Yorktown’s Faulty Student Projections is Why Another Voice is Needed
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
I am voting for Jann Mirchandani for Yorktown supervisor in the Apr. 16 special election. She will represent the interests of taxpayers not developers.
Jann will not accept at face value unbelievable claims of developers. For example, at the Mar. 5 Town Board meeting, the deputy supervisor now opposing Jann, falsely claimed that the student projections from the Underhill development project included students whose families bought large houses from the senior citizens moving to the proposed development. Jann would have challenged this undercount of projected students, perhaps as much as 50 percent.
Note that at the same time the Yorktown schools were analyzing their space needs, which resulted in the passage of a $56 million bond that included building new classroom wings for three of the district’s elementary schools.
The flawed student projection contributed to the following false conclusion of the developer:
“Thus, the Yorktown CSD is presumed to have availability in its existing infrastructure to accommodate this increase in student population…The anticipated increase in student population will not have a significant impact on administrative or capital needs of the district…the district’s existing facilities are expected to have capacity to handle the anticipated increase in students.” (Fiscal Analysis Underhill Farms pages 5 and 6; underlining added by the writer.)
You don’t presume when millions of dollars are at stake. Pick up the phone and ask the school district. The undercount of students and failure to include the cost of adding new classroom space resulted in a grossly inaccurate estimate of the tax benefits, accepted without critical analysis by the Town Board.
This is just one of many examples of taxpayers, not Town Board members, pointing out obvious problems with the developer’s proposal. We can do much better. Jann can. I’m voting for Jann Mirchandani on Apr. 16.
Larry Kilian
Yorktown Heights
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