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WPCNR Southend Times. By John F. Bailey. December 15, 2004: Eight White Plains citizens, calling themselves the “Citizens’ Plan Committee,” have analyzed the execution of the 1997 Comprehensive Plan since the beginning of the Delfino Administration. They delivered their 66-page preliminary “state of the plan” report to Mayor Joseph Delfino and members of the Common Council, last week.
Robert Stackpole addressing about eighty persons in May at Our lady of Sorrows when Mike Graessle, former Commissioner of Planning called for a new look at the 1997 Comprehensive Plan for the city. A report generated as a result of this meeting was delivered this week to the Mayor, calling to start the process, saying the time is now to see where the city is at. Photo, WPCNR News Archive.
Their report targets issues they feel the city needs to address now as 21st Century White Plains evolves. The Committee alleges the city is allowing developers to determine how the city will evolve. They want the Mayor and Council to develop a tighter vision of what the city will become, by involving the members of the committee and the citizens of White Plains and ask for creation of a new Comprehensive Plan Task Force.
The CPC has invited the Mayor and Common Council to begin the process of updating the 1997 Plan by joining them and “the community” in a meeting to start the task on January 13 at Ridgeway School, at 7:30 P.M. The Mayor’s Office, to WPCNR knowledge at this time, has not responded with a statement on the invitation.
The eight leaders challenge the Mayor and the Council to take up the process they have begun with the issuance of their report. The 66-pager is entitled Citizens’ Plan Committee Approach to Updating the 1997 Comprehensive Plan, calls for a citywide Comprehensive Plan task force to undertake a “comprehensive examination” of a variety of issues, challenging the present administration to evaluate their assumptions.
The report is described as “an outgrowth” of a six-month effort by a number of well-known White Plains citizens, many of whom participated in the preparation of the 1997 plan, and who contributed to the new report.
The roster includes, Terrence M. Conroy (long Parking Authority member), Claire M. Eisenstadt (local architect), Michael Graessle (former Commissioner of Planning), John W. Harrington (White Plains history expert), Daniel P. Hickey (former Deputy Commissioner of Public Safety), John B. Kirkpatrick (development law and zoning expert), Robert H. Levine (architect/planner), John M. Martin (former councilman), Robert Myerson, ( 1997 Comprehensive Task Force Committee member) Marc Pollitzer (1997 Comprehensive Plan Task Force Member, Council of Neighborhood Associations personality), Robert Roston (Conservation Board Chair), Daniel R. Seidel (environmental law activist), Robert Stackpole (Planning Board member), Lewis P. Trippett (Board of Education member Emeritus), John M. Vorperian (county attorney and Council of Neighborhood Associations member), and Saul M. Yanofsky (Superintendent of Schools Emeritus).
Questions Development.
“The community didn’t knock itself out developing the 1997 Plan just to see it superseded by isolated development interests,” Committee member Bob Meyerson is quoted in the official press release as saying. Meyerson is a committee member, who worked on the 1997 plan, and says, “As a community, we articulated the importance of maintaining the City’s unique social and economic diversity and our proud tradition of distinct neighborhoods complemented by a vibrant commercial sector.”
The roster of preparers of this report does not include representatives of the African-American community, the Hispanic community, the business community, the health community, restauranteurs, property owners of major parcels in the downtown, county government (White Plains is the County seat) or major “developers,” (Louis Cappelli, Peter Gilpatrick, Martin Ginsberg, Leon Silverman, Anthony Longhitano), whom the Committee sites as the major reasons for creating a new Comprehensive Plan now. All of the preparers live in the outlying ultra suburban, higher priced neighborhoods of the city, and the roster of preparers apparently do not appear to enlist the services of any residents of apartments.
The Challenges
The 66-pager isolates four areas of concern and asks the city consider with them and the community of White Plains
Finance:
The report, according to their press release expresses concern about city finances going into the future, calling attention to the need for closer analysis: “The long anticipated rebuilding of the core area, and extensive neighborhood infills have not, however, produced the positive financial impact that the citizens had reason to expect,”
Core Area:
The news release notes the $1 Billion of development underway, but suggests “it is time to take stock of all this development cumulatively.”
The Committee calls for setting limits if needed on building heights, determining impacts on infrastructure, figuring the city capacity for additional development and whether zoning should or should not be revised.
Neighborhoods
The news release asks that the new Comprehensive Plan is needed to address the need for affordable housing, protection against “commercial encroachment.”
Transportation, Traffic and Parking
The CPC report calls on the city to make an independent study (not developer-funded), to create a “comprehensive approach” to parking and traffic. The report advances the opinion that “a beneficial fit between daytime and evening/night parking demand” would be the result of the present development, but “it hasn’t worked out that way.”
The CPC release also asks that part of the “2005 Comprehensive Plan” preparation answer questions on the effects of:
· Development and illegal housing on school capacity and funding.
· The St. Agnes Hospital closing.
· Expansion of White Plains Hospital Medical Center.
· Renovation of City Hall.
· Post 9/11 Concerns.
· Using the City Heritage to economic advantage.
· Active recreation facilities.
· Resolution of the New York Presbyterian Hospital land conflict.
· Design of the emerging city.
Letter to the Mayor – Review of Plan, two years overdue.
The Committee, in delivering its report to the Mayor and Common Council last week, described the report as a next step after their May, 2004 meeting at which 100 persons attended a meeting at Our Lady of Sorrows that called for a review.
Their cover letter pointed out that the 1997 Comprehensive Plan called for a review every five years, and it has now been seven years since the plan has been reviewed. The Committee said that the report submitted this week was “In response,” to that meeting and that they “organized a participatory effort along the lines of the previous Comprehensive Plan Task Force to:”
1.) Review original (1997) Plan assumptions, projections and recommendations
2.) inventory and evaluate what has been accomplished thus far so that we could
3.) seek the interest and involvement of elected City officials and staff and of all citizens of White Plains to
4.) update the Plan for 2005, as appropriate.
The letter closes as follows:
Our Phase 1 and 2 efforts have resulted in the enclosed document. We’d like you to read it and we’d like to talk to you about its implications before making it generally available on Tuesday, December 14th, in anticipation of public meetings, the first of which will be held on January 13, 2005. We want to work together with you on Phases 3 and 4; please get in touch with Committee Member Robert Stackpole at XXX-XXXX. We look forward to your response with enthusiasm.
The letter is signed by members of the Citizens’ Plan Committee: Michael J. Graessle, John W. Harrington, John B. Kirkpatrick, Robert H. Levine, Robert H. Myerson, Marc Pollitzer, Robert J. Stackpole, and Saul M. Yanofsky.