Hartsdale Neighbors Seek To Revitalize Four Corners

A recent meeting of the Hartsdale Neighborhood Association (HNA) took place to discuss renovating the 4-Corners section of Hartsdale. According to the HNA leadership, the four corners area of Central Avenue and Hartsdale Avenue is in desperate need of revitalization. The primary claim is that anyone who has walked or driven past that area has seen the vacant storefronts, backed up traffic, lack of parking and a myriad of issues. They are looking to change that!

They've asked to try and imagine a revitalized Hartsdale Four Corners that is pedestrian friendly, is a modern and inviting environment where businesses thrive, can reduce traffic congestion with increased turning lanes as one solution. Their hope is that the revitalization would help to meet the community’s needs - be it work, life or play!

The HNA believes this can be done with the residents, public and Town's support. There are numerous issues that are impacting businesses, making it difficult for any business to thrive in this area, let alone anywhere in our Town. The current zoning code for this area makes it prohibitive and frankly impossible for businesses to succeed, grow and flourish without a change. In order to fix that they need to show that reinvigorating the Four Corners has the community support. They are asking you to sign their petition and help pave the way for a Four Corners the community and Town can be proud of!

A proposal was put forth by Inspired Places, LLC to request the Town to allow for zoning changes for the immediate 4 Corners. The meeting drew a highly supportive crowd of approximately 100 people. The discussion noted the problems for residents, shoppers, commuters, shop-owners and landowners created by the status quo. The solution to these problems centers on zoning changes, and the discussion highlighted the benefits that Hartsdale would gain through an innovative approach. Some of those include:

-  Replacing existing rigid zoning rules that discourage investment by more flexible, community focused rules
- Permitting mixed-use construction
- Promoting suitably designed and right-sized buildings for the site
- Increasing pedestrian safety through movement of cross walks away from the actual corners
- Addressing traffic volume & congestion by adding dedicated right turning lanes on East & West Hartsdale Avenues
- Addressing parking issues by adding several structured parking facilities
- Adding greenery, including possible green islands defining turning lanes

What also needs to change is the labyrinth of regulations, permits, fees, taxes and overall unfriendliness from the Town toward businesses - especially small business. It seems somewhat hypocritical to hear Mr Feiner and his Town Board espouse that they are "business friendly" when the reality is quite the opposite. We are not saying that safety and protecting both the owners and the public should be ignored. But every permit sees a fee attached to it that never gets lower, only increases. Perhaps having a bundled permit package for certain requirements at a reduced cost would be beneficial. Other ideas can be suggested as well. Some business owners have told us it takes over a year to get the necessary permits, inspections and approvals to even open their business. This must change. Only then will we see A Better Greenburgh.

To sign their petition, click on this link:
http://hartsdaleneighbors.org/wp/4c-petition/

Frank's Nursery Debacle: Board Tables Auction Again

The former Frank’s Nursery property on Dobbs Ferry Road has been Mr Feiner’s personal political monkey, whether on his back or out in front dancing with him since the property was acquired by the Town through foreclosure. The property has been used by him for deflection from critical issues as well as grandstanding whenever possible. In fact, it has been the one property where his only goal seems to be to gift the property to his friends from GameOn 365, a paper company with no assets, no investors and no hope - save one: Mr Feiner’s largess.

The first attempt at gifting the property to GameOn 365 was in the form of an illegal lease shortly after the Town acquired the property through foreclosure. When residents rallied through the threat of another lawsuit, Mr Feiner withdrew his lease offer to his friends. You see, foreclosed upon property must be sold by the municipality that acquires it. Mr Feiner, a non-practicing attorney probably knew this but forced the residents to vociferously point it out.

Mr Feiner then placed a referendum on the election ballot promising the Town $5-million if the public would pass the referendum. They did, giving Mr Feiner new ammunition to sidestep another law he didn’t like nor wanted to obey. What he hadn’t explained was the $5-million was over the course of 13 years and would allow GameOn 365 to “flip” the property once they purchased it. Mr Feiner insisted they wouldn’t do that. Hmm, how could he know what they would do in the future? Ultimately though, GameOn 365 decided to not move forward with leasing the property.

Regardless, he then tried to sell the property to them and at the 11th hour, another offer, in cash and twice as much was submitted to the Town with another threat of a lawsuit. During all of this, residents kept informing the Town of various contaminants and possible carcinogens that would be found on the property if they only looked. Mr Feiner ignored them all. The public insisted the Town remediate the contaminated property and Mr Feiner said, “No, we’ll make remediation a condition of the sale by the purchaser.” What he never publicly told anyone was the the Town may have acquired the property through foreclosure, but the Town never received a clear title for the property. Consequently, they could not sell it. This partially explains Mr Feiner’s initial attempt to illegally lease the property than to sell it.  

Under the guise of pretending to care, the Town authorized incredibly limited environmental testing be done where the two old heating oil storage tanks had been. Surprise, surprise, they found the soil in that area contaminated with, you guessed it, heating oil. Keeping their heads in the sand, the Board went along with Mr Feiner's scheme to now sell the property as is, requiring the purchaser to clean up the contamination. Ironically, Town Attorney Tim Lewis insisted the remediation would not cost any more than $100,000. Forget remediation. The testing alone blew right past pseudo-environmental expert Lewis’ number of $100,000. Unfortunately, while residents continued to clamor for more testing, Mr Feiner and crew just dug their heels in even deeper.

Amazingly, the Town Board continued the ruse by saying we should sell it to initiate the testing required for a sale. Sounds a bit like the famous Nancy line, “We have to pass it so we can find out what's in it.” Lo and behold, Harold Bordwin of GA Keen Realty, the Town’s chosen auctioneer for the property, said that prospective bidders were reluctant to bid on the property because of several unknowns. Unknowns such as what contaminants are on the property, how much of it is there, what the cost for remediation would be (Mr Lewis’ “expertise” aside), and then what steps would need to be taken to make the property whole again for development. The other consequential issue is the ever-present power lines that run adjacent to the property. As such, the figures for the property being discussed by developers were significantly less than the $3.5million offered two years ago by House of Sports in Ardsley for the property.

Another key factor in the entire debacle with what could have been a simple sale if Mr Feiner had followed the law is that of zoning. But out of the 60 or so developers expressing any kind of interest in the property, only 15 have signed confidentiality agreements to move forward with participating in the auction. But between the property’s soil contamination, groundwater contamination and zoning limitations, there was a lot of information that was intentionally not provided by the Town for bidders to move forward. Additionally, the neighborhood residents are adhering to their desire for the property to be used within the zoning that is currently in place for the property (R-30), which can be used for single-family housing, assisted living, public safety oriented buildings, libraries, and such.

After much anticipation, mostly awaiting the excuse that would be used to delay the auction this time, the Town Board held a special Friday meeting on October 31 to again postpone the former Frank’s Nursery property auction! It has already been postponed several times and many in the Town were curious when he would announce this postponement and the reason why? ABG staffers were convinced as were many others that the auction would be postponed or canceled because Mr Feiner could not control gifting the property to friends at GameOn 365. Regardless, this postponement was a fait accompli, a done-deal never going to see the light of day. It seems that several months will be needed to complete the real testing of the Frank's Nursery property before an auction or sale can take place. It’s disappointing because after the months pass, Mr Feiner will return to say the zoning must change for the Town to sell the property.

Many people with the best interest for Greenburgh at heart repeatedly told Mr Feiner and his Town Board that further, more encompassing testing and remediation would be needed before we could proceed. Mr Feiner and his Board refused to listen, instead believing Mr Lewis because his was the answer Mr Feiner told them they sought. Again, it’s disappointing. We as taxpayers deserve and should expect better from the Town’s elected officials. If we don’t receive it, we should vote differently in the next election. Only then will we get A Better Greenburgh.

Town Ignores Toll Brothers’ Ardsley Chase Violations

Seemingly nestled in the bucolic Village of Ardsley, Toll Brothers, luxury homebuilders, have been selling pre-built lots and future luxury homes in their new development, Ardsley Chase.

These are actually in the Town of Greenburgh. What ABG has learned however, is that while the development may be luxury homes for future residents, the Town is completely abandoning our existing residents in the surrounding area. This is not a new circumstance that the Town administration might say they were unaware of or hadn’t heard about until now. Letters and emails have been sent and phone calls made. Efforts made to enlist the Town’s help rectify the wrongs perpetrated by the Toll Brothers and their various sub-contractors have fallen on deaf ears at Town Hall. No surprise in the Town of Developer Paradise.

ABG staffers took a quick tour of the site with several residents to see first hand some of the issues. While mud throughout the site limited our access on foot, there were no gates offering the site any security or limiting our access. This is one of the complaints from residents. Trucks seem to be accessing and exiting the construction site at all hours of the day and night without regard to noise ordinances, “normal operating/business hours” nor weekend courtesies of allowing residents a respite from the noise, rumbling and traffic created by their trucks.

We attended a resident meeting recently about the Brightview Assisted Living Facility, who have proposed a sweeping Town-wide zoning change to accommodate themselves and other developers, with theirs being a new, 4-story, 90 units facility smack dab in the middle of single family residential communities. When queried about construction noise, traffic and obstructions to their daily lives, they insisted in very soft-spoken and calming voices that they would adhere to the Town’s extremely strict blasting, noise, building and site specific regulations for parking, etc., during construction. It was like listening to Allison Steele on the radio. Residents were correctly skeptical. Especially when representatives from other neighborhoods confirmed the Town did not enforce any of the regulations, allowing developers the “run” of the neighborhood. At this point, the President of the Glenville Civic Association (the area near Benedict Ave & Rt 119) and others from the neighborhood complained about the construction violations that the Town did not enforce during the entire construction of the new Stop and Shop across from them on Rt 119. In fact, when they complained with calls to the police department, they were told little could be done.

Blasting at the Ardsley Chase site, while mostly completed at this point, has resulted in damage to numerous neighbors near and far, forcing them to place claims with their insurance companies and the Town. These construction blasting victims were all told by their insurance companies their claims were refused because the cracks, “nail pops”, pipe leaks and related damage were caused by their homes settling. To contest the decision would require hiring engineers, having studies performed which is just not cost effective when its all said and done. 

Toll Brothers has refused to repair the damage to the homes. The Paul and the Town’s various departments expectedly refuse them help, even going so far as to not return resident’s phone calls. Ironically, the Town mandates developers to maintain insurance bonds to pay for damage caused by construction. These should be viewed like the Town’s AAA Bond Rating. It’s valueless if you are not going to use it. ABG has learned that Fulton Park had the same problem when Westhab was blasting and when the NYS Truway Authority blasted as they added sound barriers along I-287; Glenville had the same problem when Stop and Shop site blasting was happening; Dunnings Drive residents had the same problem during construction of Watch Hill; the same thing at Nob Hill and Avalon Green’s surrounding residents. Nothing was ever done by the Town to remedy any of this. Now Glenville needs to prepare for Round 2!

At the entrance to the new development at Birch Ridge and Ardsley Roads, the developer moved the telephone pole back about maybe two to three feet. 

Phone pole on west side of Birch Hill Rd was previously where the gray rectangle on the
sidewalk is. You can just barely see the edge of the bus stop sign on the northern side of the
pole between the second and third metal straps holding the metal pole to the phone pole.

Where it is however, creates a line of site hindrance that will make exiting the complex onto Ardsley Road extremely dangerous. We experienced this when we tried to exit. Add inclement weather, snow and ice conditions and you have a recipe for disaster. The County bus stop, which had been located on the western side (at the point we’re standing to take this picture) of Birch Street, was moved to make the entrance appear more inviting.  This makes the accessibility of the bus stop a serious issue and quite possibly an ADA violation. The new western-side sidewalk has phone poles right in the center of the sidewalk, blocking anyone trying to walk on it and forcing them to step into the roadway to go around it. This is extremely dangerous and needs to be fixed.

More importantly, the Birch Ridge Road’s line of site coming eastbound on Ardsley Road (toward Central Ave.) is too steep and in violation of AASHTO standards, the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials. Ignoring important safety standards at this already precarious location mandates a foregone conclusion of multiple accidents, injuries and even death! Why haven’t our assorted planning and building departments in tandem with our elected officials addressed this? Why does The Paul’s Stepford Board continue to become the lead agency for every project, with the Planning Commissioner “going to bat” for every developer, and then ignore such routine violations when lives are unnecessary placed in harms way?

We passed two existing homes, one on each corner as we entered Birch Ridge Road that have had recent landscaping performed by the Toll Brothers developers. On the eastern side, the home had their driveway moved to access Birch Ridge Road. It used to open onto Ardsley Road. They allowed the developer to make this change and enhance the entrance to Ardsley Chase. Most importantly is that the county Bee Line bus stop and ADA compliant sidewalk that had been located there was removed and grass planted. It looks terrific with the new stonewall entrance to these $1.2M and higher homes. Tacked up onto the phone pole across on the west side of Birch Ridge Road is the indicator of the new bus stop. While the phone pole on this side had been moved back two to three feet, it is still in the wrong place!

A less critical issue, but serious to the existing homeowners is truck traffic continually driving over the edges of the entrances to their homes and drives, not only ruining the landscaping, but crushing the new water meters the Town recently installed! These new meters have provided some water pressure relief to these residents while creating other problems. While Toll Brothers has repeatedly repaired the damage caused by their trucks, ABG is sure once they finish with the delivery trucks and the building is complete, these residents only recourse will be to come to the Town to complain. Basically, residents will be required to fix it themselves since our Town has a habit of ignoring its current residents.

There are several water runoff catch basins and a pump system that is supposed to catch rainwater runoff and handle it to reduce potential flooding in the area. While it is a worthy attempt to right a wrong ignored everywhere else in the Town, there hasn’t been enough rain or storms to prove it works. One of the best ways to absorb water and control flooding is by maintaining and cultivating wooded areas as well as limiting impervious space.

According to Greenburgh’s arborist, Toll Brothers removed 18,000 trees, mostly poplar trees that were at least 100 feet tall! Poplar is sought after by lumber mills because of the consistency and quantity of straight lumber they will yield. It is also a very weather/water resistant wood. Toll Brothers only paid fines of $17k for the entire deforestation that took place. This amount would be easily absorbed by the lumber profits after selling these trees. They’ve replaced a small portion of the trees with evergreens, birch trees and other saplings that will not offer the wind and water protection these poplars had. What a shame the Town did nothing to inspect and ultimately protect the area – again!

Throughout the site are silt barriers erected to protect and prevent dirt erosion from rain and storms. We noticed that the many spoil piles of dirt randomly left uncovered is another unenforced violation the Town is ignoring. ABG is questioning the Toll Brothers intent, as these seemingly small violations are not really so small. They cumulatively highlight our poorly functioning Town departments and leadership, create an unsafe worksite environment and unnecessarily put workers and visitors lives at risk.

The pervasive consistency of inaction and malaise has evolved in the Town and its departments into a tangible laisser-faire working relationship with developers. They’ve turned a blind eye toward the developers while our Town continues insulting, costing us all and disrespecting the Town’s current residents – the “little guy”.  This must change. We can only hope.