WPCNR CITY HALL CIRCUIT. By John F. Bailey. February 5, 2007: On this evening's agenda an ordinance approving the sale of  lots 5,7,9,15,16, 17 and 19 on Railside Avenue is a resale of these lots to Voss Builders Corporation for $1,755,000.  Paul Wood, Executive Officer of the city of White Plains explained the resale matter developed when the former high bidders on the property, concerned by rumors the land was toxic, asked the city to test the lots they had agreed to buy to determine if the land was contaminated. The  Gedney Dump,  adjacent to the properties for sale has bwwn determined by the Department of Environmental Conservation as been contaminated by TCEs (industrial cleaning fluids). 

Wood said the city felt the land was not contaminated and refused to do the tests asked. Wood said this prompted the former buyers to back out of the deal. Wood said the city then went back to the two buyers still willing to purchase the land. The city negotiated the deal with Voss Builders, he said because that builder had already been assured the land they had was all right. The other buyer, Wood said, required a clause in the contract protecting the buyer in case the land should eventually be found to be contaminated. The city refused to do so, Wood said, and the buyer backed out.

Wood said the total sum to be realized from the land deal was $1.755 Million plus $400,000 and $345,995 from the sale of the first two lots for a total of $2,500,995, about $400,000 less than the original sale would have realized.