A federal monitor has put on hold his review of local towns”™ and villages”™ zoning codes until the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban development adopts a “considered, unified voice.”
James E. Johnson, of the New York City law firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, is overseeing the county”™s implementation of the settlement of a 2009 affordable housing lawsuit. In a Sept. 26 letter to HUD, Johnson defended an analysis he had conducted of local zoning codes after HUD sent its own letter criticizing the monitor”™s work.
“Given the letter, I cannot ask these communities to continue their efforts until there is a clear signal from the federal government,” Johnson said. He had been working with three out of six municipalities that his analysis said had zoning laws that contributed to a lack of integration of minority populations.
This is just the latest impasse over the implementation of the lawsuit settlement, with Westchester County having lost another $5 million in federal Community Development Block Grants. The federal government has rejected eight different submissions of an analysis of impediments, a requirement of the settlement, filed by the administration of County Executive Rob Astorino. Those analyses identified no impediments.
Westchester communities have lost out on $22 million in the grants dating to 2011 due to the standoff, from which Astorino said in a recent interview that he had no intentions of backing away from.
“It”™s not worth $5 million; it”™s not worth a billion dollars,” he said. Members of the administration have said what HUD wants is a dismantling of local zoning and to find exclusionary practices where there are none.
In 2009, prior to Astorino”™s election, the county agreed to settle a housing lawsuit by building or obtaining 750 units of affordable housing ”“ mostly in 31 Westchester towns and villages where the black and Hispanic populations made up less than 2 percent and 7 percent, respectively, of the overall population.
HUD, in a Sept. 24 letter, took issue with a number of aspects of a recent report by the monitor ”“ his second ”“ conducted by the request of members of the county Board of Legislators. In it, he found Harrison, Larchmont, Lewisboro, North Castle, Pelham Manor and Rye Brook either restricted multifamily housing to areas with large minority populations or restricted development of housing types “most often used by minority residents.”
Glenda L. Fussa, HUD”™s deputy regional counsel for New York/New Jersey, in the letter to the monitor, took issue with several aspects of the analysis, including the fact it absolved municipalities of liability. She said those determinations “have a chilling effect on potential claimants under the Fair Housing Act.”
“We can also expect that the Monitor”™s Analysis will be produced by these municipalities as having precedential value and providing authoritative evidence to fend off claims of discrimination in other cases,” the letter said.
Johnson called HUD”™s criticisms flawed and in his response said he had concerns HUD”™s letter “does not reflect the considered judgment of the senior legal team of HUD.”
Even prior to the disagreement between the monitor and HUD, the county executive said he would not adopt the report. He said the analysis and a previous study conducted by Johnson would “completely undermine the principle of Home Rule since the county would be agreeing to turn over decision making on local zoning to a federal agency.”
Several legislators had taken issue with Johnson”™s report deeming certain areas in communities to be “desirable” or “less desirable.” HUD”™s letter agreed with that sentiment because it said the analysis did not indicate the criteria used to determine desirability.
To be honest I would also like to know why it is considered okay to place the Larchmont development sandwiched between two gas stations, a railroad track and I95? If they actually go through with the development I wonder what the long term health effects will be for residents especially children growing up there. It is really shameful this is not being considered.