SECOR HOMES CIVIC ASSOCIATION, INC. (SHCA)
P.O. Box 550, Ardsley, New York 10502
SHCA SITE TOUR WITH GREENBURGH TOWN BOARD
March 23, 1999
SHCA members conducted a site tour of three problem spots in the Secor Homes area with Town Board Members and the Town Supervisor, Paul Feiner. Accompanying the Town Supervisor were Town Board Members Les Adler, Eddie Mae Barnes, Diana Juettner and Timmy Weinberg. This site tour grew out of a meeting SHCA members had with several Board members in the home of a SHCA member earlier in the month.
The following Fact Sheets on Jennifer Lane, the Westchester View Lane buffer (behind Jean Lane) and WFAS were distributed to the Town Board and SHCA members.
FACT SHEET/WFAS Site
- In 1944, WFAS was permitted to operate a local broadcast station as a public service even though the site was zoned for residential use.
- In 1985, the present 450-ft. guy-wired tower was erected to replace the original freestanding tower; the legality of the replacement is in question.
- In 1989, WFAS applied to the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) for permission to operate a two-way radio system. The ZBA denied the application.
- Notwithstanding the 1989 ZBA denial, WFAS began expanding its non-conforming use in this residentially-zoned neighborhood by allowing commercial users to lease space on the tower, and even allowed the antennas denied by the Zoning Board to be erected immediately after the denial was issued.
- SHCA representatives noted the illegal activity in the 1989 ZBA transcript and yet nothing was done about the additional commercial antennas.
- There are now 21 antennas on the property; many of which are illegal.
- Unbelievably, the building inspector has recently determined that 17 antennas are legal because they pertain to the WFAS broadcasting service; he now maintains WFAS can expand its operation as much as it wants without variances; the SHCA has filed an appeal of the building inspector's decision to the Zoning Board of Appeals.
- Residents are concerned that the WFAS site will become the center of the telecommunications industry in Greenburgh and negatively affect our safety and property values.
- Residents are particularly concerned about safety issues:
- A structural analysis done by Nextel/WFAS indicates that the tension on the guy wires significantly exceeds industry standards.
- The structural analysis also showed that only one of the turnbuckles anchoring the guy wires has been properly threaded. (This hazardous condition has obviously existed since the tower was erected in 1985 and proves that WFAS does not have an effective safety inspection program.)
- A large chunk of ice fell through a bedroom window of a home on Essex Place due to ice build-up during storms. (The new tower is 75 feet closer to homes on Vista and some homes on Essex Place.)
- Arcing from the guy wires onto the dry grass below has resulted in the fire department responding to residents' calls. (Sparking of the wires occurs when a lightning storm is imminent.)
- 17 homes directly abut the WFAS property. The 450 foot tower is so close to residential uses there is no "safe" fall zone for the tower.
- If one of the guy wires snaps (and we know all but one is/has been improperly threaded to the anchors and there is corrosion) the steel cable will slice through any house or car it hits and kill any person it hits.
FACT SHEET/Westchester View Lane Buffer
- In 1987 the Town’s Planning Board established a buffer area for the homes along Jean Lane. The buffer is a 50-ft. area running along the southerly and southeasterly boundaries of Westchester View Lane.
- The Planning Board clearly stated that:
No tree may be removed on the easterly or southerly 50' boundary of Lot 12 or the southerly boundary of Lots 10 and 11.
No saplings or large bushes may be removed by the developer along this buffer to better shield the existing and new homes from the Ferncliff buildings.
- Buffers by their very nature exist in perpetuity
- Now 12 years later the Town is attempting to obliterate the buffer area by saying that it does not survive the development stage.
- Position on its face is patently ridiculous
- First the Town Engineer, who used to work for the developer as the site engineer, issued an edict that the buffer area is not protected and does not exist in perpetuity---that is, an owner can violate the buffer.
- After press coverage of the Town Engineer’s conflict of interest, the Town finally removed him from decisions on the area, but not before two sections of the buffer area had been decimated.
- Now the Planning Board Commissioner and the Town Attorney, with the apparent support of the Town Supervisor, is maintaining the same position.
- Buffer areas and the enforcement of their protection are critical to the quality of life in Greenburgh.
- If developers are allowed to disregard Planning Board and Zoning Board conditions, and Town officials support them, the very process and legitimacy of government is undermined.
- When Town officials repeatedly assure homeowners that Planning Board conditions will be enforced, and then the Town officials renege on those assurances, the Town’s enforcement process becomes a shambles.
FACT SHEET/Jennifer Lane
- Residents on Jennifer Lane became aware of a increasing amount of business being conducted at the end of Jennifer Lane about the beginning of February.
- Since then heavy-duty construction equipment were observed carrying on a fine soil business on residential-zoned property. A sign on Dobbs Ferry Road announces the fine soil business.
- Police were called and responded twice in February when the construction equipment was operating on Sunday, very early in the morning. (Feb. 21, 99)
- Another example that developers and commercial interests do not feel compelled to observe Town law.