White Plains CitizeNetReporter - Mayor's Problem Taker-Awayers Show 1-story Housing HQ & Park for Winbrook

WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey. September 25, 2002: A new plan for a one-story offices and community room complex for a new White Plains Housing Authority headquarters was introduced last night at the Common Council Work Session.

NEW HEADQUARTERS CONCEPT for the Housing Authority is to be presented to Winbrook residents and the Housing Authority Board for their reactions and input and design suggestions in the next few weeks. The 4,000 square foot one floor structure would be constructed onto unused grounds on the north side of 225 Martin Luther King Boulevard, (shown upper right) preserving 3/4 of the green to the East of Bethel Baptist Church (shown at lower left of site plan) and doing away with the three-story office building previously planned for the Fischer Court green (upper left) site.
Photo by WPCNR

A task force chaired by Albert Moroni, the Executive Director of the Parking Authority, working with the Housing Authority, Windbrook neighbors, and the city's Building, Planning and Traffic Commissioners gathered suggestions and mulled ideas over the last three months.

The team, in cooperation with Mack Carter, new Executive Director of the Housing Authority, has produced a new design for a scaled down White Plains Housing Authority Headquarters, designed by Bernard Arnold, the Housing Authority architect which will be presented to the residents of Winbrook and the board of the Housing Authority for their input, suggestions and reactions.

BLUEPRINT FOR PROGRESS suggests a one-story building addition, which, according to Susan Habel, will provide a larger community room (in center) of addition, with offices and interview rooms on the perimeter of the "Vestpocket Office Building," as Habel described it. She says residents will be deeply involved in deciding allocation of space in the interior. The building has not been costed out yet, and will be paid for by HUD (Housing & Urban Development)
Photo by WPCNR

In a news conference afterwards, Ms. Habel said that Mack Carter, newly appointed Executive Director of the White Plains Housing Authority, likes the concept. George Gretsas, the Mayor's Executive Officer, said that the concept had to be approved by the Housing Autthority Board of Directors, which is headed by Larry Sallee, the Chairman of the Housing Authority. The White Plains Housing Authority has sued the city in an Article 78 action over the Common Council refusal to consider the previously proposed 3-story structure planned to take up the entire Fisher Court Green. The suit is still in play at this time.

OVERVIEW OF WINBROOK COMPLEX showing location of proposed one-story headquarters and new park proposal. The faint red letter "B" indicates Bethel Baptist Church, the red letter "P" is site of a proposed grassy park to be designed to specifications of the residents by the designer of the city's new streetcapes, (John Imbiano of Imbiano-Quigley) from Community Development Funds, estimated to be about $50,000. The building site is to the right of the "P," to the right of the yellow and black lines. Martin Luther King, Junior Boulevard is on the far right of your picture.
Photo by WPCNR

SITE OF NEW MINI-CENTRAL PARK AT WINBROOK WITH GRASS, planned as part of the new headquarters addition, should it be accepted in principle by the Housing Authority. The view is from immediately in back of 225 Martin Luther King Boulevard.

City Photo

Common Council members Benjamin Boykin, Glen Hockley and Tom Roach all expressed admiration of the plan, subject to the opinions of the citizens who reside in Winbrook. Councilwoman Rita Malmud said she liked the concept, but strongly cautioned that it was subject to Winbrook input.

Mr. Boykin congratulated the staff "for putting their thinking caps on."

Mayor Delfino, who organized the task force after neighborhood opposition surfaced last spring and appointed Moroni the task of being the facilitator, said, "My whip is worn out."

Boykin added the proviso that "the tenants have to say what they want (in the building and the new park)."

George Gretsas, the Mayor's Executive Officer, said in an impromtu Q&A session afterwards that the one-story headquarters and park was a concept at this stage that had to be bought into by both the tenants of Winbrook and the Housing Authority.

Windbrook Activist Impressed

Ron Jackson, former resident of Winbrook, and longtime critic of the Housing Authority position on siting a headquarters on the property, kept nodding his head with approval as the project was explained. Afterwards he said, "I'll do everything I can as an activist to support this project."


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