City to vote on fate of Echo Bay

A proposed development on New Rochelle”™s Echo Bay will have its day of reckoning Nov. 26 when City Council members will decide whether or not to move forward with the company behind the long-discussed project.

Elected officials are scheduled to vote on a land disposition agreement with Forest City Residential Inc., an affiliate of Cleveland-based Forest City Enterprises. The company is looking to build 285 luxury apartments, 25,000 square feet of retail space and a waterfront park on a 9-acre spread that centers on a property currently used as a city public works yard.

The project first surfaced in 2006 as a 26-acre development, but was delayed then scaled back after the economic recession. Opponents have taken issue with the reduced size of the proposal, rallied to protect an unused armory building at the project site and criticized the city for giving away too much in the way of anticipated tax breaks to the developer.

Elected officials had previously been scheduled to vote on several matters that would advance the project at an explosive Nov. 12 session, but Councilman Al Tarantino, a Republican, moved to table any votes or discussion until January 2014. The seven-member council agreed in a 4-3 vote, but Mayor Noam Bramson, a Democrat who has supported the development, later pushed for a second vote that allowed the sharing of documents and information even if there was no decision on the project. The second vote was approved, 4-3, with Republican Councilman Lou Trangucci storming out and Democrat Shari Rackman shifting course from the first vote to side with Bramson.

The City Council met again Tuesday, with the mayor opening up by apologizing for the confrontational nature of the previous meeting. “I allowed frustration to get the better of me at least in one instance and I regret that,” he said. Bramson rescinded his motion to move forward with discussion and supported the council”™s decision to table the project until next year. But, Tarantino took the mayor and many residents by surprise and rescinded his motion as well, then suggested voting on the matter immediately which the other council members agreed to.

“We”™ve reviewed what we had to review,” Tarantino said. “Let”™s get it done.”

Some community pundits took the reversal from Tarantino as evidence that in the last week the councilman had become confident that he would receive the four votes necessary to nix the deal with Forest City.

An analysis on the project from the National Development Council was recently made public. The report, which was posted on local blog Talk of the Sound, estimated that at full assessment the property would incur $1.5 million in taxes. The proposed payment in lieu of taxes would be $859,000, or $654,000 less than the full tax assessment. The report said that with the anticipated cost of the project and slim margin of profit to be generated, having to pay full taxes or even a larger PILOT would mean the project would not be financially feasible for Forest City.