Westhab Violates Code and Promises

During the entire charade perpetrated on the Fulton Park neighborhood by The Paul and his Town Board, and Westhab, by constructing an inappropriate building on an undersized piece of property on Old Kensico Road, EVERYONE promised that the plans were final and that no variances, considerations or concessions would required by Westhab. None. In fact, Francis “Back Pocket” Sheehan repeatedly questioned former Vice President of Real Estate Robert Sanborne that Westhab would not need or be coming back to the Town Board, as the lead agency, for any exceptions? Sanborne, who was terminated from his position for failing to move the project along faster after two years, emphatically said they would not!

At the last Town Board meeting a resident supplied pictures and measurements showing Westhab violated the 10-foot setback they are required to follow. A permanent concrete staircase and handicap ramp was installed and made a part of the structure with an incorrect setback of about five (5) feet. The resident asked that the building department investigate and address its removal. But this is Greenburgh and this is a pet project of The Paul. That means little, if anything, might happen to correct this violation. If this was a homeowner, they would be sent away after being berated and told to come back with updated and corrected plans and try again – and plan to pay the fee again.

Let’s momentarily put aside that the building department “missed” this staircase installation, which we understand was a at least two weeks in the making. Let’s not bring up that a “roaming” building inspector “found” a building violation on the Fulton Park Civic Association’s President’s home on the garage door area after she continually found violations in the Westhab proposal. Let’s ignore The Paul’s explanation that they often have building inspectors drive around neighborhoods looking for violations. Let’s put aside all the illegal multi-family residences in single-family homes in Fulton Park that the Town ignores. Let’s also put aside that the President and a well-known civic-minded attorney got the case against her dismissed. Here’s the big question: why was the building department ignoring this blatant and glaring violation at the Westhab facility? Could the building department have been instructed to “look the other way”? Could The Paul have instructed a building inspector to “check out” the FPCA President’s home and, “Find something?” You decide.

The Paul and his Board will use semantics and find some reason to ignore or approve the change in design – on the fly – and grant the illegal installation of this non-conforming staircase, violating promises made by The Paul and his Board to the Fulton Park residents and to the Town itself. Could the Town Board vote “No” on this change? They can and should, but we know they won’t. 

The Paul made promises to Westhab and their shareholders, so ABG assumes the neighborhood will get screwed again by The Paul and his Board. He often claimed he was going to prove to them how he felt about them and they would change their view of him. It doesn’t look like he or the Town Board will vote in favor of the neighborhood – again. ABG doubts they’ll be changing their view of him. We can only hope.