Westhab Refusal Stuns All

Perhaps The Paul was moved by our post entitled, Is Westhab Being “A Good Neighbor”? Or perhaps he slept on the right side of the bed last night. But in a stunning reversal from his typical “everything goes” for developers, especially Westhab, he stated openly that he was against granting Westhab’s financial request excusing them from paying the Recreation Fee required of developers. Go ahead and pause; breathe; continue ...

Westhab petitioned the Town Board to exempt them from having to pay the Recreation “fee” for their project in Fulton Park. Every developer building in Westchester’s infamous goldmine Town is charged this fee. Thanks to the Town Board making themselves the lead agency for almost all projects throughout the Town, spot-zoning is never an issue and done at the drop of a hat, the Building Department can be pushed aside for the right sign of good faith (i.e., the Fairview FD receiving a new Rescue vehicle or new fire engine), and projects anointed by The Paul, will receive less than a cursory amount of due diligence. In fact, after hearing about all of their due diligence for the past two years, you’d think nothing would ever get done in the Town!

The Paul stated at this work session meeting that he was against granting the request for Westhab as they never brought it up during the planning and public hearing stage of the project and that would have been the time to do so. Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan said he went back through the transcripts of the public hearing and meetings and recreation was discussed and there was no mention of exemptions from the fee. Once learning the waters were safe to venture into, Kevin “Henchman” Morgan, Diana “Sleepy” Juettner concurred, with Ken “Newbie” Jone also jumping on board seconds later. Morgan then Announced it was unanimous.

ABG is smart enough to realize that one correct decision may have just been a fluke. If we see a decision to sell the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road to the highest bidder, and not the lowest, that would be a coincidence. After that, if we saw more correct decisions made for the protection of existing homeowners and business owners by this Board, we might assume things might be changing here in Bizaro Greenburgh. We can only hope.