Letter to town board: Chappaqua Crossing: Risks too great, benefits too small

July 31, 2009
by Jules Buxbaum

Members of the Board,

I have lived in Chappaqua for six years and my initial reaction was to be against the proposed development of the Reader’s Digest property. But change is inevitable and I have followed these proceedings to try to understand the pros and cons of the proposal.  After listening carefully to both sides, I believe that the risks are too great and the benefits too small to justify moving forward with the development.

I accept the analyses from Summit Greenfield as the product of competent professionals.  But one their estimates, that there would be only 66 new students, assuming that the age restriction does not hold, is contrary to common sense. That is like assuming that three out of four households have no children and the fourth household has, on average, slightly less than one child. That estimate seems low, way too low, for a community known for its excellent schools and where access to those schools is one of the top reasons people choose our town.

What is for sure, is that no one knows for sure

Many doubts have been raised concerning the ability to make the age restrictions stick over the long term. And of course, maintenance of the age restriction is a critical ingredient to analysis of many of the important issues. Advocates from both sides have cited the experience of other age-restricted developments, court cases, published articles and examination of a variety of scenarios, including financial difficulties at the complex.  I do not know if the age restrictions will hold or not. But one thing I do know for sure is that no one knows, for sure, if the age restrictions will hold. And if they don’t, the impact will be significant. Significantly negative.

There has been much discussion about the impact on traffic in our town. Summit Greenfield has offered property for road improvements and analyses of traffic flows to conclude that the traffic will be no worse. Others have questioned their assumptions concerning the characteristics of the people and businesses likely to populate the property. Downtown Chappaqua is not exactly the Holland Tunnel on the Fourth of July but those of us who live here know the traffic can be pretty annoying. It can be annoying even when there aren’t that many cars on the road. If it turns out that Summit Greenfield is wrong, it could change the character of our town.

Other issues such as the impact on our property values, parking at the train station, sewage and storm water run-off have been raised. In all cases, Summit Greenfield analyses conclude that the problems can be neutralized. But necessarily, the analyses entail many assumptions and if any of these analyses are wrong, it could be damaging to our daily life. Some of these analyses, if wrong, could result in the property actually being a net loss, financially, to our town.

$5 million in tax revenues won’t change anyone’s life much at all

Which brings me to the major benefit to our town: tax revenues. Summit Greenfield estimates the complex will bring in an additional $5 million. Again, some have questioned their analysis and I think, raised some pretty valid concerns. But let’s take the $5 million at face value, realizing that it is probably an upper bound. What does $5 million mean to me and the other residents of our town? With a budget of over $100 million, and reflecting upon how my taxes have increased since I moved here, I believe that the $5 million may delay, for a short period, my next tax increase. I will appreciate any effort that the town makes to postpone tax increases. But what Summit Greenfield offers isn’t going to change my life very much at all.Yet the potential impact on the schools, traffic, property values and parking could seriously, negatively, impact my every day here.

When one considers the meager benefits from exploitation of such a beautiful, high profile property and compares those benefits to the potential quality of life changing consequences, the contest isn’t close. It’s not even in the vicinity of close. I feel a little like one of the townspeople in the story of “The Emperor Has No Clothes.”  While I think, and hope, that the town is simply following a process that provides Summit Greenfield with a fair hearing, I hope this process does not cause us to lose grasp of our common sense.

Thank you for the opportunity to express my views.

Jules Buxbaum
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The town board has mounted the DEIS and related documents on a dedicated website:

http://chappaquacrossingreview.mynewcastle.org/

and has set up an email address to receive comments from the community at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

For a complete listing of NewCastleNOW.org’s previous articles and letters to the editor on Reader’s Digest, click here.
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