House of Sports Sold

In a surprising turn of events, the successful House of Sports facility based in Ardsley, New York, was recently sold to the American Skating Entertainment Centers. American Skating Entertainment Centers claims to be the largest independent owner/operator of ice skating and indoor sports facilities in the United States. They have partnered with the Robert Martin Company and Diamond Properties to acquire the House of Sports.

Constructed in 2012, the House of Sports is a 100,000 square foot, state-of-the-art indoor sports facility offering lacrosse, basketball, soccer, baseball, volleyball, camps, birthday parties, and Athletic Republic performance training. House of Sports opened in 2012, spearheaded by CEO Donald Scherer. Mr Scherer became well-known after he made numerous appearances at Greenburgh Town Board meetings protesting Mr Feiner's illegal lease offer to GameOn 365's owner for the former Frank's Nursery property. You'll recall negotiations for that "deal" took place before the Town even acquired the property through foreclosure.

One of the main factors of the illegal lease deal that Mr Feiner continued to push for with GameOn 365 was their proposed use of an 83-foot tall inflatable bubble on the property to enclose their sports fields - in a residentially zoned neighborhood! Mr Feiner did his usual arm-twisting and sought numerous concessions from the neighbors throughout the Town to accept the deal. Everyone objected.

Subsequent investigations by ABG and others brought to light many safety issues with these bubbles, actually acquiring footage of bubbles collapsing during storms. GameOn 365 insisted they were safe. That is, until their smaller bubble at their facility in New Jersey collapsed. People interviewed by news crews at that time believed they could have been killed. More problems lay underground. After learning that the former Frank's Nursery property had many unidentified contaminants buried in it, the neighborhood civic associations, residents and businesses protested trying to utilize the former Frank's Nursery property for kids' use.


GameOn 365 eased out of the public eye and continued to secretly work behind closed doors with Mr Feiner. Suddenly, GameOn 365 was back before a Town Board Work Session seeking their approval to build a fixed structure with an outdoor field and 80-foot tall lighting. But this latest proposal would be next door to the former Frank's Nursery property on the Visioli Golf Driving Range property! Apparently, they entered into a contractual agreement to have the "right of first offer" to purchase the property. For some unknown reason, GameOn 365 was bent on remaining on Dobbs Ferry Road. Our staffers' best guess is because Mr Feiner promised to push all applications, variances and requests through as his trifecta-Board is unstoppable. Or are they?

The House of Sports sale means little in the fight to keep the Town from changing the current zoning restrictions to allow commercial entities a variance to build in a residential neighborhood. This is the main problem with the GameOn 365 proposal to build where they want, not where it's zoning appropriate. THAT is the objection that everyone has toward this project. The Worthington Woodlands Civic Association has been steadfast in their mandate: build residential in a residentially zoned neighborhood. And, while Mr Feiner has contacted numerous area residents one-on-one to try to convince them to acquiesce for the last several years, he has failed.

We wish the new owners of the House of Sports well. We also thank the former owners for all of their participation thus far and hope they will remain engaged in Town events and issues. They have proven it is possible to accomplish your goals without "special considerations" from Mr Feiner and his Town Board. In the end, the Town's zoning codes must be maintained to keep the beauty of Greenburgh. Mr Feiner has continued to wholesale parts of Greenburgh to developers - except when it's in his or his Board members' backyard, such as the JPI development in Ardsley. The Villages have Mayors and Village Boards that protect the interests of the residents. Unincorporated Greenburgh could use that same protection but do not get it with the elected officials we have. It must change. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

An Open Letter: Death of “The Process”

May 20, 2015

Supervisor Paul Feiner

Town Board
Town of Greenburgh
Town Hall
177 Hillside Avenue
Greenburgh, New York 10607

Dear Supervisor Feiner:

I am appealing to you in my capacity as the Vice-President of the Fulton Park Civic Association with respect to the application filed on behalf of GameOn 365 Sports, LLC seeking a zoning amendment that will negatively impact the entire Town in the future, initially allowing construction of a prohibitive commercial sports complex on Dobbs Ferry Road in the R-30 Zoning District.

As you will recall, at the Town Board meeting on April 8, 2015, an overwhelming majority of community members attended to steadfastly voice their opposition to GameOn 365’s application. In fact, the overwhelming sentiment was that the proposed zoning amendment should be rejected. Nonetheless, you and Town Board members, Ken Jones and Kevin Morgan, decided to blatantly disregard the will of the residents of the Town of Greenburgh by moving the GameOn 365 application forward by commencing the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act process and referring the matter to the Town of Greenburgh Planning Board for an “informal” review. This belies your collective statements of impartiality and removes all pretext of keeping an open mind! I am writing to advise you that the members of my association, as I’m sure the residents living in the vicinity of the golf ranch property, are greatly troubled by your actions and the actions of Councilman Morgan and Councilman Jones. 

I had written you a letter on April 8, 2015, pointing out a number of deficiencies in the long form Environmental Assessment Form prepared by GameOn 365. Regardless, you, in concert with Councilman Morgan and Councilman Jones, and over the objections of Councilmember’s Sheehan and Juettner, decided to declare the Town Board’s intent to act as Lead Agency under SEQRA and provide notice of this intent to interested and involved agencies, giving GameOn 365 the necessary ammunition to seek real financial investors. I believe this is purely endorsed semantics to move GameOn 365’s proposal forward! I reiterate that preceding any further with the SEQRA review is improper until the errors in the EAF are analyzed and corrected. To continue with the review would create a flawed environmental review process since the involved and interested agencies cannot accurately assess the impact of the zone change or the scope of the underlying project. Or, is that the actual plan? I ask that the Town Board immediately withdraw its intent to act or become Lead Agency, and, at the very least, require GameOn 365 to amend its EAF until the errors I previously pointed out are corrected.

The next troubling aspect of your actions is that you have continually acted as an advocate for GameOn 365. Although you contend that you are neutral and that you are merely following “the process”, there are many examples where you have chosen to proceed in a biased manner.  One example is that you have continually taken the position that the traffic impacts relating to Dobbs Ferry Road are not significant and that the project would not result in excessive traffic.  However, this is substantially different than the position that you took with respect to the Fortress Bible Church.  At that time, you were very concerned about the volume of traffic the Fortress Bible Church would add to Dobbs Ferry Road. The GameOn project would likely add more traffic, on a more regular basis, than the Fortress Bible Church proposal.

Your most recent statements that you were only concerned with site lines with respect to the Fortress Bible Church are directly contradicted by the record in that action and will invariably and rightly be part of any litigation concerning the proposed traffic impacts. Your statement that you spoke with the Chief of Police on occasions regarding the Fortress Bible project is also contradicted by your testimony in that case. These contradictions demonstrate that you are anything but neutral. Past performance has proven when you have a project you support, such as GameOn 365, you will do anything to move the application forward; but where you have a project you are against, such as Fortress Bible, you will do anything to oppose it including destruction of evidence and lying under oath. It is no wonder people have lost confidence in the process in our Town!

You have also continually questioned whether the traffic impacts studied by House of Sports should be considered when analyzing the GameOn 365 project. Despite your assertions to the contrary, the GameOn 365 facility will attract a similar amount of traffic as House of Sports. Furthermore, the number of spectators and participants will not in any way be limited by an alleged lack of seating or otherwise at the GameOn 365 facility. There is no doubt that when children come to GameOn 365, their parents, relatives and friends will attend practices, games and tournaments in large numbers.

The manner in which you have driven this process forward demonstrates bias and that you are acting as an advocate for GameOn 365.  As stated above, you have voted to declare the Town Board as Lead Agency, despite the deficiencies in the EAF and substantial evidence and testimony that property in the R-30 zone should not be zoned for commercial use. The only reason to have moved the environmental review process forward at this time is because you are in favor of the GameOn 365 application!

The formation of a “committee” for the purpose of hiring of a traffic consultant and planning consultant, is also highly suspect, is not typical in a SEQRA review and further establishes that you are treating the GameOn 365 application differently than other applications. The usual process for a zone change petition is for the applicant to submit studies in conjunction with a draft Environmental Impact Statement that the Town professionals can then analyze. It will be at that time that the Town could hire a planning consultant, traffic consultant and other professionals to review the applicant’s studies. The public would then be given the opportunity to hire its consultants to analyze the applicant’s studies and present information during the SEQRA review. It is entirely inappropriate for the Town to conduct studies on its own, prior to the applicant submitting its own studies and draft Environmental Impact Statement. This is true even if the applicant is paying for the studies, which further taints the process. What is even more disturbing is that if the Town’s consultants ultimately conclude that there are not any significant impacts from the project, it would be difficult, if not impossible, for the Town Board to reject or modify the application during either the SEQRA or site plan review process.

The supposedly “informal” referral of this application to the Planning Board is also not typical of a petition for a zoning amendment. As you are aware, Town Code § 285-64 requires the Planning Board to make a formal recommendation addressing specific areas of concern with respect to any petition for a zone change before the Town Board holds a public hearing. However, there is no provision for an “informal” Planning Board review in the Town Code. If you are seeking an advisory opinion from the Planning Board, I believe such advisory opinions are improper and illegal. Your attempt to somehow sidestep the formal recommendation process by asking the Planning Board to conduct an “informal” review is again contrary to the process and shows that you are taking a biased approach with respect to this particular applicant.

The bottom line is that communities throughout the Town of Greenburgh are against the GameOn 365’s petition for a zone change that will forever change the landscape of Greenburgh town wide. Yet you, Councilmen Jones and Morgan continue to support it at all costs. I insist you all to reconsider the current direction the Town Board has taken with respect to GameOn 365’s application and dismiss it.

Thomas Bock, 

Vice-President, Fulton Park Civic Association

I Can Do This Forever

Do what? Jerk the tax-paying residents around until they get exhausted? Mr Feiner may not say this, but he certainly practices it. He continues to hand-hold any developer interested in building in the Town as they submit their project(s) for approval. He does this by having his Town Board vote to be the Lead Agency on every project put forth that he favors. We imagine he gets fed up at times and says to himself, “When are they going to learn and stop interfering with my plans? I can’t be voted out of office because no other party will put up a candidate to run against me. Hell, even the Democrats couldn’t beat me! I just wear them all down. I can do this forever!”

Two years and five months ago, as well as five years ago, issues came to the forefront that Mr Feiner has still not acted upon. Nor has the Town Board. These issues, completely unrelated and very different, highlight the tenacity of Mr Feiner when he wants something and meets with resistance. He will fight whomever is against him simply because they are against him. Think rope-a-dope.
 
Two years ago, ABG attended an Edgemont Civic Association (ECC) meeting at Edgemont High School. An Edgemont resident in attendance got up and voiced his opinion about how many massage parlors were opening in the Town of Greenburgh and Edgemont in particular. He asked for that Association’s assistance in helping to close them. Some of the reasons included the clientele, possible sexual slavery, prostitution, unlicensed massage “therapists” as well as other issues were highlighted and made for a compelling argument against them. More immediately, he was concerned for his young daughters being exposed to this when they went to a nearby or adjacent business.
 
Robert Bernstein, an Edgemont resident, attorney and ECC President, along with Community Activist Ella Preiser and others, drafted a bill that would give the Greenburgh Police Department real teeth in going after these establishments. If they were legitimate, they would have nothing to fear. If not, the Police, Fire and Building Departments would have the ability to close them down. Publicly Mr Feiner said he was against the massage parlors. But is he? His actions, or lack of, belie what he says. Another Feiner tactic.

We imagine he told Town Clerk Beville to slap together some kind of meeting about sex trafficking, invite the usual suspects and he’d send it out on the GBList to make it seem like they really cared. We wonder if anyone has questioned his use of the GBList since Worthington Woodlands Civic Association President Dorrine Livson had sued the Town under an Article 78 for access to the GBList and won? We also imagine his response to be, “Just do as I say and let me worry about the GBList and Livson.” Emails sent.
 
So did he line up the players in a closeted session, possibly including Town Clerk Beville, Town Attorney Lewis, newbie Commissioner of Planning Garrett Duquesne and maybe a Town Board member or two? We imagine he gave them their marching orders: “Anything Bob Bernstein submits must get lost, discarded, proven useless or simple fought to stall for time. I need this to go away and if you all value your jobs, you’ll do as I say!” Hence, the apparent unending opposition by Attorney Tim Lewis, in particular, as he protects his meal ticket against Mr Bernstein’s proposed bill.

We believe the relentless verbal pounding Mr Lewis was receiving at every meeting by residents regarding his resistance to Mr Bernstein's bill probably forced Mr Feiner to develop an alternate plan or two (or three) in case Mr Lewis caved. The next step was to have the bill delivered to the Planning Board, who we’ve now learned are unqualified to write legislation. ABG wonders if Town Attorney Lewis instructed the Planning Board to "take their time" and stall this bill by formally asking the NYS Attorney General’s office to review it. That request was rejected by the NYS Attorney's office but succeeded to stall the bill for another 5-months, providing the Town Board the ability to say they are awaiting an answer from the state and cannot discuss the matter further. The Planning Board created their own law so now there are two versions to be decided upon. Mr Bernstein keeps asking to meet with the board members to discuss it but they keep ignoring him. ABG believes this was nothing more than another stall tactic by Mr Feiner. Remember, he can do this forever.

Then we come to the Zoning Change Proposal that will negatively impact the entire Town. The Town Board is split on the request made by Mr Feiner's friends from GameOn 365. This started five years ago when Mr Feiner sought to illegally hand the property over to Martin Hewitt, project manager for GameOn 365, for the proverbial “song”. When a threatened lawsuit halted that folly, Mr Feiner announced a referendum, which was carefully worded to ensure its passage. In the meantime, the Federal Courts rendered a guilty verdict against Mr Feiner and certain people on his Town Boards of violating the civil rights of the Fortress Bible Church, including Ardsley’s Diana Juettner, a current Town Councilwoman.

So with all of the back and forth about how to get the former Frank’s Nursery property to the GameOn 365 paper organization, Mr Feiner has launched his campaign, being their most committed cheerleader. The property is still suffering from numerous contaminants and requests by residents for the Town to remediate it were met with blank stares and Mr Lewis’ assurances that the remediation would cost no more than $100k. Hah! The study alone cost more than that and it was a truncated one at that. The auction specialist the Town hired to auction off the property ultimately said the Town must make the property whole before anyone would bid on it. Huh? That’s exactly what the residents had said!

A number of years ago the Town, under Mr Feiner, tried to take over the Visioli’s Golf Driving Range on Dobbs Ferry Road. Now he professes that he is trying to save it. Our guess is he suggested to Mr Hewitt that he try to purchase all of it or at least some of the Visioli property as they were in tax arrears and instead of a bubble, offer a fixed structure. Whether or not this conjecture is true remains a mystery, but the relentless actions by Mr Feiner to try to make GameOn 365’s proposal come to fruition are alarmingly suspect. However, the issue isn’t about GameOn 365’s proposal, per se. Rather, it is about changing the zoning to allow commercial entities to invade residential neighborhoods. Remember, he can do this forever.

It is truly a difficult thing to start and even sustain a business. We see area businesses shuttered in Greenburgh, the County and the State all too often. In fact, ABG staffers were at a meeting where the owners of Smashburger were seeking additional signs for an "under-performing" location. We thought they were in good shape. Apparently not. It’s the one in the shopping center with Shoprite on Central Avenue. You know the one, they want to add two more buildings utilizing existing parking spaces - the latest craze from town and urban planners. Could it be that Smashburger is under performing (read: losing money) because it is already so difficult to find a parking space anywhere near your intended location unless you were born into it? We don’t want to see this zoning change. We want to see businesses operate in the appropriately zoned area for it. Only then we will see A Better Greenburgh.

Game On 365’s Plans Set a Dangerous Precedent in Town of Greenburgh

On April 8 the Greenburgh Town Board held a meeting to hear the views of residents (and nonresidents, as it happened) about the proposal by Game On 365 to build and operate a large sporting facility on Dobbs Ferry Road, on the golf-driving range property that, Game On has an option to buy.

The proposal is to build a large building (for indoor sports), which was described by Councilman Francis Sheehan as being the size of the Sam’s Club structure in Elmsford, but more than 60 percent higher. In addition Game On will build an outdoor field and operate other facilities, including physical therapy rooms, a party room, a cafe and a retail store. Readers will remember that Game On had previously tried to build an 80-plus-foot high sports bubble on the Frank’s Nursery site, with Paul Feiner’s strong support, but that proposal failed for a number of reasons, primarily because the town did not legally own the site and the grounds were chemically polluted.

The meeting was emotional and contentious. Residents of the area were angered at the thought of such a commercial behemoth being foisted on them, in the middle of a neighborhood that consists of single-family homes of rather high quality. The golf driving range property is situated on land that is zoned residential single-family housing and operates as a legal nonconforming use because it predated the applicable zoning law.

Game On has requested that the residential zoning be changed to permit a commercial use in order to accommodate the sports facility that it wishes to build. As was to be expected, the neighborhood erupted in opposition. Such a facility - open during the day and into the late evening - with its noise, its late-night lights, its traffic, its appearance, its physical impact on the nearby homes, etc. - would destroy this quiet residential neighborhood and decimate the value of the homes there.

The meeting consisted of arguments pro and con the Game On facility. Those in favor, primarily soccer moms and dads and coaches, cited the benefits of it year-round sports facility. Those opposed cited the very real destructive consequences to the community,

But these were the wrong arguments.

The question of whether this large facility should or should not be in the Dobbs Ferry Road location is the second question to be considered. The first question is whether a 32-acre site in the middle of an area zoned residential should have its zoning changed to permit commercial use. That is a question of great consequence, with enormous implications. And that is a question that needs to be addressed before one considers the impact of a sports facility in that neighborhood. A zoning change is permanent. Game On’s proposed facility is temporary.

Suppose, as one example, that the proposed Game On sports facility is not successful, and has to close. And at some point it will close. Greenburgh, and the neighborhood, are then left with a huge building that allows a number of commercial uses in the middle of a residential neighborhood. The possibility - no, the inevitability - of this building and associated parking being used for other commercial purposes is self-evident.

Or consider another example. If the 32-acre site is zoned to permit cornmercial uses, its value multiplies by several orders of magnitude. The land Game On has an option to buy will immediately greatly increase in Value. Suppose that the Game On owners decide (or have already decided) that instead of risking the investment in a business, they can sell all or part of the property and make a huge windfall profit. They have the power, and perhaps the incentive, to do so.

In either of these eventualities the town will be essentially helpless. It is not difficult to stop a commercial development in a residentially zoned area. But it is difficult to stop a legitimate commercial development on a property already zoned to permit commercial uses. There is no hindsight available. To refuse a commercial developer in an area already zoned to permit commercial uses invites litigation that will be extremely expensive and probably unsuccessful for the town. And it is worth noting that the town board cannot prohibit an applicant from seeking variances horn the Zoning Board of Appeals to expand the permitted commercial uses.

And so I repeat. The question for the town board at this time is not whether the Game On proposal is good or bad. The question is what are the consequence of a change of zoning permitting commercial uses in a residential area, and should the town risk them?

It may help the town board to realize that a change from residential to commercial use is virtually unprecedented. If my memory is correct, it has happened only once in the past 50 or more years. That was when the old Union Carbide property (now Landmark at Eastview) was rezoned from commercial to residential in the 1980s. The property was never developed. At the April 8 meeting the town board held a public hearing on rezoning the property again to commercial.

It was obvious that the residential zoning was inappropriate since the entire area is commercial and therefore the zoning should correspond. But that is the opposite of the Game On situation - there the area is primarily residential except for some old legal nonconforming uses (and as to those. When they discontinue operations only residential development will be permitted) I urge the town board to consider what I call the first question - namely, what are the consequences of a rezoning and can the town risk those consequences? As an afterthought, there are other places in Greenburgh where Game On can build its facility. Landmark at Eastwood representatives have requested, and the town board is prepared to adopt, a zoning change that Would permit indoor/outdoor recreational facilities on the Landmark site, and Game On can easily build their sports facility there, only a short distance away from the Dobbs Ferry Road site. The only reason that Game On persists on the Dobbs Ferry Road site is because Paul Feiner is their advocate. It is past time to do right by the neighborhood of the proposed site, and most of all, do right by the town.

– Herb Rosenberg, Judge, Retired.

This article originally ran in the Scarsdale Inquirer and was submitted by the author.

Supervisor’s Campaigning Paid By and Costing Taxpayers Thousands

We’ve written previously about Mr Feiner doing multiple mailings for his favored businesses throughout the Town, all at costly taxpayer expense. There’s never a shortage of topics for him to pontificate about. In a previous article, we detailed a three-page mailing going to 35,000 households in the Town for grand total of $43,400. Whether you agree with our premise or not, these multiple, weekly mailings are a significant drain on Town financial resources. Perhaps Mr Feiner should be given a budget that he be required to adhere to and if he goes past it, must pay for from his salary. It would be a tax cap, if you will, of say 2% or less, based on traffic court collections. It would also be reminiscent of when he used to return a portion of his salary when he didn't fulfill his campaign promises. We guess that ship has sailed and sunk.

Last week saw another 48¢ mailer, this time consisting of two pages (two sheets) printed at Town Hall on taxpayer copiers and paper. Normally, residents are charged 25¢ per page, not sheet, for copies made at Town Hall. This is another unnecessary expense to taxpayers of 2 x 25¢ = 50¢ x 35,000 = $17,500. The fact that there were two mailers, at least that we are aware of, for a total of $60,900 is a slap in the face to residents and taxpayers, some of whom are struggling to be able to eat and simply get by on their fixed incomes!

Another fact we’ve bemoaned before is taxpayers being charged by Town Hall for copies. It’s ludicrous. Taxpayers already pay for the paper, toner, copiers and labor with their taxes. They should be given the courtesy of at least getting the first copy for free when they request a printed copy of something. If, however, they seek multiple copies, they could then be charged a discounted rate from what the public would pay, say 10¢ per page. Outsiders or non-residents (the public) could be charged 25¢. In the end, the copy fees should not be a profit center to allow Mr Feiner to do more mailings.

There's also the issue of us paying for all of Mr Feiner’s campaigning. As we start to tally the daily, weekly, monthly, yearly mailings, the amount expended on the unauthorized mailings is staggering. One way to pay for this extravagance is through more tax revenue. No, we’re not saying we want to see our taxes increased even more. Rather, simply utilize what we have because if we have to live within our means, so should our government officials!

It’s no secret that the Town reaps almost double the amount in property taxes from residential housing (developments) over commercial property (developments). And yet Mr Feiner continues to push to develop residentially zoned parcels of lands for his handpicked commercial developer friends. Case in point is the 7 acres of land at the former Frank’s Nursery. He’s routinely skirted or violated the law to gift this property to one of his friends. 

Now he’s on board to develop the Golf Driving Range for this same friend next to Frank’s. While the Golf Driving Range has special zoning applied to it, their property will also default to residential (R-30) zoning should the driving range fail or close. They are currently involved in a back-taxes payoff schedule with the Town. We wonder what’s in it for Mr Feiner that he would not do what is best for the tax-paying Town residents?

Today delivered another piece of mail dated March 11th, reporting on the “pothole crisis” in the Town. This letter from the Supervisor detailing why pothole repairs fail (is there anybody who still doesn’t know why they fail?), and did what he normally does: suggests you contact other politicians, which as our locally elected official is actually his job, and tell them to alot more money to our roadways. It’s a crock and actually insulting to taxpayers. If he had not ignored our infrastructure for the last 22-years during his watch, we would not have so many failures throughout the Town. Ironically, he has also shared this information via all the media outlets whether in print or online March 12. Doing a simple online search of Mr Feiner’s personal website tool yielded this result: Your search for feiner returned 496 results on The Greenburgh Daily Voice.

Keeping the Town residents and taxpayers informed is a requirement for any elected official. However, it should not be at the expense of those same taxpayers. When this practice ends we will begin to see A Better Greenburgh.

The Con Continues

For over three years now, Mr Feiner and his Town Board have been playing games with taxpayer property. For over twenty years now, Mr Feiner has been playing games with taxpayer money. The wallet-busting Supervisor has no plans to follow the law and will engage again in more spot-zoning to achieve his cash “fix”. Specifically, the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, the former Frank’s Nursery property, which has languished as a contaminated, still undeveloped plot of land that continues to be mired in ineptitude and a morass of legal hijinks.

The property could have been sold for a profitable $3.5 M to Elms Street Sports, but Mr Feiner and his Board, began a new deflection campaign by concocting a slew of stories of “serious offers”, “genuine interest”, “real offers” and other well-played lies to keep the Town’s only serious offer from ever seeing the light of day. The reason? Mr Feiner promised the property to Martin Hewitt of GameOn 365 and by hook or by crook (the right word), he plans to keep that promise no matter how ill-advised or costly it will be for the Town taxpayers.

That’s one of the predominant issues here. The fact that Mr Feiner made this significant arrangement with Mr Hewitt, et al, before the Town acquired the property through foreclosure is critically important. But it’s not the only factor contaminating this entire process – beyond the physical contamination of the land at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road. It’s also symbolic that Mr Feiner brought in his Board to strengthen this improper deal. Is it merely coincidence or intentional? ABG wholeheartedly believes its intentional. Mr Feiner couldn’t sell the 83-foot inflatable balloon deal by himself as his credibility is shot within the Town. Oh sure, the lamestream media will regurgitate his pablum, and that helps his cause du jour.

But its not enough and his need to add a legitimate air to the deal was desperately required. As he prepped “newbie” Councilman Ken Jones to go along, he merely had to “head tip” toward Councilman Morgan to get him on Board. Fellow discriminator Councilwoman Diana Juettner would go along with his scheme as she too was embroiled in the guilty verdict with Mr Feiner over the Fortress Bible Church discrimination case. That left Councilman Sheehan, who went along but was later thrown under the bus when Mr Feiner challenged petition signatures witnessed by Mr Sheehan, claiming Sheehan lied as to his permanent home address. Nice.

During this time, Mr Feiner actively ignored the 20-years worth of other foreclosable properties throughout the Town due to non-payment of taxes. That is, until a G10 resident stumbled upon “secreted” paperwork in Town Hall that was not supposed to be viewed by the public! The papers listed information as to how the Town was owed over $20 million dollars in back property taxes and should have been pursued by the Town through foreclosure. This discovery was a revelation! The Town had just been found guilty of discrimination in federal court and upheld in federal appeals court and being forced to settle, having to pay $6.5 million dollars with this guilty verdict. You’ll recall that the discrimination against the Church was trumpeted by Mr Feiner and backed by Ms Juettner. Once this “new” information was exposed*, Mr Feiner immediately offered a Tax Amnesty program to the twenty-plus year’s worth of offenders. The illegality of what he was doing was questioned by many, but since Mr Feiner has no trouble ignoring laws he dislikes, he simply shoved this one aside and began his Deflection Campaign for amnesty.

We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention the $1.2 million a year the Town was now losing yearly because Mr Feiner chose to not renew the WestHelp lease in Valhalla. So with some quick accounting in broad strokes, the Town has cumulatively lost:
$20+M from outstanding tax arrears,
$2.4M from WestHelp (so far),
$6.5M from Fortress Bible Church guilty verdict,
$3.5M from Frank’s Nursery
$9M for underinsured tree death lawsuit
Sub Total lost to taxpayers by Mr Feiner: $40,200,000.

What’s missing here are the assorted financial fees for consultants, legal teams, court expenses and, well, you get the idea: there are many ancillary expenses that the Unincorporated Town taxpayers have been forced to pay for Mr Feiner’s illegal, irreverent and bad behavior. ABG has asked before why both he and Ms Juettner have not lost their law licenses as they are officers of the court and must adhere to the law, not break it? Isn’t being found guilty in Federal Court enough validation to endorse this?

During the entire GameOn 365 back-room debacle deal to court and the subsequent intended handoff of the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, we’re suspect that Mr Feiner has been coaching Mr Hewitt either directly or indirectly as to how to proceed to ensure he and his newly formed company receive the property. During this entire time, Mr Feiner has engaged a concerted misinformation scheme to discredit Elm Street Sports’ $3.5M cash offer for the property. Ironically, Mr Feiner and the Board have always had the right to make a private sale of the property to whomever they wanted. But this was never about making a sale of the property. This was always about Mr Feiner finding a way to “gift” the property to a personal group of friends without the resources necessary to purchase it. Without investor money GameOn 365, is simply a paper company without any resources, location or staff.

To continue the con game which all of these players have been engaged in, now GameOn 365, possibly under advice of counsel (Mr Feiner?), have begun a new chapter in their Book of Deceit. They claim to be moving forward with an alternate plan: building their ridiculously out of place sports bubble on the Golf Driving Range owned by the Vizioli family. The Vizioli family is currently one of the property owners with over $1M in tax arrears since 2008 that the Town has not bothered to collect. But, they have missed the tax amnesty period originally offered and can no longer pay the back taxes without penalties.

Another ploy GameOn 365 appears to be perpetrating on the community with Mr Feiner and Mr Madden’s approval, even endorsement, is to bring in other for-profit corporations to partner with them to offer varied services under the umbrella. The plans have now gone from a sports bubble and soccer field to a sports bubble, several sports fields and other facilities on the “new” site, truncating the driving range. You may recall several years ago that Mr Feiner attempted to “steal” the Vizioli Golf Driving Range by eminent domain to build a police station/town court complex. When that failed, a developer investigated building a senior housing complex that the Town then shot down. Now, all bets are apparently off for the Vizioli’s as they forego preserving their business and Mr Feiner is right on board with them to hand it over to GameOn 365. So, the hell with the taxpayers in the surrounding residential communities and what they want. In fact, now GameOn 365 has asked the Town to rezone the 32-acre area to benefit only them, yet again. This is quite a bit larger that the (almost) 7-acres of the Frank’s Nursery property.

ABG is confident that the Town Planning Commissioner and the Town Supervisor will resort to the spot-zoning Mr Feiner’s beloved GameOn 365 requires to proceed. The Town Board will invariably vote in favor of the spot-zoning change as they are used to going along to get along. At worst, it will be three in favor of the spot-zoning and possibly two against. This fight against spot-zoning, government officials assisting for-profit and even not-for-profit companies pitted against other, non-favored for profit companies is simply wrong. It could be worth an Ethics Board complaint, but their crafty use of words will yield little, if no results slowing or stopping the Town Board.

Another downside of Mr Feiner’s pursuit to illegally influence the results for a for-profit company, such as GameOn 365, is that the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, the former Frank’s Nursery, will continue to languish. Mr Feiner’s greed to have his favored GameOn 365 receive the property over Elm Street Sports, who offered twice the amount of GameOn 365 in cash and would assume the contamination cleanup, has effectively flushed that deal away. Then Mr Feiner said other companies expressed interest in spending even more than the $3.5M Elm Street Sports offer. This was apparently another Feiner lie. Each time residents asked him who offered more and how much, he refused to say. Ah, yes, open government.

What all of this really means is that a) the Town will not be making $3.5 million dollars in cash; b) the property will not be remediated of the contamination that exists; c) once the illegal spot-zoning takes effect, no other company, investor or developer will look to develop the property; d) the “big need” for fields that was the impetus and justification for Mr Feiner to push his favored GameOn 365 to getting the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road, is now moot. Only in Bizarro Greenburgh. It has to change. Only then, will we get A Better Greenburgh.

* Mr Feiner is only for open government when its convenient for him to share information or he gets caught not being forthcoming with information. Such was the case here.

Public Forces Feiner To Capitulate

In an “its about time” moment before the public comment section was about to begin, Mr Feiner finally closed the barn door now that all the animals are out and announced that he and the Town Board have decided to put the property at 715 Dobbs Ferry Road out for an RFP (Request For Proposal). For about three years now, the G10 specifically, and others, had been asking, telling, cajoling and pleading with the Town Board members and Mr Feiner to put the property up for an RFP. The good news for the Town residents is that the G10 were relentless first about the illegal lease and then the below market value sale of the property, inadvertently keeping the process on hold until now. What is so important about now? Mr Feiner has opposition for his job in the 2013 Democratic Primary elections. 

Faced now with an impending election, Mr Feiner must have recognized the futility of trying to continue his “gift” deal to GameOn 365 for the property. Forget the illegal nature of everything he was trying to do by offering the property for lease. Forget that he created a slanted referendum to push his agenda of gifted property to GameOn 365. Forget that he prolonged three years of wasting our time, losing money and revenue through his actions. He claimed at last night’s Town Board meeting that if he sold the property to one business, the other would sue the Town - and vise versa. He purported to be concerned about litigation and delays. Interestingly, litigation and delays have never been a concern for Mr Feiner in his 22 years in office as lawsuits abound. The most significant would be the guilty verdict in the Fortress Bible Church lawsuit.

So what changed? Getting honest answers from this Town Board has always proven incredibly elusive, especially with our double-talking Supervisor. While the Town indicated it would accept an offer last week for the property from the Ardsley-based Elm Street Sports for $3.5 million but preferred a lower bid of $1.7 million from the Feiner-annointed GameOn 365. What happened to those offers and why has Mr Feiner offered to do an RFP? Was it the culmination of the onslaught of information from rational, intelligent residents able to prove that Mr Feiner’s actions were nothing short of illegal? Was it the threat from numerous attorneys that they would sue the Town if Mr Feiner proceeded the reason? Was it the fact that his customer of choice didn’t have enough money to do the deal unless the Town carried the paper? Could it be all of the above?

GameOn 365 representative Martin Hewitt spoke at last night’s Town Board meeting and then bolted like he saw his car being towed. He said that GameOn 365 is looking to purchase the Golf Driving Range property next door, which is about the same size as the former Frank’s Nursery property and probably more expensive. Then he added he planned to be involved in the RFP for the former Frank’s Nursery as well as the Driving Range. Hardly believable. Unless he won the lottery, he has been unsuccessful in raising the required funds to offer more than a deposit on the former Frank’s Nursery property – even with the Town underwriting him. Secret meetings aside, how will he be able to purchase the second property let alone both. But he can dream. We also question how enthusiastic the homeowners will now be on Westchester View and the surrounding area toward GameOn 365 after learning they will be moving directly next to them? And since this will be a private sale, the only gift Mr Feiner can offer Mr Hewitt now is carte blanche spot zoning – a hallmark of the Feiner administration.

ABG has also pushed for an RFP for this property. Regardless of the purchaser, remediation and contamination is still an issue. It hasn’t been used for something as serious as Indian Point’s spent fuel rods, but the site is contaminated and needs significant remediation. We have learned all too often, all too clearly and all too easily how deceitful Mr Feiner and his Board has been at every juncture of this debacle as well as others. As such, we and others are naturally suspect of his motives and what other back room deals may have already taken place with Mr Hewitt and what promises have been made – legal or otherwise. We’ll just have to wait and see.