WPCNR PHANTOM OF CITY HALL. News Analysis and Commentary By John F. Bailey. December 31, 2004: The last 364 days showed the way White Plains is going in the next ten years: the downtown turned around on the basis of record sales tax pace created by the economic energizing from the City Center project. That project alone delivered the city out of $5 Million budget deficit in the nick of time June 30, with a $9.2 Million fourth quarter of 03-04.
Common Council decisions confirmed the predictions of this reporter that the city zoning code is all but dead within the core of the city. The new zoning is subject to the whim and desires of property owners.
City financial management took a pre-election year tack granting pay increases twice the inflation rate and setting the stage for 5% increase demands by the balance of the city unions when they come up for contract next year.
Meanwhile a projected sales tax collection of $40-$45 Million for the year 04-05 (ending in June), based on First Quarter results alone (and not counting the Christmas season ) is a good omen for all you bond rating agencies out there. We know who you are.
In the Money.
With the city sitting on $38 Million in budgeted sales tax for 04-05, the snowballing avalanche of sales tax dollars should allow the city to replenish its fund balance, if they choose to do so. That precarious fund balance now sits on $1 Million unearmarked cash, with $4 Million attributed costs.
If you figure the Christmas season did 25% more in sales tax last December with the City Center not as fully occupied as it is today, the city should rake in $3 Million more in sales tax in October, November December. Should the critical October-November-December quarter do better than I expect say — $14 Million than you could conceivably hit $45 Million and up in sales tax collections for the year. I think $50 Million is way optimistic considering that Third and Fourth Quarter collections traditionally match first quarter receipts.
That being said, the city can count on $10 Million to $15 Million sales tax in the second quarter ending tonight at midnight, followed by an additional $10.2 Million in each of the next two quarters giving the city a total of about $45 Million in sales tax for the year 04-05.
How Will the Delfino 6 Use it?
It will be up to the Common Council to distribute this windfall: To replenish the fund balance or not to replenish the fund balance, that is the question.
The prediction here is that the council, it being an election year, and Mayor Delfino in a reelection campaign, (the word is the Mayor is running again), will lay huge raises on the police and fire unions matching the largesse they lavished on the Civil Service Employees Union( three years of 4% raises), leaving $5 Million for fund balance first aid.
Anything over the $10.2 Million mark in sales tax revenues in the third and fourth quarters is just gravy on the city’s mashed potatoes.
Taxes on sales of Cappelli-Trump Condominiums could add more to the covers.
Meanwhile, how has this been achieved?
Council Created “The Site Plan in Progress Approval.”
The year 2004 showed that the city no longer controls what is built within the downtown. The city can approve, but it cannot refuse, thanks to a new policy WPCNR dubs “The Site Plan In Progress Approval.”
This “policy” was created by granting concession after concession, design change after design change, to Super Developer Louis Cappelli.
This “policy” was produced out of a zoning test tube in the laboratory of a mad planning scientist, deep within the confines of City Hall, who changed the city downtown zoning in September of 2003, to allow “transfer of development rights.”
By passing this TOD ordinance, the Council was told they were creating new options to develop the down. Boy, did they ever!
I just happen to have some development rights.
Strangely, Louis Cappelli was the first to take advantage of the Transfer of Development Rights option in his presentation of the 221 Main Project. The Council accommodated Mr. Cappelli, allowing him to transfer square footage not used in the City Center to the 221 Main project. They allowed him to add a health club to the top floor of the parking garage at City Center. They allowed him to change design of the south City Center tower after Donald Trump partnered with him. They allowed him to lop a floor off the City Center.
To make a long story short, the Council has invented “the Site Plan In Progress Approval” allowing major changes in the nature of approved projects and glomming them through as minor site plan amendments. Not that this is wrong mind you.
But, this policy has set precedents that future developers will be quick to point out.
An example of what White Plains can expect in 2005 and 2006 is about to unfold. Martin Ginsburg, no amateur, is going to come in with a redesign of his Pinnacle project. WPCNR’s prediction is that Mr. Ginsburg will not only ask for 40 stories for his Pinnacle, but, if I were him, I’d ask for 50 stories and see what the Council does with it.
Martin Ginsburg to Approach the Council
Mr. Cappelli shrewdly offered everybody’s favorite “feel-good” issue, building “affordable housing” as something he would do, in return for allowing him to pump his 221 Main Cappelli Hotel Condoplex to 400 feet (40 stories). Cappelli also took the opportunity to say he was no longer seriously pursuing the agreement he had apparently reached with Mr. Ginsburg to allow Mr. Ginsburg to build The Pinnacle to 28 stories.
Mr. C. wants the Pinnacle tower scaled down. Well, Mr. Ginsburg, noting the Cappelli hotel 40-story shuffle, has his architects working again, redesigning the Pinnacle so he does not have to use the Corner Nook-Deli-Bookstore property Cappelli owns.
What do you want to bet Mr. Ginsburg goes to 40 stories, maybe 50 stories? I would. The Council has no legal leg to stand on if they grant Cappelli 40 stories in two buildings (going from 34 stories and three buildings), and refuse Mr. Ginsburg 40 stories (or 50). What is so sad about this is that the council has done this consistently for the forces of Cappelli – on the City Center and, now it is happening again on the Hotel Condoplex .
It is this reporter’s opinion that this dispensation after dispensation record with one developer, means that the city can face projects from developers that come in as one kind of project and change dramatically after they are approved. I already see this in a condo request over on Maple Avenue.
How can the Council stop it after the concessions they have eagerly, without question, granted Mr. Cappelli? It is not just that Mr. Cappelli is charming. He is also smart. He changes things to his advantage as he goes. And council goes right along.
Will the Cappelli factor eventually come back to haunt the council in all its dealings with developers in the future? The first test is with Martin Ginsburg, coming up.
The Comprehensive Plan Review Myth.
Another major issue that will be a new campaign issue is the future plan for development of the city. A Citizens Plan Committee raised this issue in the last month. They say it is time to rethink and review the city Comprehensive Plan of 1997. However, how can the city plan when a major project – the Cappelli Hotel-Condoplex has not even been built yet? Can we say the traffic will be terrible “on spec?” Can we say, no development let’s stop?
How can the city plan when traffic is already routinely jammed coming into and going out of the city between the hours of 5 and 7 PM? Shall it arbitrarily created new development zones away from the downtown, plan new entries to the city…widening them like on Route 22, Mamaroneck Avenue? And at the increasingly congested eastern gateway? Shall we institute satellite parking lots (Al Moroni, please note new revenue op!)
Well that’s what handling new traffic is all about. To think that persons who do not deal with these issues professionally can begin to think about what the new White Plains will be and will need based on what they want to preserve poses an interesting question.
Who decides?
Who will adapt the new Comprehensive Plan? Will it be voted on? Who will sweet talk the Common Council over to their vision? Meanwhile developers, architects from all around are rubbing their hands together thinking about how to get their piece of White Plains.
On a recent White Plains Week show, Robert Stackpole, Robert Levine, and Mike Graessle, spokespersons for the “CPC-3” said they were not for a moratorium on building, that they just wanted to get the comprehensive plan review moving with a citywide meeting January 13.
Well, the city has gone on “scramble” and is furiously lashing together a Comprehensive Plan Review which Commissioner of Planning Susan Habel has said she has been working on since June, but is awaiting reports from various department heads. She told WPCNR she has about 60 pages written.
Whatever vision Ms. Habel creates and submits – we bet it will be out by the January 13 citywide meeting – will call for redevelopment up Mamaroneck Avenue involving the Silverman property; it will call for a renaissance on the West Side along Lexington Avenue and West Post Road, at the very least.
West Side Changes
But this is going to mean considerable upheaval : To redevelop the West Side, the Planning Department and Executive Officer Paul Wood say will consist of gradations of new town house housing appealing to moderate affordable and upper class housing, as well as refurbishment of the retail along South Lexington Avenue to “turn Winbrook to the street , to activate Lexington Avenue, ” in Wood’s words to us.
Get rid of Open Arms and Coachman.
The city will have to get the county to get rid of the Open Arms Shelter on Post Road and certainly get rid of the subsidized housing in the Coachman Hotel, which are inconveniently located between Mamaroneck Avenue and the soon-to-be-tonified West Side.
That has to be done in order to gentrify that West Post Road neighborhood. It is high time the County developed wholesome subsidized housing and homeless shelters in communities that have plenty of space for it: like Bedford, Pound Ridge, Yorktown, Chappaqua, instead of housing them in essentially office buildings and in the backs of church sepulchers.
The city will have to strike a dialogue with the owners of those establishments along South Lexington Avenue and West Post Road, up to Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard. Perhaps give incredible incentives to reinvigorate their store fronts – or perhaps buy them out altogether.
Where’s the thought? Where’s the Performance?
This is just a wild thought – but since the comprehensive plan is now being reviewed and perhaps put out by Ms. Habel as we even write this piece – where are the thoughts for the downtown from the citizens of White Plains and the downtown property owners? The comprehensive plan, as the CPC-3 have pointed out has been activated faster than expected.
But how much input does Mr. and Ms. White Plains, and Mr. and Ms. White Plains Landlord really want to put into any comprehensive plan? What do they really care? As long as their taxes stay down and their children pass the State Assessments? And get into good schools?
Other than open space advocates and environmental issue types, for two decades property owners in White Plains downtown have allowed their properties to sink into less and less desirable properties. Gone are Wallachs, The Sound Room, the Pipe and Bowl, Esy’s, Florsheim, Touch of Gold, Schrafts, Emily Shaw’s, Little shops I remember.
Landlord Vision Sadly Lacking.
Where was the vision of landlords then?
Well the Delfino Administration has made some alliances with at least one developer who has pumped, at least for one year, substantial cash back into the downtown as well as customers, and has plans to bring in a similar project that will be on line deep into 2006. He (Louis Cappelli) has delivered, but what he presents and what White Plains ends up with is usually quite different, but somewhat better than originally proposed.
Is that good? Is it bad, this “Site Plan In Progress Approval Policy” the Common Council has invented and endorsed? The numbers say it is working today.
City of Masks
But, it has always been thus in White Plains. This is a city that reinvents its look every 50 years or so. Many cities I have visited around the eastern seaboard: Lowell, Massachusetts, Providence, Rhode Island, Roanoke, Virginia, Charlotte, North Carolina, New Haven, Connecticut; Pittsfield, Massachusetts, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, still look like they used to decades ago. Those cities have changed, but they retain their industrial character and tradition.
However, the day of the local shop is ending. Now we all flock to the name stores that are everywhere: Dunkin Donuts. Target, Walmart, Best Buy, Coconuts, Old Navy, Claire’s, McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Subway, Applebees, Cracker Barrel. And, they are everywhere. The local place scares us.
White Plains has never cared much for the past. The White Plains of 100 years ago cannot be found in the way the City White Plains looked in the 1950s, and now the White Plains of the 1950s is disappearing. This is a city that puts on a new mask every fifty years or so. It is a city that has as much American Revolution history as Boston or Plymouth, but has failed to capitalize on its history. There is not one paying historical site park in White Plains. Our heritage, despite the efforts of historians to preserve it remains mostly in Renoda Hoffman’s books. From Train Stations to Courthouses, except for an occasional Bar Building façade, we tear our past down.
Meanwhile – No progress on New York Presbyterian Hospital Park– Or Proton Accelerator
While the New York Presbyterian Hospital continues to remain mum and say nothing about their proton accelerator project for the third straight year in 2005, no progress has been made on the much-ballyhooed Delfino-Pardis agreement to try and put together a central park for White Plains. The question of what the hospital is going to do on the approved proton accelerator site continues to be a mystery. Look for them to turn over a shovel of dirt to generate another site plan renewal in September.
Since the Hospital has not even appointed a Director of Proton Therapy to oversee construction, and did not send any representatives to the international meeting of proton therapy scientists and suppliers in October at Indiana University, this reporter assumes the Hospital is either going to lease the facility to a firm like Hitachi who will build and run the center, or perhaps sell the property in some way. They are not moving ahead very fast in building that facility. They are not orchestrating the publicity for their proton accelerator in a forthcoming manner.
The issue to look for is the hospital request to rezone the property on the north end of the New York Presbyterian Hospital property as commercial, allowing further development of the property. The trade off will be a park for White Plains, is WPCNR’s prediction.
City Run a 55-Acre Park?With What Money?
That raises a real money issue for White Plains. They will need at least millions of dollars a year to maintain a 55 acre park and get it in shape for ballfields, and parking. The first thing the city has to do if this park is a real serious possibility is do a feasibility study and swing a deal with the county or New York State to run it. White Plains simply cannot pay for it.
I would say the Delfino Administration will announce a park just about next September or October in time to assure Mr. Delfino’s reelection, (after commercial rezoning is approved). Remember, unless Delfino secures the park before election, his opponent for Mayor will bang him on that issue. (Can’t you hear the slogans now, “commercial sellout to the hospital,” “paving over the last open space in White Plains,”).
Millions for backyard preservation.
The use of some $3 million to acquire portions of the Greenway for open space is another policy that has to be seriously reconsidered. Unless those areas are going to be “parked-up” with trails, parking areas, and programs that promote them, this is essentially a backyard preservation program for Hillair Circle. The city has to use millions more wisely than this in the coming year.
Meanwhile, the St. Agnes Development is interesting.
What will the new mystery owners of the St. Agnes Hospital Property do with it? That is the question of the month. Housing at that corner will be a real stretch on traffic. Commercially developing the property? It has to be rezoned. Opening a new hospital, that is out of the question because the medical equipment worth millions has been auctioned off to liquidators for a fraction of its value. That will be another thorny Common Council issue.
Consolidation of Power in the Mayor’s Office.
What 2004 proved was the inability of the Common Council to lead, and showed that Mayor Joseph Delfino has created a bastion of power in the Mayor’s office by controlling the agenda, co-opting issues and presenting paths the Council cannot say no to, even when they should. The CSEA 4% settlements over the next three years are example of where the Council should have raised some eyebrows. Nobody gets 4% raises these days in the real world.
The Council just gets out of the way. They do not ask the right questions, and can be easily swayed to approving virtually anything if it makes them appear to be on the politically correct side of an issue.
The School Budget Never Stops.
Meanwhile in the white mansion on Homeside Lane, on the south side of town, the City School District continues to spend money as if it is falling in the streets.
The citizens are proud of the school district, but this budget is out of control. It will automatically go up 6% every year automatically. And nobody ever thinks about like cutting a department or trimming the administration. The district performs well, no doubt, and we love the school district, but this district spends $144 Million, soon-to-be $160 Million plus to run nine buildings. Admittedly it is mostly in salaries and benefits (approximately 70%), and crosses its fingers that there are no children coming into the district.
The preliminary, minimum increase in the school budget for 2004-05 is $12 Million, which will put the 05-06 budget at the $156 Million mark. WPCNR predicts it will complete at about $158 million, stopping short of the hard-to-swallow $160 Million level.
The $156 Million figure is the level set before the School District adds improvements to school buildings, budgets new requests from departments, and adds new programs for the performance gap. This figure also does not take into account the School District feelers for expansion of the Middle Schools alluded to by Superintendent of Schools, Timothy Connors at the beginning of this month.
The City Budget is approximately $114 Million. The School Budget this year is $144 Million. This means the city spends about $5 Million a week to run the city and educate its children.
Other Issues,
The White Plains Performing Arts Center says they broke even in the first year, but this was mainly due to a substantial contribution to close the budget gap. The theater cost $1.1 Million to run in 04-05. It also lost its full-time Executive Director. Jeffrey Rosentock, who continues pro bono. Mr. Stimac, its Producing Director says he is looking for a full-time Executive Director.
Will the city sever its relationship with Tony Stimac, or continue him into year three of his contract? A lot is riding on how the theatre Spring productions draw.
Meanwhile, the theatre still has no on-street identity at the City Center. Though publicity and community outreach of the WPPAC, as well as programming can be open for criticism, there is no excuse for the theatre not having its own marquee on Mamaroneck Avenue and Main Street, and a box office presence on the street. You have to know the theatre is there.
This was a poorly conceived theatre design by the city, allowing the theatre to be on the top floor of the City Center instead of on the street level is a huge mistake, and time has proven that.
The Public Safety Communications Issues.
The efficiency of the Department of Public Safety has been gratifying, saving lives at 23 Old Mamaroneck Road, providing a police presence in the downtown, and lowering crime, and enforcing traffic laws more efficiently.
However communication to the public during an emergency does not exist. The city does not notify radio stations. The city does not provide information to citizens (and not just reporters), during an emergency. It has no apparatus to do that. No policy. If you’re lucky the police desk will inform you what’s going on.
What the Public Safety Department and City Hall have to come together on is how to communicate with the public in an emergency.
Citizens simply cannot get information from the police department on an unfolding event while it is happening. This needs to be addressed. Admittedly the Police Department and Fire Departments have to take care of the emergency first, however, there is no excuse for the Mayor’s Office not being ready to update citizens on a developing situation and telling citizens what areas of the city to avoid.
It is amateurish emergency event public communication, at the present time.
If there is ever a real serious event in the downtown, the city will dearly wish it had a hotline for citizens wired into the Mayor’s office where recorded messages can replay traffic, procedure advisories, etc. It will dearly wish it had a way to alert citizens to stay out of the downtown or avoid an area. It will dearly wish it had an automatic call procedure to reach citizens in an area of the city or all the city for that matter.
What new masks will White Plains don in 2005? Fasten your seatbelt.
