Fairview Golf Driving Range To Close

It has been known for months but Mr Feiner has chosen not to use the information as ammunition in his goal to help his friends, GameOn 365, but we’re confident he will. He’s fought the urge to blurt out at a Town Board meeting about the other golf driving range in Town closing. Instead, he’s tried to put the onus upon the Dobbs Ferry Road area residents, claiming the Visioli’s Golf Driving Range on Dobbs Ferry Road could close. GameOn 365 and Mr Feiner, with Board members Morgan and Jones, are ignoring the area neighborhoods and simply brushing aside their concerns. They are still, after five years, seeking to build something, anything, on Dobbs Ferry Road in hopes of “cashing in” on the lucrative sports market. Their building can be inflatable, fixed, it doesn’t matter. But, according to Mr Feiner, it must be there and it must be now.

As has been well known in the community circles, the Fairview Golf Driving Range, with two miniature golf ranges, is scheduled to close its 300 Waterside Drive location, this Friday on April 24th. It was located in the industrial complex since 1994 across from the Westchester Skating Academy ice rink facility – a commercial entity in a commercially zoned area. The Dobbs Ferry Road driving range facility has been in existence longer. One notable difference is the Fairview Golf Driving Range facility always paid their Town taxes. 

Sporting a double-decker structure with a pro shop inside, the heated “booths” provided a year-round practice facility with practicality and comfort. While we are always sad to see any business close their doors, we see this as Mr Feiner’s next argument at future Town Board meetings as he continues to stump for GameOn 365, but not for the Fairview Golf Driving Range. We envision the argument to almost tearfully be, perhaps performed by character actors from a nearby deli, “We must not lose this treasure, this icon, this multi-generational business as we attempt to completely pave this area into a sports corridor. We must save the driving range. GameOn 365’s proposal does that.” Actually it does not.

Fed Ex, located behind the Fairview Golf Driving Range facility, has submitted an application to build a new distribution center. The Town Board has already approved the FedEx expansion onto the 27-acre site occupied by the golf driving range. Variances were granted in February to increase the height of the building and outdoor lights. Situated here, it will not interfere with any residential neighborhoods. The application also involves subdivision approval from the Planning Board and a special permit from the Town Board so that a new road can be built within the industrial park. The road would be deeded to the Town and connect to Fieldcrest Drive to the north.

In part, this FedEx expansion onto previously unpaved surface, will increase the amount of impervious space for that area and cause more water to drain off into the Saw Mill River and the businesses and homes along the Route 9A corridor. Additionally, just north of this location will be the 100-acre development of a box store, strip mall, movie theatre and whatever else is planned at the Landmark at Eastview. It only promises to increase the amount of water flowing downhill. Not much concern is given by our Town Board and Mr Feiner’s hand-picked appointees sitting on his other Boards to the over-development of every inch of land in Unincorporated Greenburgh. It has to stop before unincorporated Greenburgh resembles the worst of the Bronx. Only then will we get 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.

Parsing Words To Disrespect Residents' Wishes

Many residents have sent letters/emails/comments to Mr Feiner stating that they are against the GameOn 365 proposal and cannot believe Mr Feiner is still entertaining this proposal for a commercial, for-profit (not that it would matter if it were not-for-profit) start up company desperately seeking investors. Mr Feiner was found guilty of illegally stopping the Fortress Bible Church from building a school and church on their property on the other side of the street from this proposal's location. Mr Feiner said he is not in favor of Fortress Bible because of the increased traffic the church and school would generate. What changed? Only that his friend Tom moved to Tarrytown and is no longer complaining about FBC moving into his backyard. This proposal is no different.

And still, Councilman Ken Jones insists he hasn't heard any negative comments about the proposal. It's the old saw, say it often enough and people will believe it. Sadly, while Mr Jones openly flaunts this position, he attended a meeting over a year ago at the Westchester View Lane homes and stood in a resident's driveway surrounded by many neighbors who live nearby, hearing (but obviously not listening) from everyone there. They all said openly, politely but firmly that they opposed the project! 

Let's momentarily discuss semantics of what this means. We're sure that Mr Jones, an attorney, is willing to parse words and say the opposition he heard on that day was about a bubble being proposed, not a permanent five-story-warehouse-sized building on the Golf Range property. He subsequently met with residents of the Secor Homes' neighborhood including two Civic Association Presidents who all steadfastly objected to the zoning change and the GameOn 365 proposal. There's not much wiggle-room.

Many believe the former Frank's Nursery was closed and abandoned initially because of the contamination on the property and more about the high costs associated with remediating it, even way back then. In fact, the Town Board did what is does best when confronted with real problems. They ignored it. So is Mr Jones deluding himself or towing Mr Feiner's "company line" saying he's in favor of the proposal because he hasn't heard any objections? The three "yes' votes to move this process forward, while disappointing, are frankly, expected. More interesting than the cost of remediation for this property, was Town Attorney Tim Lewis' declaration and assurance that remediation would cost no more than $100k, and yet nothing was done to make the property whole and salable.

Also interesting is the Town Board's cavalier attitude toward the significant revenue stream that could be generated in taxes if the former Frank's Nursery property was remediated and single family homes were built similar to Westchester View Lane's homes. Just the Golf Range space allotted to GameOn 365's proposal could generate upwards of just under $1 million dollars a year in tax revenue! Combine that with a properly remediated Frank's Nursery property and we would easily clear over a million dollars in tax revenue a year for the Town, the school district and fire district, etc. That income would go a long way toward paying down the $6.5 million penalty of Mr Feiner's guilty verdict of discrimination against the Fortress Bible Church.

Many of the Towns Civic Association's agree that landowners should be able to reasonably do what they want with a property. However, numerous considerations, such as zoning, traffic, safety, existing neighbors, Comprehensive Plans etc., must be a part of the decision making process for their developments. By circumventing these factors and making a decision on behalf of friends or worse still, because something is in it for them (and we have no evidence indicating this is the case), has befallen many politicians who got very comfortable doing as they pleased as their political tenure increased. After 22-years, we're sure Mr Feiner has gotten too comfortable.

ABG maintains Mr Feiner and his Board are not conforming to the spirit, the intent or the legality of the rules and regulations the Town has in place for development in Unincorporated Greenburgh. A portion of the Town Board follows his mandates in lock-step and for their own political expediency - go along to get along. Why else would they disrespect the residents? In a private meeting we attended held within the Town, a resident asked us, "What's in it for (Mr) Feiner? Why would he blatantly disrespect us?" No one could not furnish a satisfactory answer.

This project promises to build and pave over roughly 20 to 25 acres of pervious property. Why is this significant? First, they proposed to use septic if possible for approximately 7,000 gallons of liquid waste a day. Second, a facility this size generating this much waste cannot rely on septic and will need to be plumbed into the existing plumbing infrastructure. ABG is concerned about water runoff, which already affects this site, the surrounding neighborhood and the easily flooded 9A corridor. We're sure the developers will promise to build cisterns, dry wells and whatever it takes to satisfy the minimal Town Boards softball questions regarding flood mitigation. More important is that runoff water will be directed into the already over-burdened and usually saturated Saw Mill River and the 9A corridor. But once the Town Board makes itself the Lead Agency for the project, all answers to questions such as flooding, increased traffic, lighting, etc., will be moot and summarily dismissed.

The Town Board will be voting to become the lead agency this week on April 8th. Officially the meeting has a start time. But when something controversial is broached, Mr Feiner will pad the meeting with tributes, poetry readings, recognition awards and other useful devices to discourage the public from remaining and /or participating in the events. Once this topic comes up on the agenda, Mr Feiner will state that they cannot make an informed decision and they must make themselves the Lead Agency so they can have the traffic study, the environmental and other studies completed to help them in the decision-making process. Don't believe that for a second! There is no legal requirement for them to become the Lead Agency nor run any studies. They have the legal authority to dismiss this request. But will they? Your presence is required to help them see the light. Only then will we have A Better Greenburgh.

The Zoning Give-A-Way of Unincorporated Greenburgh

It’ll be about 8 months before the 2015 elections for Mr Feiner and his two Board members. A lot of damage might be done during that time by those already in office. Until such time that the incumbents are voted out of office, we will probably continue to see a wholesale assault on all open space in Unincorporated Greenburgh! The Worthington Woodlands and Secor Homes Civic Associations, as well as others sympathetic to their plight, have been trying for almost five years to get Mr Feiner and his two Town Board members to abandon his desire to serve his friend Martin Hewitt with a drastic zoning change in a residential neighborhood for a commercial venture. This venture promises less than half the revenue in taxes over what new residential housing would bring if it was built there instead of being utilized for which the property was originally zoned. It eludes us as to why Mr Feiner would simply ignore the obvious return the Town could get by adhering to the existing zoning over changing it to a lesser valued project?

The southern side of Secor Road finds Ferncliff Cemetery proposing an expansion of their cemetery almost directly into the Secor Homes community. On the northern side, neighbors in the homes on Jean and Jennifer Lanes have the Golf Driving Range owned by the Vizioli family. It has been there sedately for years and is now threatening to compromise the area with expansion. The Vizioli family wants to convert most of the property from a quaint and unobtrusive golf driving range into a megaplex sports site with a 5-story airplane hangar-sized building, fields, lights, noise, increased traffic, parking and an almost around-the-clock operation in a partnership with GameOn 365. Since originating this massive dream-scheme, Mr Hewitt appears to have cycled through all of his previous partners. It appears he’s struggling to find a way to circumvent the existing zoning and cultivate investors from an evaporating pool of candidates.

If these two projects are allowed to move forward, coupled with Westchester Greenhouses, spanning the entire width of Jennifer Lane, with pollution to the area via their outdoor wood boilers, the once residential suburban community will be overwhelmed and boxed in by large commercial enterprises. There are some who believe Secor Road might become a major access roadway, particularly if Jean Lane, which connects to the Vizioli property via Jennifer Lane, is ever opened up to allow traffic. It’s one of any neighborhood’s worst nightmare.

ABG has previously written about Mr Feiner’s desire to hand over the property vis-à-vis a Zoning Code change Mr Hewitt will need to take his paper company from napkin-conception to birth. Unconvincingly, Mr Feiner and his Board made the argument that they recently disallowed two projects from proceeding and that they haven't made a decision about this one. What? Wait a minute! How can any of the three Board members say with a straight face that they haven’t made a decision for or against this project when they have been stumping for GameOn 365 since 2010? Another lie from Mr Feiner and his two Board members. The fix has been in since the beginning and saying otherwise is offensive to us all!

One of these other two projects would have adversely affected the Villages of Ardsley and Dobbs Ferry. Make no mistake, Councilwoman Juettner resides in Ardsley and brings a good number of votes to the Feiner ticket. And that’s the real story here: votes! Obviously, that wasn’t mentioned in this week’s Work Session. The second proposal that was denied was, some believe, a phony one from the beginning. It was one that would allow the Feiner camp to say, "No," and appear to be concerned for the Town. The public was informed that both proposals were not being entertained by the Board because it would over-tax our infrastructure. After 22-years of neglect by various administrations under Mr Feiner, now he’s worried about infrastructure?

The second project was a proposed assisted living facility off of Payne Street in the North Elmsford section of Unincorporated Greenburgh. The plan there was to build a multistory complex on a triangular strip of land between the Croton aqueduct and the Sprain Brook Parkway at the north end of High Street and North Lawrence Avenue. While their claims of limited traffic through this residential neighborhood was purported to be minimal, surrounding space on this postage sized parcel would not be big enough for emergency vehicles to access and egress. But saying it would tax our infrastructure was once again disingenous from the start. Yet, it provided a vehicle for a portion of the Town Board to use as a means to offer balance to the uninitiated in the Town. It is nothing more than pure political calculation at it's best. By the way, this project would literally be in Councilman Morgan's backyard. Is it any wonder why it was denied?

So how can an almost 24-7 sports operation not be taxing to our infrastructure? Mr Feiner, already found guilty of discriminating against the Fortress Bible Church, said the increased traffic from the Church and school was the reason he was against Fortress Bible Church’s application. He never said the real reason, which we believe was to keep this church from building in his friend’s back yard. The Fortress Bible Church was awarded a $6.5 MILLION settlement being paid by us, the taxpayers, for Mr Feiner’s illegal actions! So for three projects in three different Unincorporated locations in the Town, reasons were given by the Board against these projects that when those same reasons were made by the residents near this Dobbs Ferry Road location, only to be summarily dismissed by Messrs. Feiner, Morgan and Jones. How is the residents’ concerns for congestion, over-crowding, over-burdened infrastructure hours of operation, etc., any different than the reasons used by Messrs. Feiner, Morgan and Jones? Votes.

Rome is burning. The Town’s infrastructure has been slowly decaying while Mr Feiner and his Board fiddles for developers. They continue with gifts for their preferred developers while ignoring residents in these respective neighborhoods and do as they please. The upcoming elections hold no promise of us seeing positive change in our Town – or does it? Our prediction is that these three will be re-elected as the Democratic faithful and the willfully ignorant will easily fall prey to Mr Feiner’s lies and hypocracy. The media will be complicit as well and speak of his (pseudo) open government policies, work with the seniors, the poor and on and on and on. His media campaign blitz will become non-stop. Ultimately, running unopposed, he will garner some 7-9,000 votes, even though the Emperor has no clothes. This must end! Only then will we have A Better Greenburgh.