WPCNR Common Council Chronicle-Examiner. June 6, 2006. UPDATED 3:45 P.M. E.D.T.: The Common Council approved the building of the Avalon Bay project, a 14-story, 393 unit residential building the corner of Barker and Church Street Monday evening against opposition of the North Broadway Civic Association. The Association had pleaded with the Common Council to deny the project and turn the present parking lot that exists on the site into a city park.
Avalon Bay rendered viewed from Church Street looking South. Photo, WPCNR News Archive.
Avalon Bay rendered, viewed from intersection of Church and Barker looking North North West. Photo, WPCNR News Archive.
Manhattanites fly in for a check out of the Avalon Bay Apartments site at the Church Street and Barker Avenue Intersection, seen in background in upper left of photo. Photo, WPCNR News.
The hearing on the final 1997Comprehensive Plan Review report prior to its acceptance by the Common Council, saw a procession of acid-tongued speakers roundly denounce not only the review, conducted by the 15-citizen committee appointed by the council, but call for creation of a new Comprehensive Plan altogether.
The Ritz-Carlton Westchester zoning changes that were to clear the way for a restaurant and spa on the Main Street Ritz-Carlton condo tower and similar height increase on the Hamilton Avenue side tower were not approved as expected, but held over to July 5. The council received high heat.
The View of The Ritz-Carlton Westchester On-going Construction Tuesday morning looking SouthWest across the City. Louis Cappelli reported last night in his brief remarks that 410 persons have already asked to be put on the waiting list for the opening of sales of the 290 residential condominium units. Photo, WPCNR News.
Bruce Berg, President of Cappelli Enterprises told WPCNR today that it was "his understanding" that by the Common Council not expressing an interest in reviewing the 15 foot increase in height of the Ritz-Carlton Westchester podium (already executed by Cappelli Enterprises), by the end of last night, that the Council was accepting the podium "structural change," bracing the double condominium towers as a "minor site plan amendment," leaving the already 10-story podium in place.
Berg also told WPCNR that the Council adjournment of the zoning changes for the 40th floor did not affect the present construction of the tower, seen in the above picture proceeding Tuesday at a smart pace, since Cappelli Enterprises did not need approval of the zoning changes until they reached the 40th floor of the condo tower.
The North Street Community hearing was held over until July 5, and appeared to have a serious "disconnect" with the Wyndam Close Neighborhood.
In another action, the Common Council approved the construction of a 5-story Emergency Room addition to the White Plains Hospital Center, to augment the overflowing emergency room services of the hospital .
The Comprehensive Plan Review Saga Continues
A statement from Councilman Robert Greer was read for Mr. Greer, the councilman suffering from Arterial Lateral Sclerosis, (who again left the meeting early after consent agenda was approved). Greer’s statement supported the 1997 Comprehensive Plan and its vision, as well as the Citizen Committee’s Review of that plan. Citizens rejected Mr. Greer’s endorsement, calling for the Common Council to begin the process of creating a new Plan altogether, saying the plan is now inadequate, because it does not address height of buildings.
Robert Levine, a member of the Citizens Plan Committee which was out first with its own critique, written by a group of concerned citizens, before the city responded with its review of the 1997 Comprehensive Plan, and whose members were, with three exceptions, (John Martin, Lewis Trippett and Jon Vorperian) were shut out of the Common Council/Mayor appointed Plan Review Committee said:
We read, this weekend, of a developer’s vision for 21st century White Plains.
He favors increased critical mass–– Manhattan style–––– to bring more people into the downtown. It’s an idea–– probably not shared by many–––but he’s entitled to his opinion. He backs it up with money. Not enough, maybe, to handle the sewers, water, traffic, safety and so forth, Manhattan style, but lets not quibble. Progress has its price, and, as we have seen, money talks. And the Council listens––– the shut-off bell, which signals our meeting speaking limit, never rings for him.
As far as the Comprehensive Plan–– and citizen participation more generally–– are concerned, the shut-off bell keeps ringing for the rest of us. It rang when we asked for a timely grass-roots process for updating the Comprehensive Plan. It rang when we attended your Committee meetings and had no opportunity to ask questions or make comments. It rang when we spoke to Council members individually and asked them to open up the process. And the shut-off bell continues to ring as we see the administration and Council stonewalling in the face of a clear citizen desire for a representative, informed and unbiased plan review and update.
We have a lot more invested in our city than all the developers combined, and that’s not just money. Listen carefully. We want the informed, prudent, planning we deserve. We’re not getting it. Do you get it?
The Ritz-Carlton Westchester Legislation.
In the hearing on the zoning ordinance amendments affecting the 221 Main Ritz-Carlton site, that going in, Common Council pundits expected to be passed with the usual “Those in Favor. Those Opposed, Carried” to clear the way for a restaurant and spa on the top of the Ritz Condominium tower overlooking Main Street, approval did not happen last night. They got too much heat.
Louis Cappelli described the Ritz-Carlton Westchester choosing to come to White Plains was a coup for White Plains, saying "White Plains is now the Belle of the Ball." Just as Mr. Cappelli was warming up, Citizens interrupted Super Developer Louis Cappelli’s presentation just when he was about to unveil to a citywide television audience the details of his top-of-the-tower proposal. Citizens shouted out from the gallery that he had reached his five-minute limit. (Citizens speaking in public hearings are limited to five minutes.) The Mayor bade Mr. Cappelli continue.)
Mr. Cappelli said he was “taken aback” and told the Mayor he would cut his presentation short and sat down with Mr. Weingarten, without showing the plans he was about to show. Thanks to the indiscretion of the gallery, viewers were denied the chance to see the first prime time televised appearance of Mr. Cappelli’s plans for the tower for another month.
Then came the deluge of denouncement. One after another, citizens torched the adjustment of the zoning ordinance that would allow restaurant and other uses to be used as “screening” for mechanicals on the 40th floors of both Mr. Cappelli’s Ritz Carlton Westchester Towers, warning again of what they characterized as reckless, thoughtless precedent-setting by the Common Council.
Dolf Beil, President of the North Broadway Association calmly said there was a double standard in the city in site plan changes, that citizens had to follow the rules of the Planning Board and the Zoning Board of Appeals, citing two examples of residents in his neighborhood being forced to make $56,000 in changes in their homes by the Zoning Board of Appeals, while developers were cut slack and allowed to do whatever they wanted.
The Super Developer’s attorney, Mark Weingarten, noted that Mr. Cappelli’s request for an extra 54,000 square feet, or 56,000 square feet for the Ritz-Carlton Westchester, (both figures have been mentioned), was withdrawn from consideration Monday evening and would be on for a public hearing at the July 5 meeting. The Common Council adjourned this hearing on the mechanical area ordinance adjustment and the 2% float of height that would allow both the Cappelli Tower(s) at the Ritz-Carlton Westchester to reach 408 feet, 2 inches more per floor (8 feet overall).
Weingarten also denied allegations by speakers that the Ritz-Carlton Westchester height change in the podium portion of the towers was executed illegally, saying this was not true, but did not elaborate.
North Street Community's Posh Condos Too High Wyndam Close Says.
In the hearing on the North Street Community senior citizen condominium project, North Street Partners Principal C.J. Follini presented the latest plans for the project, which called for 390 units of senior condominium units in three buildings in the Southwest corner of the St. Agnes Property, doctors offices, and a onsite medical facility were also to be included in existing buildings 305 and 311 for its senior citizen residents.
A North Street Community legal counsel, Paul Bergins, architect of the approval of The New York Presbyterian Hospital apparently defunct proton accelerator-biotech project in 2001, explained the North Street Community request for a "Senior Residential District," saying creating a special district would be more effective in controlling development than the granting of a Special Permit because it prevented another organization from applying for a similar Special Permit. He also said creating a Special District would prevent the spectre of “a floating zone” situation developing.
The North Street Community project met with a withering fusillade of criticism from the Wyndam Close Neighborhood Association denouncing the project’s residential components as too high (at 7-8 stories). One resident of the Wyndham neighborhood, showed that the residential buildings were the height of The Jefferson on 300 Mamaroneck Avenue.
Mark Pollitzer raised the possibility that creating a Senior Residential District could lead to Burk Hospital and New York Presbyterian Hospital (the North Street Community neighbor) to request just such expansions of these districts.
One speaker and resident of Wyndam said it was all about money for the developer, pointing out revenues from sale of the 390 units at $600,000 a unit would roughly approach $234 Million. He noted that similar density on the New York Presbyterian Hospital property lying adjacent to the North Street Community property might create revenues of three-quarters of a billion dollars for the New York Presbyterian Hospital. A person speaking on behalf of the Carvel Children’s Rehabilitation Center (on the North Street Community), said the Council should consider that the developer has promised to preserve the Carvel Center and has been very nice to it. The hearing was adjourned until July 5, 2006.
Citizens: Council Disconnected.
Mayor: They are Most Connected Council Ever.
The evening ended with resident Ann Jordan from the Reynal Park neighborhood testifying she had come down to the council meeting to make the point that there was “a disconnect” between the residents of White Plains and the developers of White Plains, as well as a disconnect with the council and the public.
The Mayor had engaged in lively rebuttals and a series of lash-outs and corrections all evening, without substantiation at speakers who have become fixtures at these hearings. The Mayor turned the hearings into individual debates on some points.
Mayor Joseph Delfino, more exasperated than this reporter has ever seen him in public hearings, had the last word.
He closed the meeting with a vehement defense of his Common Council, saying he had never seen a council more connected with the people, and that the Council had “followed the Comprehensive Plan to a T.”
It was a lively evening which ended at 12:45 A.M. E.D.T. More to come.
