WPCNR MR. & MRS. & MS. WHITE PLAINS VOICE. December 6, 2005: A longtime observer of New York Presbyterian Hospital and City of White Plains relations objects to a WPCNR interpretation of the 2000 Council vote not to refer out the park giveaway in return for retail zoning:

John-
Your comment that the 5-2 vote against referral of NYPH's proposal cost the city a park is totally without merit or proof. The hospital has never put on the table a real plan for transferring property to the city for a park in any of their proposals.
To make such as statement as you have is poor reporting and gives credibility to the hospital's false promises over the years.

Marc

The CitizeNetReporter Replies: The fact is the park for rezoning proposal would have solidified and been spelled out during the referral process which was not allowed to take place. That was all the vote was about: to refer the plan. If the city did not like the deal then they could have turned it down, but they did not refer. The council did not even demand details of the transfer of parkland before they dumped the referral.

Because the Council was swayed by a distinct minority group of the city not to refer the plan out, and had no courage to explore -- just explore -- the proposal,  the case can be made that the 5-2 vote definitely and most likely did cost the city 60 acres of parkland, which now faces,  thanks to that misguided decision,  wholesale development beyond the Council's control. 

Please note that the Louis Cappelli projects have been submitted as one thing then have morphed as the Common Council made known their feelings on his projects. The same process was denied New York Presbyterian Hospital in that 2000 vote.

That 5-2 vcte was politics before an election year and was the low point of the Common Council "wisdom"  during the last eight years.  That decision did cost us the chance for the park in the most painless way possible which would have supplemented the growing retail at the City Center.

The Common Council and those who lobbied them to defeat the proposal to refer made a grave miscalculation which will cost the city for years to come and have only themselves to blame for the present New York Presbyterian Hospital uncertainty. Emotion held forth over reason in 2000. And White Plains is now paying the price for that.

Now five years after that 5-2 vote, we essentially face the same choice: rezoning for a park, this time for commercial medical, but the hospital has all the cards and the Common Council has no bargaining position.

The WPCNR interpretation has plenty of merit.