The Inside Press

Magazines serving the communities of Northern Westchester

Chappaqua

Thank You to the Dads!

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This whole issue has a little “history.” I met Ian Karr, our accomplished and talented Guest Editor, after innocently approaching him for a potential article about “Chappaqua Dads,” a Facebook page he started last year. Over breakfast at Le Jardin, I was surprised to hear he was also the co-host of a popular SiriusXM radio show, Jackie’s Joke Hunt. I had attended Jackie “The Jokeman” Martling’s performance one night at The Cutting Room in NYC (thanks to a local friend’s generous invitation!), and after a private introduction, Jackie invited me to be a guest on his show.

I never followed up, but Ian was about to change all that, and I have since appeared twice, and it’s quite fun! So it’s been truly gratifying to turn the tables a bit, and invite Ian and Jackie to work with me on my own littler and hyperlocal “show”–
Inside Chappaqua!

I was also intrigued when Ian told me he had some secrets to share about the so called “guy code.” I’m delighted by his article’s basic but on target insights and suggestions. I’ll take his messages to heart (next time I’m in a relationship, that is), and ladies, advise you do likewise!

me-with-the-guys-betterIndeed, I think I’ve gleaned plenty of new understanding about guys in general from the compilation of submissions here. I’ve always enjoyed any window into “guy thinking,” and here they are writing about coaching, barbequing, commuting, joke telling, camping with their buddies, or writing a big time Hollywood screenplay! So a big THANK YOU to the dads, and a Happy Father’s Day to Ian, Jackie, Joe, Stephen, Dan, Mark and Eric for going with the flow and injecting a much needed dose of male sensibility into a local magazine that’s generally written largely by women freelance writers. Special thanks as well to Todd Shapera for his cover and inside pictures of “the guys.” Ian had thought up the concept of getting all the dads on the cover in a “Vanity Fair” style shoot, and I’m thrilled with the results.

While dads were the primary focus, we did manage to include some “teen driven” pieces in time for graduation including ones about the “Teen Zone” at the Chappaqua Library, and another about an all day summit at Westchester Medical Center formed to help solve the issue of distracted driving, and not just among teens. Also, check out an article by Greeley’s Amanda Cronin about our high school’s stellar Science Department!

Contributing editors free me up to cover stuff too, on occasion, and I jumped at the chance to attend a talk by Shark Tank celeb and real estate mogul Barbara Corcoran.

My own life sometimes feels as if it’s “publish or perish.” If I ever perish, I would hope to reinvent myself with the same combination of true grit and humor Barbara conveys in every sentence she speaks.

Meanwhile, there’s been a steady flow of news in town ranging from Whole Foods signing a lease at Chappaqua Crossing, a proposal for a new and snazzy condo community at the Legionaries of Christ site, to most importantly, a solid citizen representation of New Castle residents weighing in with their visions for a Master Plan, as Eileen Gallagher reports here too. 
It’s not too late to get involved with that either!

Enjoy the month of June, everyone. It’s extra special for me with my two graduating seniors (Anna from UMass, Amherst and Ari from Greeley); immensely proud of them both, and wishing all New Castle (and beyond) families with graduating seniors a hearty congrats too.

P.S. There’s something for everyone during Chappaqua’s annual Sidewalk Sales Days. So mark your calendar! At press time, the Chappaqua-Millwood Chamber of Commerce told Inside Chappaqua this popular event will take place the weekend of July 24-26.

A New View of New Castle

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Ian-best2By Ian Karr

When you live in a town as long as I’ve lived in Chappaqua (17 years), you tend to take certain things for granted. It’s the natural progression of life that one day blends into the next and the things that once seemed special don’t elicit the same reaction anymore. If that sounds familiar to you, I have one suggestion…edit an issue of Inside Chappaqua magazine.

When Grace Bennett first approached me about helming the June issue, I was flattered, excited and a bit daunted. While writing is a big part of my job as a Director at IKA Collective, I hadn’t tackled anything with a table of contents since college. Grace has covered hundreds of topics over the years and I wondered how I could come up with something fresh. Especially after growing somewhat jaded about our town.

Like most things that take you out of your comfort zone, I found the process of editing this issue incredibly eye-opening and rewarding.

I thought of my friends in different ways…as potential authors. Who had an interesting voice? Who could actually write? Who would be able to meet a deadline? They say a good friend will help you move, but a best friend will help you move a body. I can now add that a great friend will allow you to edit their work.

I thought of all the English teachers I had spirited disagreements with, and realized that I owe them a huge debt of gratitude. It’s amazing that, after all these years, I still remember some of what they pounded into me about telling a story in 700 words or less. You’re entitled to think otherwise.

But mostly, I thought of our town in ways I haven’t since I moved here. Joe Giannettino’s piece reminded me that we are practically walking distance from some of New York’s most beautiful and enjoyable outdoor activities. Eric Kratz’s article on coaching reminded me how dedicated we are, as a town, to instilling in our kids a passion for sports, fitness and teamwork. Mark Bomback’s essay on moving here from Hollywood and Stephen Barron’s tips on how to cook the perfect rack of Texas-style ribs reminded me that Chappaqua attracts transplants from all over the country…and that we have incredible talent here. And Dan Levitz’s interesting take on his enviable commute reminded me that a lot can happen in a short trip through our quaint little town.

I also had fun asking my radio partner, Jackie Martling, to offer up tips on joke telling. It really is an art, and he’s the best in the world. In the nearly eight years we’ve been doing Jackie’s Joke Hunt, we’ve told or heard over 10,000 jokes. I remember exactly six.

In the end, I came through the experience with a rejuvenated love for New Castle. Our community spirit may not always be on display, but it’s definitely there, making this one of the best places to raise a family, build great friendships…and edit a local magazine.

Our Intrepid All Dads TeamPhotos by Todd Shapera
Our Intrepid All Dads Team
Photos by Todd Shapera

“Love at 10514”. News about the Chappaqua train station’s new service

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TRAIN STATION DEPOT

Over a year ago, the prior Town Board issued an RFP for rental of the train station depot. This winter, the Town Board reissued the RFP and received four proposals. All proposals were well presented, and we wish to thank each of the applicants for their time and interest.

The decision for the Town Board in this case required us to determine what would best serve the needs of our residents and provide the best overall value to our community. After careful consideration and review of the presentations, the majority of the Board voted to accept the proposal by Leslie Lampert to open an establishment called Love at 10514.

Love at 10514 will be inspired by Ladle of Love, the award-winning farm-to-fork food shop in Mt. Kisco. Love at 10514 will be a family-style bistro for the Chappaqua community of commuters who can count on healthy on-the-go food for the train, the office, take-home—or an easy supper in town.   Hot foods such as soups and stews will be available, artisan salads and sandwiches, wraps and paninis – packaged for the grab & go commuter in earth-friendly containers. In addition, there will be bistro-style seating (about 40 seats) for commuters waiting for their trains or people picking up and/or dropping off commuters.

One of the Town Board’s concerns in terms of leasing the Train Station Depot was the nature of the renovations that would be required to allow the building to function as a restaurant. A majority of the Board believed that converting the interior of the Depot into a full service restaurant was not in the taxpayers’ best interests. In our view, Leslie’s proposal meets the needs of our community and provides the best re-adaptive use of Depot’s beautiful interior space. Over time, we are confident that the Train Station Depot will become a vital part of the downtown business scene.

The Board entered into a 10-year lease, with a 5-year renewal option, for monthly rent payments starting at $3,300.00 and escalating thereafter in accordance with the lease terms. The Board also entered into a license agreement that allows Leslie to operate the concession stand until the Town is able to deliver possession of the premises.

Commuters should be assured that we do not anticipate any break in the continuity of service of coffee in the morning! We believe the current operator Carla Gambescia and Leslie will be able to coordinate a seemless transition.

The Town Board wishes to thank Carla for operating the coffee stand over the past several months and for her interest in locating a restaurant in New Castle. We strongly encourage the Chases and Carla to consider other locations in our Town to open a restaurant and join our business community.

MHA’s 5K Run/Walk & 1-Mile Kids’ Race: The Inside Press Rallies for Mental Health!

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MHA on the Move 2013 Hector M(207)On Sunday, May 4th, you have the opportunity to join your neighbors and go the extra kilometer for mental health in our community.  Inside Chappaqua and Inside Armonk Magazines are media sponsors and residents, Cathy Gursha, Judy Fuhrer, Sharon and Alan Pollack and Seven Bridges librarian, Karen Baker are all Race Ambassadors. Whether you run or walk or volunteer, your participation helps raise the money that makes mental health services more accessible to community members who need it most. With the data now showing that 1 in 5 live with a mental health condition, more effective help and better resources are essential.

The Mental Health Association of Westchester’s MHA on the move 5K Run/Walk and 1 Mile Kids’ Race is from 8am to noon at FDR State Park in Yorktown Heights, NY. Celebrating ten years, it’s an inspiring, fun, family-friendly community-wide event. Eight-time Emmy winner, WCBS’s Lou Young will kick off the event along with 10th Anniversary co-chairs Ann Mandel Laitman from Bedford, Amy Collins, of Somers and Randi Silverman, from Dobbs Ferry.

Children get their own fun warm-up and 1-Mile Kids’ Race (ages 4-12) plus ribbons for each runner and medals for the top three girls and boys. Everyone gets healthy food and a fun morning in the park. All participants receive a free t-shirt. Runners enjoy a race timed by the Taconic Road Runners with medals awarded in each age category as well as overall top male/female. Walkers get a 5K walk in the park.  Parking is free.  For more information and to register, visit www.mhawestchester.org

MHA is a community-based mental health agency that has been helping Westchester County residents for 68 years through direct services, professional and community education and advocacy. MHA supports 18,000 individuals annually through a comprehensive array of mental health services striving to help each individual to achieve their personal goals and to lead independent and healthy lives.

Letter to the Editor re Affordable Housing

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The proposed site of Chappaqua Station has drawn opposition from a wide segment of New Castle residents and officials. Photo by Andrew Vitelli
The proposed site of Chappaqua Station has drawn opposition from a wide segment of
New Castle residents and officials. Photo by Andrew Vitelli

Dear Editor:

Those of us who are part of Chappaqua for Responsible Affordable Housing would like to respond to recent media reports regarding Conifer Realty’s proposed affordable housing project on Hunts Place in Chappaqua.  In particular, we want to refute, in the strongest possible terms, the accusation of discrimination made in these reports by Conifer and their new attorney, Randall McLaughlin.  These accusations are completely false and contradicted by the record and the facts.  They are part of a new campaign to try to rescue Conifer’s poorly conceived and planned proposal by drawing HUD into the process under the guise of accusing community members who oppose the project of discriminatory intent.

In fact, we have opposed this particular site, which is a tiny parcel sandwiched between the Parkway off-ramp and the Metro-North train tracks, simply because it is a terrible location for affordable housing, is in direct opposition to Federal Monitor James Johnson’s criteria, and would result in the creation of discriminatory housing.  There are vastly superior sites in our Town that are part of residential neighborhoods, and will create safe and dignified housing, to meet the goals of the Westchester County Housing Settlement.  We strongly support the construction of affordable housing on these sites.

We are an informal group of New Castle residents, including architects, engineers, business people and others, who have joined together to advocate for socially responsible solutions to the need for affordable housing in the Town of New Castle.  From the outset, we have made it clear that we support the creation of affordable housing in our community, and we embrace the goals of creating this housing, as clearly articulated by the Federal Monitor in the 2009 County Settlement with HUD to construct 750 units of “fair and affordable housing”, including that it be integrated into existing residential neighborhoods, and not inherently stigmatize or isolate residents as low income.

It is exactly on these points that we oppose the Hunts Place project.  The site is a tiny, isolated, highly-contaminated strip of land, squeezed between the Parkway off-ramp, the Metro-North railroad tracks and a highway bridge.  The proposed building, which is intended for families and children, would be crammed onto this tiny site with no room for open play space.  This would represent the opposite of the goals and intents of affordable housing, because this location would inherently isolate and stigmatize our new neighbors.  Building affordable housing on this site would in fact be an act of discrimination.

The media campaign by Conifer and Mr. McLaughlin to therefore characterize the opposition to the Hunts Place proposal as discriminatory is shameful, and simply does not comport with the facts.  As long ago as 2007, the Town’s Planning Board, when considering a market-rate housing proposal on this site, labeled it as “unsuitable for residential use”, and in 2012, the Federal Monitor himself stated “the site has all the indicia of isolation” and “the stigma associated with isolation cannot be overcome.”

Further below, we address some of the inaccurate and misleading statements being made in the media.  In considering these, readers should bear in mind the following:

Conifer Realty is a for-profit developer that stands to earn a $2 million development fee for this project, and the property owner stands to earn $1.3 million for a highly-contaminated property that was purchased in 2005 for $290,000, plus having taxpayers pay another $1.2 million to clean it up.  They are highly motivated by purely financial reasons to push this project through, and are likely compensating Mr. McLaughlin very well for his efforts to force it through;

The project cost, per filings by Conifer, is an astronomical $15.2 million – or $542,000 per unit – making this the most expensive affordable housing project in the County by almost 40%;

Because the building program is too massive for this small site, eight State Building Code and Fire Code variances are required, all of which are life-safety issues.  These variances can only be granted by a State Board of Review panel – the Town Building Inspector cannot issue a building permit unless these variances are granted.  Having presented their case to the local Hudson Valley Board of Review, it appears that Conifer knows that at least some of the variances will be denied, so they have begun this campaign to claim discrimination to try to draw HUD into the process, while also attempting to use their influence to move the variance review to another Board, in order to obtain a favorable ruling.

In 2007, our Town Planning Board reviewed a market-rate multi-family housing proposal on this site, and advised our Town Board to reject the proposal – which it subsequently did – stating that the site is “not suitable for residential use” due to traffic issues, density, and the environmental issues of the abutting railroad & highway, and was particularly not conducive to occupancy by children.

Despite this knowledge, Conifer proposed this project on a site that did not comply with local zoning and land-use regulations, and proposed a building that did not comply with the State Building Code.  As such, in deciding to pursue this project, as the developer, they accepted the risk that they may not achieve the approvals that they were seeking, and their investment in attempting to achieve the approvals was always at their risk.  No one or entity could give them any guarantee that they would achieve all of the necessary approvals

The site does not comply with the Federal Monitor’s published and very specific Best Practices Criteria for Site Selection.  These include site features that would be more heavily scrutinized:  adjacent highways and railroads are barriers that isolate a site and cannot be mitigated; sites that inherently stigmatize and isolate residents as low income;  sites that do not seamlessly integrate with an adjoining residential neighborhood; and sites that have obvious negative environmental impacts, such as excessive noise from a railroad, that cannot be successfully mitigated.  In fact, the Monitor expressed his concerns about the site in two letters to Conifer, one on April 23, 2012 and again on July 17, 2012.  The July 17 letter made these very points about this project:  “This letter sets forth my concern that this project, as currently designed, will not further the goals of the consent decree and raises the risk of significant stigmatization and isolation of residents.”  “This site has many of the indicia of isolation… Given these physical challenges, one could reasonably conclude that the obstacles to integration with the community, and the stigma associated with separation, cannot be overcome.”  Curiously, with no noticeable change to the configuration of the building or the environmental issues of the location, the Monitor flip-flopped and later expressed his support for the project.

One of the available alternative sites is located along Washington Ave., near Town Hall.  The property is owned by the Town, and was presented to the Town Board back in May 2012 by one of the architects in our group for consideration as an alternate site for affordable housing.  Nothing was pursued on this site by that Town Board.  The current Town Board is making the effort to pursue this site as an alternative.  This site does have wetlands on the property, however these are not native wetlands, but altered wetlands.  As the Town is aware, and as Conifer has itself done on Long Island, such wetlands can be replaced with offsite mitigation.  While Mr. McLaughlin expresses opposition to this site due to his concern for the environmental impacts of developing on the wetlands, he apparently sees no problem with putting families & children on a highly-contaminated site between a Railroad and a Parkway, while also failing to disclose the fact that Conifer itself was recently lauded in Brookhaven for their work in creating off-site wetlands to replace altered wetlands on a site for new multi-family housing there.

Finally, we would like to point out some of the inaccurate and misleading statements made by Mr. McLaughlin in his attempt to paint those in the community who are opposed to the project as being motivated by discriminatory intent:

1.    “The opponents claim that there are safety issues when each of these issues were adequately addressed during the prior Town Board review.”

Fact:  the Town Board did not review the issues of the Building Code and Fire Code variances, specifically avoiding them as they understood that they would be the subject of a review by the State Board of Review.  They did not review fire access to the building and rescue scenarios, did not review the fire risks of the building being constructed against the property lines, did not discuss the routes required for emergency vehicles to get to the site, and did not discuss the safety issues of the adjacent Parkway off-ramp.

2.    “If this project were market-rate, there would not be this hue and cry.”

Fact:  As stated above, in 2007, the Town Planning Board and Town Board rejected a market-rate housing proposal at this site, stating that the site was unsuitable for residential use, citing concerns for the negative environmental impacts, particularly on children.  If it was not suitable for market-rate housing, it should certainly not be suitable for affordable housing.

3.    “There are about 300 children in a gymnastics program right down the street & no one complains about that.”

Fact:  The gymnastics program is a commercial use appropriately located in a commercial / industrial district, is located more than ¼ mile from this intersection, and children are brought to the site by vehicle.  This cannot be compared to an inappropriate residential use located immediately at the intersection of a 55-mph Parkway off-ramp, next to the railroad tracks, jammed onto a tiny site, with no outdoor play area for children.

4.    “These children will be stigmatized… because they don’t dress the right way, or they don’t have the right cars, and they live in that low-income project.”

Fact:  This has never been the focus of our group. Like HUD and the Federal Monitor, we advocate for building affordable housing in safe and appealing locations, free from isolating and/or stigmatizing factors that would present unnecessary barriers to integration.  Mr. McLaughlin is trying to denigrate the entire community by taking an edited statement out of context.

In summary, our opposition to the Conifer proposal is purely and simply a matter of opposing the construction of affordable housing on a terrible site that is unsuitable for residential use, and standing up to a developer that shows no concern for the quality of the housing that it is providing and whose sole interest is to earn its $2 million development fee.  It is unacceptable to put our new neighbors, families and children, at risk on this site purely for the developer’s financial gain.  There are other available sites in Town that are integrated into existing residential neighborhoods, and we should be using our precious resources to build housing that meets these goals.

Rejecting an affordable housing project clearly takes courage by local, County and State officials, and leaves them open to false accusations of discrimination, to which Conifer has now resorted and accurately predicted would catch the attention of the media.  In this case, such accusations are completely contradicted by the record and the facts.

We hope that the ultimate rejection of this project will remind all involved in this process that the goal of the Settlement is to provide housing for real people, not just checking off a box for a particular community, and that the focus must always remain on the quality of life for the individuals, families and children who would live in this new housing.

Chappaqua for Responsible Affordable Housing

Bill Spade, Founding Member