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GREENBURGH, N.Y. — Westchester County Executive Rob Astorino submitted a proposal to the Board of Legislators on Monday to allow the Greenburgh Town Board to lease the WestHELP property to Ferncliff Manor.
Last year, the WestHELP property was contracted by the Greenburgh Housing Authority to keep the complex classified as affordable housing after WestHELP closed. Leasing to Ferncliff would violate the terms of the county's agreement, said County Legislator Alfreda Williams, who represents Greenburgh on the county board.
Astorino's proposed amendment would add WestHELP to a list of properties to which "the county shall not execute any leases either as lessor or lessee for a term exceeding 30 years," allowing Greenburgh to lease the property to Ferncliff.
Astorino's proposal has been long-awaited by Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner, who said Ferncliff would bring in twice as much income as any affordable housing project. But the proposal still needs a majority of the county board's votes to take effect, which board press secretary Tom Staudter said is not likely to happen.
"The majority of the board is sticking by the commitment they've made initially, which is to keeping the property dedicated to affordable housing," Staudter said. "There's an end run that's trying to be accomplished, and it's not going to happen."
Both Williams and County Board Chairman Ken Jenkins still support affordable housing at the site, especially since Greenburgh's homeless population has increased over the past few years, Staudter said.
"This facility was built years ago when there was a problem, and the problem hasn't changed," he said.
In addition, the county board is against Ferncliff's plan to raze the existing WestHELP apartments and built new facilities on the property because it would eliminate a perfectly good stock of affordable housing, Williams said.
"WestHELP site is fully usable as it is," she said. "To tear down and rebuild — it doesn't make too much sense to me."
The Greenburgh Town Board stated on Sept. 14 that if Astorino didn't send the proposal, it would issue a request for proposals from other willing tenants. Though Astorino's proposal has been received, a Greenburgh Town Hall spokesman said the Town Board still plans to discuss the RFPs at Tuesday's work session at 9:30 a.m.
Ferncliff Manor, based in Yonkers, is a private residential school for children with severe developmental disabilities.
Comments (1)
As with most Feiner of Feiner's stories, few, if any, elements bear any passing resemblance to the truth.
Whatever "Last year the WESTHELP property was contracted by the Greenburgh Housing Auhtority to keep the complex classified as affordable housing after WESTHELP closed" means, it definitely doesn't mean that the GHA is paying any rent nor does it mean that any of the 108 units were occupied in the year since WESTHELP left.
Neither does the article mention that Ferncliff's rent ("$530,000") is less than HALF of what WESTHELP was paying ($1,200,000) but it does find room for a Feiner quote that Ferncliff would be paying twice what any affordable housing use would bring in.
Neither does the article mention that ANYTHING the Town gets by renting the facility is a gift from the County to Greenburgh -- all they ask of Greenburgh is to find an affordable use tenant.
Nor does the article mention that Ferncliff (here labeled a private residential school) has but 56 residential clients with only a handful of these "affordable housing" qualified whereas the existing facility has 108 units which the Town's stewardship is allowing to fall into disrepair.
And the article doesn't mention that this matter has been discussed for months by the County Board and Feiner (in non civil terms) at its weekly meetings and that previous votes by them have been opposed to tearing down the 108 units constructed at taxpayer expense.
Also missing is the County's offer to provide a nearby alternative site to Ferncliff and the information that NO rent would be paid by Ferncliff until the new campus is built -- easily three years in the future whereas an affordable housing tenant could be up and operating within a year. And for those keeping track of Feiner's efforts to keep taxes down, Feiner's contributing "negligence" in not renewing the expiring lease with WESTHELP when it was possible has cost the Town dearly since this rent was the Town's second highest source of revenue ($1,200,000) after property taxes. If stated the way Feiner likes to state leases (total rent over the term), a 10 year lease renewal with Ferncliff might have brought in $12,000,000. However, with $0 collected for the first year of vacancy, the Town continues to lose $100,000 per month.
And, most of all, the article doesn't mention the "why" or the history of this problem but that would take up space reminding readers about the troubling history of the Feiner's meddling to appease the local civic association. But if rent to keep taxes down were ever important, Feiner's giving away half of the rent to the Valhalla School District (now struck down by the Courts, returning the proceeds to the Town, $1.8 million settled for $1.1) might be another reason to view the College as another giving in to NIMBY fears. And since Astorino's best bud on the County payroll headed up the civic association, readers may know better where Astorino is coming from.
Nor has Feiner gone out of his way to find a higher paying affordable housing tenant. Like the GameON proposal, no advertising in appropriate media and no hiring of real estate marketing professionals. Instead, the drums.
So what you have is not what you get, but what you don't see,
Hal Samis