To chants of “Move Mount Vernon Forward,” business and church leaders Wednesday joined elected officials in calling on Westchester County Executive Robert P. Astorino to free up some $4 million in county financing for a private developer”™s housing project on downtown Gramatan Avenue.
The rally, organized by Mount Vernon Mayor Clinton Young”™s office, was held on a vacant commercial lot at 203 Gramatan Ave., where Atlantic Development Group was expected to begin construction this summer of a 14-story, approximately $58.5-mllion apartment tower with ground-floor retail space. It is the first of three residential buildings planned by the New York City developer in a three-phase, $120-million development opposite Mount Vernon”™s Hartley Park.
The developer has agreed to invest $100,000 in improvements to the park, said Yolanda Robinson, Young”™s chief of staff.
Young at the rally said the development, at the gateway to the city”™s economically distressed downtown, would spark the “transformation” of Mount Vernon and attract more middle-class residents to the city while generating property and sales tax revenue. “This is something that will help this city in a great way,” he said.
Astorino, though, last year told the developer the project was not cost-efficient and the county would not commit housing funds that had been pledged by the administration of former County Executive Andrew J. Spano. Astorino later vetoed the spending item in the 2011 county budget.
George Oros, Astorino”™s chief of staff, previously told the Business Journal the county must focus its bonding for housing projects to comply with the federal housing settlement that requires Westchester to build 750 units of affordable housing in 31 predominantly white municipalities. Mount Vernon, a leader in construction of low-income and affordable housing in the county, is not among those target communities.
“There isn”™t this pot of gold set aside,” Oros said. “We do have to focus on the settlement areas.”
The county Board of Legislators overrode Astorino”™s veto and restored the Mount Vernon appropriation to its adopted budget. In May a bipartisan majority of legislators approved $3.71 million in New Homes Land Acquisition funds to finance the affordable-housing portion of the Atlantic project.
Project supporters, though, claim Astorino has since held up the county bonding for the project with what county Legislator Lyndon Williams, a Mount Vernon Democrat and board vice chairman, called “foot-dragging tactics” and “false claims of procedural oversights.”
Oros in a recent online meeting with The Journal News editorial board reiterated the administration”™s focus on financing projects that satisfy the county”™s housing settlement obligation. He acknowledged the county was not precluded from backing other projects and had provided bond financing for two other affordable-housing projects in communities not included in the settlement.
Williams told the rally audience, “The administration is saying, even though this is the law, we”™re not going to follow the law. What message does this send to all of the business community who are looking to invest in this county when the word of the county cannot be trusted?”
Joining in the rally chants was Augustine Lee, owner of Cafeteria 57 on Gramatan Avenue. Formerly a practicing architect, Lee chose to become a small-business owner and opened his downtown coffee shop in September. “I”™m still struggling but we”™re still here,” he said.
Lee told the rally crowd the Atlantic Development project, which includes renovations to the city”™s nearby Sidney Avenue parking garage, will add needed parking spaces to the Gramatan Avenue retail area. The project will benefit both the city and the county, he said.
“The sooner the better,” said Lee, “because we are in this hard economic crisis.”
