WPCNR THE PLANNING NEWS. By John F. Bailey. January 18, 2006: Daniel Schorr and Cas Cibelli, new members of The Planning Board got their first taste of planning life Tuesday evening, participating in an old-fashioned, hour planning board meeting that lasted until midnight. Mr. Schorr, coming from the Zoning Board, was impressed, telling WPCNR he was mostly observing his first evening.  Cas Cibelli said he found the experience "fascinating, and very important,"  because the decisions the Board makes, he said will affect the the city for the next 25 years.

Though WPCNR arrived after 11:15 P.M., the Planning Board was still going like old times. They had heard The Pinnacle, the Metropolitan and the Avalon Bay community, and was in high form with Steve Alexander, John Garment and the polite and pragmatic Mary Cavallero making thoughtful, inciteful commentary. Ms. Cavallero, who is leaving the Board she reports in March honchoed Westchester's most withering Planning Board with her seasoned panache.  With her usual unawed atttitude, she dispensed withering critiques of multi-million dollar architectural designs with her usual eye for the aesthetics and ambience affecting the neighborhood.

Typical was her catching Avalon Bay in a series of mathematical errors in projecting the number of persons who might live in the Avalon Bay development (calculated to populate with 594 persons), but due to projections rise by 73 more, according to the developers. The Planning Board told the Avalon Bay group to look at setting the town houses back more from Rockledge and Church, add more terraces, and add a second entrance-exit to the garage.

Cavallero also explained to WPCNR that most neighbor's objections to The Metropolitan,the condominium planned for the corner of DeKalb and Maple Avenue, centering around The Metropolitan park had been met by the developer. She said the park would be a city-owned park with a gate that closed after dusk, an arrangement that had been requested by the neighbors to prevent teen loitering in the park after dark. Cavallero said the issue had been raised and was now dealt with.