THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR | 2,905,611 VISITORS VISIT 8,324,077 TIMES 3 TIMES EVERY DAY IN ONE YEAR. HIGHEST ACTIVITY IN WPCNR HISTORY.White PlainsCitizeNetReporter lifted its worldwide visits from unique visitors to wpcnr.com to 8,324,077,a 1,306,419 increase in visits in one year from 7,017,658 visits to the site last year which covers White Plains and Westchester County. The 8,324,077 visits were made by 2,005,611 unique visitors who visited wpcnr an average of 3 visits a day. ON JULY 20- -2026 visitors have accessed wpcnr and made 3,072 visits an average of 1.6 visits. In the last week 33,495 individual vistors made 54,458 visits, averaging 1.6 visits. In the last month, 152,940 visitors recorded 229,338 visits (1.5 visits)

PHOTOGRAPH OF THE DAY — PUBLIC PRIVATE PARK TO OPEN TODAY —

Posted on July 9, 2015 by John Bailey

LOUIS CAPPELLI OF CAPPELLI ENTERPRISES THE BUILDER OF WHITE PLAINS CITY CENTER AND THE RITZ-CARLTON COMPLEX WILL DEDICATE A PUBLIC PARK BETWEEN THE RITZ CARLTON AND CONDOMINIUM TOWERS AND GRACE CHURCH TODAY AT 11:45 A.M.. THE PARK WAS RECEIVING ITS FINAL TOUCHES YESTERDAY.

Letters We Get Lots and Lots of Letters — Council Ignores Own Comprehensive Plan if they Approve FASNY, Writer Says

Posted on July 8, 2015 by John Bailey

WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. JULY 8, 2015:

Dear Mayor and Common Council,

We were gratified to see your growing skepticism of FASNY’s mitigation efforts, which seem to us to be insufficient (e.g.. under the legal standard set forth in Cornell for a clearly oversized dream project), ill-conceived (e.g., with closure of an important thoroughfare considered mitigation), illusory (e.g., incorporating a two phase approach when it’s first phase already breaches the boundaries of acceptable), and unreliable (e.g., founded on questionable traffic analysis, criticized by many, including our Board of Education).

We accept Mr. Kirkpatrick’s opinion that our neighborhood must embrace change; however, we question his judgment on the change he considers acceptable. We can think of change in at least two dimensions: slow and incremental or radical. There is no question that the FASNY development would bring radical change to our and other neighborhoods. We note with satisfaction that the White Plains Comprehensive Plan as updated embraces change for our City in many respects. However, the type of change contemplated for our and other residential neighborhoods is change that “preserves” the scale and character of these neighborhoods. This, in our view, means change of the moderate and incremental type (as the rezoning to R1-30 illustrates) not the radical variety. Excerpts from the Comprehensive Plan:

“The preference in the 1997 Plan for modest residential growth in the Close-In and Outer Areas remains appropriate. The 2001 Zoning Ordinance amendments which aligned the zoning to the existing densities of these areas, and thereby reduced overall development potential, are consistent with the 1997 Plan objectives of preserving the character of the neighborhoods in these areas. The 1997 Plan strategies for limiting new housing development in the Close-In and Outer Areas to that which is consistent with the character of the existing neighborhoods is affirmed in this 2006 Update.” (p. I-II-37, 2006 Modifications to 1997 Comprehensive Plan Housing Recommendation.)

“This Plan reflects a vision for the City’s neighborhoods based on preserving the scale and character of these diverse residential areas. Although each neighborhood is unique, the need to maintain a high-quality of residential life at the neighborhood level is the common thread that binds all of the City’s neighborhoods.” (p. II-I-45, Neighborhoods Vision Statement.)

“Like the vision for the Close-In neighborhoods, the vision for the Outer Area neighborhoods focuses on preservation – preservation of neighborhood diversity and sense of community; preservation of the high-quality homes on spacious lots; and preservation of tree-lined streets, public open spaces and substantial portions of open space on quasi-public and private institutional and commercial properties. It also focuses on controlling growth through the reduction in permitted densities on large undeveloped and underdeveloped residential parcels and through the strict regulation of development, ensuring that new housing is compatible with the character of the surrounding area and is developed in a manner sensitive to the open space and environmental features of the individual sites and neighborhoods.” (p. II-I-58, Vision Statement for Outer Area Neighborhoods.)

Accordingly, we think that Mr. Kirkpatrick’s vision of the type of acceptable neighborhood change should be shaped not by his own personal opinion but rather by what our City’s governing documents envision.

Sincerely,

Max & Gail Schwartz

North Street Nightmares That Will Not Go Away, Letter Writer Says

Posted on July 6, 2015 by John Bailey

WPCNR THE LETTER TICKER. JULY 6, 2015:

Dear Major Roach and Common Council Members,

I don’t know if all of you are aware of the situation at the YWCA on North Street. There are hundreds and hundreds of cars going in and out all day. Day care, nursery school, all sorts of programs plus Hazel’s a small restaurant down stairs.

During the day there are hundreds of teens from the high school crossing North Street to eat over there. They literally stand on the median in the middle of the street to get across. They don’t always pay attention to a traffic light. I know this first hand because I take my young grandchildren there for classes. Talk about a dangerous situation for our White Plains children.

With all FASNY busses (if project is approved and built) and cars on North Street you can be guaranteed of an accident.

I hope you all have driven down North Street to see the work being done for the German School. When that opens in the fall we are talking about another possible disaster.

This would be a very small fraction of the FASNY 10-year construction nightmare).

You seriously have to consider these situations.

Thank you,

Sharon Gould

URSTADT BIDDLE QUIETLY ANNOUNCED PENDING SALE OF WHITE PLAINS PAVILION TWO MONTHS AGO

Posted on July 4, 2015 by John Bailey

WPCNR EAST SIDE STORY. From Urstadt-Biddle Properties. July 4, 2015:

In April Urstadt-Biddle Properties announced in a news release they were attempting to sell the White Plains Pavilion mall on Maple Avenue, adjacent the Crowne Plaza Hotel. The news release reads:

Urstadt Biddle Properties Inc. (the “Company”) (NYSE: UBA and UBP), a real estate investment trust, announced today that it has entered into a contract to sell its Westchester Pavilion Property located in White Plains, NY (“Pavilion”). The purchaser is Maple and Broadway Holdings, LLC, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Lennar Corporation through its Lennar Multi-Family Communities, LLC subsidiary (“Lennar”) (NYSE:LEN). Operating in twenty-one states, Lennar is one of the country’s largest homebuilders. The Pavilion is a 190,000 square foot retail shopping center located in White Plains, New York (Westchester County). In November 2014, the City of White Plains approved the Company’s request to change the zoning of the property to allow its development as a mixed-use property containing residential apartments above ground level retail and restaurant uses. The contract contains several contingencies that need to be satisfied in order for the transaction to close, and there is the possibility it may not close.

If all contingencies are satisfied, the Company expects the transaction to close at the end of fiscal 2015 or early fiscal 2016.

Commenting on the contract, Willing L. Biddle, UBP’s President and Chief Executive Officer said,

“Our Company has owned the Pavilion since the 2002. The property was originally a three story department store that, prior to our ownership, was converted to the retail shopping center it is today. Over the years, the property has become less competitive in the market-place. Its current configuration and condition prompted the Company to explore whether there might be a higher and better use for the site.

About two years ago, we began the process of petitioning the City of White Plains for a zoning change to permit the demolition of the buildings and the construction of a dynamic mixed use development containing a mixture of apartments and retail/restaurants. The City of While Plains and in particular Mayor Tom Roach were welcoming and supportive of our efforts and approved the zone change in November, 2014.

During the approval process we met with several prestigious development companies to consider as partners in the development – the plan being that UBP would own the retail/restaurant portion and our partner would own the residential portion.

As time went by it became more apparent that a better structure for our Company was an out-right sale of the property to a more experienced mixed-use developer and that developer was Lennar. We will continue to work closely with Lennar through the remainder of the approval process, which includes, among other things, site plan approval. The Company is in the process of resolving the remaining contingencies to permit a closing.”