Brynwood project review on hold this year

The North Castle Town Board has postponed a review of a $105 million Brynwood Golf and Country Club redevelopment project after the project developer donated $78,000 to the campaign of two town board incumbents up for election this fall.

After financial disclosure filings at the state Board of Election confirmed that the developer, Brynwood Partners L.L.C., made the campaign contributions, the town board decided to postpone review of the Brynwood project until an outside legal counsel and the town”™s board of ethics examined the legality and appropriateness of the donations.

Committee For A Better North Castle, a political action committee formed by country club owners Jeffrey B. Mendell and Edward Baquero, were cleared of legal wrongdoing, but the town board decided to postpone the ethics board”™s review process until next year.

The ethics board, which is currently short one member, will not review the case until Jan. 1 when the newly elected board members take office.

“Because of the timeframe it takes to do public hearings and the SEQRA [State Environmental Quality Review Act] process, it was pretty obvious we weren”™t going to get through it by the end of the year,” said Howard Arden, North Castle town supervisor. “By having a new board come in by January, there will be at least one new member on the town board who can join the ethics board and pick up the process.”

Opponents of the Brynwood project argued three of the four current members of the ethics board should be replaced because they are members of the Brynwood Golf and Country Club and may present biased opinions, Arden said.

Brynwood Partners representatives declined to comment on the board”™s decision to delay the project. Before the town board voted to place a hold on the Brynwood project, Mark Weingarten, attorney for Brynwood Partners, said his client was confident the campaign donations wouldn”™t slow down the project.

The project has not only slowed down, but Diane DiDonato-Roth, the only political candidate openly in support of the Brynwood project, has dropped out of the race, Arden said.

“Frankly, delaying it until January also solves some issues because the one person the campaign financing was primarily promoting is not going to be on the board next year,” Arden said.

The candidates running for the two North Castle town board seats are Democrats Jose L. Berra and Barry S. Reiter and Republicans Barbara E. DiGiacinto and John J. Cronin.

At press time, none of the candidates had responded to emails sent through their campaign websites about their stance on the Brynwood project. If approved, the project would build 88 luxury condominiums on the 156-acre property near Armonk.