Homeowners in the Winfield neighborhood of Harrison have banded together to stop a contractor from finishing a house and ultimately, if successful, to have the house “come down.”
Winfield Area Preservation Association and Douglas Amann sued Harrison building inspector Rocco Germani, the Zoning Board of Appeals and developer Immobiliare Assets LLC Oct. 1 in Westchester Supreme Court.
They allege that Germani issued an illegal building permit and that the town’s zoning board has delayed acting on their objections to enable Immobiliare to finish the project.
Meanwhile, Paul and Angela Gerardi, who bought the property from Immobiliare and who are not named as defendants, have sunk at least $1.3 million in the project, based on the price of the property and construction costs as of Sept. 7.
Immobiliare, of South Salem, bought the 0.3-acre vacant lot at 62 Winfield Ave. for $462,500 in 2020, and sold it to the Gerardis five months later for $650,000.
The village issued a building permit on May 4. Two weeks later, Amann and Amanda Genovese, whose properties are next to the Gerardis’ property, appealed the issuance of the permit.
They argue that the permit is illegal because the zoning requires at least one acre for development, or more than three times the acreage at 62 Winfield Ave.
The zoning board heard from both sides at a June 10 hearing and then adjourned the matter for a month.
On July 8, the board voted informally, 4-1, to grant the appeal and set aside the building permit, according to the complaint.
The customary practice, according to the complaint, is to write up the findings and put the issue to a formal vote at the next monthly meeting.
Based on that vote, Amann and Genovese demanded that the building inspector issue a stop-work order. Gerardi allegedly did not respond.
A week later they were notified that a new hearing would have to be held because no audio or video recording had been made on July 8, and the village rejected an audio recording and transcript they offered.
They claim that the village has also refused to give them a copy of a memorandum from village attorney Andrea Rendo to Germani.
On Aug. 4, the zoning board opened the meeting by immediately calling a secret session ”” executive session in governmental parlance ”” with their attorney, Jonathan Kraut. When the public meeting resumed, the board declined to hear oral arguments by the attorneys, according to the complaint, and adjourned the matter for another month.
On Sept. 9, the board held another secret session with Kraut, allegedly refused to hear public comment and adjourned the matter to Oct. 12.
Amann and the Winfield Area Preservation Association, which depicts its purpose as maintaining the serenity of the neighborhood, are asking the court to stop Immobiliare from building, stop Germani from issuing a certificate of occupancy, order disclosure of the Rendo-Germani memo, order the zoning board to consider the audio tape and transcript of the July 8 meeting and make the board decide the case at the October meeting.
They are represented by White Plains attorney Robert A. Spolzino.
Kraut, the board’s attorney, did not respond to a request for comment.
Davis, Immobiliare’ attorney, referred questions to Lee Lefkowitz, the Gerardis’ attorney.
Lefkowitz said the building permit is proper. Although a 1974 zoning law requires at least one acre for development, 62 Winfield Ave. and most properties in the neighborhood were grandfathered in, and most homes there are on smaller lots.
He said there was nothing out of the ordinary about how the zoning board has handled the case.
“Moreover, the house is already built,” he said, and the plaintiffs “have playacted as helpless and sat on their hands for months, waiting until now, just days before the zoning board’s vote, to bring this action trying to halt construction. They are too late. And they are wrong on the law.”
The Gerardis, he said, “want to put this all behind them so they can move in and become a part of the neighborhood.”
