Greenburgh lawmakers are waiting for an opinion from the town”™s Board of Ethics on whether the town can accept a developer”™s $1 million donation that must be used to buy parkland.
AvalonBay Communities Inc. and Robert Martin Company L.L.C. reached an agreement with an East Irvington civic group to donate money that could only be used to acquire 28.7 acres in the village of Tarrytown, which has its own elected board of trustees but is contained within Greenburgh. Town officials said they were only recently made aware of the agreement, which was negotiated by the East Irvington Civic Association in 2009, but must accept the donation by Oct. 1 or the developer”™s offer will expire.
The donation would buy land that abuts the 190-acre Taxter Ridge Park in Tarrytown. Town Councilman Francis Sheehan, a Democrat, said delays in accepting the donation had nothing to do with preservation of open space.
“The only issue here is not whether or not we should preserve land or not preserve land or how hard the East Irvington Civic Association worked,” he said at the Aug. 28 Town Board meeting, at which elected officials were scheduled to vote on accepting the donation. “It”™s whether or not we can ethically do the transfer in the way it was prescribed and in an agreement we were not privy to.”
AvalonBay built a 444-unit apartment complex called Avalon Green II in the East Irvington neighborhood and reached a deal with the civic association”™s president, Danny Gold, in an effort to offset the impact of  the housing project. AvalonBay is now looking to build another 68 apartments, and that application is yet to be approved.
Town Supervisor Paul Feiner, a Democrat, asked the Ethics Board last month for its opinion on the donation, though he said he saw “nothing improper” about accepting the money.
The town approved the construction of Avalon Green II without being aware of the agreement, he said. Feiner commended the civic group and the neighborhood, the latter of which he said was one of the few areas of Greenburgh that would have been receptive to the amount of apartments and affordable housing at Avalon Green II.
“Many communities don”™t want it and that”™s fine because it”™s quality of life and some school districts can”™t absorb additional children,” he said. “If the neighborhood association is embracing affordable housing and welcoming it ”“ and they”™re able to get something for it ”“ I think that”™s a positive.”
The opposition to the donation was fast and fierce from another neighborhood group, the Edgemont Community Council, which criticized the agreement and decried the rush-to-vote tone on the proposed donation that was discussed publicly for the first time last month. Council President Robert Bernstein led a push to ask for copies of the initial agreement, which have yet to be made public.
In a series of posts, Bernstein listed a slew of concerns about the project on the group’s Facebook page, including the maintenance costs of the park. Greenburgh has said Tarrytown will pay for upkeep, but Bernstein said the town should require a written statement of acceptance from the village, which will be the area of Greenburgh that benefits from the parkland.
Bernstein said the Ethics Board review was misplaced because the gift appeared to benefit the village, the East Irvington Civic Association and its president rather than Greenburgh.
“Nor has Mr. Feiner explained why, if the gift is intended for the village of Tarrytown, the developer doesn”™t just donate the money to Tarrytown,” he said.
The council president said the town had not shown how the parkland, a mile away from the development, would mitigate the impact of the multifamily housing. Taxter Ridge Park was purchased a decade ago by the state, Westchester County and the town, but the council said a large portion of that land is not accessible for public use. The 28.7 acres are owned by the WestRock Unification Church.
Greenburgh resident Tom Bock at the most recent meeting of the Town Board said he felt the parameters of the agreement gave the developer too much power.
“Any intent for this donation should be made by the town, not by the person who is giving it to us if we are to accept,” Bock said.
The Town Ethics Board is scheduled to meet Sept. 10, hours before a Town Board meeting.
