Accepting a $1 million donation from a developer would not be a violation of the Greenburgh town ethics code, according to a ruling Thursday from the town Ethics Board.
There is not a written opinion from the board yet, but Town Supervisor Paul Feiner, a Democrat, said he had been informed of the decision. The money must be used to purchase a 28.7-acre slice of land that would be added to Taxter Ridge Park, which is in Tarrytown, a village with its own government and services but that is part of the town of Greenburgh.
“I believe that it”™s important to balance new development with open space preservation,” Feiner said. “That”™s why Greenburgh has the ‘green’ before the ‘burgh’ in its name.” He said the village has agreed to pay for maintenance of the property, although some residents have noted there is no formal written commitment to do so from the village”™s board of trustees.
AvalonBay Communities Inc. and Robert Martin Company L.L.C. signed a deal with the president of a local civic group in 2009, with assurances that the members of the group would not oppose or delay a 444-unit apartment project called Avalon Green II. The developer now wants to build an additional 68 units, with their new application pending.
The East Irvington Civic Association, which represents not Tarrytown but a neighborhood in Greenburgh, negotiated the deal without input from the town, according to officials. Although the deal was signed five years ago, the group”™s president only recently notified Greenburgh”™s Town Board of the donation, Feiner said. The donation offer expires at the end of the month, and some community members have taken issue with the secret nature of the deal and that it came to light after five years so close to its expiration date.
Amid some community backlash, Feiner and Councilman Francis Sheehan, a Democrat, wrote separate letters to the Ethics Board requesting an expedited review of the situation. The Ethics Board said the issues raised about the donation could be considered when voting on whether to accept it but that none of the issues seemed to directly contradict the town ethics code.
Another civic group, the Edgemont Community Council, has been critical of the deal. The group’s president, Robert Bernstein, on its Facebook page has said the deal favors several representatives of the East Irvington civic group. Two of the members named in the agreement, he said, live in Tarrytown and not East Irvington ”“ with all three individuals named standing to gain property values of their homes from a parkland “buffer” that would be enlarged by the new parkland.
Bernstein said on the page after the ruling that the donation’s acceptance was now a “foregone conclusion.”
“Residents who feel that the ”˜gift”™ may involve official wrongdoing, including the possibility that town officials participated in extorting money from the developer in exchange for getting various land use approvals, may now have to contact state and federal law enforcement to ask that they look into the matter,” he said.
Feiner said the Town Board will vote on the measure Sept. 30, with public comment open ”“ though it appears elected officials are expecting to vote in favor of accepting the donation.
