Calling In The Troops

As usual, the evenings Town Board meeting started out with about an hours and a half’s worth of wasted time. Patience exhausted, even Mother Theresa might have snapped. The first presentation was from a small group of students from the Xposure program of the Theodore Young Community Center. Their’s killed a half an hour. The Convicted criminal Alan Hochberg and his Citizen’s Committee  members each got up and hammered The Paul’s financial failures, with Hochberg returning to the microphone after each speaker to give a synopsis about that person. The mutual admiration society would have been proud.

Speaker after speaker got up and found fault with the financial operations of The Paul and the Town. As has been said, The Paul lacks the “shame gene” and while he should have been embarrassed that “his” committee ripped his policies apart, he just thanked them. After an hour of this, the Board might not have been ready to move on but the audience certainly was ready to get down to the real business at hand. There were two hearings: one for a Town-wide zoning change to allow Independent or Assisted Living Facilities and while removed from the agenda at the last minute, the GameOn 365 referendum/proposal/“done-deal” brokered behind closed doors by The Paul and his Stepford Board.

Several issues with the Brightview Senior Living Center start with a play on words as to what type of facility they plan to be. Then will they have kitchettes, or a communal dining room; will they accept Medicaid or not? If they do not accept Medicaid patients, will it really be low cost, and will poorer people will effectively be barred from this particular facility? Any future facility built under this zoning code will also be able to block Medicaid recipients, ultimately making these facilities only for the wealthy or those with assets that can be used to purchase entry.

Another issue is the size of not only the Brightview facility in particular but the future commercial structures to be allowed in any tiny residential neighborhood through this zoning change. Since the Town’s Legal and Building departments are incapable of writing a law, and The Paul will not utilize the expertise on his appointed Zoning Board, the Town always counts on the developer’s attorneys to craft and propose the law. The repeatedly experienced problem with this is that the law serves the developer better than it winds up serving the Town. Our Town Board, reliant on Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan’s pseudo-legal abilities, usually produces sloppy, incomplete and inadequate Town laws. Whenever Sheehan writes proposed legislation for the Town, the G10 typically points out it’s flaws and then in their act of defiance, the Board passes it anyway.

Resident after resident got up to speak against the zoning proposal change mostly for three reasons: 1) it allowed structures to be four stories in the middle of residential neighborhoods throughout the Town; 2) it had setback allowances that would effectively let a parking lot be created to within feet of a private home; and 3) it utilizes state and county roads as a necessary access/egress to the facility. Two Edgemont residents suggested utilizing just a state road instead. Another consensus was that most people favored having assisted living facilities but were against such a liberal granting of neighborhoods to the developers, especially in residential neighborhoods. As Greenburgh becomes more and more congested with structures throughout the Town, we need tighter controls as to how we parcel our land away. We also feel that any structures created should incorporate flood, traffic and infrastructure alleviation since our current administration seems incapable and unwilling to do so.

The other hearing, pulled from the agenda at the last minute, was to be for the GameOn 365’s 83-ft tall sports bubble proposal for 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. Scan back through the ABG site and you can read in detail all the issues with this “done-deal”. Simply, a group of uninvested investors struck an apparent back room deal with The Paul to lease the property before it was acquired by the Town through foreclosure. Several plaintiffs sought a legal solution to this questionable and costly-to-the-Town deal, so The Paul turned around and decided to put the lease on the referendum. Both the proponents and opponents each posted a video on the Town website explaining their positions. The  supporters posted a slick 10-minute commercial. The opponents posted their positions and highlighted why this deal should not be done. The referendum, which was penned to favor approval by stretching the truth, passed. The Paul would go on to say that the people spoke. Actually, about 1% of the Town’s registered voters voted in the election and about two-thirds of them voted in favor of the proposal.

The room was literally split in two: GameOn 365’s supporters on one side and the Woodlands-Worthington neighborhood, the G10 and others sat on the opposite side. Even though the hearing had been removed from the agenda, both sides spoke passionately as to why they were for or against the proposal. The Paul continues to claim this is about one established company trying to stymie competition. The Paul has repeatedly pushed the GameOn 365 proposal after brokering what has been called a back-room, sweetheart, done, under-handed and under the table deal. It will require a zoning change after the property reverted back to residential six months after the foreclosure. The Paul will propose the change without reservation and mandate his Stepford Board to vote it through. They will comply without hesitation.

All the points as to why the proposal should not be allowed were not only impassioned, but logical. The GameOn 365 supporters were struggling to make their case. After all, we have the desire to build a superstructure to play kids games versus homeowners whom have invested in the homes, the neighborhood and the Town trying to save their largest investments. Game on stands to make a proposed $55M through the course of the fifteen-year rent-controled project. But wait, there’s more!

Once The Paul finally realized he would lose the lawsuit on all counts listed in it, he decided to change the deal to a sale, circumventing the court case. But the public voted in a referendum to support a lease, not a sale. No matter, The Paul could legally do this based on the legal requirements for foreclosed property. But wait, there’s more! Since The Paul decided to make this a sale, the House of Sports, located in Ardsley, the supposed “competitor” for GameOn 365, publicly announced they were offering $3.5M for the property! This is twice the money the Town would make from the GameOn 365 proposal! But wait, there’s more. House of Sports also said they would pay for the remediation of the property.

The Paul, never one to accept defeat quietly, did what he always does, he tried to level the playing field (no pun intended) and insist that House of Sports’ offer was not sincere. One of the House of Sports owners got up and said, “I am always serious about business.” Then another House of Sports owner got up and she questioned why the conditions The Paul was saddling on them was not done to GameOn 365? Everybody knows why, but the Board members won’t admit it’s because the House of Sports proposal was not the deal The Paul wanted. Fortunately for the House of Sports, they can meet with all the conditions The Paul throws in their path. During the night, The Paul could feel his grip slipping away. He began texting furiously to have supporters come to the meeting and speak for the proposal. They did. In fact, Town Clerk Beville pushed them to the top of the pile, forcing those who signed up earlier to speak to wait further into the night. That was wrong. Several residents protested. No matter for The Paul, the damage was done.

In the end, the neighborhood and the residents are the ones who will suffer. They will suffer with a bubble the is over eight stories tall. It will increase traffic congestion which will be compounded by additional traffic congestion from the Fortress Bible Church and School once it finally gets built nearby. The glaring issues of The Paul picking and choosing projects he favors, laws being broken, spot-zoning being done all pale to the bad shape the Town is spiraling into. It’s time for a change. We can only hope.