After years of battling the Town Board’s unrelenting conviction to give away the former Frank’s Nursery property to Mr Feiner’s GameOn 365 friends, the Worthington Woodlands Civic Association, the Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations and area residents stuck to their “zoning guns” and were triumphant! At the last Town Board meeting, Mr Feiner and his Board admitted defeat and approved a 101-unit assisted living housing facility to be built at that location. “We are pleased that they are coming to our community,” Dorrine Livson, President of the Worthington Woodlands Civic Association, explained to the Journal News. “The population is aging in Greenburgh, and this facility will fulfill a need that the aging population could use.” What she also said but was not printed is that the community is welcoming the facility in part because it follows the current residential zoning for the property and is not in need of zoning changes to be built.
The nursery was shut down in 2004 and abandoned by the then bankrupt Frank’s Nursery company. Seven years thereafter the Town received ownership of the 7-acre property through foreclosure. The site remained vacant and in disrepair as the Feiner administration ignored their legal and moral responsibility to sell the property and to address the mixed contamination on the site. Instead of doing the right thing, Mr Feiner entered a back room deal with GameOn 365’s management to give them the property for no where near it’s estimated value. Plus, he had Town’s “environmental expert” Town Attorney Tim Lewis advertise the remediation cost to be no more than $100,000 and that the Town would assume that cost. Once neighbors learned of this scheme, Mr Feiner began to back pedal and try other ways to gift the property to GameOn 365.
The Worthington Woodlands Civic Association, along with the Fulton Park Civic Association, Council of Greenburgh Civic Associations and the Edgemont Community Council and neighborhood residents began attending meetings and becoming vociferous about what and how Mr Feiner and the Town Board were conducting themselves. The simple fact was right in front of Mr Feiner but he chose to play games. No surprise there. According to Westchester County and New York State law, municipalities cannot be landlords and as such, any property received through foreclosure must be sold within a small time frame. The Town owned the property for years and did not sell it, nor did they try to make it “whole” and address the necessary remediation. Instead, Mr Feiner insisted the Town would sell the property and have any purchaser address the remediation, with that amount coming out of the “profits” from the property’s sale. But, the reality is that there are no profits as the taxpayers had to absorb the back taxes owed for the property and have been forced to subsidize it yearly.
After playing games trying to outwit the neighborhoods in the area, the town hired a real estate broker to market the property to the assisted living, health care and nursing home market in June of 2014. The town received several proposals, but again the process, which Mr Feiner and his Board like to tout when they don’t know their next move, stagnated. Eventually, Capitol Senior Housing submitted the highest bid, for $3.5 million dollars. But the back taxes are up to about $1.5 million and the cleanup is guesstimated to be $1.5 million as well. So while the ultimate payoff for the Town will be about $500,000 that's left, we’re not so sure taxpayers will see that either when everything is all said and done.
Capitol Senior Housing has agreed to install a sidewalk for the entire length of the site's frontage, and install landscaping with reduced impervious surfaces. Having developer’s build sidewalks on the fronts of their property during construction is the bulk of the Town’s sidewalk initiative. It’s why you’ll see homes or businesses with sidewalks that lead to nowhere! Capitol Senior Housing has also met with residents on numerous occasions to take into account their concerns and suggestions - truly a good partnership which should provide good neighbors over the long term.
We’re glad to see several things happen with this site. First, the neighborhoods in the Dobbs Ferry Road area have cause to celebrate as they got what they had asked for all along. They were unwavering seeking housing for the location. Second, a contaminated location in the Town will finally be remediated after years of languish. Third, the dilapidated site will finally be removed and a more attractive facility will take its place. Fourth, while the Town will see some tax revenue, the Hartsdale Fire District will split the lion’s share of taxes with the Greenburgh Central school district. Little will go to the Town. Finally, we are also happy not to see the zoning changed to accommodate commercial development which would have placed an inappropriate 8-story commercial facility in the middle of a residential neighborhood. While we are always suspect of the next back room deal Mr Feiner is crafting to spring upon the residents, we’re glad the right facility is being built in the right place. It’s how we’ll get A Better Greenburgh.
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