WPCNR SOUTHEND TIMES. By John F. Bailey. June 3, 2005: Robert Levine of the Citizens Plan Committee called upon volunteers from the audience of the “Look to the Future” community meeting at Ridgeway School last night to join with members of the CPC to lobby members of the Commoun Council to call a Special Meeting to reorganize the review of the 1997Comprehensive Plan. The objective of the Special Meeting would be to include the views and concerns of Levine’s committee of community “planning experts” which he charged the city has gone out of its way to ignore.
Levine, Conroy, Politzer on the dais at Thursday’s public meeting of the Citizens Plan Committee, which claimed credit for “jump-starting” the 1997 Comprehensive Plan Review process, but says the city is ignoring their views. Photo by WPCNR News.
The call for citizens to lobby Common Councilmembers to call a special meeting was prompted by former Mayor Alfred Del Vecchio’s explanation of the process by which council members can call a Special Meeting to address an issue, even without the present Mayor’s consent.
The Mayoral Team: Former Mayor Alfred Del Vecchio,(1976-1993) (left) and Mayor Sy Schulman (1993-1997) at the “Look Into the Future” last night. Photo by WPCNR News
Del Vecchio remarked: “Two Councilpersons can call a special meeting of the Common Council to listen to and accept the report of the CPC (Levine’s group) and then assign several groups of Commissioners to work with members of the CPC (Levine’s group) to implement those sections that can be implemented and to conduct further studies where sections are lacking information or data.”
Dell Vecchio’s rousing speech was followed by the pragmatism of former Mayor Sy Schulman, who noted the “loose zoning” in the core area as one of the problems the city needs to address because it leaves the city vulnerable to whatever developers propose. “without a plan, you’re inviting disaster,” he said. Schulman criticised the effort the city has made to involve citizens in the process, and demanded the views of the committee be heard and considered:
“It may seem strange to some that there could be any controversy about the idea of a community seeking to shape its future. Yet even now there are those who are dubious at best and even scornful that in a property-oriented society there can be those brash enough to seek to influence the future and even to thwart the real estate instincts of some. That view finds little resonance in White Plains. We have long been a community which is respectful of property rights but also determined to make sure that we will not be surprised or offended by the future. Two former mayors (himself and Mr. Del Vecchio) fully subscribe to the view that we can shape and control our future, that we can make sure our successors will be more likely to bless us than to curse us because of what we have left behind. I hope the same is true of the current mayor as well as those who will succeed him.”
The CPC announced a third meeting to be held June 21 at Ridgeway School to gather public comment from the public to determine citizen desires on which way White Plains is headed. (A process that the city’s Comprehensive Plan Review Committee under Mary Cavallero and John Martin -Co-Chairs, has been conducting since February. That committee’s preliminary findings are expected to be released as early as Friday.)
Levine reported that attempts by members of his committee to meet with the city’s Comprehensive Plan Review Comittee have been “given the back of the hand” by the Committee, saying that city corporation counsel Edward Dunphy had determined it was illegal for the committee to meet with Levine’s group. However, Levine said his committee (in consultation with the state’s watchdog on open meetings, had determined it was not illegal.
Councilpersons WPCNR noticed in attendance were Arnold Bernstein, Benjamin Boykin, Rita Malmud and Thomas Roach. However when the meeting ended, they were not available for comment on whether any would be receptive to spearheading the call for “a special meeting” to take over the planning process and set up a mechanism to consider the Comprehensive Plan Committee’s views.
Approximately 90 persons including about five political officeholders (Bernstein, Boykin, Malmud, Roach, Assemblyman Adam Bradley and County Legislator Bill Ryan) attended the meeting, about sixty persons less than the meeting the group held January 13. The committee also introduced their own review of the Comprehensive Plan that is available for the city Comprehensive Plan Review Committee to consider.
