Greenburgh Ethics Board to Review $1 million Avalon Green Donation
By Jon Craig –
The Greenburgh Town Council has until Oct. 1 to approve a developer’s $1 million donation to buy nearly 29 acres of open space along a park in Tarrytown.
The town’s Ethics Board is expected to meet on Sept. 10 to determine if there are any conflicts of interest or if any laws were ignored while setting up the deal which only recently became public.
Avalon Green developers signed a contract with an East Irvington homeowner association on Oct. 31, 2009, to donate $1 million to buy open space. The Robert Martin Corp. and AvalonBay Communities Inc. agreed to donate $1 million to Greenburgh to purchase open space and help mitigate the impact of 544 condominium apartments they built in two phases off of Taxter Road. Another 68 apartment units are proposed under phase III of Avalon Green, within unincorporated Greenburgh as well as the Elmsford School District. The Town Board is considering a site change to phase III which includes moving a building to reduce excavation and truck traffic.
The East Irvington Civic Association, which negotiated the agreement, wants the money used to buy 28.7 acres in Tarrytown. The land abuts the roughly 200-acre Taxter Ridge Park in East Irvington, which the town, county and state bought 10 years ago to prevent overdevelopment.
Under the agreement, the Greenburgh Town Council has until Oct. 1 to endorse the $1 million for purchase of open space.
Greenburgh Supervisor Paul Feiner said he wants to transfer the land in unincorporated Greenburgh to Tarrytown to maintain and has a letter from the village administrator saying it would accept the property.
“That’s the beauty of this thing. There’s no financial impact to unincorporated Greenburgh,” said Danny Gold, president of the East Irvington Civic Association. “It’s hard for me to see the negative.”
But beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, according to Greenburgh Councilman Francis Sheehan, who is seeking an Ethics Board opinion on the agreement.
Feiner has asked the Ethics Board for an expedited review. The Ethics Board has invited Gold to its review on Sept. 10.
“I hope that the Ethics Board will support the request to accept the one million dollar donation. If we don’t accept the donation the developer gets to keep the money according to the terms of the agreement,” Feiner said.
“I would like to emphasize that no member of the Town Board or town officials were aware of the agreement between the Avalon and the East Irvington Civic Association until recently. We were not influenced in any way by their donation since we were not aware of it,” Feiner said. “The Town Board must make a decision before the end of September — or we lose the donation.”
Feiner said that while the Town Board approved the AvalonBay housing application, “no member of the Town Board, including myself, was aware of the agreement between the East Irvington Civic Association and Avalon Bay communities for a $1 million donation to be made to mitigate the impacts of the multifamily project known as Avalon Green II.”
No member of the Town Board or staff was aware that the million dollars was offered prior to approvals being granted, according to Feiner, who added, “No member of the Board solicited any donations directly or indirectly. The chair of the East Irvington Civic Association did not communicate the agreement to town officials until a few weeks ago.”
The town will never get title to the property, Feiner said. “I personally do not believe that we are violating the ethics code. I think it is important for the Ethics Board to know that no member of the Board could be influenced or was influenced by the gift in the performance of our official duties because we were not aware of the gift before endorsing the proposal.”
The Town Board must vote to endorse the donation by Oct. 1. otherwise, the developers will keep the $1 million.
Gold said the five-year contract expires Dec. 1. The agreement had a confidentiality clause, he said. His group represents about 325 homes near Taxter Road.
Gold said traffic is terrible in the neighborhood and has, in the past, suggested installing a traffic signal along Route 9.
“It’s unbelievable to me that people can be opposed to something so positive,” Gold said of the land deal.
But a couple of town residents, including Bob Bernstein of Edgemont, are questioning why the town of Greenburgh needs to be involved in the land deal at all.
Bernstein told The Journal News it “looks fishy” to have the civic association approach the town at the last minute about a $1million deal. He also wondered if the land being purchased is even worth $1 million. “We’re asking why are they doing it and why are they doing it this way,” he said.
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