White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Council President Boykin's Remarks on Historic Vote.

WPCNR News Reel. From Council President Benjamin Boykin. August 8, 2003:For those who have not seen or heard Council President Benjamin Boykin's speech given prior to the historic Common Council approval of the New York Presbyterian Hospital biomedical project, WPCNR presents the text of his speech given at 2:10 AM Tuesday morning, reproduced with the permission of the Councilman. His comments make clear his reasoning for casting the decisive vote approving the project.

Common Council President Benjamin Boykin
Photo by WPCNR

Thank you Mr. Mayor and my Council colleagues.

Good evening again to my fellow residents. Tonight, this Council will vote on the application from NYPH. I want to thank the City Staff for the hundreds of hours and the many feet of paper that has been generated for this application. To our outside Counsel, Mr. Gerard and Mr. Johnson, your advice has been exceptional and very thoughtful. To the public, your letters, emails, personal discussions, and presentations before the Council have been extremely valuable in my deliberations.

For nearly two decades, various proposals have come from the hospital to develop a portion of its property. None of those proposals have resulted in any development at the White Plains site. The most recent Marriott Facility proposal approved by the Common Council, to be built within the Medical Oval, was withdrawn by the hospital earlier this year due to adverse market conditions and the lack of funding for these facilities.

The application before us tonight is for an amendment to the existing special permit and approval of a site plan for the construction of 384,000 square foot hospital building with a separate parking structure for more than 986 cars. Approximately 50,000 square feet of the building would be dedicated to the Center of Advanced Proton Therapeutics (CAPT) or Proton Beam Facility. This facility and lab space would be for the treatment of certain cancers.

The discussion over this project has sparked much passion from various individuals and organizations. The range of discussion has gone from absolute no development on this property to those who say that this is private property and the applicant has the right to develop it. It has been, and it will continue to be, my attempt to find some middle ground where everyone has given something up, but in return, everyone benefits because we have more than we started with. We have heard many arguments for this proposal and many arguments against this proposal. Each person has articulated his or her position quite well.

I think that we all agree that medical research is a good thing. It saves lives and adds to our quality of life. The delivery of patient care is rapidly changing and will continue to evolve. Medical institutions must also change or they will become like the dinosaur –extinct. However, the issue for this community, from a public policy standpoint is whether this is the right project in the right place for White Plains.

Some individuals have advocated that we just so no – reject the project and move on. Do not allow any development on this property. The hospital, under its current R1 – 12.5 zoning, can build about 490 single-family houses on their property. They could, in theory, start this development tomorrow. The status quo is therefore residential development.

As I have read the information, listened to the discussion, and spoken with individuals in our community, I have tried to focus on the key issues and concerns regarding this project.

I believe that the hospital has a right to do some modest development on its property. However, the right of private property ownership carries with it the public responsibility to be considerate of your neighbor and sensitive to the environment. In the environmental process for this application, the Council has built a public record that will prevent massive development of this property. Therefore, most of the conceptual master plan information presented early in this process will never happen. We must make sure through legislation and the forming of new relationships with the hospital, that community concerns are considered and addressed for this property.

The key issues, as I see them, for this application are Project Location, Traffic and Use. Let me spend some time on each of these issues.

PROJECT LOCATION

The hospital, in its initial application, asked to build this project on Bryant Avenue, next to Bryant Gardens. It would have been an obtrusive invasion of this beautiful residential neighborhood. Every member of this Council publicly stated that this project could not go on Bryant Avenue. After much discussion, the hospital agreed to move the project to Site 8 or a combination of Site 8 and 5. Site 8 is several hundred feet behind Bloomingdale’s Department Store and set back several hundred feet from Bryant Avenue. Site 5, located inside the Medical Oval, was the proposed location of the Marriott Facility. The Site Plan approval before us tonight is for location the facility on Site 8.

At the insistence of several Council members, we reviewed each potential location inside the Medical Oval in depth to see if the proposed project could be located there. With the historical preservation status, the placement of the proposed facility completely within the Medical Oval was not practicable.

The new location cannot be seen Bloomingdale Road and will have very limited visibility from Bryant Avenue in the winter months. This location protects the residential property values and eliminates any “medical building creep.” Site 8 also preserves the open space buffer along Bryant Avenue and minimizes the impact on environmentally sensitive areas.

TRAFFIC

With any new proposed development, traffic becomes a major concern. With the project on Bryant Avenue, traffic on Bryant Avenue could not be mitigated. The proposed development is now on Site 8, which is behind Bloomingdale’s Department Store and several hundred feet from Bryant Avenue. However, relocation of the facility was not enough to mitigate most of the traffic impact on Bryant Avenue. Therefore, I demanded that the Bryant Avenue entrance closed and only available for emergency use. The Environmental Findings Statement as well as the Site Plan that we will vote on this evening will close the Bryant Avenue entrance except for emergency use. With the elimination of most of the traffic impact on Bryant Avenue, we are continuing to protect our residential neighborhoods.

USE

A very difficult aspect of this project has been use. The applicant is seeking approval for two uses – Proton Bean for the treatment of certain cancers and medical research. We have employed experts to examine the Proton Bean facilities and based upon their analyses, I have concluded that they are safe and that this is an appropriate hospital related use.

Medical research is a permitted use under the Special Permit if it is subordinate or subsidiary to the principal hospital functions. That is, medical research must be ancillary to the principal hospital use. While there is no definition of ancillary use, this council has wrestled with this issue and decided that the proposed medical use is ancillary. In addition, any medical research done at the White Plains Campus of NYPH must be connected with the hospital activities at this location. There will not be any labs for the production of items for distribution. Commercial activity on this site is strictly prohibited.

There are other aspects of use that has given me great pause. I have asked about relationships that the hospital may enter into for profit. In order to address this issue, we have placed language in the Environmental Findings Statement to allow the Assessor to collect the appropriate information to make the tax status determination. I have been assured by City Staff that if for profit activities occur at the hospital, appropriate actions will be taken to put these functions on the tax rolls of the City of White Plains. We cannot and we will not allow entities to enrich themselves at the expense of the taxpayers of this city.

This project will require additional electrical power and water. Con Edison, in cooperation with our Public Works Department, has stated that they can handle the added electrical burden with the current or reconstructed substations. Hospitals use a lot of water and with the Proton Bean and the Medical Research facility; the water usage for this city will increase. When the city reaches a certain level of water usage, raw water costs increase. The Council, unrelated to this project, will probably adjust water rates for heavy wpcnr_users in the coming months. This project will not increase water rates for our residential water wpcnr_users.

CONCLUSION

I have tried to listen, reflect and arrive at a decision that I feel addresses many competing interests while protecting our city from a successful legal challenge of our actions. It has not been easy. This is a very complex proposal and an emotional issue for many of our residents. As an elected official, I cannot reject a proposal simply because I may not like it. I must, through due process and thoughtful deliberation, arrive at a decision that is supported by fact and that is good public policy.

I am concerned that if we deny this application, the city may lose control of our special permit and zoning rights and the courts will determine the fate of this project. This would be the worse of all situations for the residents of White Plains.

I believe the relocation of the project to Site 8, the closing of the Bryant Avenue Entrance and imposing detail conditions for hospital related uses, the impact on our neighborhoods and the City of White Plains have been mitigated.

Therefore, I will vote to approve the Environmental Findings Statement and the Site Plan Approval for the applicant.

It is time for a new beginning with the hospital. I ask the hospital to immediately meet with us to address pressing community concerns. I look forward to working with the hospital to provide the residents of White Plains with public access to the beautiful property for passive as well as leisure and active recreational uses.

Thank you.


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