WPCNR MR. & MRS. & MS. WHITE PLAINS VOICE. December 11, 2005: A consistent voice for a Central Park for White Plains, again defends the 2000, 5-2 Against Referral Vote by the White Plains Common Council:
John-
Your interpretation of a vote against a referral as "political" is nonsense. It was a careful consideration to prevent the beginning of a process that would have takenh us down a "slippery slope" that has been desired by the hospital for years.
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To suggest that commercial development east of Bloomingdale Road would have "supplemented" downtown retail growth is not only naive, but directly oppositional to all of us who worked so diligently on the 1997 Comprehensive Plan that specifically spoke against further commecial development on that side of the street.
The WPCNR interpretation in the opinion of this reader is totally without merit. In fact, it lends credibility to those who bemoan not offering the hospital far more than current zoning would permit. We can only hope that WPCNR does not take such a misguided interpretation in reference to North Street Community LLC' s overdevelopment proposal for the former St Agnes property.
Regards,
Marc Pollitzer
The CitizeNetReporter Replies: The wisdom,or lack thereof, of that vote is brought out by the long term results of it:
1.) The city nor the Mayor has not gained one foot of parkland yet. (So it was the wrong decision.)
2.) The city lost the legal high ground by settling the ensuing lawsuit the hospital filed after that vote, forcing it to consider the Proton Accelerator proposal, and all future proposals the hospital could bring to the table
3.) The hospital has other options now such as selling the land for over $1 Million an acre -- leverage they did not have then.
4.) The council by approving special permits for other developers (i.e. 221 Main Street and City Center)has created precedent for the hospital or future owners of hospital property to sue if their requests for Special Permits and rezonings are not granted on grounds of "spot zoning."
These four "changes of landscape" alone make the chances of a park quite remote unless, of course the city makes a deal which most likely will be considerable worse than the original deal that was only being asked to be referred out in 2000.
The Council decision was naive. The shrewd barrister, Edward Dunphy, Corporation Council for the City warned the council about not referring it out at the time.
The council made many of their friends happy (the essence of the definition of a "political decision"), but ultimately sold out the people of White Plains with that vote because they gave up "the whip hand."
