Hilltop Farms Civic Association Letter Cries Foul

Below is a Hilltop Civic Association letter that was sent to their members and to us. 

We will happily post any letters to the Editor as long as they do not contain profanity or personal attacks. Unlike our Town Board, we are interested in what you have to say. All letters must have verifiable contact information which will be withheld if requested. 

Update: The Greenburgh School Board voted to change the date of the $114.6 million capital bond project to March 19th. There will be no vote on February 12. 

Sent: 1/16/2019 10:35:25 AM Eastern Standard Time
Subject: Report on School Board Meeting 1.15.19

Dear Neighbors:
Last night was the first meeting held by the school board re the $114.6 million bond referendum.

I am proud to say it was well attended by our board. We seized the opportunity to address the board and share our views. Stuart commented about the failure to maintain the premises, while Jack and I renewed our request to postpone the vote until May, so proper studies can be done and the full information shared with the voters. This once again fell on deaf ears.

We were told that this has been in the plans for eight months. Six months ago, I personally invited Superintendent Chase to attend our annual meeting. After accepting our invitation, I was informed five minutes before the meeting that she will be unable to attend, and no further attempt was made by her or her board to reach out to us on this matter.

The meeting was poorly attended by the voting community. It appears that the folks most informed about this are the parents of the school children who are carrying home news of the upcoming referendum in their school packs. My estimate is there was probably seventy-five people at the meeting, thirty percent of which were school board members, teachers and parents of students.

It appears that the school board is making a meager attempt to reach the voting public at large. If only the parents of school children show up at the polls, you can be assured that this bond issue will pass.

Listening to the school board's presentation, my personal opinion is they have allowed the school properties to fall into disrepair, and are now using their failure to maintain the premises as the justification to tear down everything and start anew.

We were shown pictures of falling plaster and poor windows (Not a $100 million repair). Our superintendent mentioned that one child was burnt by sitting too close to a radiator. A gentleman from Poets Corner pointed out, if they were really that concerned, why wasn't there a $10 piece of insulation between the child and the radiator. We spend more per child than any school district in Westchester County, yet the school board can't seem to find money to maintain the premises.

Not only are they bent on replacing the existing buildings, but want to include items that you and I cannot afford to provide; i.e., meditation rooms, relaxation rooms, Mandarin classes, new track, and on and on. This all being done at the taxpayers' expense while ignoring the environmental impact, incomplete traffic studies, and total indifference to the pockets of those in our area who cannot afford another dollar tax-wise. As one person said last night, "I don't know what I'm voting for, and when I don't know what I'm voting for, I vote no."

We have 1800 children in the school district. That constitutes 1800 voters in favor of this bond.

I dare say that most of us live in homes much older than the school property, and we are not knocking them. We have made the sacrifices and maintained our property, something which the school board has not.

It is incumbent that we get the word out, not just in our community. If you have friends who will be impacted by this, reach out to them. Don't assume they know about it. This is really not being broadcast as it should be.

Please make an effort to attend at least one of the meetings and voice your opinion.
Next year when your tax bill is a few thousand dollars higher, we will have no one to blame by ourselves if we do not spread the word.

Thank you.
Blase Spinozzi, President
Hilltop Farms Civic Association

Open Letter To The Supervisor and Town Board

Dear Mr. Feiner and Town Board members,

I would like to share my concern about the development issue that is before you this Wednesday November 14th, namely the proposed development of the Elmwood Country Club.

The developer is granted an as of right for 119 homes on the property, but is seeking a zoning change (downzoning) so they can build a 175 unit Townhouse development.

My neighborhood (Hilltop Farms) is the first neighborhood east of the development, after the Sprain Parkway. I have several issues of importance about this, but my primary concern is the increase in density and the impacts of traffic on our neighborhood.

As I’m sure you are well aware, there is already significant rush hour congestion around the Dobbs Ferry Road / Hartsdale Ave intersection, as well as on E Hartsdale Avenue, all the way down to the 4 corners area. Adding the anticipated number of commuter cars to our already busy roadways will decrease the quality of life in our town. The traffic jams on these roads have already added to the commute times for residents. There will also be consequences for the traffic on Dobbs Ferry Road heading to both the Sprain, and into Ardsley.

The developer is claiming that an over-55 community will not have as many people heading out to work in the morning, but I think that might only be true when the residents reach full retirement age, and at that point, they might even seek to relocate and be replaced by a younger household. I am also concerned that a developer faced with slow sales of their $1,000,000 townhouses might move to create rental property on part of the parcel, and I don’t know if they would be prohibited from doing that. Speaking of the demographics, Senior communities are less likely to support bond issues such like the one currently proposed by our district.

The proposal by the Greenburgh Central School District to consolidate onto a campus that would have E Hartsdale Avenue as its primary egress/entrance, and that will also create traffic nightmares for people traveling our roads at least for 2 periods in the morning and
afternoon. Add into that a new Assisted Lving at Metropolis, and a proposed Assisted Living at Maplewood Swim Club and you can see where there can be serious problems.

There is also the problem of creating a zoning precedent if you were to down-zone Elmwood, and you would leave the door open for anyone else to demand equal treatment. We have several other large country club parcels that are ripe for development.  I don’t want to see our town so packed with housing, that we will see people looking to move away, rather than come here.

Now, passing over the myriad other issues brought to light with this proposal, taxes, cost to the town for upkeep of parkland with dubious suitability, loss of tax revenue due to townhouse vs. single-family homes and loss of revenue to both the school district and fire
district.

I am quite disappointed with the attitude and stance taken on behalf of the developer in this matter. They are trying to pressure the surrounding homes with scare tactics by threatening to remove any buffer between the neighboring homes. Indeed, if you look at their 119
home proposal, they have purposely not only placed a swimming pool behind every home, but they have drawn the bordering homes to the north in a disproportionate manner, making the backyard tiny and the front yard huge so as to place the homes as close to the setback as possible. I don't think this type of tactic escapes notice, and furthermore, this developer has no future interests in the town, seeking only to pave the way for another company to come in and build, and that builder might have no interest in any kind of “vision
statement” proffered during the permit process. The object here seems to be to generate the maximum profit possible with little regard for the effects on the surrounding community.

On the practical side, I think that the 119-home proposal that cost a million dollars on this parcel would be a potential great benefit to the town. It will attract business to the Route 119 corridor and hopefully we will see an increase in quality shopping and dining. Those 119 homes will pay full freight to our tax rolls, and hopefully not add as much traffic to our roads.

Thanks for taking the time to hear my thoughts. I urge you to disallow a proposal that would lead to a request to downzone the Elmwood property.

Sincerely,

Paul C.
(Full name and address of writer intentionally withheld.)