The latest wrangling in a proposal to create a school campus on the site of the former Ridgeway Country Club in White Plains concerns the reliability of economic data gathered by the French-American School of New York.
A resident of the Gedney Farms neighborhood that opposes the project questions the veracity of the economic impact the school”™s proponents claim will spring from its construction on the former golf course.
In a letter to White Plains Mayor Thomas Roach and members of the White Plains Common Council, Charles Diamond of Hathaway Lane said, “I am at wit”™s end because FASNY can say anything they want in terms of business or economic impact, have their shills repeat it and ignore any challenges.”
Representatives of the school fired back, saying the studies are based on a widely used, programmed set of formulas used to determine the economic impact of potential developments across the country.
Karen Pasquale, senior adviser to Roach, could not confirm whether the mayor had seen the letter, which was distributed July 12 to him and Common Council members by email. She said that the mayor”™s office had no comment on Diamond”™s letter or its contents while the project approval process continued.
Specifically, Diamond, who holds a doctoral degree in economics from Texas A&M, refuted a claim made by John Ravitz, executive vice president of The Business Council of Westchester, at the White Plains Common Council meeting on July 7 that the project would bring millions of dollars in economic benefits to White Plains.
“I”™m just going to specifically talk about a few numbers, because the numbers really do speak for themselves,” Ravitz said at the meeting. “When you look at the FASNY project, it”™s important to note that it”™s going to bring in the revenue for Westchester County and the city of White Plains. The new campus will generate $14.3 million in annual economic benefits for businesses in White Plains and an additional $22 million for businesses throughout the county.”
Reached by phone, Diamond told the Business Journal that the numbers presented by the French-American School and its proponents just don”™t add up. He said the numbers presented don”™t account for the loss of property taxes paid by Ridgeway Country Club or the lost opportunity to develop properties on the site that would pay property taxes, such as single-family homes.
“In the current situation with the Common Council acting as judges or arbiters of this information, there is no accountability or even effort to assess the veracity of various FASNY economic impact claims,” Diamond wrote. “If this matter goes to court, the judge will throw out all of FASNY”™s economic impact claims as unreliable.”
“I went through the trail, at least by the evidence they put there,” Diamond said. “They claim that hundreds of families would move into White Plains and that”™s how the revenue would be generated. But those families are going to buy existing homes. They haven”™t shown how reliable those numbers are.”
Because they would be buying existing homes those families would merely be replacing other taxpayers and giving no boost to the White Plains economy, Diamond said.
But representatives of the French-American School say that Diamond”™s conclusions are incorrect, as are implications that the economic forecasting in the school”™s plans is flawed.
“The economic modeling is required under (the State Environmental Quality Review Act), so people who challenge the models are essentially challenging SEQRA,” FASNY spokesman Geoffrey Thompson said. “The implication behind (the challenges) is that we didn”™t do the right things or follow the right procedures. We did.”
The economic modeling was done by consulting firm AKRF Inc. using software made by IMPLAN Group L.L.C. of Huntersville, N.C.
“This is the most comprehensive and in-depth study we”™ve done of a property in White Plains,” said Graham Trelstad, AKRF senior vice president. He said Diamond “calls into question the validity of the studies and models and I just don”™t think that holds water. Right now, the city isn”™t losing $280,000 in tax revenue because of the loss of Ridgeway Country Club, that revenue has already been lost. And even still, less than 1 percent of the White Plains operating fund is represented by that $280,000.”
Trelstad noted that IMPLAN modeling is used by private corporations as well as municipalities and other government entities across the country to develop economic impact projections. According to IMPLAN Group L.L.C.”™s website, its modeling was developed under the direction of the U.S. Forest Service in the 1970s, and it later spread to state and municipal governments.
“We stand behind our methodology,” Trelstad said. The IMPLAN modeling “is specific to New York state and Westchester County. The model uses specific multipliers for specific industries.”
Public hearings on the French-American School”™s proposal resumed at the Aug. 4 meeting of the White Plains Common Council. The hearings were adjourned and will continue Sept. 8 at 6:30 p.m.
