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WPCNR NEWS & COMMENT. By John F. Bailey. July 3, 2009: Since no other media electronic, print or internet has considered rebuilding 9 acres in the heart of White Plains and replacing it with seven 15-story towers 2,000 more residents (WPCNR estimate) and two long blocks of retail on the Winbrook site is important or worthy enough to report on, someone has to do it.
In the presentation to a handful of Winbrook residents last Tuesday, attended by this reporter, Winbrook residents appeared wowed by the simple “gee-whiz” sketches of partial views of the Winbrook Revitalization presented by architect Gary Warshauer, still asked shrewd, penetrating questions no Common Council person has thought of to ask.
One resident asked if public housing tenants would be mixed in with the moderate income and market rate unit renters and the answer from Terry Walton, a consultant with the White Plains Housing Authority was Yes.
Another resident asked if present seniors at Winbrook shouldn’t have their housing built first, so they would not have to move twice, suggesting the senior assisted living building be built first. They were told some seniors might have to move twice.
However, if I were on the Common Council tonight, I’d ask the following and demand answers before I voted this zoning in.
- What is the property tax effect on the property if it is still owned by the Winbrook Housing Authority after all 7 buildings are built and managed by a private developer (s), yet the property produces income for the developer(s)?
- How much in tax credits will be enjoyed by the developer(s) who build the affordable housing portion.
- How much in property taxes will the developer (s) pay on the market rate housing?
- What will the site look like from street level? Viewed from the North, and West? No one has any idea at the present time based on the rudimentary sketches shown so far.
TENANT QUALIFICATIONS
5. Will Winbrook residents of today have to be employed? Free of drugs? Earning a certain amount of income? (The requirements of the three HUD projects cited by the White Plains Housing Authority as examples of what they might do last week do.)
- Will present Winbrook residents be subject to requalification based on income, criminal records, credit records?
BUILDERS/DEVELOPERS/CONSULTANTS
- Will minority contracting, engineering firms, architectural firms be required to be hired? So far the only engineering and architects on this project are very white – but wait that is a minority in White Plains, isn’t it?
- Will contractors building the site be required to hire minority workers to work on the site? Will they be required to train Winbrook-based youth and workers to join their unions?
WHAT STIMULUS MONEY ARE WE TALKING ABOUT HERE?
- Specifically what wave of economic stimulus money is the project going to apply for and has to apply so quickly for that the Winbrook zoning has to be approved tonight? (Without more specific information on the project and HUD’s role?)
A press release from HUD last week, shows there are a lot of projects ahead of the opportunistic White Plains Housing Authority and the usual suspects of city architects, engineers and consultants who are salivating about the money raining down across America and want a piece of it.
According to a press release from the Department of Housing and Urban Development, announcing $1 Billion to jump start affordable housing programs, released 6 days ago, June 30,at http://portal.hud.gov/portal/page?_pageid=153,8081865&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL
and I quote:
The current economic and financial crises present significant challenges for the construction industry, particularly residential construction. One of the by-products of this crisis has been the freezing of investments in the low income housing tax credit (LIHTC) market. The tax credits create an incentive for investors to provide capital to developers to build multi-family rental housing for moderate- and low-income families across the nation. Since the contraction of the credit market, and as traditional investors remain on the sidelines, the value of tax credits has plummeted. Consequently, as many as 1,000 projects (containing nearly 150,000 units of housing) are on hold across the country.
In response, the Recovery Act provides $2.25 billion for TCAP, a grant program to provide capital investments in these stalled LIHTC developments. HUD is awarding these TCAP grants by formula to 52 state housing credit agencies (all 50 states plus the District of Columbia and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico) to complete construction of qualified housing projects that will ultimately provide affordable housing to an estimated 35,000 households nationwide. Since a major purpose of this program is job creation, the Recovery Act establishes ambitious deadlines for expenditure of grant funds and requires state housing credit agencies to give priority to projects that can begin immediately and be completed by February 16, 2012.
I repeat, for the Common Councilmembers who might miss it, this news release from HUD Secretary Shaun Donovan came out last Tuesday, June 30.
So, if I were on that Common Council, I want to know from the White Plains Housing Authority, how come we have to pass this zoning tonight, when there are already 1,000 projects ahead of us? What real shot do we have of bypassing these 1,000 projects and getting our paws on $500 Million or more?
I want to know from the White Plains Housing Authority how White Plains can cut the line, (is this the White Plains High School Money Cafeteria) so to speak to get a share of this $2.25 Billion when any project eligible for that Obama booty has to be completed by February 2012 as indicated in the news release? Has Nita and Chuck and Hillary greased the skids?
The White Plains Housing Authority said this project could take 8 to 10 years, that would appear to mean that this HUD money simply is not accessible for this project. Is it?
If so, what money does the White Plains Housing Authority have in mind? Admittedly, a government-connected consultant is working with them (ICG), but hey, does that mean we are guaranteed HUD money?
HOW FAST CAN THE WHITE PLAINS HOUSING AUTHORITY GET THE PAPERWORK IN?
- Considering how long it took White Plains affordable housing projects at Hortons Mill (a 17-unit project) and South Kensico (42-unit project) to get going (a tedious long five years with very slow paperwork filing by the two developers – way slow, plus begging over $1.1 Million in taxpayer dollars from the city, awarded the two projects by the Common Council), how fast is the Housing Authority and their consultant going to get through the paperwork on a 1,100 unit project to HUD’s satisfaction?
In a week after approval, perhaps? If they don’t get the proposal in by the next Common Council meeting, the zoning should be rescinded. To hear the Housing Authority talk, they have the application ready to go, and it has to be sent in now to get the funding. Is it ready? I’d ask that question: Mr. White Plains Housing Authority
DETAILS OF DEVELOPMENT
- What is going to be built on the west side of South Lexington Avenue: townhouses? (No one has supplied the details other than some retain, townhouses? What?)
12. Will property owners on the West Lex side and both sides of West and East Post Road be eminent-domained if they do not cooperate?
13.How much is the entire project envisioned to cost?
14. Are those private owners expected to contribute money to the revitalization of their share of the Lexington Avenue West Side, and both sides of Post Road?
15. What if the private owners do not contribute and leave the property just the way it is? What is the plan because there does not appear to be a plan?
QUALITY OF LIFE
16. What will happen when new housing is built beside the present Winbrook buildings with the residents still in them? (I have lived with housing renovation two and ½ years and it is no fun? Living with heavy construction night and day for eight years? How many will stay? And will it compromise the objective of the project?
17. Is the real objective to remove as many of the lowest income residents as possible by making their lives more unbearable than they already are? And following the interminable wait that displaced tenants in Detroit and Chicago experienced and are experiencing?
WILL THE NEW WINBROOK BE A KINDER, GENTLER,MORE ATTRACTIVE WINBROOK
There is a case history involving just this sort of construction proposed by the White Plains Housing Authority – “construction across the street while you wait construction.”
In the Chicago Legends South project, one Robert Taylor projects building (the Henry Horner homes) had replacement housing built right across the street from it, again turning to the Chicago Reporter:
“In the early 90s, the Henry Horner homes residents through public advocates sued the Chicago Housing Authority, saying the state of their buildings amounted to “de facto demolition entitling them to immediate replacement housing.” They won, and the first replacement units were constructed in 1996.”
However, the result has not changed life significantly, to wit:
According to The Chicago Reporter: “At Horner (replacement homes) there is no work requirement because of the (court ordered) consent decree. There is no minimum income requirement attached to any of the public housing units. The right of return is denied to convicted felons, and anyone who is evicted or voluntarily.”
The advocate lawyers say the result has failed to change the Robert Taylor Projects “astmosphere,” again, we quote from reporter Casey Sanchez’s story:
“While building replacement housing next to existing public housing units makes relocation timely and humane for residents, the advovates say it also makes it difficult for residents of the new mixed-income housing to separate themselves from the crime that plagues existing Chicago Housing Authority high-rises. Neighborhood security is one of West Haven’s most intractable problems. Failure to provide effective policing and to evict tenants who break the law or violate their leases are serious threats to realization of the West Haven mixed-income vision, according to the Web site for Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, the group that brought the Horner Case.”
Read the story at http://www.thefreelibrary.com/_/print/PrintArticle.aspx?id=148319656
18.How fast will Winbrook residents move in?
19,How many affordable housing tenants and market rate tenants will move in with the first select Winbrook residents?
20. How long will the construction take per building?
21. Will some units be condominiums eventually? Does developer have to go back to Common Council to reformulate how units are offered to the markets?
SELECTION OF RETAIL/BUSINESSES?
19. When will the retail be leased up– simultaneously with tenant move-in or secondary?
20. What types of retailers will be considered?
21. How will retail in that part of town draw business from downtown?
22. Last week, at the meeting with tenants, The White Plains Housing Authority said that after the zoning approval tonight, they would do an environmental review,involve the tenants and the community and the project would be planned. Isn’t this backwards?
POST OFFICE REDEVELOPMENT FIT?
23. How will the New Winbrook relate to the U.S. Post Office plan to develop the White Plains Post Office site on Fisher Avenue – another megaproject no one knows anything about? Why don’t we? Shouldn’t we? Before HUD and the Post Office and the Housing Authority show us how it is going to work together and bring money into the city coffers?
Of course, there may be other projects that have worked out better for the low income residents of Chicago Legends South, Detroit’s Woodbridge and Atlanta project, and living in a construction site for 8 to 10 years may appeal to the 1,000 residents of Winbrook for a chance at a deluxe apartment in the sky.
IMPACT ON THE SCHOOL DISTRICT
24. The White Plains City School District is in financial crisis and at building capacity now. Within eight years, how many more children will this new low income, affordable housing and market rate project pump into the district?
25. Will the new residents – WPCNR estimates the full population will double to over 2,500 persons—will they pay their way? Or will the individual property owner pay and pay for the cost of educating the children coming in? A little projection please? Remember two thirds will be affordable housing (middle class) and market rate(young couples). That could mean a baby or two. It’s got to mean a baby or two.
If I am the Common Council I have to fly out to Chicago, Detroit and Atlanta and see how this has worked and what they have done. I have to read some of the studies on what revitalization has really done across the nation. In my brief search over the last five days, this is what I have turned up. The White Plains Housing Authority consultant should have had that ready and presented to the Common Council before now, shouldn’t they?
IMPACT ON CITY INFRASTRUCTURE
26. If you have 2,500 more residents in that area of the city, the police and infrastructure needs have to grow. How will they grow? Will HUD money pay for it all? Will Developer Money Pay, as Mr. Cappelli had to do? Not having an Enironmental Review first — paid for by the developer(s) means that if you approve the zoning, the city does not know what it is getting into! Who will pay?
IS THIS A DONE DEAL?
The White Plains Housing Authority has not done its homework. At least Louis Cappelli did that, and he built everything in five years – Not 8.
We have not heard from one HUD honcho that they love this project and have set aside $500 Million just for us.
27. Could we produce Nita Lowey, Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton or even Bill Ryan to say – I have here from our President Barack Obama, $500 Million! In HUD money.
Where is that promise?
28. Are we to believe our project is going to jump ahead of 1,000 stalled housing projects? Is a project that we do not even know what it is going to look like yet, going to be completed in three years, as the HUD Secretary claims the extra $2.25 Billion is going to go to?
If such as promise has been made, then let’s see it in writing.
Where’s the letter?
If there is no letter, what is the rush?
IS THIS JOE DELFINO’S LAST BIG DEAL?
But, of course, no one on the Common Council is going to want to be accused of losing the city $400 Million to $500 Million to who knows, maybe a Billion in free money.
The architects will do great. The engineers will do fine. The contractors and developers will do great feeding on White Plains Housing Authority largesse. As Commissioner of Planning Susan Habel, says key to growth is providing persons to attract retail.
Will this work? Where is the evidence that it has worked?
Where did all the poor people go in those three developments? Not all to a better life,according to what I read.
The council tonight will be sold a bill of goods that this project, to be soon followed by the post office project will save the Adam Bradley administration. But again I go back to my first question – what is the tax impact?
I think you have to have that before you approve that zoning tonight.
What’s a month or two or three or four?
Shouldn’t the Mayor-to-be, Adam Bradley be entitled to examine this decision in depth before he is saddled with the biggest project White Plains as ever seen that he cannot stop and has no control over? The White Plains Housing Authority will become an empire, controlling 9.5 acres, millions of dollars in contracts and consultancy fees, virtually a city within a city, with money.
I would want a lot more information before I bobble-headed my “yes” vote tonight.
