Good fence doesn’t make good neighbors on this Scarsdale block

A Scarsdale company is suing its neighbors for building structures across and around a stream that have allegedly caused flooding on its property.

Renkon Worldwide Services accused Evan and Carrie Halpern of creating a nuisance, in a May 25 complaint filed in Westchester Supreme Court.

“Renkon brings this action to seek redress from the repeated and continuing damaging and dangerous flooding on it property,” the complaint states, “caused by the reckless, and at this point intentional, restriction of a natural watercourse by its downstream neighbors.”

Efforts to contact the Halperns for their side of the story failed.

The unnamed stream that runs through the Halpern and Renkon properties originates at Heathcote Duck Pond, flows north through the Murray Hill neighborhood, doglegs at Post Road near Scarsdale Public Library and peters out south of the public safety building.

Renkon Worldwide is a Delaware corporation that was registered in New York in 2018. The complaint does not describe the nature of its business.

Renkon bought the property at 10 Birch Lane for $3.3 million in 2018, according to a county property record. Zillow online real estate marketplace estimates that the 4-bedroom, 6,443-square-foot house built there in 2021 is worth about $6.4 million.

A 2019 Scarsdale planning board report lists the property owner as David Siegel.

The Halperns bought their property at 16 Burgess Road for $5.3 million in 2012. Zillow estimates that the 6-bedroom 6,603-square-foot home is worth $5.7 million.

Evan Halpern is a self-employed trader, according to a 2021 Federal Elections Commission political contribution record.

Scarsdale recognizes the stream as a riverine wetland, the complaint states, that is subject to strict regulations. For instance, a permit is required before anyone may divert or alter the stream’s natural course. A 25-foot buffer must be maintained around the stream to protect it from human activity and encroachment associated with development.

Renkon claims that the Halperns built up existing stone walls near the stream, extended the walls and built a fence across the stream near their border, in violation of city regulations.

When it rains, the complaint states, the stone walls channel water to a 36-inch culvert that acts like a bottleneck. Debris gets trapped at the fence and creates a dam.

Before the stone walls were built up and extended, Renkon claims, flooding was extremely rare. Now the purported impediments regularly cause flooding.

A 2021 storm, for example, allegedly created a 6-foot-deep, 30-foot-wide pool on the Renkon property.

Renkon claims it has repeatedly asked the Halperns to remove or remediate the structures but its neighbors have refused to take meaningful action.

The company accuses the couple of violating Scarsdale regulations, unlawful diversion of a natural watercourse, negligence, trespass, and creating a nuisance. It is demanding unspecified damages and a court order directing the Halperns to remove the fence and artificial restrictions to the stream.

Renkon is represented by White Plains attorneys Joshua J. Grauer and Brendan Goodhouse.