Reproduced with permission of The Journal News.
Residential development angers Greenburgh neighbors
ROBERT MARCHANT
The Journal News
GREENBURGH - A town neighborhood is in an uproar over the construction of five homes next to the Sprain Brook Parkway, on a section of land that opponents say was never intended for residential development.
The town issued five building permits earlier this year to Baker Brothers Construction of Elmsford for a roughly 1-acre strip along the parkway. Neighbors are coming out in force to overturn the building permits.
"People are very upset. The way this came about, it’s inexcusable," Joel Barkow, a neighborhood leader, said yesterday. "How can the supervisor and Town Board stand by while a developer buys state parkland and builds with no subdivision approval, site plan or environmental review?"
Barkow was among 40 people who attended a town meeting last week to protest the construction of modular homes off Kathwood Road. Two homes are nearly completed, and two more foundations have been poured.
Barkow and others maintain that the town cannot issue building permits without site plan approval from the town Planning Board and say the site technically remains parkland.
The town is disputing those contentions and says it is closely following all applicable building regulations.
"This is consistent with what we’ve been doing for as far back as our records indicate," said John Lucido, the town’s building inspector.
The land in question was owned by the state from 1954 until last year, when it was sold with a number of other small parcels all over New York. The property was subdivided in 1929, before the state purchased the lot as a buffer for the parkway.
After the construction company bought the land from the state, it requested and received building permits for five lots measuring 75 by 100 feet. Attempts to reach Baker Brothers for comment yesterday were unsuccessful.
Citing the legal 1929 subdivision, Lucido said Greenburgh does not require site plan approval for housing lots that already meet town code requirements. The developers were simply given building permits and allowed to proceed.
But another local resident, County Legislator Tom Abinanti, D-Greenburgh, strongly disagreed with the town’s handling of the case. He is providing legal services to the neighborhood group without cost.
"The town blew it on this one," Abinanti said. "We want a Planning Board review. There are too many problems with the site."
The Planning Board wants its chance to review the builders’ plans, and voted May 3 to request a site plan application for the Kathwood Road development. The town and Baker Brothers have not responded to the request.
The matter now is before the Zoning Board of Appeals, which is reviewing a special appeal by neighbors to halt construction. The Kathwood property has been scheduled for the board’s May 25 agenda.
Abinanti contended that the construction was improper because the state Legislature never voted to remove the parcel from its parkland holdings. He also said the unique nature of the site and environmental questions about it made site plan approval from the Planning Board necessary.
Abinanti sought a temporary injunction against construction in state Supreme Court last week, without success.
Town Supervisor Paul Feiner said the Town Council would not overrule the building inspector and the longtime policy Lucido was upholding.
"We do not believe it is state parkland," Feiner said, noting that the town had received a letter from the state to that effect.
The Town Council took no action on the case at a special session held last Friday. Feiner said the town could be held liable by the developers if it ordered a work stoppage.
"There could be a tremendous potential for damages," he said.