Robert Greene, who resigned from the North Castle Planning Board two weeks ago, said that he resigned because of fear of a lawsuit over the Brynwood project.
The Brynwood project, which involves building a residential country club community at the Brynwood Golf and Country Club has been highly controversial in the town.
Greene lives at nearby Windmill Farms, where residents oppose the plan for 88 luxury condominiums. He said that Brynwood threatened to sue the town of North Castle if Greene didn”™t recuse himself.
“I didn”™t want to be involved in a lawsuit nor have the taxpayers of North Castle exposed to the risk of lawsuit, so I resigned,” Greene said. “I was told that they claimed I was biased against their application.”
Mark Weingarten, the attorney representing Brynwood denied Greene”™s allegations about a potential lawsuit or that they forced him to resign.
Greene, who was only nine months into a four-year term, said that he didn”™t want to resign. Greene said he plans to be involved in the Brynwood application as a private citizen.
“I will be sure that their application is fair to North Castle taxpayers,” he said.
Supervisor Howard Arden said that Greene”™s resignation is a big loss for the town and said he was upset about the town”™s 3-2 vote to begin the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) process at a Sept. 27 town board meeting.
Arthur Adelman, the current vice chairman, will replace Greene as chairman of the board.
