WPCNR STAT. September 23, 2006: Family Educational Services, a non-profit organization is hosting Anders Osborne, Ph.D. who’s conference titled “Life Skills for our ADD/ADHD Students” it will be presented on Saturday, Oct. 08th from 11:30am until 5:00pm in Stamford CT. and Sunday Oct.09th from 1:30 pm until 6:00pm in White Plains NY. Space is limited. Information is available on www.familyeducationalservices
Have We Got a Plan for you! The Pinn Asks 6 More months to Get Affrdbl Hsng $$
WPCNR COMMON COUNCIL CHRONICLE-EXAMINER. By John F. Bailey, September 22, 2006: Paul Wood, City Executive Officer and Susan Habel, Commissioner of Planning presented a speculative subdivsion plan clearing the way for New York Presbyterian Hospital to build if they wished, over 100 homes on the Bryant Avenue side of the New York Presbyterian Hospital property, pending Planning Board approval of such a project. The city duo said this subdivsion plan was a city-inspired subdivision plan to acquire 5.5 acres of parkland from New York Presbyterian Hospital in return for accepting a 60 acre 125-unit single family home subdivision plan for their property fronting Bryant Avenue.
The Phantom Subdivision Presented by the City last night to the Common Council. Area on diagram shows Bloomingdale’s in the upper left corner. Bryant Avenue at base. Parkland to be acquired by the city is at lower left. It was not made clear what the advantage is to New York Presbyterian Hospital in accepting the city proposal, which would according to Mr. Wood, would render the Proton Accelerator/biotech proposal “moot,” and unbuildable on its formerly approved site.Photo by WPCNR News.
The Pinnacle Team: William Null, left requested a six month extension of time until Pinnacle submits their guarantee to build affordable housing for Louis Cappelli on The Pinnacle site. Null said they needed the time to acquire grants and tax credits to build the $17 Million project. Null disclosed construction costs had gone up 30 to 40%. Photo, WPCNR News.
In other action, William Null, representing the Pinnacle project, requested a six month extension to the time when they have to post a guarantee and secured financing to build the affordable housing part of their Pinnacle project. The guaranttee is critical for the Ginsburg group to post because it allows Louis Cappelli to open his Ritz-Carlton Hotel one year from now, without being tied to the affordable housing being built at the Pinnacle by that time. The Common Council was reluctantly supportive of the idea, with only Benjamin Boykin, exasperated, acidly observing “All of us are running out of time. I’m running out of patience.”
The Pinnacle attorney, Mr. Null, told the WPCNR, when asked if The Pinnacle was going to start demolition of the existing buildings where The Pinnacle is to rise on Main Street this month, as promised the Council one month ago, said “We’re moving forward as best as we can.” Asked if this meant the city could expect demolition to begin within this month, Null, repeated, “We’re moving forward as best we can.”
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The City Team: Paul Wood, Executive Officer, and Susan Habel, Commissioner of Planning. Photo, WPCNR News.
Wood and Habel said the Board of Directors of the New York Presbyterian Hospital had yet to approve the plan. In return for granting White Plains the park, the hospital receives a ready-to-go subdivision plan that has been designed by the City of White Plains should they ever wish sometime in the future to build possibly housing on this portion of their property. Ms. Habel told the Common Council the hospital has agreed to put their proton accelerator-biotech division project on hold for approximately nine months, while the city submitted the “phantom” subdivision plan for Common Council approval.
Habel said that the subdivsion plan would remove the special permit status for the portion of the property covered by the subdivision plan, which included the approved site for the proton accelerato-biotech center. Should the council approve the memorandum of understanding, the hospital would not be able to build the proton accelerator on its present approved site because it is within the “phantom subdivision” the city has prepared. The subdivision is simply an option for the hospital, Wood and Habel made clear, offering the hospital the opportunity to build 131 homes on 60 acres if the hospital wished to do so at some future date in return for the 5.5 acres. Habel said the acreage covered was not an “environmentally sensitive site.”
Martin Cohen, Vice President for Real Estate for New York Presbyterian Hospital, walking ahead of reporters Keith Eddings, Alex Phillipidis and yours truly down the City Hall steps, answered questions on his departure.
Cohen said when I asked him if the hosptial was actively considering building housing on the city-inspired subdivsion land, said offering the opportunity for building housing “was definitely an interesting option.”
When asked why the New York Presbyterian Hospital would agree to this proposal which was initiated by the city according to Wood and Habel, Cohen declined to offer an explanation.
Informed by WPCNR that the proton accelerator/biotech project should the Hospital accept the subdivision would effectively prevent the proton accelerator/biotech project being built without another approval process for another area of the site, Cohen said, “It does? I wasn’t aware of that.”
Cohen said the hospital was not actively shopping the subdivided property and had not explored it. Cohen refused to talk about the status of the proton accelerator/biotech project and what priority it occupies in the New York Presbyterian Hospital’s future plans.
The removal of the special permit of the hospital, only applies to the subdivision area, and does not apply to the 114 acres on the north end of the property. Previously, during the approval process of the proton accelerator/biotech research center had ruled out areas on the North end of the property as being too small to accommodate the requirements of the complex.
Ms. Habel said a Memorandum of Understanding would be forthcoming to the Council outlining the proposal in more detail.
In other news...
At the public hearings on the procedure of the City applying to the Empire State Development Corporation, for $1.4 Million in grants to Cappelli Enterprises for demolition and asbestos removal at 189 Main Street and $1 Million for the Pinnacle, no one appeared to comment, and the Council passed the resolutions unanimously.
The council adjourned to executive session to discuss what reporters speculated was discussion of pending litigation against the County of Westchester to protest the city not being given right of first refusal on the disposal of the Grand Avenue Post Office property, which the county agreed to lease to HANAC and Bluestone to build a $60 Million plus affordable housing project last week.
The city fathers were very positive about accepting a hydrogen filling station on the Department of Public Works site to fuel hydrogen vehicles the city announced it was acquiring in a news conference Thursday morning.
Gorton Holds Off Furious Tiger Rally, Wins 28-14–After Equalizer Denied.
WPCNR PRESS BOX. By John F. Bailey September 22, 2006: Everything happens in AND TO White Plains. It was 2nd and G on the Gorton 1 yard line and the Tigers were knock-knock-knockin on touchdown door, trailing 14-7 with 3 minutes to go in the third quarter after a furious rally.
The snap! Paul Labarbera Tiger QB hit the line, appeared to lean into the endzone breaking the plane of the goal. Wolves and Tigers were piled up in the slanting shadows of the last day of summer. But as they unpiled, there was no touchdown signal. Then, incredulously the Referee, Jim MiGinty was signaling touchback. Tiger coaches threw up their hands in disbelief. Gorton players at first dejected started to whoop it up and clap.
As Tiger coaches implored the referees to say what happened, the four officials conferred. The ref again signaled touchback, ruling that LaBarbera had fumbled into the end zone. However the ruling in these situations is if any part of the football breaks the plane of the goal it is a touchdown no matter if the ball pops loose after it crosses. To no avail, the touchback ruling stood. Gorton took over the ball on their 20. The Tigers had incredibly been denied the equalizer.
White Plains stopped Gorton on a fumble (Gorton coughed up the ball 6 times this afternoon, White Plains 4 times) as the fourth quarter began taking possession on the Wolf 36. The Tigers had another chance to tie the contest but Paul LaBarbera was sacked deep back on the 44 as the Wolves came on a blitz. His pass to Ray Mitchell was high on the far sideline and on third down his pass to Joe Petit over the middle was high. But, in fairness Paul had no pass protection all day.
Block That Punt – And They Did.
On 4th down on the G 45, the Tigers went to pin the Wolves inside the 10 with a punt.
John Perez’s punt was blocked cleanly – his second blocked punt of the year — and Gorton took over on the
Joe Petit tackled Sean Mapp as he ripped up the Tiger middle at the 35. Angel Cotto was trapped for a three yard loss then it was third down. Sean Mapp swiveled through the middle to the Tiger 25. Then BOOM! Angel Cotto blasted, spun, deked his way busting through the middle like Tiki Barber for a 25 yard touchdown run that with the point made it 20-7 with 9 minutes to go in the game. A Tiger fumble by Mitchell on the kickoff return set Gorton up for another score. Two runs set the ball up on the 2 (Gorton sliced and diced and bounced its way from goal line to goal line all day, averaging 10 yards a carry, and unofficially gaining over 300 yards according to their line coach, never having to punt, turning the ball over only on their six fumbles.) Sean Mapp then burst six yards for the 28-7 lead with 4 minutes to go in the game.
After a scoreless first quarter, Gorton got on the Board with a 26 yard punt return by Markeen Gaines bringing the ball back to midfield. (Tiger special teams did not distinguish themselves today, missing a lot of tackles coughing up unseemly yardage on kickoffs and punt returns.)
Gorton went 50 yards in six plays to take a 7-0 lead. On 3rd and 11 from their own 49, Sean Mapp threw a 26 yard strike over the middle to James Montgomery for a 1st on the Tiger 25. Cotto ran to the 22 On 2nd and 8, QB Mike Asiedu threw from the right side of the field to the left side catching the Tigers in a defensive switch leaving Nick Mahabeer all alone at the five yard line to gather in a 28 yard touchdown pass and wheel into the endzone. No one was close to him.
94 Yards in 4 Minutes.
They proceeded to take the ball 94 yards in 7 plays to go into the half with a 14-0 lead. Five running plays got them to the Tiger 31. Using splendid clock management by Dan DeMatteo, a pass to Cotto got them to the 16 with 25 seconds left. With first and 10 on the 16, QB Mike Asiedu hit Sean Mapp on a slant to the sideline. He outran the Tiger defender to coffin corner and incredibly the Wolves had chewed up 94 yards of real estate in 4 minutes.
Gorton’s surprise TD with 16 seconds to go in the First Half: A swing pass to Sean Mapp, bottom left has the angle to paydirt on the Tiger corner. Photo, WPCNR Sports.
Coach Stevens autopsied the two touchdown passes: “We were switching from one coverage to another, and one of our defensive backs got twisted around. The kid was able to get some leverage on him and then after he had the leverage he just took it to the sideline. On the second one, we flushed him out of the pocket a little to his left, threw across the grain. I think he caught our other corner by surprise, and he ran him out to his corner.”
Gorton started the Third Quarter the same way, marching down the field. But the Tigers reaching back for something extra, digging deep, made things happen. Cotto had the ball stripped on a running play at the 37 and the Tigers took over. Kudos for the aggressive fericious pursuit in the second half by the Tiger Defensive line that was stepping up the hit level and making the dancing Wolves pay for every yard
On the first play, Ray Mitchell took a crisp pitchback from LaBarbera, got outside on a sweep in a hurry and lit out DOWN the sideline and with the Wolves seeming to stand still as he raced on in, he slipped inside the pylon for a 37 yard touchdown run. John Perez added the point and it was 14-7 with about 7 minutes to go in the third quarter. The Tigers were a-LIVE! ALIVE!
Then came the Touchdown Touchback
On the kickoff, Malcolm Weight fumbled as he was hit. Tiger ball on the G-40. The tying drive began in the long shadows. Paul LaBarbera nailed Savaughn Greene in the left flat for a gain to the 29. Gorton was called for a late hit on the play, moving the Tigers to the 12. After two losses put the Tigers at the 9, with a 3rd and 7, LaBarbera threw in the flat again to Savaughn who was tripped up at the 1, starting the ghastly touchdown into touchback series.
One official told this reporter the ball appeared to come out of Paul’s hands as he crossed the goal.
Coach Stevens told WPCNR, “I didn’t see the ball, but what I got from everybody, uptop (press box) included, the ball crossed the goal line and he got it smacked out of his hand, and they recovered it at that point. If it’s over the plane of the goal, it’s a touchdown. For every official to tell me that they didn’t see it. That tells me that I don’t know what was going on.”
WPCNR viewed the video tape replay and Mr. LaBarbera appears standing up leaning in over the goal line, and there is no sign of the ball coming loose. You cannot rip the ball out of a carrier’s hands once it has crossed the goal to cause a fumble.
This is the second game that Head Official Jim MiGinty has been involved in which a MiGinty call has cost the Tigers key points they appeared to have scored. He was the official in the
Gorton dominated on offense throughout the game, but nonetheless, Coach Stevens had these comments: “I think the big thing we have to get better at is stopping the fullback. Our defense is predicated on different segments of the game. One of them we start every week by starting to stop the fullback and facing the wing T. At this point in time we’re just not doing a great job, we’re doing an O.K. job. We start doing a little bit better job, I think we’re going to be much more effective. I thought we took a step forward (today). I thought we got better.
It’s kind of hard to say that when you lose 28-14, but the way we open up with our youth, I have no one back on offense, we only have three kids back on defense. We open up with
This is the second game that Head Official Jim MiGinty has been involved in which a MiGinty call has cost the Tigers key points. He was the official in the
The Brooklyn Dodgers used to be known as a team that weird things happened to that cost them games. There was a saying, “Everything happens in
They should change that to “Everything happens to and in
With 3 minutes to go, Bobby Thompson picked up the sixth Gorton fumble and outran the field for a 75 yard touchdown run to close out the Tiger scoring at 28-14. Thompson typified the guts of the Tiger club today. They came out trying in the second half, hit harder and swarmed the runners and created breaks for themselves because like all Tiger teams, they never give up. Paul LaBarbera is gaining confidence at QB, Coach Stevens is mixing up the running combinations. Ray Mitchell is looking very good. Savaughn Greene is showing Mark Bavaro hands — he’s quick, gets out there and he and Paul are getting to know each other. Joe Petit continued to make key stops — and the defensive line intensity and pride was growing.
It’s coming together.
A Perfect Football Afternoon in White Plains, New York, USA. Photo, WPCNR Sports
NYPH Junks Proton Beam. Switch to Housing Called INACCURATE. Schools Not Told
WPCNR East Side Story. By John F. Bailey. September 21, 2006 UPDATED 2:00 P.M. E.D.T. INTERVIEWS WITH PAUL WOOD, TIM CONNORS: As first reported in January, 2005 by WPCNR, the New York Presbyterian Hospital Proton Accelerator/Biotech Research laboratory will not be built. At least not for a long time, according to Paul Wood, City Executive Officer. Reports appearing in the media of 131 homes to be built on the property, he said, were inaccurate.
PAUL WOOD. The Mayor’s Executive Officer. Mr. Wood is shown last night at City Hall. Photo, WPCNR News
The New York Presbyterian Hospital was reported in another publication, to be considering building housing instead consisting of over 100 homes, with more to come, according to Paul Wood of the Mayor’s office yesterday. However, at 12:15 today, Mr. Wood said this information, provided to other media but not to WPCNR, was “inaccurate.”
Timothy Connors, Superintendent of Schools, said he could not comment on the effect of any possible massive home development until he knew what it was, townhouses, condos, two-family homes. Commenting on how a new burst of housing could affect the district $69.6 Million Capital Improvemehnt project, “It shows,” Connors said, “The School District is on the right track, preparing for the future.”
Wood told WPCNR the city is applying to subdivide the hospital property to create a 5.5 acre park, where one soccer field and one baseball diamond could be built. Wood said he has no idea of what the New York Presbyterian Hospital would use the remainder of the property for, including the Northern side of the property.
He said the balance of the hospital property would revert back to its original zoning which would consist of 2 houses per acre. In order to “carve out” a small park for the city, the city had to apply for a subdivision, which in exchange, the hospital was willing to allow the balance of the property to revert back to its original zoning which is residential. Wood said he did not know whether the hospital was thinking of selling the land, developing it, or what they planned to do with it.
Pardes Felt the City Should Have a Park.
Subdivision virtually Delays Proton Accelerator Indefinitely
Asked why the hospital was doing this, Wood told WPCNR the Mayor and Herbert Pardes, CEO of the New York Presbyterian Hospital, have a special relationship, and Mr. Pardes told the Mayor he (Pardes) felt badly the city was not going to get a park out of the proton accelerator project, and for “over a year,” Wood said, he and the Mayor worked out the vest-pocket playing fields park announced to media yesterday.
Wood said by subdividing the property for the park, the original approval for the proton-accelerator “becomes moot,” and in order for the proton accelerator to be built, the New York Presbyterian Hospital would have to resubmit an entire new application process.
Wood stressed the Common Council has to approve the subdivision, but did acknowledge the Council had been briefed on the park project and, asked if they were behind it, Wood said he did not know.
Potential for Housing Always There.
School District Should Have Known that: Wood.
The potential for housing that could be built on the property, had always existed Wood told us, and therefore the school district should have been aware of that potential. (Although previous approval of the proton accelerator-biotech project may have, in all fairness, dimmed the interest in building homes adjacent to the proton accelerator complex.)
Should the subdivision be approved, the potential for a total of 131 houses on a proton-acclerator-less property, could add as few as 131 children and as many as 500 children to the school district enrollments in the next seven years, by rough estimate.
11 Home Tradeoff?
Wood said the city had to articulate the subdivison allowing the New York Presbyterian Hospital the ability to build 11 homes in addition to the on the rest of their property, to make up for the homes lost on the 5.5 acres — a very building friendly site on the Southwest portion of the property. At roughly two homes per 60 acres, this would give a 120 home potential plus 11 from the park site to make a total of 131.
Wood did not say why the hospital needed an 11-home trade to do the subdivision rather than a straight $6 Million city payment for the park (based on a sales price of $1.2 Million per acre set by the NorthStreet Community purchase of the St.Agnes property), if they were not considering building homes on the property. Other media reported the housing project would include the 11 homes to the 120 homes (2 per acre). Wood calls this inforamtion innaccurate and has no knowledge housing is in the Hospital plans for the future.
As Reported Previously by WPCNR
The city did not advise the School District that this previously reported park/housing project on behalf of the city, was in the planning stages for the last year, according to Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors. Wood said he saw no reason to tell the School District about it because they should have been aware of the housing potential on the Hospital property, anyway.
Common Council President Rita Malmud said the Council and she were aware of “certain elements of the plan” in its development that had been explained to her by the Mayor and city staff. WPCNR asked Ms. Malmud if the council (which has often commented the city should work more closely with the school system), had shared the proposal with the school district, said the council, to her knowledge, had not.
Superintendent of Schools Timothy Connors told WPCNR this morning the city administration had not let him know that this housing project as originally reported by other media, was being planned, and the project impact on school enrollments was not taken into account in District enrollment projections used to formulate District infrastructure and school expansion as part of the $69.6 Million Capital Project. Mr. Connors is seen promoting passage of the Capital Project Referendum at Post Road School last week. Photo, WPCNR News
The clarification issued by Mr. Wood to WPCNR of his remarks to media yesterday which were not furnished to WPCNR, does not indicate there would be massive housing on Bryant Avenue.
If the hospital should go for a housing project which now arguably becomes more attractive if the proton accelerator is off the table, it shatters City School District enrollment projections, on which the district $69.6 Million expansion and renovation plan (up for referendum vote on October 17). The number of children any NYPH housing plans geared to families may bring in calls into question whether their $69 Million Capital Project is ambitious enough to expand elementary school capacity to handle future enrollment should the Presbyterian Hospital proceed with this project.
Park Vanishes. According to reports of Mr. Wood’s remarks released yesterday to the media, and denied this afternoon as inaccurate by Mr. Wood, it was indicated 131 homes would be built on the green portion of the the hospital property at the lower right location, and on the area of property showing the two proton-accelerator-biotech center buildings — the turquoise rectangles in lower center portion of this diagram. Steep slopes and streams in the lower left of the property would not be built on, according to Wood. Athletic fields covering 5-1/2 acres, consisting of a soccer field and baseball diamond (instead of the original 60 acres that would have been acquired in 2000, when Mr. Wood said, “the conservationists blew it”). As Marc Pollitzer, the North Street Assocation President, has often noted the hospital can build the housing as of right on the property.
Photo, WPCNR News Archive.
Paul Wood, the Mayor’s Executive Officer announced yesterday to media (not the CitizeNetReporter) that Mayor Joseph Delfino encouraged and worked with the hospital to develop an alternative development consisting of housing with 5.5 acres turned over to the city for recreation playing fields. The administration last year at this time in the early fall was denying knowledge of any change the hospital plans for the proton accelerator had changed.
Portion of now-potential Housing Location along Bryant Avenue. Photo, WPCNR News Archive.
Wood originally was reported to have said the hospital proposes building 131 homes on this north side of Bryant Avenue, as well as development on the northside of the NYPH property. He did not indicate what development of the northside would be. Now, Wood is saying the report of 131 homes being considered by the hospital is inaccurate.
WPCNR calls to New York Presbyterian Hospital spokesperson, Geoff Thompson, have placed questions as to what the nature of possible development of the Northside of the property would be like, whether the hospital plans to sell the property to a developer, or retain title, and whether the proton accelerator-biotech facility would be built elsewhere by the New York Presbyterian Hosptial. More detail is expected at this evening’s Common Council meeting.
Hospital Plan Change Originally Denied by City.
The first indication the hospital was changing its plans was reported by WPCNR January 28, 2005, when Vito Cappello Director of Development for North America of Hitachi USA(which builds proton accelerators), told WPCNR the hospital was delaying the project and was not pursuing starting construction on the accelerator in the near future.
WPCNR reported after Mr. Cappello’s revelation, that the New York Presbyterian Hospital was thinking of selling its land due to the increased value of their property indicated by the sale of the St. Agnes property to the North Street Community. This WPCNR report was rigorously denied by the city.
Yesterday’s announcement shows the Mayor was negotiating with the hospital to put together at least the subdivision for a park plan while his administration was denying the hospital was rethinking its plans. The park subdivision (with most likely no mention of housing), is expected to be explained this evening at a Common Council work session.
Last fall the report that the hospital was cooling on the proton acclerator-biotech center it had promoted as a state-of-the-art and had been earmarked to receive $100 Million plus in state aid to build it as a Center for Excellence by Governor George Pataki,would not comment on the reasons for the accelerator delay to WPCNR.
It has also been widely speculated that high rise development on the north side of the property in addition to the housing plan, is a logical extension of the residential high rise luxury housing being built by high profile developers in the White Plains downtown. High rise development on the north side of the hospital property would certainly be seen in some circles as complimenting the toney Nordstrom’s, Bloomingdale’s, Nieman-Marcus, Fortunoff corridor on Bloomingdale Road.
School District Capacity Prognostications Go Out the Window
If a housing project is built it would be a massive subdivision consisting of what Wood was originally reported as describing as single family homes and townhouses. however it shatters the anticipated enrollment projections the City School District is relying on to plan its $69.6 Million elementary school expansion and renovation now being considered. The building of the homes and further residential development on the north side of the hosptial property by Westchester Avenue could mean an influx of from 200 to 400 children or more into the City School System in addition to the present projected number of 280 elementary school children entering the at capacity school district facilities by 2010. This puts City School District enrollment projections into question, and raises the greater question of whether the $69.6 Million Capital Project on the October 17 Referendum is inadequate for the enrollment.
Previously, the City School District has reported that their enrollment figures for the school year 2010 are based on birth rate figures as of 2005, and do not take into account any future large scale family housing development.