The building to be demolished is located at the corner of Ferris Avenue and Water Street, near the bus station hub and the old White Plains mall. The property is 1.4 acres with an office building slated for demolition and includes a land swap with the city. The city property includes a White Plains firehouse, which would be rebuilt at another location. The redevelopment proposal includes a mixed-use 22-story building with 301 residential units, parking and some retail.
The project is similar to ones we've witnessed throughout our Town and region. Apparently the “mixed use” model is the only thing taught at architectural and business schools for planners and developers. Throw in some residential, business and parking and your project will be green-lighted by these elected-for-life politicians seeking more tax dollars to spend. With all the flatulence we hear from them, when are these projects going to reduce our taxes as promised? Spoiler alert: they never do and never will.
Now we see Mr Feiner ignoring the Comprehensive Plan, as weak and intentionally vague as it is, by cavalierly spending hundreds of thousands of taxpayer monies in the Hartsdale Four Corners (H4C) area. This effort is smoke and mirrors to appease the Hartsdale community from following their Edgemont neighbors and threaten incorporation after being ignored by Mr Feiner and his Board for so long. While seceding from the corrupt and ill-run Town may be a very real conversational topic, we don't believe enough Hartsdale residents are dissatisfied enough to actually make that journey.
In the recent Greenburgh Democratic candidate primary, three candidates were whittled down to two, effectively forcing Eric Zinger out of the race. He is a Hartsdale resident and member of the Democratic [p]Party who would have been our first choice of the three potential candidates for a number of reasons. However, while Mr Zinger could have been the most effective candidate, he's not in the Democrat's inner-circle and has also been critical of the current Administration.
The Comprehensive Plan originally had “nodes” at four-corner intersections whenever future development were to happen throughout the Town. Most residents who spoke at the Comp Plan Road Shows were vehemently against them and they were eventually scrapped. The proposal offered by Inspired Designs, a home operated business, legally or not, went with a design that was similar to what those speakers objected to. Ironically, while politicians keep feeding us flavored information, such as millennial's don't drive or own cars, and that these multi-use buildings do not need parking, the truth is a lot different. Have you ever sought a parking space anywhere in the Hartsdale area? If you have, you'll quickly realize that if you weren't born in that space, you might as well just keep driving.
We don't know what the love affair is with first floor retail combined with residential apartments above without parking, but it's a failed model. It's easy to understand. Simply, not many people want to live at the sidewalk level of a building due to lack of privacy among other concerns. But with these same politicians that are telling us retail is dead, all the while increasing taxes and fees and regulations, forcing the point and pinning their hopes on revenue that is not there nor is about to be, the builders and the developers will build no matter what. In the end, they will remain vacant as well as similar existing ones, lining the pockets of developers and politicians and doing nothing to change our landscape for the better. After awhile, it will be left vacant as a tax deduction instead of a tax payment generator. The politicos will give tax breaks in hopes of increasing the odds of gaining vacancy. But when the tax exemptions run out, so will the tenants. This prevailing mentality has to stop.
The White Plains project we opened this article with would include 59 studio apartments, 143 one-bedroom units, 91 two-bedroom units, and eight three-bedroom apartments, over four stories of structured parking all near the White Plains train station. At ground level, the plan calls for 12,000 sq. ft. of retail with pedestrian walkways. Of course there will be amenities for the residents, electric vehicle charging stations, low-flow plumbing, and Energy Star appliances as well as some sort of water/flooding mitigation. What's not listed is how much the domiciles will cost.
The reality however is that the facility will have storm water runoff aimed at the already swollen and overflowing, ill-maintained Bronx River. The parking issues will always be a concern, the retail space will either be a laundromat/cleaners, a stationery store selling newspapers and lotto tickets, a nail salon or some other service oriented retail business that will struggle to generate enough business to afford the rent. It's a classic story whose time to think differently and explore new concepts and new ideas is upon us. Maybe it's time to vote in some visionaries who can see past the same failed models. It's the only way to get A Better Greenburgh.
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