[0:00] Yeah, yeah.
[0:01] Good evening, everyone.
[0:02] Thank you all for joining us tonight, and
for those who are watching at home,
[0:08] thank you for tuning in. I'm Brian Healy.
[0:10] I'm the village manager here in
Croton-on-Hudson,
[0:14] and I'm very happy to be here tonight to
talk about the New York Forward grant
[0:19] opportunity that the village has, uh, to
be able to apply for once again this year.
[0:24] We've previously applied for this program
in 2024 And we've spent the time since
[0:30] that submission reviewing our application,
working to make it better.
[0:34] And we're going to hear tonight from
Valerie Monastra,
[0:38] who is our planning consultant from Nelson
Pope Voorhis,
[0:41] on what our application looks like.
[0:44] And she's also going to give a little more
detail on the program itself.
[0:48] And we're also going to hear tonight from
Mayor Marjorie Chu of the Village of
[0:54] Sleepy Hollow. And Sleepy Hollow has
successfully received the New York Forward
[0:59] grant award. And so we're going to hear
about how that process has been going so
[1:04] about how that process has been going so
far
[1:04] in Sleepy Hollow. So I'm going to turn it
over now to Valerie.
[1:09] All right, great. Thank you very much. My
name is Valerie Menastro.
[1:13] I'm a principal planner at Nelson Pope and
Voorhees,
[1:16] and I also have a history of working— I
actually We are the consultants for the,
[1:21] actually We are the consultants for the,
um,
[1:22] the Downtown Revitalization Initiative,
which is a $10 million, um, process.
[1:27] We work in the Mid-Hudson communities,
[1:29] and right now we're currently working in
the city of Yonkers.
[1:33] And I also worked with other communities
dealing with their New York Forward
[1:38] programs, especially like the village of
Sleepy Hollow— excuse me,
[1:42] the village of Dobbs Ferry.
[1:44] So I'm familiar with the process, the
programs, and stuff like that.
[1:48] So, um, I think first slide. Okay,
perfect.
[1:51] Um, so basically, what is the New York
Forward program?
[1:55] So the New York Forward program is a kind
of a mini of the Downtown Revitalization
[2:00] Initiative. That Downtown Revitalization
Initiative is in its 9th round now,
[2:05] and that was developed originally to give
$10 million to communities to really
[2:10] revitalize their downtowns.
[2:12] But at some point in time along the
process, The state realized that, okay,
[2:17] so maybe, like, larger cities could use
the— now, not that we all—
[2:21] all communities can use $10 million, but
in all reality,
[2:25] the types of projects they're looking for,
[2:27] they realized they really wanted to be
able to give smaller communities the
[2:32] able to give smaller communities the
chance
[2:33] to be able to capitalize on the same type
of program.
[2:36] And that's when they came up with the New
York Forward program.
[2:40] So the idea of the New York Forward
program is now this is going to be its 4th
[2:45] round. Um, it's— it was launched in 2022,
and it's $4.5 million that are given—
[2:50] that is given to a community.
[2:52] And it's specifically focused on you plan
the projects and then you act,
[2:57] as opposed to identifying very specific—
um, you,
[3:00] you identify specific projects from the
outset,
[3:03] and then you work with a planning
consultant to develop the strategic
[3:08] consultant to develop the strategic
investment
[3:08] plan, and then from there— you send those
projects up to the state,
[3:13] and the state will identify certain
projects to give the $4.5 million to.
[3:17] And I'll explain that a little bit more in
detail.
[3:21] But the first round, the Village of Sleepy
Hollow received funding,
[3:25] and then rounds 4 right now are taking
place in the Village of Ellenville and
[3:30] place in the Village of Ellenville and
Hamlet
[3:30] of Livingston Manor. Next slide. All
right.
[3:33] So in general, New York Forward
Communities,
[3:36] this is what's typically The
characteristics that distinguish a New
[3:40] characteristics that distinguish a New
York Forward
[3:41] community versus some of the larger cities
that would get the Downtown Realization
[3:46] Initiative. It's really the New York
Forward communities provide—
[3:51] the areas provide important services to
local communities,
[3:54] so it's usually a mixed-use neighborhood,
walkable setting.
[3:58] It also features a distinct place of— due
to the presence of, like, either cultural,
[4:04] historic, or natural resources,
agricultural assets.
[4:07] Certain assets that are unique to that
community.
[4:10] It also has— typically have, like,
[4:13] less dense development than your $10
million DRI communities,
[4:16] but the New York Forward communities still
have what I'm going to call your downtown
[4:22] or commercial areas where they're really
focusing on—
[4:25] where the funding would be focused on.
[4:28] And this also includes, you know,
[4:30] New York Forward communities typically
tend to include Villages, hamlets,
[4:35] it could even just be a particular
neighborhood.
[4:38] So it really varies depending upon the
application process,
[4:42] because with throughout New York State,
there's 10 regions.
[4:46] So we can— we're talking about, you know,
[4:48] right now we're talking about Westchester
communities,
[4:52] but they vary very much so then when you
look at like the counties, I mean,
[4:57] like counties like Ulster County,
[4:59] and communities up in the upper and the
lower tier.
[5:02] So, the New York Forward program
specifically,
[5:05] its goals is to really activate a
downtown.
[5:08] They want you to— they want to be able to
provide, like,
[5:11] seed money to attract new businesses, new
development, enhance public spaces,
[5:16] encourage public art, cultivate, like,
[5:19] if there's a variety of housing
opportunities,
[5:22] and sometimes that's just really getting
that impetus of that housing start being
[5:27] developed. Also identify potential
projects to grow local tax revenue.
[5:32] They're very much focused on a lot of
their projects and dealing with—
[5:36] they call this decarbonization.
[5:38] So they really want some sustainability
and different types of initiatives worked
[5:44] into those particular projects.
[5:46] And then also specifically dealing with—
[5:48] they like projects that focus on amenities
that support, like,
[5:52] the ability for walkable communities like
bike lanes or pedestrian thoroughfares and
[5:58] new trails or pedestrian connections. Next
slide.
[6:01] So let's just talk about eligible
activities.
[6:04] So the way the New York Forward process
would work is that if the Village of
[6:09] Croton-on-Hudson were awarded the $4.5
million,
[6:12] it doesn't mean that the village actually
gets $4.5 million in says, here,
[6:17] you decide what to do with it.
[6:18] And there's a whole other process involved
where they call this open call for
[6:23] projects. So basically, it's a process,
and it's usually about 6 weeks or so,
[6:28] where the state will come in with their
consultant team and then advertise for
[6:34] potential projects that fall within the
New York Forward area.
[6:38] And those projects, any private property
owner Or you can also be an owner of a
[6:43] business and you get permission from your
landlord.
[6:46] Or it could be the village themselves can
submit for projects.
[6:50] And those projects fall into 4 different
types of categories.
[6:54] The first category is new development or
rehabilitation of existing downtown
[6:59] buildings. So this would be like any sort
of mixed-use or commercial buildings.
[7:04] It would also allow for development of
housing as well,
[7:08] but it's usually multifamily housing.
[7:10] And so a couple examples, you know, I
provided some examples of projects like,
[7:15] for example, in the Village of Montgomery,
[7:18] they had a mixed-use development that
ended up ultimately getting funded.
[7:23] And then I know the mayor will talk about
her projects later on, but, you know,
[7:28] the Strand Theater is one of those types
of projects.
[7:31] Public improvement projects are another
example where you can apply for like
[7:36] broadband, green infrastructure,
[7:38] specifically streetscape They love funding
streetscapes.
[7:42] They do— will do new park upgrades,
plazas.
[7:45] They will also work on other sort of
public infrastructure,
[7:48] especially if it's important improvements
that really would catapult that particular
[7:54] area. Small Project Fund is another bucket
of projects,
[7:57] and this is really if you have a lot of
smaller businesses that potentially could
[8:03] smaller businesses that potentially could
do
[8:03] facade improvements or maybe need some
additional funding to activate some
[8:08] additional funding to activate some
internal
[8:08] space for new commercial or new
residential development.
[8:12] You can also provide— you can put together
what they call— they can—
[8:16] the village can submit a project called
the Small Project Fund, which basically,
[8:21] if awarded that, the village would have
$300,000 to create a grant program locally
[8:27] for individual business owners or
merchants to be able to obtain funding to
[8:32] merchants to be able to obtain funding to
upgrade
[8:32] their businesses or facades improvements.
[8:35] So it's a project of itself,
[8:37] but ultimately that project would end up
going to the local community in terms of a
[8:42] small grants program.
[8:43] And then the 4th category is branding and
marketing,
[8:47] and this is really for materials and
signage or wayfinding or other types of,
[8:52] signage or wayfinding or other types of,
like,
[8:52] branding that really specifically speaks
to that New York Forward area and sort of
[8:57] provides like a little bit of a landing
of, here you are,
[9:01] this is what we have to offer, that a lot
of communities, some, you know,
[9:06] it's an expense to be able to incorporate
branding and marketing,
[9:10] and this allows them to be able to
undertake that work. The ineligible
[9:15] undertake that work. The ineligible
activities.
[9:15] So, projects that will not get funded as
part of the New York Forward are
[9:20] part of the New York Forward are
standalone
[9:21] planning activities.
[9:22] So, if for some reason the Village decides
they wanted to undertake a new
[9:27] comprehensive plan process,
[9:28] that would not get funded as part of the
New York Forward program.
[9:33] Operations and maintenance.
[9:35] So at times, and I've experienced this in
a number of different rounds,
[9:39] where a property owner will say, I really
need a new roof, or I really need, like,
[9:44] a new HVAC system, they consider that to
be, like, operation and maintenance.
[9:49] If for some reason somebody comes in and
says,
[9:52] I need a new HVAC system because there's
20,000 square feet of space that I can't
[9:58] use right now because it's not heated or
air-conditioned,
[10:01] they would consider that project because
that's really kind of expanding it and now
[10:07] catalyzing that particular space to become
new commercial or residential
[10:11] development. Pre-award costs,
[10:13] so if for some reason somebody spent money
ahead of time,
[10:17] you cannot get to develop designs or maybe
to do certain types of investigations,
[10:22] those would not get funded through the New
York Forward program.
[10:26] Property acquisition, so the assumption is
that you, property owner,
[10:31] or whoever's what they call a project
sponsor,
[10:34] whoever is submitting for that particular
project,
[10:37] they either own the property or they would
own the property by the time that,
[10:42] you know, the grant would be awarded.
[10:45] And then the last is training and other
program expenses.
[10:48] So if somebody wants to train their
employees,
[10:51] that would not count as towards
eligibility for this funding.
[10:57] Next.
[10:57] All right.
[10:59] So with that, let me just—
[11:01] I want to just give you one more little
bit about the process.
[11:05] So once those projects are submitted,
[11:08] you have local planning committee that
reviews all the projects that get
[11:13] reviews all the projects that get
submitted
[11:13] from the public as well as the village.
[11:16] And they would identify which projects
most align with the New York Forward
[11:21] most align with the New York Forward
goals.
[11:21] Also ones that are— look like they're
ready to go and ready to be easily
[11:26] implementable and would be able to be
implemented within a 2-year timeframe.
[11:31] And that they have their finances together
as well.
[11:35] So there's a lot of information that does
get asked from the project sponsors.
[11:40] And then the local planning committee will
select which projects they feel
[11:45] potentially could get funded.
[11:47] And for New York Forward, they typically
like a slate of projects somewhere—
[11:52] if it's $4.5 million, they like to see
DRI— I mean, excuse me,
[11:57] New York Forward requests for somewhere
between, like,
[12:00] $6 million to $8 million because some
projects will potentially fall,
[12:05] fall apart as you go through the process.
[12:08] But also that slate of projects goes to
the state and then the state vets those
[12:13] projects again and then they will
ultimately assign the $4.5 million to
[12:18] ultimately assign the $4.5 million to
projects
[12:19] within that slate of projects that was
submitted by the local planning committee.
[12:24] So it is a little bit of a process, but it
moves very,
[12:28] very quickly and it usually moves through
a 9-month period.
[12:32] And so I'm going to turn this over now to
the mayor of Sleepy Hollow so she can talk
[12:37] a little bit about her experience with it
and the projects that they received.
[12:43] Thanks, Valerie.
[12:56] I'm—
[12:56] I can move that. I should have worn heels.
[12:59] But—
[13:00] here, I can move that.
[13:02] That's fine, I can— Okay.
[13:04] So first of all, thank you, Len and Brian,
[13:08] for inviting me to join your town hall
this evening.
[13:13] I'm Marjorie Hsu, and I think that, you
know, for DRI and now New York Forward,
[13:20] the 2 keywords are persistence and and
patience,
[13:24] because when I was planning board chair,
[13:28] I actually participated in the first
application for DRI, which was back in
[13:35] application for DRI, which was back in
2016,
[13:35] 2 mayors ago. So nothing happens very
quickly in local government.
[13:41] But we were very happy that New York
Forward got created for smaller
[13:47] Forward got created for smaller
municipalities
[13:49] because all those $10 million grants were
going to the bigger places like New
[13:56] Rochelle and Kingston.
[13:58] And so the little villages and hamlets
were kind of getting left in the dust.
[14:05] So we were thrilled because we were
applying every year.
[14:10] I do think you need to be persistent and
it does help you refine your application
[14:17] year over year. So we were happy to be in
the first tranche of funding in 2022.
[14:24] And, um, you know, for those of you that
aren't as familiar with Sleepy Hollow,
[14:31] we're a 2-square-mile village and we're,
um, an economic justice community.
[14:38] We have a lot of, uh, low-income
residents. We have a lot of low-income
[14:45] residents. We have a lot of low-income
housing.
[14:46] Uh, we're also very diverse.
[14:48] We're a majority Latino community, um, uh,
[14:52] so probably just over half of our
residents are of Hispanic descent,
[14:58] and in our school systems it's probably
2/3 Hispanic.
[15:03] So we, um, were excited to get the, the
$4.5 million back in 2022.
[15:09] And now, fast forward, we're in 2026.
[15:12] And of all the funds that have been
granted to the 4.5,
[15:17] as Valerie has kindly created a slide on,
[15:21] the only one that's really made any
progress is the facade program.
[15:27] So that's been kicked off.
[15:29] We've found an excellent program manager,
[15:33] one of our local residents who is also an
architect.
[15:38] And we formed a 3-person committee that
took applications from, I wanna say,
[15:45] 20 to 30 local small businesses that
wanted to improve their facades.
[15:51] And so this 3-person committee reviewed
all the applications and selected 12 small
[15:59] businesses to get some sort of funding for
the—
[16:03] That's great.
[16:05] to improve their facades.
[16:07] So that is kind of a public-private
partnership since, as Valerie described,
[16:14] we the village are administering the
$300,000,
[16:18] but it's going toward small business
owners.
[16:22] And then the other initiatives, one that
we're extremely excited about,
[16:28] is the Strand Theater,
[16:30] which is like smack in the downtown very
central on Beekman Avenue,
[16:36] which is our main downtown.
[16:38] And, um, that building has been vacant the
whole time I've lived in Sleepy Hollow,
[16:45] which is about 12 years.
[16:47] And I've toured it a couple times as
planning board chair,
[16:53] and there's a lot of renovation that is
required,
[16:57] but it's such a historic building for us.
[17:00] And so there's a gentleman that has
purchased it as of last December.
[17:07] So that $1.5 million grant is actually
going to him. And he— it's 2 levels.
[17:13] If you go upstairs, you actually see the
big kind of reel-to-reel film projectors
[17:20] from back in the day with the old bulbs.
And so very historic, but a lot of work.
[17:27] And so So his vision is to have retail
storefronts in the first level facing
[17:34] storefronts in the first level facing
right
[17:35] on Beekman Avenue, and then to have some
sort of performance space,
[17:41] and then also upstairs to have kind of
maker space.
[17:45] So for artisanal projects, et cetera, et
cetera.
[17:49] I actually have a meeting with him
tomorrow. So that's the Strand Theater.
[17:56] Totally separate from New York Forward,
[17:59] we have another nonprofit that recently
formed called Sleepy Hollow Cinema,
[18:06] which is for Sleepy Hollow.
[18:08] They're interested in sharing and showing
primarily horror films.
[18:14] So, you know, we're a spooky town.
[18:17] So— I'm trying to get Sleepy Hollow Cinema
which is a 501,
[18:22] and Strand Theatre to kind of get together
since it's, I think, entirely symbiotic.
[18:29] The one that is entirely on the Village
that we're looking to start in the spring—
[18:37] again, it's taken a long time to get the
funding and to get the approvals—
[18:43] is our Cortland Streetscape project.
[18:46] So that is right off of Beekman Avenue and
is very desperately in need of a
[18:53] facelift. So new sidewalks, there's going
to be a new pocket park,
[18:59] there's going to be—
[19:00] we're going to take advantage of this New
York Forward funding and incorporate a
[19:08] bioswale because we do have some drainage
and infrastructure issues.
[19:14] We also have a developer that has come in
and purchased some properties on Cortland
[19:21] and on DePeyster. And so we're hoping that
we can kind of kill multiple birds with
[19:28] one stone as we're doing the streetscape
improvement,
[19:33] to take into account his development of
new housing there and,
[19:38] and try to get some maybe community
benefit funding from him as far as
[19:44] benefit funding from him as far as
improving the
[19:46] sewer and water infrastructure to improve
capacity as well as some modernization.
[19:53] The next is Plaza Nueva, which is— it's
all village,
[19:57] but it's really a school district
initiative because it's the playground of
[20:04] initiative because it's the playground of
our
[20:04] Morse School, which is again right on
Beekman Avenue.
[20:09] So it's all about Beekman Avenue and
Cortland Avenue.
[20:13] And so this will create a new playground,
[20:17] but really new park space for Sleepy
Hollow right downtown.
[20:22] One of the things we're lacking is
placemaking.
[20:26] Like, we don't have places for people to
hang out downtown.
[20:32] We created this little tiny pocket park on
the intersection of Cortland and Beekman,
[20:39] but it's a little kludgy and it's not
beautiful.
[20:43] So we need to create some beautiful spaces
that people want to spend time in.
[20:50] Because, you know, all of our downtown on
Upper Beekman is mostly multifamily.
[20:57] And so you've got people, especially with
the hot summers we've been having,
[21:04] they're hanging out on their front stoop.
[21:07] And, you know, other people complain about
sidewalk access and noise.
[21:13] And, um, but, you know, these people don't
have backyard to hang out in.
[21:20] So we have some cultural differences.
[21:23] You know, we have some cultures that, you
know,
[21:27] liked their big families to come together
and, um, play music, and, um,
[21:33] other people don't necessarily embrace
that.
[21:37] So, um, we, we have some blending of, of
cultural norms to, to manage as well.
[21:44] So Plaza Nueva will give a space in the
evenings for families to hang out with
[21:51] evenings for families to hang out with
and,
[21:51] and, um, uh, spend time there.
[21:54] And then the, um, last one I'll touch upon
is, uh, $500,000, which is a private, um,
[22:01] funding for more affordable housing.
[22:05] We actually have a lot of affordable
housing, but like all Westchester towns,
[22:11] there's just not enough of affordable or
workforce or what we call missing middle.
[22:19] So we've got a lot of luxury housing now
at Edge on Hudson right on the riverfront,
[22:26] which we're about half done of the 1,177
new homes that are being built at Edge on
[22:33] Hudson. So hearing a positive update on
that person who is going to initiate a new
[22:40] affordable housing initiative. So
administering this grant has been
[22:46] administering this grant has been
challenging.
[22:47] The planning process and the final
approval took a very long time,
[22:53] and getting the projects to contract is
taking even a little longer than that.
[23:00] But we do expect to kick off our big
village streetscape project in the spring.
[23:07] So that's exciting. And we're just trying
to work closely with the 2 private funding
[23:14] recipients, the Strand Theatre and the
affordable housing,
[23:19] so that we keep those going as well. So
that is what we're doing in Sleepy Hollow.
[23:27] And I'm happy to answer any questions if
there are any. But I'll sit down.
[23:33] Mayor, thank you very much for the
excellent presentation.
[23:38] I just had one general question. You laid
out all of these projects.
[23:43] And as Valerie told us, you know, once you
get approved as a New York Forward,
[23:50] then you begin to work with the state and
obviously,
[23:54] that can be a multi-year process.
[23:57] How would you describe, since your tenure,
how's it been actually working with,
[24:03] with the state to make some of these
projects come alive?
[24:08] Um, I just took office December 1st. So I
haven't been around that long.
[24:15] So most of the heavy lifting is on our
village administrator and his grant
[24:22] Grant team, so it's been a lot of back and
forth.
[24:27] I think you know the state has been pretty
responsive and communicative,
[24:34] but it was also the very first time,
right?
[24:38] So they were you know kind of engineering
the plane mid-flight.
[24:45] So, but yeah, we're very appreciative of.
[24:49] the support we've gotten from New York
State.
[24:53] And I think our point of contact has been
really good.
[24:58] We'll just hold all questions until the
end after that,
[25:03] just because if we don't have people
speaking to the microphone,
[25:08] anyone watching at home is not able to
hear. So, okay.
[25:13] Okay.
[25:18] All right. You can go to the next slide.
[25:21] All right, so we're going to talk a little
bit about—
[25:24] I'm gonna spend a couple of minutes
talking about so what Croton-on-Hudson
[25:29] talking about so what Croton-on-Hudson
would
[25:30] like to put forth as the New York Forward
Boundary Area.
[25:34] And let me just explain again, this New
York Forward Boundary Area.
[25:38] It's supposed to be an area where there
are very specific.
[25:42] It's not supposed to be the entire
village.
[25:46] It's supposed to also cover an area where
there is a concentration of either
[25:51] mixed-use business, can be some
multifamily residential.
[25:55] They also like to see like land uses such
as cultural land uses.
[25:59] They also like to see public
transportation land uses.
[26:03] So There is, you know, looking at, as you
can, as you know,
[26:07] that Croton has about 3 different, I'm
going to say, core mixed-use business
[26:12] going to say, core mixed-use business
areas.
[26:13] And I think in the past, the prior
applications focused on, you know,
[26:18] this area here, basically your, your Grand
Street area.
[26:22] And, um, but looking at the projects,
[26:24] just when we went through like the
eligible projects and you saw from the
[26:29] eligible projects and you saw from the
mayor the
[26:30] types of projects that they like to fund,
[26:33] looking at the potential projects in all 3
of, like,
[26:36] the business corridor areas in the
Village, it really became—
[26:41] it came to the forefront that this
particular area,
[26:44] which we're calling the South Riverside
area,
[26:47] would really be a good candidate for New
York Forward funding.
[26:52] And so the proposed area right now
includes the Historic Hudson Valley
[26:57] includes the Historic Hudson Valley
property.
[26:57] It includes the train station.
[26:59] It includes your commercial center of,
like, with ShopRite.
[27:04] It also includes the commercial corridor
along South Riverside Avenue to a little
[27:09] past Oneida Avenue. The state also likes
to see that there is momentum already
[27:15] taking place within that area as well.
[27:17] And so you had some recent development
that was approved that will—
[27:22] we're going to begin construction soon,
[27:25] and you also have some development in the
pipeline.
[27:28] And those are also kind of key criteria
that the state likes to look for,
[27:34] because they want to see that there is
some sort of momentum,
[27:38] and it's not just if projects get put
forward,
[27:41] that there is a really high chance that
those projects will continue moving
[27:46] those projects will continue moving
forward.
[27:47] So let's talk a little bit about the
projects themselves.
[27:51] And if you want to talk on the next slide,
and then I'm going to turn this over to,
[27:57] um, to the village manager, um,
[27:59] who's going to talk a little bit about the
projects that we're looking at and
[28:04] identifying. And you'll see how a lot of
them fit those kind of key categories that
[28:10] we talked about at the beginning of the
presentation.
[28:14] Thank you, Valerie. So our first, uh,
[28:16] project that's listed here are the Croton
Station parking lot upgrades.
[28:22] I'm sure, as many of you are familiar, our
parking lot is susceptible to flooding.
[28:28] Whenever there is a storm system that is
off the East Coast,
[28:32] it could be hundreds of miles away from
us, but the energy from the,
[28:37] from the storm comes up the Hudson River
and the tides flood the parking lot.
[28:43] And so we have been working with a
planning firm, AKRF,
[28:47] for a number of years now in developing a
plan to install a seawall along the shore
[28:53] of the parking lot. And, you know,
[28:56] this was after AKRF did some shoreline
resiliency studies and analyzed everything
[29:02] resiliency studies and analyzed everything
in
[29:02] the parking lot that was the best option
that was available to protect the
[29:07] that was available to protect the
available
[29:08] parking spaces in the parking lot.
[29:11] And so, uh, that would be a major, uh,
[29:13] project that we would seek to have
included in this grant application.
[29:19] Secondly, streetscaping along Riverside
Avenue and Benedict Boulevard.
[29:24] This would be your general replacement of
trash cans, streetlights, benches,
[29:29] redoing tree pits, just basically
beautifying all of the street
[29:34] beautifying all of the street
infrastructure in
[29:35] those areas. You know, there is a desire,
[29:38] especially among the comprehensive plan
and reports done by our advisory board for
[29:45] the visual environment, that all of our
streetscapes kind of complement each
[29:50] streetscapes kind of complement each
other.
[29:51] And so that would be an idea behind that
project.
[29:54] Uh, third, bike lanes from Oneida Avenue
to Croton Point Avenue.
[29:59] There is an existing bike lane on Croton
Point Avenue, as I'm sure many of you
[30:05] Point Avenue, as I'm sure many of you
know,
[30:05] and there is also an existing bike lane on
South Riverside Avenue that begins at
[30:11] Oneida and continues down to Maple Street.
[30:14] And so this would basically fill in that,
uh,
[30:18] missing link along South Riverside between
Oneida and Croton Point Avenue.
[30:23] And this would be done in part by reducing
the width of the sidewalk on South
[30:29] Riverside between Clinton Street and Wayne
Street.
[30:32] You know, this is a sidewalk that is much
wider than your standard sidewalk,
[30:38] and by reducing the width of that
sidewalk,
[30:41] we would still be able to keep parking on
South Riverside while while still adding
[30:47] the bike lane. The Historic Hudson Valley
upgrades—
[30:51] this would be one of our private projects,
[30:54] as Historic Hudson Valley is privately
owned.
[30:58] As I'm sure you have all seen,
[31:00] Historic Hudson Valley is undergoing a
pretty expansive project to upgrade a lot
[31:06] pretty expansive project to upgrade a lot
of
[31:06] their facilities, involving redoing some
electrical conduit, water infrastructure,
[31:12] sewer infrastructure, Replacing the fire
hydrants, you know,
[31:16] just a lot of infrastructure work that has
been needed to take place on the on the
[31:23] Manor property for many many years.
[31:25] And so phase one has officially been
closed as of August first.
[31:30] They're now taking a pause and you know
for the blaze period,
[31:34] and then phase two will be starting up
sometime next year.
[31:39] And so depending on what they're going to
assess the— their progress on Phase 2,
[31:45] and depending on that progress will depend
on exactly what project they propose to
[31:51] include in our grant application.
[31:53] But Historic Hudson Valley has always been
willing to be a very good partner with
[31:59] the village, and I'm sure that the project
that they come to us with will,
[32:05] will continue that, that effort.
[32:07] Uh, the 425 South Riverside Avenue
development As you may know,
[32:12] this application has just begun the
process before the planning board in some
[32:17] process before the planning board in some
form,
[32:18] whatever, or if any form, whatever that
gets approved by the planning board.
[32:23] We would propose to have that project
included in our grant application to
[32:29] included in our grant application to
fulfill
[32:29] the housing requirement that is included
in the, in the list of tasks for the
[32:35] in the, in the list of tasks for the
grant.
[32:36] Uh, the Save More Pharmacy development—
[32:38] Save More has purchased the parcel that is
at the corner of Oneida and South
[32:44] Riverside, the former Umami restaurant.
[32:47] They have knocked down the building, so
right now it's a vacant lot.
[32:52] At some point, they do plan on
constructing, um, a pharmacy there and
[32:57] constructing, um, a pharmacy there and
relocating.
[32:58] Uh, they did come to the Village Board
with a special permit application about 3
[33:04] years ago, 2 and a half, 3 years ago, uh,
and that effort is—
[33:08] has currently stalled at this point.
[33:11] There was some information that they were
requested to present specifically on
[33:17] traffic that they have not come back to
the boards with, um, but, you know, in,
[33:23] in speaking with them, they are still
interested in developing that site.
[33:28] So we would propose including that project
in this, um,
[33:32] in this grant application as well.
[33:35] And then finally, the small project fund,
as was discussed earlier.
[33:40] This would be similar to what Sleepy
Hollow had done in that there would be
[33:45] Hollow had done in that there would be
funding
[33:46] available for small businesses to improve
their facades, you know,
[33:51] clean up their windows, replace their
awnings, whatever that might, might,
[33:56] might be for them. So this is our list of
potential projects.
[34:01] You know, there certainly could be
additional projects that are put on the
[34:06] additional projects that are put on the
list.
[34:07] As Valerie was saying,
[34:08] the state could come in and cross off half
of these and tell us, nope,
[34:13] we don't want to do these half and we're
going to do these.
[34:18] So this is, you know, certainly a list
that is in flux,
[34:22] but this is what we have developed at this
point.
[34:26] Okay.
[34:27] Yeah, and I think I just want to add,
[34:30] the purpose of listing the projects as
part of the application is to show the
[34:35] part of the application is to show the
state
[34:35] that you actually have potential projects,
right?
[34:38] So it doesn't even mean— because
ultimately, as I said before,
[34:43] this open call for project process would
mean that, for example,
[34:47] the Save More Pharmacy would have to
submit an application saying they want
[34:52] submit an application saying they want
funding.
[34:53] They might choose never to even submit
that application,
[34:56] and another property owner might submit an
application.
[35:00] But what this does is just demonstrates to
the—
[35:03] to the state that there is potential
projects within— the New York Forward
[35:08] projects within— the New York Forward
area.
[35:08] And then I think with that, we'll open it
up for any questions.
[35:13] So just give me one moment here while I
turn this—
[35:16] Yeah.
[35:16] Can I see that last slide?
[35:18] Oh yeah, sure. Can you
[35:22] read that, Mr. Riley?
[35:37] Yeah.
[35:38] Okay, I'm gonna try to get it on the
camera here.
[35:43] Okay.
[35:45] All right, so whoever would like— if
anyone would like to speak,
[35:49] there is a 5-minute, uh, time limit that
we would like to respect,
[35:52] but anyone who would like to ask comments
of myself or Valerie or Mayor Chu Please
[35:56] feel free to come up.
[36:02] Start. Do you want me to announce?
[36:05] Yeah, if you could just say your name and
your address, that'd be great.
[36:08] So my name is Virginia Norton. I actually
live in Bramble Bush.
[36:12] So it's outside of the village,
[36:14] but I pay a tremendous amount of taxes to
the village for school taxes,
[36:19] and are very interested in developing
developing Croton and downtown Croton.
[36:24] So a couple of questions.
[36:26] My first one is, who decided on the
project area and what input came from the
[36:31] community as to the particular area?
[36:33] So I know, Brian, that might be yours as
opposed to Valerie's or the mayor's.
[36:38] Do you want to just ask all your questions
at once and then we can answer them?
[36:43] So that's one question as to who developed
that.
[36:46] And then also the list of projects,
because— Sorry, when I think about this,
[36:50] I think about, for example, like the
school system that we have,
[36:54] the schools that we have here.
[36:56] And I would be interested, Valerie,
[36:58] in your thoughts with respect to the state
funding and what the state will fund with
[37:03] respect to the school and the school
buildings. To me, it's all about tax
[37:08] buildings. To me, it's all about tax
revenue.
[37:08] It's all about inviting people to come
live here.
[37:11] Let's put aside the housing, which is a
big issue in this town.
[37:15] But it's also making sure that, you know,
we have the infrastructure for to support,
[37:20] um, children and families that come in.
[37:23] Um, big issue with respect to teachers
having ability to meet with kids,
[37:27] kids having area— like the idea of
actually that plaza, um, you know,
[37:31] something like that.
[37:33] Like, we have, you know, 3 schools right
in this area close together.
[37:37] Where are they—
[37:37] where do the kids go?
[37:39] As opposed to the parking lot, which, you
know,
[37:42] for 65 years of my life has always been
flooded and continues to flood.
[37:46] Thank you.
[37:48] You know, I think about what does the
community really need.
[37:51] And then a question, Valerie,
[37:53] probably for you is how does the state and
what's the state going to do if a lot of
[37:58] people go to the state and protest against
this application,
[38:01] specifically if they don't like the
projects that are listed or they don't
[38:06] projects that are listed or they don't
like the
[38:06] project area? I would imagine the state
would not be happy if there's a
[38:10] would not be happy if there's a
contingency
[38:11] that is not in support and is vocal about
it.
[38:14] So you really want to make sure—
[38:16] we want to make sure that the community is
behind this because everybody wants the
[38:21] community to flourish,
[38:22] and we want to make sure it flourishes for
everybody or the majority.
[38:26] So maybe you can— I think that's, that's
it at this point,
[38:29] but maybe if you guys don't mind. And I
guess another question for the mayor.
[38:34] I know that you started, you started, you
said you started in December.
[38:38] So in the application process though that
took place,
[38:41] how much was the community involved in
that application process,
[38:45] giving their thoughts as to projects?
[38:47] I would like that, you know, your thoughts
as to, or at least factually,
[38:52] what actually happened. Was there back and
forth?
[38:55] Were there town halls about the projects,
community meetings about the projects,
[38:59] even the project area? Or was just a town
board the one that decided all of that?
[39:04] So I think that's—
[39:05] Thank you very much.
[39:07] I'll just start off by answering the first
question you had,
[39:11] and then we can turn it over.
[39:13] So the project area, as Um, I said at the
beginning, uh, we originally were looking—
[39:19] we originally did this grant in 2024,
[39:21] and we picked an area that started on
North Riverside and went up into the Upper
[39:27] Village. We were trying to connect our
multiple business districts and have one
[39:32] application. And, um, you know, obviously
we were not chosen as part of that, uh,
[39:38] as part of New York Forward at that time.
[39:41] And when we had our debriefing with the
Mid-Hudson REDC,
[39:45] the Regional Economic Development Council,
[39:47] some of the feedback that we got indicated
that we needed to choose a really defined
[39:53] downtown area. And so, you know, once we
had that feedback, we started looking at,
[39:59] all right, where could that potential—
where could that potential downtown area
[40:04] where could that potential downtown area
be?
[40:05] Because, you know, one of the things that
makes Croton somewhat unique in a good
[40:10] way, right, is that we have these areas of
the village that have lots of commercial
[40:16] economic activity, but we don't have
really one centralized downtown to
[40:21] really one centralized downtown to
somewhere
[40:22] like a Sleepy Hollow or a Tarrytown or a
Hastings or a Dobbs Ferry have, right?
[40:27] We don't necessarily have that in Croton.
[40:30] And so, um, working with Valerie and, uh,
members of the board,
[40:34] we were able to hone in on the Harmon area
as meeting the requirements of the grant
[40:40] program in that it has some economic
development already ongoing within it.
[40:45] And there is the potential for additional
economic development, you know,
[40:50] in the future. So I hope that answers your
question.
[40:56] And question.
[40:57] Yeah.
[40:57] So, so part of the—
[40:59] I'm sorry. Is that—
[41:01] I'm sorry, could you just go to the mic?
[41:03] Yeah, I just want to know, follow up to
that one.
[41:06] Is that, is that debrief available?
[41:08] Is that public information or do we have
to FOIL that one for the last—
[41:13] So that was just, that was just a private
meeting that went on between myself and
[41:18] Trustee Simon and the REDC.
[41:19] So it wasn't— you're welcome to put in a
FOIL for anything you'd like,
[41:24] but I'm not sure if there were any records
that would exist because it was just a—
[41:28] it was a meeting over Zoom.
[41:30] Okay.
[41:31] Yep.
[41:31] So I think part of the purpose of
tonight's meeting is to get additional
[41:35] tonight's meeting is to get additional
ideas and
[41:36] potential projects, right?
[41:37] So something like you mentioned with the
public park, you know,
[41:41] that's something that we can go back and
speak to the village about, about like,
[41:46] is there something or a space or something
like that that could potentially turn
[41:50] into like a pocket park or something like
that?
[41:53] We've But also, I think in terms of like
the questions you had in terms of like,
[41:58] for example, like the schools,
[42:00] I think the technically the school
districts or any school district,
[42:04] if there's a property or something that
they want to create new, right?
[42:08] Because we were talking about can't be
operation and maintenance,
[42:12] but it would have to be something that
would be open to like the full public or
[42:16] something like that. So that's why you
have, for example, like the park, you
[42:21] have, for example, like the park, you
know.
[42:21] So those types of situations,
[42:23] the school district could potentially move
and identify a particular project as part
[42:28] of that open call for projects.
[42:29] So this application doesn't preclude any
other property owner from putting forth
[42:34] their own projects themselves as long as
they meet that, that criteria.
[42:38] I think what we're looking for tonight is
any other ideas that you have within that
[42:43] particular New York Forward boundary area,
or for some reason you really have,
[42:48] you know, interest in, like, the boundary
is not completely set,
[42:51] but it just can't be an extremely large
area where they'd like to see that there
[42:56] area where they'd like to see that there
is
[42:56] some sort of synergy between the different
projects that get funded.
[43:00] And so that was part of the reason why,
[43:03] specifically looking at the South
Riverside Avenue,
[43:06] that there is potential for some synergy
from a number of different projects.
[43:10] I think it's tough to ask people to come
up with hot projects.
[43:14] You need to speak in the microphone.
[43:16] Oh, yeah, absolutely. Well, this is why
we're taking the public, right?
[43:19] You can't have a meeting one night and
then ask people to come up with projects
[43:24] tonight. Like, what you really should do
is reach out to people in the village and,
[43:28] and say to them, hey, listen, you know
what, here's a summary of this, you know,
[43:33] meeting that we had today.
[43:34] Because everybody talks about transparency
in this town, which, you know, village.
[43:39] So let's be transparent. Let's tell them
what happened here.
[43:43] Let's talk about— let's publish the
projects for them and then ask people.
[43:47] Then maybe that was your intent,
hopefully, to then ask people, the public,
[43:51] to submit, you know,
[43:53] because maybe there are buildings that
perhaps are available that within the
[43:57] perhaps are available that within the
school,
[43:57] near the schools, that perhaps would be
great buildings.
[44:01] And the teachers have some great ideas.
[44:03] as to, um, you know, having those
buildings as part of maybe for the kids to
[44:07] buildings as part of maybe for the kids to
go to,
[44:08] and maybe they're, you know, great for,
you know, those that have, you know,
[44:12] learning disabilities, or those, you know,
you know, maybe that are more arts,
[44:17] or something that would actually help, um,
the community as a whole.
[44:21] I mean, I think it would be great to
actually reach out to the community and
[44:25] actually reach out to the community and
ask
[44:25] them, give them a timeline, and ask them
for these ideas.
[44:28] That's— this is the beginning of a
process, right?
[44:31] Yeah.
[44:32] So You know, we're probably 4 months away
from submitting this grant.
[44:35] We really don't know what the timeline is
because the state hasn't released it yet.
[44:40] But I mean, this is being recorded.
[44:42] The presentation is already available on
the website, right?
[44:45] And this is being recorded, and this is
just the beginning of a process.
[44:49] We put in the email we sent out today
reminding people about this meeting,
[44:53] there was a link for people to fill out
the form to share their comments.
[44:57] You know, people can always email us.
[44:59] So we will— this is— we will be doing a
lot of outreach. This is just the start.
[45:04] Mayor, sure you want to answer anything?
[45:06] You might also just talk about how the
community should come together and what
[45:11] happens if it's negative, like the
community is negative going to the state.
[45:16] Because I would think you wouldn't want
that.
[45:18] So I will just mention, when you go
through the New York Forward process,
[45:23] There is another whole public outreach
process, and I think, you know,
[45:28] so there is at least 2 workshops, and
there's surveys,
[45:32] and so there's another outreach process on
the actual projects themselves.
[45:37] So this isn't the only outreach process.
[45:39] There will be another outreach process if
you are awarded the New York Forward.
[45:45] In terms of our process, We, after 30
years, finally updated our comprehensive
[45:52] years, finally updated our comprehensive
plan.
[45:53] So the comprehensive plan actually
provides a very good kind of roadmap,
[46:00] prioritization, and kind of North Star as
far as what the village's aspirations are
[46:08] for growing and modernizing.
[46:10] So I think that helped guide our New York
Forward applications over the years.
[46:18] And so, to Valerie's point,
[46:21] there were multiple workshops soliciting
community input and, you know,
[46:28] help with the final list of initiatives.
[46:31] And, you know, we have 2 major private
initiatives of the $4.5 $5 million grant.
[46:39] So it really is a public-private
partnership, because as we all know,
[46:46] $4.5 million doesn't go that far when
you're talking about a downtown
[46:53] revitalization. So yeah,
[46:55] there's a lot of community input and kind
of help with kind of prioritizing what we
[47:03] want to do. And so these these 4 or 5 that
we ended up were definitely supported by
[47:11] our village. The schools, you know, in
terms of capacity and all that,
[47:18] that's totally separate outside of New
York Forward.
[47:23] We recently hired a new superintendent in
the last, I don't know, 4 or 5 years.
[47:30] And he actually, one of the first
achievements he made, uh,
[47:36] was passing an $86 million school bond.
[47:40] So everybody, whether you live in
Westchester or any other state in the
[47:47] Westchester or any other state in the
country,
[47:48] the majority of the taxes that we pay all
go towards schools.
[47:53] So Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown, which have
a combined school district,
[48:00] hadn't upgraded their school
infrastructure since the 1950s.
[48:06] So $86 million went to upgrading all the,
all the schools,
[48:12] and then we got additional funding for
some green initiatives and, and such.
[48:19] So there's a lot going on in Sleepy
Hollow.
[48:23] Thank you. Mr. Riley, you want to—
[48:28] I'd like to make a suggestion, but I'll
take my time.
[48:32] Um, I suggest that you pass the microphone
around if it works,
[48:37] and people can ask a question, maybe
follow up on it,
[48:41] then the next person can ask their
question, as opposed to allotting time.
[48:46] Um, I came here very suspicious because
this is a planning session.
[48:51] Um, we're in a tremendous controversy in
Croton over transit-oriented housing.
[48:57] We have one behemoth that has— which will
be taller than the Harmon Shops,
[49:03] which we had no say over.
[49:05] Um, and therefore, my basic questions have
to do with,
[49:09] did we have to qualify for this?
[49:11] In other words, did we have to be a
pro-housing community, which I hope we
[49:17] pro-housing community, which I hope we
don't—
[49:17] I hope we dis— associate ourselves with
that operation because it's basically a
[49:23] dirty political deal between a state
senator and a governor to urbanize
[49:28] senator and a governor to urbanize
Westchester
[49:29] County. So my question is, is do we have
to be a pro-housing community?
[49:35] Did, did Sleepy Hollow have to be a
pro-housing community?
[49:39] Do we have to promise to make certain
number of housing units going in?
[49:44] Um, And what other requirements were
there?
[49:47] Typically with these things associated,
these environmental things,
[49:53] there are things like bike lanes, which I
see are in here.
[49:57] So I would like to know what the minimums
are.
[50:00] I would also like to know who they is.
Who, who decides this stuff?
[50:05] And is this— what criteria they decided
by?
[50:09] And is there an appellate process, a
judicial process,
[50:13] or is it just A bunch of bureaucrats,
[50:16] but what are the basic foundational things
to get in the door?
[50:20] Because quite frankly,
[50:22] the entire upstate New York needs this
money more than anybody in the Hudson
[50:28] money more than anybody in the Hudson
Valley,
[50:28] including Elmsford and Sleepy Hollow.
[50:31] So, but but but Westchester has been very
cooperative with this suburban housing
[50:37] development, and our villages and.
[50:40] been at the forefront of that,
[50:42] probably because of a conflict of interest
between some of the members of our
[50:48] boards. So that's— I would like that
answered.
[50:51] There are some questions I'd like to ask
the mayor.
[50:55] I've been dying to ask the mayor of Sleepy
Hollow.
[50:59] We can't tell where Sleepy Hollow, unlike
Croton— I believe one has 10,000 people,
[51:05] 2,000 more than we do— and it's married.
[51:08] It's in the town of Mount Pleasant,
married to a village in the town of
[51:13] married to a village in the town of
Greenburgh,
[51:14] which makes for an interesting
combination.
[51:17] But down the waterfront, where we've seen
an entire new village, maybe city,
[51:23] develop, maybe you can explain how many
units are in there, how many belong to
[51:29] units are in there, how many belong to
you,
[51:29] how many belong to Tarrytown, etc., etc.
[51:32] Was any of this built as part of a promise
to the state about transit-oriented
[51:38] housing, as, as has been said in
architectural magazines? in Westchester
[51:44] architectural magazines? in Westchester
County.
[51:44] Um, and it would be interesting to me
also, um,
[51:48] how many pot stores you have between the
village of, um,
[51:52] Sleepy Hollow and the village of Tarrytown
and surrounding areas.
[51:57] And perhaps you could tell us the size of
your budget so we can compare it to the
[52:03] village of Croton's budget.
[52:05] And then, um, Then you can tell us
specifically,
[52:09] both of you can tell us specifically what
the housing requirement is.
[52:14] You know, you, you got a grant in 2022 for
$4.3 million, whatever it is.
[52:19] $500,000 could buy a single-family house.
And it certainly couldn't build 2 houses.
[52:25] Maybe they're for ADCs or something like
that. So maybe you could explain that
[52:31] that. So maybe you could explain that
also.
[52:32] Um, just to acquaint us with your
experience.
[52:35] I think the only thing on the list—
[52:38] 425 Riverside Avenue should never be on
the list.
[52:41] Save More should never be on a Croton
list.
[52:45] A bike lane, maybe a traffic light at
Oneida to, uh, to ease with the traffic,
[52:51] or the Save More traffic might be
appropriate.
[52:54] And, and anything with housing in Croton
should not be on this thing.
[52:59] And the last question is,
[53:01] is this money part of this big housing
compromise from 4 or 5 years ago where the
[53:07] state wanted to take over zoning at every
level?
[53:11] Was this, this lump sum of money, chump
change, actually part of that compromise?
[53:17] So I have a lot of questions. I have still
more.
[53:21] And once again, I'd recommend if you pass
it around,
[53:24] we could ask one people could ask one at a
time. Thank you.
[53:29] You want me to— you want me to start?
[53:33] If you want, and then you can pass it on.
[53:35] Okay.
[53:35] Explain more about the program.
[53:37] Okay, so, um, I think your first question
was,
[53:40] do we have to be a pro-housing community
for this?
[53:43] And the answer to that is yes, right?
[53:46] So there's most— most state programs now
are prefaced on being a pro-housing
[53:51] community. So—
[53:51] Can you tell us what the minimum For
pro-housing, what is the minimum
[53:56] pro-housing, what is the minimum
definition?
[53:56] Come back to— if you're gonna— if we're
gonna have a conversation,
[54:00] you gotta come back to the podium. Yeah.
[54:02] So that's why I suggest we pass this
around.
[54:05] Can you tell us what the minimum is for
pro-housing 10 out there?
[54:10] There is— I mean, there was an initial—
when you initially applied,
[54:14] you had to meet certain metrics, which I
don't remember off the top of my head.
[54:18] Um, but since that time we have been
recertified and there are no set metrics
[54:23] recertified and there are no set metrics
that
[54:23] you have to, that you have to meet.
[54:25] Right. When they, when they, when the
program first started, there was,
[54:29] there was something about a 1% growth over
a 3-year period or something like
[54:33] that.
[54:33] Or 3% over one, something like that.
[54:36] Yeah. So, but basically a lot of—
[54:38] Is that population or housing units?
[54:40] It was, it was, uh, housing units.
[54:43] Um, but most or a majority of the
communities did not meet that criteria.
[54:49] And so the state redesigned the program so
that, you know,
[54:54] it required communities just to pass a
resolution stating that basically that
[55:00] resolution stating that basically that
they
[55:00] were in support of, you know,
[55:03] basically they were in support of
residential communities and wouldn't
[55:09] residential communities and wouldn't
necessarily
[55:10] throw up obstacles.
[55:11] Got a question on that is, What would— you
know this, I don't—
[55:15] what is 1% of Croton's housing unit?
[55:17] How many units would have to be built a
year?
[55:20] It was— I want to— I would like to
believe—
[55:24] How many units are there now?
[55:25] That's why I would want to say we're
somewhere around 3,100 or 3,200.
[55:29] So 10% is 310, right? 1% is 30.
[55:33] Yeah.
[55:34] So that's 30 single-family homes, 30
apartments.
[55:37] Yeah, it's 30 housing units.
[55:38] Yeah.
[55:39] And that's why a lot of communities were
not, you know, because if you had like,
[55:43] if a community had a particular
development come in,
[55:46] like let's say it was like multifamily
housing,
[55:49] or let's say it was a new subdivision,
[55:51] most likely they didn't have that
developed year after year,
[55:55] especially the more denser communities
that already, like to a larger extent,
[55:59] have a lot of development.
[56:01] So it really was just your big cities that
were meeting those targets.
[56:05] That's why they changed the program just
to have a resolution passed.
[56:09] There's no targets, there's no
requirements,
[56:11] except that you're supposed to submit your
statistics every year just to note that,
[56:16] you know, what has been done in terms of
building permits issued.
[56:20] So what is the likelihood that a village
like Sleepy Hollow—
[56:24] it's probably built 100 or 200 units a
year— versus Croton,
[56:29] who looks like we're going to build 1,000,
you know,
[56:33] 500 units or 300 units in the next 2
years, uh,
[56:37] who may be going at a pace of 30 or 50?
[56:40] What's the likelihood of us winning this
race?
[56:44] It's not— it's not necessarily so.
[56:46] So you mean in terms of the New York
Forward funding?
[56:49] So you just have to be a pro-housing
community in order to submit the
[56:53] community in order to submit the
application.
[56:53] Other than that, uh, they Just the same
things as I was referring to,
[56:57] that they'd like to see that things are
happening within the area that you've
[57:02] defined as the New York Forward area in
terms of the different types of potential
[57:06] projects.
[57:07] And who is the they?
[57:08] I'm sorry, the they is—
[57:10] Who is they?
[57:10] Yeah, so the they is actually the economic
regional councils.
[57:14] There's 10 of them throughout the state,
and we're in the Mid-Hudson region.
[57:18] And then it's also the Department of State
and the Empire State Development
[57:23] Corporation that also gets involved.
[57:25] I'd like to draw people's attention to
projects like this,
[57:29] one of which the Industrial Development
Authority in the state of New York,
[57:34] in Yonkers and so forth,
[57:36] what the history and the smell from those
organizations has been over time.
[57:41] I'd like to propose a couple of thoughts
that have never been brought up.
[57:46] One, the village of Croton has a lousy
relationship with the railroad.
[57:51] They don't have a great relationship with
Westchester County in terms of pushing the
[57:57] railroad, pushing Westchester County, and
pushing back on the state.
[58:02] And part of this is because the
relationships and jobs of some people are
[58:07] intertwined with these things, so they
can't push back like they should.
[58:12] And what I'm referring to is, if we had a
full map of Croton,
[58:17] half of Croton would be in the water.
[58:19] Probably 30 to 35% would be either owned
by Westchester County, which are parks,
[58:25] half of which is not used.
[58:27] And then our railroad, which runs through
the entire village,
[58:31] including a huge plant, which to my
understanding we get zero back, zero back,
[58:37] and we don't even talk to them except when
we send our fire department.
[58:42] And then— And I'm, I'm scared about this
one.
[58:45] I understand that Historic Hudson Valley
is not in good economic shape.
[58:50] They've lost, I think, 3 or 4 of their
properties over the last 10 years.
[58:55] I really don't know what I'm talking about
here, but that's what the word is.
[59:00] And they've let go a lot of people.
[59:03] They just lost Kayakut,
[59:04] and they have a piece of property there
above their manor house,
[59:09] which I'm afraid someday will look like
the Dyckman House in the Bronx.
[59:14] It'll be a half a, a half an acre
surrounded by cityscape and pigeons.
[59:19] Um, Mr. Riley, if you could just—
[59:21] And lastly, we have the state of New York,
which owns a huge road corridor.
[59:27] And, and in addition to that, we have
railroad properties at the north end,
[59:34] a CSX freight yard, and an old, uh,
passenger yard with an abandoned station,
[59:40] it looks like now, etc.
[59:42] And then lastly, no one's ever proposed
looking at the—
[59:46] then this is ecological environmental
impact of what happened down below Van
[59:53] Cortlandt Manor when they put that first
road across.
[59:57] And then ever since then, we've been
encroaching upon a bird sanctuary,
[1:00:03] a sanctuary for fish and everything else.
[1:00:06] And we've never advanced— with all our
claims to be environmentally sound—
[1:00:13] never advanced any ideas to improve that
area in terms of wildlife, etc.,
[1:00:19] as opposed to putting like 50 kayaks on
the Croton River. Thank you.
[1:00:24] Okay, do we have further
[1:00:30] speakers for our
[1:00:34] Commenters?
[1:00:36] Okay, I'm Connie Warren. I live at 1 Young
Avenue.
[1:00:40] For the most part, this seems like
something that would be good for Harmon,
[1:00:45] where I've lived for the last 13 years.
[1:00:47] It's one of the 3 neighborhoods in Croton
that we've lived in.
[1:00:51] The one exception is the 425 South
Riverside development, which is highly
[1:00:56] Riverside development, which is highly
contested.
[1:00:57] So I have a question about community
engagement and what that really means.
[1:01:02] From what it sounds like,
[1:01:03] community input is come suggest projects
to us or tell us if you like our projects
[1:01:09] or not, or add some frills to our
projects.
[1:01:11] But I'm not sure that community input of a
broader kind is,
[1:01:15] is actually being invited in the process.
[1:01:18] I mean, how much is it a symbolic process
versus a real process?
[1:01:22] So I want to know, are any residents,
[1:01:25] and particularly residents who would be
immediately affected by the 425 South
[1:01:30] Riverside development, anticipated
becoming part of a planning process?
[1:01:34] Who's in— who gets involved in that
planning process?
[1:01:38] Is it only business people, or are
residents actually involved?
[1:01:42] Do you want to—
[1:01:43] Yeah, sure.
[1:01:44] So there's 2 different processes kind of
taking place, right?
[1:01:48] So this is the grant application where
we're just identifying trying, like,
[1:01:53] as part of the grant application, the
state likes to see, um,
[1:01:57] what types of potential housing
developments are potentially in that area,
[1:02:01] developments are potentially in that area,
right?
[1:02:02] That is separate from the land use
approval process that the planning board
[1:02:06] approval process that the planning board
is just
[1:02:07] starting. So ultimately,
[1:02:08] the village will still have full control
over what ends up getting built and
[1:02:13] developed at that site.
[1:02:15] That has nothing to do with this New York
Forward application.
[1:02:18] All it is is identifying that there's a
potential housing project within that
[1:02:23] potential housing project within that
area,
[1:02:24] but it doesn't necessarily mean that that
project is finalized,
[1:02:28] settled on a particular, like, number of
residential units or anything like that.
[1:02:33] That's all through the planning process
that has just begun.
[1:02:37] So they are, they are separate.
[1:02:39] The purpose of today's and also the public
outreach that's taking place is to
[1:02:43] identify if there's any other types of
projects that we could potentially add to
[1:02:48] that list to identify what's potentially
taking place in that area.
[1:02:53] And then also just to receive public
feedback like yourselves on, you know,
[1:02:57] types of projects that you're— that you
like, don't like necessarily,
[1:03:02] and so that we could potentially emphasize
certain projects over other projects
[1:03:07] within the application.
[1:03:09] So when— once the local planning committee
is formed, will residents be part—
[1:03:13] will there be any residents that will be
asked to be part of the local
[1:03:17] planning?
[1:03:17] So the local planning committee,
ultimately, if awarded,
[1:03:20] there is the local planning committee that
gets developed.
[1:03:23] They usually like to see representatives
from many facets within the community.
[1:03:27] And that'll be up to the village to
identify who potentially would be on that
[1:03:32] identify who potentially would be on that
local
[1:03:32] planning committee. But and you could
probably talk about your local planning
[1:03:36] committee, but I think for the most part
there are usually representatives from
[1:03:40] residents, you know, or somebody that's
involved in like the chamber or, you know,
[1:03:45] business owner or property owners or
people that, you know—
[1:03:48] Business and property owners seems for
granted, you know.
[1:03:52] I mean, Harmon is the lowest income area
of Croton. It has the most modest houses.
[1:03:57] It has people with the most modest
incomes.
[1:04:00] And it has the people who are not likely
to be in the decision-making rooms.
[1:04:05] So the question is, will people from
Harmon be involved in the decision-making?
[1:04:10] Typically, it's people— there are people,
there are representatives from,
[1:04:14] I'm going to say properties, it could be
residents,
[1:04:17] it could be organizations within that New
York Forward area that are on that.
[1:04:21] I guess the feedback that I'm giving you
is that, you know,
[1:04:24] getting a notice last Friday afternoon for
a meeting with almost no supporting
[1:04:29] materials with the exception of being able
to see the state guidebook.
[1:04:33] It feels like a very one-way kind of
community engagement, and it doesn't feel
[1:04:38] community engagement, and it doesn't feel
like,
[1:04:38] you know, it feels like we come into this
room being asked for input when we don't
[1:04:43] even really know what we're being asked
for input into.
[1:04:47] I would hope that in the future that it's
a much more two-way and substantive
[1:04:51] process and a much less symbolic process
that fulfills state requirements that you
[1:04:56] have a certain number of community
engagement meetings on a potential
[1:05:00] engagement meetings on a potential
project.
[1:05:01] I don't know whether— where the boundary
lines are for the Croton Railroad Station,
[1:05:06] how much is Metro-North controlled and how
much is Croton controlled,
[1:05:10] but someday somebody's going to fall down
the stairs at that station because the
[1:05:15] stairways are crumbling.
[1:05:16] So if it is possible within the range of
projects to renovate the stairways at the
[1:05:21] Croton station. I think that you should
put that in your proposal.
[1:05:25] Thank you. And as, as I said, um,
previously,
[1:05:28] this is just the beginning of the process.
[1:05:31] So, you know, there will be many more
opportunities for people to,
[1:05:35] to give their input.
[1:05:37] I want to thank the mayor of Sleepy Hollow
for coming out
[1:05:42] to speak with us tonight. Um, I, I, I do
have— I do have—
[1:05:47] John, could you just introduce yourself?
[1:05:49] John McKeehan.
[1:05:50] Thank you.
[1:05:50] Um, I do have a question.
[1:05:53] Do you, do you control the tax assessment
process in the village of Sleepy
[1:06:00] Hollow? Or is that part of a greater
entity that makes determinations as to
[1:06:07] valuations of properties?
[1:06:09] Because what I'm trying to get to and
trying to understand Is that in the
[1:06:16] state of New York, structurally,
[1:06:19] probably because of the presence of New
York City as a political entity in our
[1:06:27] state, multifamily residential units and
apartment complexes pay about 40% of
[1:06:34] what individual homeowners pay in terms of
the valuation of their property.
[1:06:42] for the—
[1:06:43] to pay their tax bill.
[1:06:45] And what we pay on average for the
3,000-odd residences,
[1:06:50] both individual apartments and
condominiums,
[1:06:54] towards our schools and towards the
operation of our village, on average,
[1:07:02] is probably about $12,000 a year.
[1:07:05] We are in the process of bringing online a
100-unit structure down in a parking lot
[1:07:13] by our train station that will, will net
about $4,000 a year per occupancy.
[1:07:20] And we have already built and are,
[1:07:24] are operating another unit at Maple
Commons That's generating $2,000 a year
[1:07:31] Commons That's generating $2,000 a year
per
[1:07:31] unit, while we are being asked to pay
property tax and school tax in individual
[1:07:39] residences at a level on average of about
$12,000 a year.
[1:07:45] A lot of villages have faced the same
dynamic in our county,
[1:07:50] and as a result they've gone to a fee
simple structure for tax assessment
[1:07:58] simple structure for tax assessment
purposes
[1:07:58] so that there is an equalization between
the condominium value property tax
[1:08:06] payments with the individual homeowner
property tax payments.
[1:08:12] Our village made a determination just a
year ago to preclude that capability.
[1:08:19] Because they voted to save half an FTE to
have the control of our taxation in the
[1:08:27] town of Cortland. There are other
mechanisms that we could use to try and
[1:08:34] mechanisms that we could use to try and
right
[1:08:35] that wrong. But my question is to you, in,
in your village, this—
[1:08:41] these units that are being brought online,
[1:08:45] these luxury units that are being brought
online, How are they being assessed?
[1:08:53] Who's assessing them?
[1:08:55] And are they paying property taxes
comparable to single individual family
[1:09:02] residences that are in the village?
[1:09:05] And, and do you see that as a problem, or
is that a solution that you found?
[1:09:13] So we have our own tax assessor,
[1:09:16] and I would like to do a tax reevaluation
with the entire town of Mount
[1:09:23] Pleasant, as this gentleman has pointed
out that the village of Sleepy Hollow
[1:09:31] is a part of Mount Pleasant.
[1:09:34] Mount Pleasant is not interested in doing
a tax revow.
[1:09:40] We haven't done one in 30 years. They
haven't done one in 50 years.
[1:09:46] So we're kind of We have, as our village
administrator likes to describe,
[1:09:54] we have the poorest of the poor because we
have a lot of low-income housing in
[1:10:02] the southern part of the village,
[1:10:05] all the way up to the Rockefellers live in
Pocantico Hills.
[1:10:11] And then the Edge on Hudson, to answer
your earlier question,
[1:10:17] it was approved for 1,177 units. new
housing units. We're about halfway done.
[1:10:25] We just issued the first, the like 600th
certificate of occupancy.
[1:10:32] I'm told that one of the units at Edge on
Hudson sold for $6.7 million.
[1:10:39] So we have the wide range of market value.
[1:10:43] Sleepy Hollow is also unique We're one of
the few municipalities that have a
[1:10:51] homestead/non-homestead tax structure.
[1:10:55] Okay.
[1:10:55] So we're different than Croton.
[1:10:58] But the way I look at it is if the person
who's lucky enough to be
[1:11:04] able to afford a $6.7 million home in
Sleepy Hollow,
[1:11:09] he should pay the commensurate property
taxes to, you know,
[1:11:15] because he can afford it. And everyone in
between will—
[1:11:20] We have similar—
[1:11:22] we have people in what I call— I came from
Long Island—
[1:11:27] a Levitt house in Harmon that are paying
$11,000 to $12,000 a year in taxes
[1:11:34] towards the school and maintenance of the
village.
[1:11:38] And, and they are holding on to their
houses with their fingernails because the
[1:11:45] value of these houses has geometrically
increased in the last several years.
[1:11:52] They really have no other place to go in
this marketplace,
[1:11:57] and the expense associated with
maintaining their house and paying school
[1:12:04] maintaining their house and paying school
tax and
[1:12:05] property tax is very burdensome.
[1:12:07] And my concern is that bringing in these
additional units at de facto subsidized
[1:12:15] tax rates on top of federal incentives,
state incentives.
[1:12:20] And now you're talking about additional
incentives of $500,000 for subsidized
[1:12:27] housing associated with another grant
level.
[1:12:31] It's, it's just a little scary for me.
[1:12:34] I, I will say, um, That we have high tax
burden in
[1:12:40] Westchester, and it's not the fault of
little village mayors
[1:12:48] or whoever you wanna blame,
[1:12:51] but it's a systemic issue in that in the
county of
[1:12:57] Westchester, There are 40 municipalities,
[1:13:02] each with their own school district.
[1:13:07] In the state of New York,
[1:13:10] there are 686 school districts and
municipalities.
[1:13:16] In the state of Maryland,
[1:13:19] guess how many counties and school
districts there are?
[1:13:26] 50.
[1:13:29] On my—
[1:13:31] my— They're all county school districts
down there.
[1:13:34] Yeah.
[1:13:34] Virginia, Maryland, all county. Yeah.
[1:13:36] County—
[1:13:36] terrible, but county school districts.
[1:13:38] So I don't know how many counties there
are in Maryland, but—
[1:13:40] Montgomery County, population 1 million, 1
school district.
[1:13:44] Right.
[1:13:44] Exactly. So in the state of Maryland, you
know,
[1:13:48] Maryland and New York are very different
places. There are 24 counties.
[1:13:54] school districts. So when you compare 24
school districts to 686 school districts,
[1:14:01] and we all know the majority of our taxes
go to pay school.
[1:14:07] Yeah. That's why we're at over $40,000 per
[1:14:11] student in the village of
Croton-on-Hudson.
[1:14:16] Okay, if we could, Mr. So my point is, No,
answer your question.
[1:14:23] He gave you—
[1:14:23] no, Mr. Riley, no, no.
[1:14:26] You asked— will you ask her to answer your
question?
[1:14:27] No, I don't need to get into a debate.
[1:14:31] I just want to bring home the point that
if we're going to have development here,
[1:14:38] and I'm not against it,
[1:14:40] that that development pays for its fair
share of the tax burden that we face as
[1:14:48] incumbent residents in our village.
[1:14:51] Thank you. Is there anyone else who would
like to share
[1:14:57] their thoughts on New York Forward? You're
next, John.
[1:15:04] Hi, Adam Shapiro. Adam Shapiro, 37 Wells
Avenue.
[1:15:07] So as you know, I've moved here 4 years
ago, I have 2 young kids.
[1:15:12] So I'm— when I see, you know, this type
of, you know, application being
[1:15:17] of, you know, application being
considered,
[1:15:18] like, I, I find it, you know, very like,
I'm very— I feel encouraged by it.
[1:15:24] I think it's a good thing to be
considering, to be considering these,
[1:15:29] these projects. I'm just I—
[1:15:31] my input is that it's more about within
some of these projects to, to think about,
[1:15:37] you know, I see— I go to a lot of, um,
events here in the Village with my, my
[1:15:42] events here in the Village with my, my
two—
[1:15:43] my son who's 4, my daughter who's almost a
year old, and they're like,
[1:15:48] the summer programming was like a great
thing here.
[1:15:51] And, you know, I just wonder, or, you
know, for, for Village to think about how
[1:15:57] know, for, for Village to think about how
we—
[1:15:57] some of these projects could, you know,
could incorporate like the young, you
[1:16:03] could incorporate like the young, you
know,
[1:16:03] things that attract young families.
[1:16:06] Like, because I think revitalizing—
[1:16:08] because I think invigorating the downtown
is like a lot of that will involve
[1:16:14] pulling— bringing young families into, you
know, that district.
[1:16:19] Um, because I know there's— I see so many,
you know,
[1:16:22] families who have kids in daycare around
here who are just like itching to go out
[1:16:28] and like do things. Especially, you know,
because the kid, you know,
[1:16:33] just to give the kids, our kids something
to do.
[1:16:37] And just that I think with historic Hudson
Valley,
[1:16:40] I do think there's promise in that.
[1:16:43] Like I, I go there, you know, for the
Blaze with my family.
[1:16:47] And I do wonder that just with that area,
like how it could be utilized more,
[1:16:53] because I just think it's like a great
activity.
[1:16:56] And I know people from out of You know,
from out of town go,
[1:17:01] I've had friends from Connecticut tell me
they're here.
[1:17:05] I've had friends from Lappingers Falls who
didn't tell me they were here,
[1:17:10] but they apparently came to it. And I was
very annoyed by that.
[1:17:15] And I'm still a little kind of bitter
about that.
[1:17:18] But so, yeah, so I just, you know, just
wanted to offer my thoughts on that.
[1:17:24] And I look forward—
[1:17:25] Thank you.
[1:17:26] you know, to seeing, seeing this process,
um, you know, begin. So thank you.
[1:17:33] Thank you.
[1:17:38] Thanks.
[1:17:40] John Sassoe, Morningside Drive. First of
all, sounds great, a lot of it.
[1:17:46] There isn't a person in Groton who
wouldn't love to see things paid for by
[1:17:53] wouldn't love to see things paid for by
the state
[1:17:53] that they decide needs to be done.
[1:17:56] I have an idea about one I can just put
out there.
[1:18:01] There's a park at the duck pond that's got
benches that no one would sit on,
[1:18:07] but they still have been there for years
in disrepair.
[1:18:11] And there's no access for the ice skaters
to go in and out of the— on the ice.
[1:18:18] I'm not a skater. People have told me
this.
[1:18:22] They have to walk on rocks with their
skates rather than just get a big mat to
[1:18:28] skates rather than just get a big mat to
give
[1:18:29] access. Simple. My bigger question is, is
this what's listed here?
[1:18:34] Is this part of the application that's
going to go in?
[1:18:39] Yes. So ultimately, they usually ask for
you to— they ask for—
[1:18:43] there's a section of the application that
says what are like past investments within
[1:18:48] that area, and what are current
investments,
[1:18:51] and then what are potential future
investments.
[1:18:54] And so there is where I get stuck.
[1:18:57] Okay.
[1:18:57] Because 425 South Riverside— I've lived in
Croton 45 years. I know a lot of people.
[1:19:04] There isn't one person, not one, that's in
favor of this project.
[1:19:10] And, you know, I wish I—
[1:19:12] if this were notified in the Gazette with
an announcement that this is to talk about
[1:19:19] 425, you would have had the room filled 3
times over because there's a lot of
[1:19:26] opposition to it.
[1:19:27] Yes.
[1:19:28] Not only is the builder somebody with not
a great reputation in Croton of some
[1:19:35] project he's tried to get done, But the
whole idea of it—
[1:19:40] so now it seems like this goes in and you
say it doesn't have to have housing
[1:19:46] as part of the whole project, but that's
what it's—
[1:19:51] the umbrella is about housing, right?
Isn't this—
[1:19:55] No, the umbrella is really about
revitalization of your downtown area.
[1:20:01] So it's supposed to be It's not only— it's
not just the sole focus on housing.
[1:20:08] It's public upgrades.
[1:20:09] But there's a favorability toward people
who want to—
[1:20:13] What they— what the state would like to
see is,
[1:20:17] as part of the application process, that
you are dealing with— wait,
[1:20:23] let me finish this.
[1:20:24] Go ahead.
[1:20:26] That you do have the ability to have
housing in the area.
[1:20:30] area, that doesn't necessarily mean it has
to be a lot of housing development.
[1:20:36] You can also utilize housing that has
occurred in that area,
[1:20:40] which you have some housing development
that has been recently approved for that
[1:20:45] area, and that just demonstrates that
there is housing within that area.
[1:20:50] But, you know, for example,
[1:20:52] Dobbs Ferry just was awarded their $4.5
million in projects, and I don't—
[1:20:57] I—
[1:20:58] there were— I think there might have been
one project that had a little bit of
[1:21:02] housing associated with it, but the rest
of them were not housing-related projects.
[1:21:08] So, and I think you had only one thing
there that said housing.
[1:21:12] They're gonna— their eyes are open a
little wider, maybe.
[1:21:14] Right.
[1:21:15] They don't— they don't want an area—
[1:21:17] they don't want an area that doesn't have
residents in it, that's for sure.
[1:21:21] So my point is, it's almost like the tail
wagging the dog.
[1:21:25] Because if this goes through and there's
an approval for this project to improve
[1:21:31] an approval for this project to improve
the
[1:21:31] water, sewage, whatever the project is
involved with, well,
[1:21:35] now it comes back to the village. Well,
we've approved this, let's do it.
[1:21:41] It's a one-time opportunity. You follow my
thinking here?
[1:21:45] Yeah, I understand. I understand what your
concern is.
[1:21:47] But we've got— okay, we— well, there's no
problem.
[1:21:51] We've got sewers, we've got water. We went
ahead.
[1:21:54] Right.
[1:21:55] And so it's, it's got the people in this
[1:21:59] village very leery about seeing that on
this
[1:22:03] list.
[1:22:04] Right.
[1:22:05] And that's my opinion.
[1:22:07] So, okay.
[1:22:07] No, I understand. I understand your
concern.
[1:22:10] And I just want to emphasize again that
the,
[1:22:12] the actual planning board approval process
is—
[1:22:15] yeah, I understand how things work too. I
get it.
[1:22:18] But if there were a meeting held on that,
[1:22:21] you'd see a much bigger turnout and a lot
of disapproval about it.
[1:22:26] I know.
[1:22:26] Thank you.
[1:22:34] How are you? Yeah, I'm Cynthia Eldridge.
[1:22:36] I own one of the properties in that
section there. I had 2 questions.
[1:22:41] One is, I was here for the first Gateway
proposals made, I don't know,
[1:22:46] 20-something years ago, maybe.
[1:22:48] And they talked a lot about sidewalks and
improving the sidewalks in that area.
[1:22:53] And there are still people who walk past
my building.
[1:22:56] The new sidewalk that kind of goes between
Dr.
[1:22:59] Fields and the Straddles complex is great.
That was helpful.
[1:23:03] But it's still really hard.
[1:23:05] People are trying to get into that
ShopRite plaza area on foot.
[1:23:09] And that's super difficult.
[1:23:11] So something I could suggest is, you know,
can that be improved?
[1:23:15] So people have access down there.
[1:23:18] There's a lot of young people using the
gym, there's older people trying to shop.
[1:23:24] It's—
[1:23:25] that's a thing.
[1:23:26] And that's— I think that's a really great
project.
[1:23:28] And I think the village manager is trying
to work with the property owner as maybe
[1:23:33] potentially identifying that as a project
as part The application.
[1:23:37] The other thing I wanted to say was, I
agree, my whole life that lot floods,
[1:23:43] it floods, it's been redone, it floods.
[1:23:46] Do you have an estimate from the people
working on the plan of how much that
[1:23:52] working on the plan of how much that
costs?
[1:23:52] Because as the mayor pointed out, $4.5
million isn't that much, sadly.
[1:23:58] So what does the— what does the wall cost?
[1:24:01] You want to sit down?
[1:24:03] No, no, the, the estimate from our
engineer is about $7 million for the wall,
[1:24:09] but obviously only a small portion of this
grant would be going towards that.
[1:24:16] We are seeking out multiple sources of
funding for that particular project.
[1:24:22] Do you have a projection of how much of
this grant you're looking for for the
[1:24:26] this grant you're looking for for the
wall?
[1:24:26] No, that's not going to be decided by us.
[1:24:29] That's going to be decided by the state
Right, they're gonna, they're gonna tell
[1:24:33] Right, they're gonna, they're gonna tell
us.
[1:24:33] So, but I mean, I don't— I wouldn't think—
I mean,
[1:24:36] Valerie may be able to share a little bit
more,
[1:24:38] but I don't think that they would put a
lot of it towards it, right? I mean—
[1:24:42] No, I mean, I, I would, I would, I would
think that the state's going to want to,
[1:24:48] um, if they're going to— like, as you saw
with Sleepy Hollow,
[1:24:52] there was a couple $1.5 million projects,
$1.4 million projects,
[1:24:56] and you saw a lot of those happen to
really involve like public,
[1:25:01] like parks and those types of projects,
streetscaping,
[1:25:04] they'd like to spend bigger amounts of
funding towards those types of projects
[1:25:10] versus something that would be like, like,
for example,
[1:25:13] with the Croton train station.
[1:25:15] Yeah.
[1:25:16] So maybe like $500,000 towards something
like that.
[1:25:19] Okay.
[1:25:21] Yeah.
[1:25:21] Thank you. You're welcome.
[1:25:25] Any other comments, please?
[1:25:26] Michael Adlin, 55 Van Wyck.
[1:25:30] Um, I was just curious,
[1:25:32] does the boundary area have to be
contiguous?
[1:25:38] It's—
[1:25:40] yes, it does need to be.
[1:25:41] I know that's the challenge with this,
with, uh, yeah, and that's—
[1:25:46] and that was what we were trying to do
originally in 2024 is we tried to be a
[1:25:51] little, you know, yeah, a little loose
with that.
[1:25:53] And we had, we had a little bit down on
North Riverside,
[1:25:56] and then we came up Brook Street, and then
we had some in the Upper Village.
[1:26:00] And they were like, you know, they told us
that they appreciated the effort, right?
[1:26:05] But it was not, it was not what they were
looking for. Okay.
[1:26:08] Yeah, I'm tempted in that same way. So
thanks for clarifying.
[1:26:12] And then I appreciate all the work you're
doing. I lived on Beekman for a year.
[1:26:16] So it's gonna be very exciting to see all
these developments take place.
[1:26:21] Great.
[1:26:21] Thanks for your work.
[1:26:22] Come back and visit.
[1:26:22] Yeah, I will do. Um, and yeah, just,
[1:26:24] I guess I'll plant the seeds even though
it's outside of the boundary area,
[1:26:29] since you may be applying year after year,
uh, for this among other grants.
[1:26:33] But, um, there's a little bend in the
river along Elliott Way.
[1:26:37] It's like Croton Riverwalk,
[1:26:39] and it's right kind of between Senosqua
and the Yacht Club.
[1:26:42] And it's, um, it's an area that's kind of
like dead space in the water because of
[1:26:47] old pilings. And it's kind of out of the
way.
[1:26:50] It doesn't really get in the way of the
sunset or anything,
[1:26:53] but like my sort of dream would be that
you can encourage sort of a connection to
[1:26:58] the Hudson River by having like a kind of
a restaurant platform there,
[1:27:02] like a modest one, but just have one place
to eat on the river to encourage like
[1:27:07] reverie, and then have like a grab-and-go
commissary to encourage those parents that
[1:27:12] are just itching to have something
Something to do,
[1:27:15] and it would kind of just having one kind
of feature restaurant right there would
[1:27:20] tie into lots of development along the
waterfront there.
[1:27:24] But it would also just tie other
communities together,
[1:27:27] and we have the recent development in
housing and yada yada.
[1:27:30] But anyway, just there's like kind of one
little sweet spot,
[1:27:34] which if it could go through all of the
stakeholders with respect to.
[1:27:38] All the things. Um, it would be just so
cool, uh,
[1:27:41] to have one little restaurant on the river
because we're at the,
[1:27:45] the widest span of one of the great rivers
in the world without a place to eat and
[1:27:50] appreciate it. So that'd be cool.
[1:27:52] Yeah, that's great. Thank you.
[1:27:54] Yeah, and that's, that's something that's
been identified in our comp plan for a
[1:28:00] little while now is trying to do that. So
something that we continue to look at.
[1:28:05] Any, any further comments?
[1:28:07] Though I'm on the board, I just wanted to
share, um,
[1:28:11] that we did have a neighbor that, um— Nora
Nicholson.
[1:28:16] Um, so we did have a neighbor that sent an
email.
[1:28:20] He wasn't able to make it tonight, but his
idea is to run a trail, um,
[1:28:27] sort of to connect the neighborhoods
there. So if of the pointer, Brian.
[1:28:33] Yep.
[1:28:34] Uh, so sort of a connector trail.
[1:28:36] I think using that Van Cortlandt Manor
property, someone made a point that,
[1:28:41] you know, maybe they would want to sell
that off.
[1:28:44] Like, does that become an opportunity for
trail network along the river there?
[1:28:49] Um, not necessarily, you know, sort of
parkland improvement back there versus,
[1:28:54] parkland improvement back there versus,
um,
[1:28:54] you know, what it is right now. Right now
it's just woods.
[1:28:58] I have an idea, uh, at Echo canoe launch
of really developing that space into more
[1:29:03] of a park. So Beacon, if anyone's been up
there,
[1:29:06] they've just recently done a canoe launch
with canoe storage,
[1:29:10] which is really quite fabulous.
[1:29:12] But using that space down there, I think
would be really great.
[1:29:16] And I just want to like, you know,
[1:29:18] I've been listening to this meeting and
just thinking about, you know,
[1:29:23] the ideas that sort of happened along the
way. Um, Mr.
[1:29:26] Riley, you pointed out marshlands around
the Croton River and enhancement there,
[1:29:31] protecting those. I mean, that is
something that we can include in the
[1:29:36] something that we can include in the
grant.
[1:29:36] I think beautification of the station and
repairing the staircase would absolutely
[1:29:41] be something that we could work with
Metro-North.
[1:29:45] And the opportunity at the station— I
mean, right now it is, um, you know,
[1:29:49] we haven't seen a renovation to that
station in a very long time.
[1:29:53] So you kind of come into Croton, it's
like, ugh.
[1:29:57] Um, so that could be an opportunity for
some beautification.
[1:30:00] And absolutely, the walkability in that
area is much, much needed, um,
[1:30:05] to ShopRite Plaza and getting down there.
[1:30:08] And even making this— I mean,
[1:30:09] I think what's hard about this particular
grant is we're saying it's a down—
[1:30:14] you know, we're saying it's an improvement
to a business area downtown improvement
[1:30:20] kind of thing, but it's really not.
downtown, right?
[1:30:23] So we're gonna need to try to spin it so
it seems like it is more of an area,
[1:30:28] but we have so many people coming into the
station, right?
[1:30:32] And we have so many people kind of going
up and over to Van Cortlandt Manor.
[1:30:36] Hopefully with Phase 2 for Van Cortlandt
Manor,
[1:30:39] that property will be open more than just
the Blaze, right?
[1:30:43] I mean, that's sort of the dream that when
I was growing up here in Croton,
[1:30:48] that that was open all year round. There
were school groups going there.
[1:30:53] There were visitors there.
[1:30:54] That would bring more commerce to the
village and more tax revenue.
[1:30:59] So, you know, those are some of my ideas.
[1:31:01] But, you know, I think it is— it's a
challenging pitch.
[1:31:05] And we, you know, I think we're going to
learn along the way with this one,
[1:31:10] just like we learned the long way with the
other one,
[1:31:13] just in terms of just so people kind of
understand.
[1:31:16] When we pick this area, when we look at
sort of the Grand Street,
[1:31:20] Upper Village area, which is really the
true downtown of the Village,
[1:31:25] why isn't that a great candidate?
[1:31:27] Like, if we just circled sort of the Upper
Village,
[1:31:30] why wouldn't that be a great candidate for
this grant?
[1:31:34] So, I mean, I can think— I mean, I don't
know if you want to weigh in,
[1:31:38] and then I can talk a little bit about it
too.
[1:31:40] Yeah, sure. Yeah, it really— it has to do
with the types of projects, right,
[1:31:46] that the state is looking for in this
particular grant application.
[1:31:50] Um, yeah, there is not really an
opportunity to build out in the Upper
[1:31:55] opportunity to build out in the Upper
Village,
[1:31:56] right? I mean, there's, um, very few
properties that are available, um,
[1:32:01] or property owners who are interested in,
uh, building out their properties.
[1:32:06] And, um, you know, we had a couple of
projects in the Upper Village in our
[1:32:11] projects in the Upper Village in our
previous
[1:32:12] round, right, which involved Vassallo Park
specifically and doing some
[1:32:17] streetscaping. But as Valerie has said
earlier this evening, you know,
[1:32:22] the state is really looking for as much
private investment as they are public
[1:32:27] investment. So unless, you know, and these
are totally hypothetical, right,
[1:32:32] unless somebody was to come in and say,
[1:32:35] I want to put another story on the Black
Cow, or if I want to, you know, build a 3,
[1:32:41] you know, multiple 3-story, you know,
mixed-use building, something like that,
[1:32:47] right? I mean, unless there was projects
like that that had interest that were
[1:32:52] like that that had interest that were
going
[1:32:52] to potentially move forward,
[1:32:54] there's just not the investment needed in
the Upper Village.
[1:32:59] I think you wanted to say something.
[1:33:02] Yeah, what I was going to say is, I think
for Sleepy Hollow,
[1:33:07] we have a smaller geography than you do,
[1:33:10] but we really leaned into the connectivity
between our neighborhoods.
[1:33:16] And as we were building this, you know,
very affluent enclave on the river,
[1:33:22] we wanted to make sure that all these
different neighborhoods had good
[1:33:28] different neighborhoods had good
connectivity.
[1:33:29] And so walkability, we're, you know,
[1:33:32] partners in the Project Mover as far as
bikeability.
[1:33:37] And being that we have 2 train stations on
the Hudson Line between Tarrytown and
[1:33:44] Phillips Manor, it's all about, you know,
[1:33:47] how do we get around Sleepy Hollow without
a car would be ideal.
[1:33:52] So I think, you know, You're onto
something as far as like trails and, you
[1:33:59] something as far as like trails and, you
know,
[1:33:59] access to the train by foot or sidewalks.
[1:34:03] You know, I think that that's important to
the state, right?
[1:34:08] So like our Cortland streetscape project
that we got $1.2 million for,
[1:34:14] that is basically the corridor from the
Tarrytown train station right up into
[1:34:20] Beekman Avenue. as you know.
[1:34:23] So that's just a very important
thoroughfare for all the tourists that
[1:34:28] thoroughfare for all the tourists that
we're trying
[1:34:29] to encourage to come to Sleepy Hollow via
train come this fall season.
[1:34:35] So we really want to beautify Cortlandt
Street.
[1:34:39] And we actually have a conversation with
Tarrytown,
[1:34:44] because the train station's in their
village, but— We want to, you know,
[1:34:50] make it seamless so that as we're doing
our rezoning project right now,
[1:34:56] we actually asked our zoning consultant to
include that Cortland Street all the way
[1:35:03] to Tarrytown within the scope of our
rezoning so that it's more integrated.
[1:35:09] And to the extent that after we do our
visioning exercise for Sleepy Hollow
[1:35:15] visioning exercise for Sleepy Hollow
downtown
[1:35:16] rezoning. Cherrytown at least has kind of
a head start if they decide to,
[1:35:22] to address that part of their village as
well for rezoning.
[1:35:30] Yeah. Before we break up,
[1:35:32] I just wanted to just personally thank the
mayor for her time.
[1:35:37] I mentioned to her before we got started,
I said, My goodness,
[1:35:42] you have enough evening meetings in Sleepy
Hollow.
[1:35:46] You don't need to add one more to Croton.
But it was awfully generous.
[1:35:51] One of the great things about the 45
municipalities that we have in Westchester
[1:35:57] County is we all try to work together a
lot. And this is a wonderful example.
[1:36:03] And I think our application ultimately has
profited greatly from you being here this
[1:36:10] evening. So I appreciate it.
[1:36:12] My pleasure.
[1:36:14] I should have ordered the drink.
[1:36:16] Brian, yeah, that's right. To be
continued.
[1:36:19] And again, I just wanted to emphasize,
[1:36:22] just on behalf of the board and all of us
here, is my expectation is that—
[1:36:27] and I could be off by a few weeks—
[1:36:29] but my expectation is that we'll probably
get the notice from the state that the
[1:36:35] application period is open Maybe sometime
in October,
[1:36:38] and we'll have until January to to to
submit our application.
[1:36:42] The this is a list, and that's all it is
right now.
[1:36:46] We've we've talked a little bit about it,
[1:36:49] but as you can see from some of the
conversations that we've had tonight and
[1:36:54] conversations that we've had tonight and
some of
[1:36:54] the some of the good ideas that have come
forth from many of you,
[1:36:59] you know we're we're open. To lots of
things.
[1:37:02] We have some basic guidelines about, you
know, as Valerie said, contiguous, and,
[1:37:07] you know, we'll try to figure those out.
But we want a great application.
[1:37:12] And when we didn't get it in 2024, in our
region, who did get it was, was Nyack.
[1:37:17] And I happened to bump into the mayor of
Nyack a couple of weeks later.
[1:37:22] And I said, Mayor, what was your secret
sauce in getting New York forward?
[1:37:27] And he said, well, we got it— it was the
4th time we applied,
[1:37:31] and each time that we applied, we tried to
improve our application,
[1:37:36] get more good ideas, get more people
involved, and so that's what we're doing.
[1:37:41] I said, well, we're going to try to do the
same thing,
[1:37:45] but do it in 2 tries rather than 4.
[1:37:47] So this is an important part of the
process, and as Brian said,
[1:37:51] this is the beginning of the process, not
in any way a conclusion.
[1:37:56] So to all of you that—
[1:37:57] Thank you.
[1:37:58] you know, suggested that, uh, that you
need more time.
[1:38:00] We need more time too, and we need, we
need all of you to, uh,
[1:38:04] to be involved in this. So I just wanted
to say that as we, as we conclude.
[1:38:08] Thank you.
[1:38:08] Okay, any other—
[1:38:13] Are you going to put something out to the
community so that now
[1:38:17] that they know that they have more time
for projects that they
[1:38:21] can—
[1:38:21] There, there will be, there will be a lot
of community output. Outreach, yes.
[1:38:26] Okay.
[1:38:31] All right, well, thank you everyone for
coming this evening.
[1:38:35] This video will be posted on the website.
[1:38:37] It will be available tomorrow on the
Village website,
[1:38:40] and stay tuned for the next outreach
session.