Citizens Group Files Article 78 Petition to Stop Armonk CVS

A local group opposing the Armonk CVS application filed an Article 78 petition last week in hopes of annulling the North Castle Town Board’s special use permit and the planning board’s negative declaration last month.

Concerned Citizens of Armonk filed the action in state Supreme Court on Aug. 23 arguing that the town board failed to support its decision to grant the permit with substantial evidence and ignored reports from the group’s experts concluding the chain pharmacy would have an adverse impact on the hamlet’s downtown. The town board voted 3-2 on July 25 to approve the permit.

The petition also claims that the planning board skirted state Environmental Quality Review requirements by neglecting to consider environmental and economic impacts CVS could cause. The planning board issued its declaration two nights before the town board’s approval of the permit.

“In this case it was not an instance of reasonable minds disagreeing. Or even a matter

of choosing amongst competing experts,” Jeffrey Baker, the attorney representing Concerned Citizens, said in a prepared statement. “In this case, a majority of the Town Board and the Planning Board failed to fulfill their legal responsibilities when evaluating the CVS

special permit application.”

In last week’s petition, the group also continued to claim that Councilwoman Diane DiDonato-Roth, a realtor, should have recused herself from the special use permit vote because she helped find a tenant for landlord Werber Management in town about 10 years ago. She also listed another property from December 2006 until June 2007 for Werber and has misrepresented her continued involvement in Armonk real estate, said Greg Lane, a spokesman for Concerned Citizens of Armonk.

She ran for town board in 2009. DiDonato-Roth along with Supervisor Howard Arden and Councilman John Cronin, voted to approve the permit in a split vote.

CVS is looking to move into the nearly 20,000-square-foot space at the Armonk Shopping Center on Main Street formerly occupied by A&P, which vacated the premises in February. The latest plans call for more than 17,000 square feet for CVS while about 2,500 square feet will be filled by a retail operator. The application still needs site plan approval from the planning board and is on that board’s agenda for Sept. 10.

When reached over the weekend, Arden and DiDonato-Roth said they remained confident that the courts will reject Concerned Citizens’ contentions. Arden called the group’s decision “a shame” because the town doesn’t have much financial liability on the issue. It would also delay filling a large vacant storefront, which is a detriment to the town, he said.

“They will probably be dealing with CVS’ attorneys,” Arden said. “Then what’s the objective? That they have to do another study and you delay it three months.”

DiDonato-Roth called Concerned Citizens selfish for initiating litigation. She said key members of the group are some of the same people who encouraged the previous town board to delay taking action that would have allowed Werber Management to renovate the shopping center and the space for A&P. That decision paved the way for CVS to move in.

“They’re trying to grab on to anything they can to further themselves and they’re not thinking of the town as a whole,” she said. “Now this is just going to cost the town money for no reason.”

Lane said contrary to the town board majority’s opinions, Concerned Citizens isn’t a small group of merchants that only want to protect their business interests. In addition to Charlene Jacobi, owner of Town Center Pharmacy, and Judy Gilmartin-Willsey, owner of Framings, other names listed as petitioners are several Annandale Street residents who live near the shopping and are worried about the impacts of a CVS.

“We’d like it to be handed back to the town for appropriate review,” Lane said. “That’s what we would like to see happen.”

One of the group’s experts stated that a CVS would “have a lasting impact” on businesses in the hamlet and is likely to have a negative effect on the community’s character.

“The CVS represents the first significant in-road of a national retail chain that is likely to irreversibly alter Armonk’s unique character,” said Kennedy Smith, a principal with the Community Land-Use and Economics Group.