WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL-CHRONICLE EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey.May 14, 2007 UPDATED 3:07 PM EDT UPDATED 11:31 PM EDT: The controversy over the Bank Street Job, on the agenda for approval tonight, has been apparently orchestrated, contrived, if you will by the Common Council, since the Council was apprised of city plans to sell the property and promote it for development to 10 firms last May. Three alternate proposals to the LCOR plan were received. LCOR was selected because, in the city opinion, they had the best proposal, and were a known trusted developer according to City Executive Officer, Paul Wood. Wood told WPCNR this evening that LCOR’s proposal was selected because they were the only developer agreeing to build affordable housing on the scale the city was seeking.
The Common Council after hearing several voices in support and against, and hearing Peter Gilpatric say he had not broached the subject of removing the Plan B option from the LCOR approving legislation adjourned the public hearing on the LCOR Bank Street apartment project Monday evening until Thursday at 5 PM.
According to Council President Rita Malmud, Gilpatric said he had not had time to talk with his LCOR Board of Directors to modify or eliminate entirely the Plan B — which would, if the LCOR PILOT (of $29 Million according to the city, or $39 Million the way the Westchester County IDA figures the total tax abatement) is not approved by the council. Plan B would find LCOR paying the city a mere $8 Million for the land (instead of $15.5 Million), and building only 32 units of affordable housing.
Mr. Gilpatric, retreating into the night from City Hall, after discussions behind closed doors in the Mayor’s office, when asked by The CitizeNetReporter what kind of financing would be used to pay for the $260 Million LCOR project, said it would be public markets. Bill Null, the LCOR legal counsel, said municipal issues would not be used and the project would be floated on the open bond market at prevailing rates.
No Decision on Decision Night.
The Council, meeting in the Mayor’s Conference Room after the hearings on LCOR and the White Plains LLC proposal to build affordable housing in the City Center Municipal garage, did not approve the $154.5 Million city budget or set the salary increases for administration personnel as an addition to the budget which should bring the budget to about $156 Million. The council declined to discuss the salaries and preferred to do this Thursday at 4 PM. (This, despite Councilman Glen Hockley’s reverent comments that the council does everything in public, when Councilman Power and Councilperson Malmud were lobbying for more televised meetings and work sessions).
The rest of the budget action was approved without comment, including raising parking meter rates to $1 an hour on the street and 75 cents an hour in parking lots; adding Registration Fees and Inspection Fees for rental owners as a means of cracking down on substandard, illegal, unsafe housing. The reserve for financing stayed where it was at $4.7 Million (higher this year because of jobs expected to be filled being included in the budget), and the undesignated fund balance remained at $8.6 Million (including certiorari payments). The council also agreed with a provision in the budget allowing bonding for another $1 Million in certioraris.
To date, there has been no discussion of what raises the Mayor, the Executive Officer, the Corporation Counsel, and the rest of the city department heads, and the Common Council will be given. There is the possibility of course that no raises will be given out, in view of the budget squeeze the city is in. But should the raises average 4% it would raise the budget overall to $156 Million. Gina Cuneo-Harwood suggested the total raises for appointed personnel would total only about $200,000. We shall see Thursday.
Management & Budget Committee
Councilman Benjamin Boykin delivered a message from the Management and Budget Committee, which called for enactment of a hotel tax, and Councilperson Malmud was very enthusiastic about this.
Dennis Power, the Councilman, suggested that any sales tax increase (also recommended by the Budget and Management Committee) be shared with the school district. Power suggested that the only way the assembly legislator carrying the sales tax bill would agree with the sales tax increase the city is seeking would be if the city agreed to share some of the revenue with the school district.
The Mayor bristled at this saying he would only turn over sales tax money if the school district cut school property taxes by a commensurate amount. The Mayor griped, “Have you seen their salaries?”
That Nasty Old County Executive
The Mayor also reserved a few choice words for County Executive Andy Spano for not sharing County IDA money with the city. When Councilman Power said he supported a city IDA, the Mayor grumped, “that’s only because you know it’s going to be difficult to pass. But we’re going to try.”
Then the Mayor blew up at the “injustice,” sputtering, “County IDA gets Millions….Millions… of fees. You’d think the county would share it with us. I asked County Executive Spano, and he said “I take all the credit for everything you (the Mayor) do. How can I do that (give back IDA money) for you?”
Mr. Boykin also mentioned that the Management & Budget Committee suggested reining in health care benefits and salaries. Mr. Bernstein took exception to this “taking it out on the working man.”
PILOTS Not Costing City Anything in Taxes–Boykin
Benjamin Boykin, in reporting on the Management & Budget Committee report also explained that PILOTS are exactly what a property would pay in taxes if it were on the tax rolls. Afterwords, when it was pointed by the CitizeNetReporter that the PILOTS might be set at too low a number by the city assessor, either deliberately or by being instructed to do so, otherwise why would companies seek them, Boykin stuck to his guns saying that the PILOTS do go up over time at the same rate the property tax increase goes up and that companies sought the PILOTS to acquire sales, and mortgage tax relief from the Westchester County IDA. When the CitizeNetReporter suggested to Mr. Boykin that perhaps the PILOTS go out for too many years, he said that did matter, that the rising tax rate would take care of it and raise taxes fairly.
However, considering that Mr. Gilpatric had told the Westchester County IDA he was getting $39 Million tax abatement from the city, in order to receive IDA tax relief from sales and mortgage taxes, Mr. Boykin did not explain where the $39 Million, or by city math, $29 Million, is coming from if not from the real estate tax
Cappelli Says He is Required by Law to Give Electric Heat Credit
In the quiet approval process involving the 23 apartments White Plains LLC (Louis Cappelli’s holding company that owns the City Center), Bruce Berg said Cappelli Enterprises is willing to pay a percentage of electric heat rates as a credit on the rents of the affordable units that will be built in the City Center Garage — as his boss, Louis Cappelli indicated last Thursday evening. Berg said that White Plains affordable housing policy dictates that they follow HUD guidelines in figuring the credit and they would comply. The council requested a computation sheet from the Commissioner of Planning showing the “credit” ratio that Section 8 persons received off their utilities under present HUD guidelines.
The Commissioner of Planning said that rent on a 1 Bedroom apartment in the Cappelli City Center Garage building would be $1,450 a month, and on a 2-Bedroom, $1,650. The Corporation Counsel said the amount of the electric heat credit would be placed in the lease. The Cappelli matter will also be taken up again Thursday at 5 PM.
The Usual Outcry
Today, an urgent flyer has been sent out to citizens from Marc Pollitzer, Robert Levine and Robert Stackpole to show up this evening and protest the LCOR Deal, concluding with the battle cry: “Let’s not be Railsided again!” — a reference to the ill-fated sale of Railside Land which has not resulted in the revenue planned to be received by the city. The letter with the flyer reads:
WPCNR has also learned that the Common Council protests that they have not known enough about the Bank Street project to date, may simply be from lack of effort of the Common Council to find out about what was going on and adequately follow up on the endeavor to develop the lot which they approved of doing one year ago, according to Paul Wood, City Executive Officer.
Shopped to 10 Potential Developers
The prospect of selling the Bank Street Commuter Parking lot was discussed with the Common Council during the budget review one year ago, according to Paul Wood, City Executive Officer. He did not provide details, but said the lot was shopped to 10 potential developers.
Mr. Wood provided Requests for Qualifications (at WPCNR request) from qualified companies to develop the parcel which he said were sent out in June 2006 to Reckson Associates Realty Corporation, M Squared Development/TDC Development, Cooper Carry Architects, LCOR Incorporated, Robert Martin Company, Cappelli Enterprises, Delmhorst and Sheehan, Inc., Archstone Operating Trust; and Summit Development LLC and Greenfield Partners and Laz Parking. Requests for Qualifications were also sent to DelBello, Donnellan, Weingarten, Tartaglia, Wise & Wiederkehr, Leader Associates, Inc., Cuddy & Feder, Paragon Honda, KSQ Architects and Guy D,Antona.
Wood provided documents showing that Reckson “proposed office use, subsequently withdrew,” M Squared Development and TDC Development proposed 391 units of housing, and 4,874 square feet of retail; LCOR submitted its 536-unit proposal on target for approval on tonight’s agenda; Archstone Smith Operating Trust offered 430-440 Units and 14,000 square feet of retail; Summit Development suggested 450,000 square feet of office/residential with no conceptual plan, and Laz Parking wanted to acquire the site for parking, with development issues to be discussed “later.”
It would appear some council members need only have done routine follow up calls to ascertain the direction LCOR was taking.
Previously, the city had not revealed the number of firms to which they had shopped the land.
