they’ll say buyouts can only happen with a pre-flood home assessment (too late for that), Town buy-in (laws, land acquisitions, money, commitments), neighborhood buy-in (everyone must agree), state buy-in (more money), and such. What will be the results of all of this? Buyouts will be dropped. They will propose an upgrade to the drainage infrastructure as to what is needed and it will cost x-amount of millions of dollars. Even with this, they’ll say it will not guarantee relief. The drainage plan will require floating (pun intended) a bond and an increase in taxes. Not happening in our lifetime unless the Lanza Foundation feels really generous. Finally, elevating homes will be the option of choice. But even after it’s completed, developers such as Westhab and the Feiners will ignore the symptoms and continue to over-develop every inch of open space in Greenburgh.

We should also add, as a minor point, that according to the letter from the Supervisor, the consultant they’ve hired is an engineering firm from Morris Plains, NJ. They created the Greater Greenburgh Planning Area All Hazards Mitigation Plan, which the Town adopted so they could apply for grant money from higher government agencies. Hmmm. As with the appointment of Alan Hochberg, whose committee recommended the position he’s being appointed to, this seems like companies purposefully creating more revenue for themselves without going through the bid process. Again, can someone say, “Conflict of interest?”

The Paul claims to be an environmental champion, talking against Indian Point, creating parks, riding his bicycle and renewable energy. But as the saying goes, talk is cheap. He shouldn’t say he’s all for protecting the environment out of one side of his mouth while making the Board the lead agency and approving oversized pet projects in the Town. It’s time for The Paul to go – downstream.