County affordable housing settlement and town budget are the big topics
October 23, 2009
by Christine Yeres
Sporting a League of Women Voters “NOT for Women Only” button, moderator Harry MacLaughlin, co-chair of the Bedford-Lewisboro-North Salem League of Women Voters, welcomed the audience and candidates to New Castle’s town hall Wednesday night for the League’s Candidates Night.
In opening statements, incumbents in the three uncontested elections for town board, Supervisor Barbara Gerrard and board members John Buckley and Robin Stout, explained to an audience of about 40 people that the economy was the number one issue for the board. Gerrard is running for her second two-year term as town supervisor; Buckley and Stout are both running for their second four-year terms. The two other board members, Deputy Supervisor Elise Kessler-Mottel and Michael Wolfensohn, are in the middle of their four-year terms. The supervisor is paid $32,865 per year; board members are each paid $10,250 per year.
Gerrard described her board as working very well together along with “a wonderful staff in New Castle, with department heads truly dedicated to this town.”
Buckley noted that the board has in other years begun budget talks in summer or early autumn, but that this year they began their examination of the budget last spring. He listed the hamlet plan, parking issues and the Reader’s Digest property development as matters of interest to the board. Acknowledging that their races are uncontested, Buckley said he welcomed the opportunity afforded by an election to get out and talk to voters.
Stout announced that he would speak for one minute about himself and for one minute about the board. Born and educated in the Midwest, he came to New York about 30 years ago, the last 15 of which he has lived in New Castle. Stout served for seven years as a member of the New Castle Recreation and Parks Commission before winning a seat on the town board four years ago. In his time on the board, he said, such issues as the 9/11 memorial at Gedney Park had been resolved, the sidewalk along Route 120 had been constructed, through agreements with Verizon cable TV options for residents had been created, and two properties had been added to the town’s open space riches: Sunny Ridge and Burden Preserve.
First question for town board candidates: the recently approved housing settlement
Moderator McLaughlin began with a question from the League and determined the order in which the candidates answered: How is New Castle preparing for the impact and implementation of the recently approved housing settlement?
Buckley stated that the town “needs to wait for the implementation plan. It will be made available to the town in early December. We don’t know what our allocation [the number of units of housing] is going to be.” He noted that there were 31 jurisdictions that would do their share in creating the 750 affordable housing units required by the settlement.
Stout said, “I would go further. As I’ve said before, I fully support this agreement and the settlement the county accepted, and I believe it was wise to avoid litigation. But more than that: it’s useful to our communities to have diversity. I live here despite our lack of diversity, not because of it. I’ll use my own example: I grew up in the Midwest, on what some would call ‘the wrong side of the tracks.’ But everybody deserves a chance. I’m eager and excited to give people a chance.” He encouraged residents to consult the pamphlet distributed by the county explaining the settlement. “We’re not talking about low-income, low-class housing,” he continued. “That’s not what this will look like and feel like. It will be marketed to minorities, but not exclusively. More diversity in this town will be a wonderful thing.”
Gerrard agreed: “This is a project the county should undertake. Most people recognize the tremendous need for alternative housing. $50,000 to $80,000 [income requirements for affordable housing applicants] is not low at all. We have a wonderful train station, the hamlet is sewered, giving us an infrastructure that can easily be built upon, and so it would be good to have more residences in the center of the hamlet that could utilize the transportation and infrastructure. [New Castle] is also close to a hospital [Northern Westchester Hospital] that is in need of residences for staff. It would be wonderful to provide them with the opportunity to live closer to their place of work. For those of you interested in environmental matters, ‘smart growth’ really requires that there be transportation-oriented development, and this is a perfect opportunity. I look forward to working with the county on this.”
Second question, from the audience: Where will the affordable housing be built?
A member of the audience asked: Do we have any sites set for where the affordable units will be built in Chappaqua? I know that part of the Chappaqua Crossing is supposed to have affordable housing. How will that be affected by this new housing settlement?
Stout responded, “It’s one thing to have the intent [to build affordable housing], but intent alone will not make it happen. It will take money, land and perseverance. I would separate Chappaqua Crossing from the [county’s affordable housing] settlement. The board and I have been firm that whatever might be built at Chappaqua Crossing, 20 percent of it would be affordable housing, but there are a lot of definitions of affordable. In terms of location, as the supervisor said, you really want [the county affordable units] to be in our dense urban core, the village of Chappaqua. We would look to try to find affordable space inside the hamlet and piece together the financing.”
Gerrard added, “The entire board is determined that if there is any residential [component] on the Reader’s Digest property, then 20 percent of it would be affordable. But about the Reader’s Digest property: if you read the settlement, it’s a question of whether county money has to be used for these affordable units to qualify as part of the 750 [total number of units across the county]. My understanding is that the [owners of Chappaqua Crossing] have not indicated any interest in taking county money.”
Buckley pointed out: “There’s a lot of opportunity, empty space in the core area.” He added, “The ease of people walking to the train station” was an important factor in placing affordable housing, as was the sidewalk up Route 120 and “maybe one up Route 117. We’ll try to take a look at the footprint of the town,” then see the county’s implementation plan in early December. Buckley stressed, “Wherever we are, whenever you see us, come up to us and give us your opinions. We really serve you.”
Question three, from an audience member: How do you feel about losing control to the county regarding affordable housing?
A member of the audience asked: How do you feel about losing local control of your responsibility to your residents [in view of the county’s settlement agreeing to place affordable housing in towns across Westchester]?
“First of all,” responded Gerrard, “we have not lost control. This empowers us. The biggest problem for us [in creating affordable housing in New Castle] has been the high cost of land. It’s expensive. Previous administrations –Clinton Smith, Marion Sinek, Jan Wells – all tried to get units built but couldn’t come up with the money. We’re hoping to acquire some property [now with county money allocated for affordable housing mandated by the settlement]. We still have control of our land use.”
Buckley added, “I know real estate, since I am employed in that arena. Given the support of the county to purchase land, it gives us the tools to go ahead and realize that dream we’ve wanted for so long. How would I like it if my fellow firefighters and DPW workers and school teachers could be part of our community? It’s a burden for them to travel from far away to their jobs.”
Stout concurred, saying, “I also think it’s a mischaracterization to say that local communities will lose control. The 31 municipalities will share fully in designing the implementation plan, how to acquire sites, how to put financing together. They’ll have a strong voice in that.”
Stout added, “We have five very opinionated people on the board and we don’t always agree about what should be done. The board meetings, the fancy logo [referring to the “Town of New Castle” sign behind them in the assembly room of town hall] – those are our formal sessions. We vote [here] on what we talk about in the weeks before.” He invited residents to “come see the sausage being made. I intend to continue to be a strong voice.”
Fourth question, from an audience member: How much is left of the $500,000 set aside in last year’s budget for improvements to downtown Chappaqua?
A member of the audience asked: The board had told us that there’s not much wiggle room in the 2010 budget. Of the $500,000 set aside in last year’s budget for improvements to downtown Chappaqua, how much has been spent on the Citibank and train station improvements? What do you intend to do next, with what’s left?
Stout responded, “Well, the expert on the downtown hamlet – Elise Kessler-Mottel – is not on the podium. Of the $500,000, some has been spent. That $500,000 continues into 2010.”
As to the tightness of this year’s budget, Stout responded, “Not much wiggle room? You can’t overstate it. There’s no wiggle room in the budget. New Castle is suffering the same pain as surrounding towns. Revenues are down, particularly sales tax, because people aren’t shopping as much. Mortgage taxes are down because folks are not turning over their homes as frequently. But there is continued uptick in expenditures, personnel entitled to benefits and pensions that keep rising. We’ve cut expenditures but because of these increases we’re at a crossroads in terms of where we’re going to go with the budget increase. We need the community to stay involved in the budget process.”
Gerrard added, “Of the $500,000 for 2009, a little less than one quarter of a million dollars was spent on those improvements. Some of the funding [for the Citibank park improvements] came from the year before. We anticipate another $500,000 in the capital budget for 2010. While the bridge is under construction, we can’t do much in the center of the hamlet, but we’re looking at several projects: Refurbish the bottom of Lower King Street [near Village Market] and fit a pocket park there. The gazebo needs to be reconstructed. It’s sinking into the very wet ground, some of its wood is rotting and we definitely need a new roof on it. We might want to move the sidewalk [on the rec field side of South Greeley] farther to the west, to make room [along the rec field side] for about eight parking spaces. Perhaps elevate the gazebo so that it’s at street level instead of below, install lighting and refurbish it. A lot of the work is not all that exciting because it’s infrastructure, not very sexy, to tell the truth.”
Buckley said, “I don’t have any recollection of where we are with that money, but I will say that although we started early with the budget process, we had some things sneak up on us, such as MTA [Metropolitan Transportation Authority tax imposed by the state this year], pension increases of 60%. It’s quite difficult. The town administrator [Gennaro Faiella] went to the department heads and asked how to cut costs, how to work within their own departments to bring down costs. Snow removal, the cost of salt, overtime . . . I’ve seen our budget. The budget isn’t going to be that much more. When we did the parking at Citibank we got 18 more parking spaces and we’ll have another 15 to 20 spots once the bridge opens. The board, its consultants and employees. all of us, with your input, are trying to make the town better.”
Fifth question, from an audience member: Can you tell us about the town planner position you intend to fill?
Buckley commented that the loss of Lincoln Daley, who left to take another job, was a “huge loss” to the town. “The town needs a planner,” he said. “We need to fill that position.” He described the benefits to the town of having an in-house planner to expedite smaller projects such as applications to build a deck or shed on peoples’ homes. Formerly all such applications were handled by the town’s outside planning consultant, F.P. Clark, at greater cost to the homeowner. “The right town planner is a true asset to the town.”
Robin Stout added, “This town is in need of planning expertise on a regular basis. Outside consultants charge higher hourly rates.”
Gerrard explained further that the new Croton Plan report by the county showed that “almost every other neighboring community has either updated or created a new master plan [or town development plan] fairly recently. So at some point we’re going to have to consider revising the master plan for New Castle. An in-house planner could be one of the people leading the charge on the master plan. We’ve tried for several years to hire an town planner, and Daley demonstrated to us what an asset an in-house planner who is focused on what’s happening in every part of town can be. Saving fees is important, but vision is more important. Millwood is undergoing design guideline revisioning, so is the Chappaqua hamlet. We have Reader’s Digest, the bridge . . . The town administrator and I have been interviewing candidates for the position. One of the good sides of a bad economy is that there’s a lot of talent out there. We expect to hire a new planner by the end of the year.”
The candidates’ closing statements
Stout: “I have enjoyed my four years. I get out and knock on people’s doors, at first with trepidation, but once I get out there I find it terrific. People are worried about taxes in both hamlets – Millwood and Chappaqua – and Reader’s Digest, and I need to understand what people are thinking. I read everything, and I want your vote.”
Gerrard: “I appreciate the people who have come out today. You need to get out and vote, even though there’s no opposition. We need to see by your vote that you’re pleased with what you see. I’d be pleased to serve you another two years. It’s a great town and a great community.”
Buckley: “First, I would like to ask everyone to come out and vote and show your support so we can take [what we’ve done so far] a step further. Second, enjoy your town. It’s a great place. Please call us and share your thoughts. We represent you. Tell us what you want.”
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Next week, NCNOW will report on the candidates in the contest for the County Board of Legislature seat between incumbent Mike Kaplowitz and Gregory Paul Kane, who also appeared for the League’s Candidates Night, after the three town board members. To view Candidates Night on your computer, in NCCTV’s “video on demand,” click here.
Copyright 2012 NewCastleNOW.org