We wonder which of the following "owners' values" (listed below) JPI/TDI was channeling when they sought to limit the input of Greenburgh residents which environmental impacts should be included in the final scoping document:
- Be faithful & obedient to God
- Be respectful to & help develop all people
- Be committed to excellence
- Be committed to service
- Be a person of character
- Grow profitably
THE OWNERS’ VALUES
We are certain first and foremost is the one about profit.
That JPI/TDI doesn't care much about the environment is not surprising - its former CEO was one of the largest campaign contributors to former Texas Governor Rick Perry who maintains that climate change is a hoax. As noted in prior blog postings, The Jefferson project does not appear to have a solar energy component and it is not seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, which is the hallmark of green building construction.
That JPI/TDI doesn't care much about the environment is not surprising - its former CEO was one of the largest campaign contributors to former Texas Governor Rick Perry who maintains that climate change is a hoax. As noted in prior blog postings, The Jefferson project does not appear to have a solar energy component and it is not seeking LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) certification, which is the hallmark of green building construction.
In their various filings with the Town, JPI/TDI is presenting The Jefferson at Saw Mill project as being a Transit Oriented Development ("TOD") because of its proximity to the South County Trail which its tenants would use to commute to work. This nonsense was thoroughly discredited at the first scoping session. It is also the case that JPI/TDI is doing virtually nothing to improve the infrastructure of the South County Trail. Instead it seeks to exploit it as a marketing gimmick. This is nothing short of green "bait and switch."
According to the "experts" at JPI/TDI, the intended residents of The Jefferson are mere millennials who want to live in TODs near walkable downtowns. This would hardly fit the site they have chosen for The Jefferson (at the corner of Lawrence Street and Saw Mill River Road) which is almost three miles away from the Dobbs Ferry train station. Only one Bee Line bus (the 5 line) appears to service the location.
According to the "experts" at JPI/TDI, the intended residents of The Jefferson are mere millennials who want to live in TODs near walkable downtowns. This would hardly fit the site they have chosen for The Jefferson (at the corner of Lawrence Street and Saw Mill River Road) which is almost three miles away from the Dobbs Ferry train station. Only one Bee Line bus (the 5 line) appears to service the location.
So it is rather curious to learn that JPI/TDI's current counsel (Neil Alexander of Cuddy & Feder) who is telling us and the Town Board that The Jefferson is the right project (even going so far to claim that no one they met with before presenting it for public consumption was against it) co-wrote an article published in the November 3, 2015 edition of The New York Law Journal entitled
"Land Use and Planning: Preventing Flight of Millennials" in which he claims that "Unless suburban municipalities plan to attract the millennial generation, employers will not relocate to the suburban areas."
He then asserts that in order to compete with the the "aesthetic draw to New York City,"
"Westchester, Fairfield, Long Island, and other suburban municipalities must reexamine their local planning goals and transition from "bedroom" communities to communities that facilitate an efficient working and living environment."
The accuracy of these contentions (unlike climate change) is highly debatable. If you look at study after study, the truth is no one knows from year to year what the so called millennials (including the millennials themselves) want or where they desire to live. Moreover, businesses expand or contract for many reasons. Office parks were once the flavor of the day. Now, as is true with, for example, the relocation by General Electric out of suburban Connecticut, they want to be near a technology hub like the City of Boston. Housing for millennials was not a factor.
Even before the millennials were discovered as a marketing tool to get municipalities to bend over backward to accommodate developers and ignore the quality of life concerns of local residents, Westchester County and in particular Greenburgh (in Ardsley and Tarrytown) developed a strong bio-tech presence. Decades earlier and at the very location where The Jefferson is planned to be built, giant chemical companies like Ciba-Geigy, Stauffer Chemical and Azko Nobel had extensive manufacturing and research facilities. Greenburgh Town Board councilmember Diana Juettner's late husband, Paul Juettner, was a patent attorney for Stauffer Chemical. This is why the property is zoned for General Industrial use.
Alexander then writes about JPI/TDI's recent TOD project in Farmingdale, NY in Nassau County on Long Island, Jefferson Plaza where he was also their legal advisor:
"Most important to the attraction of millennials, the development is located diagonally across the street from the Farmingdale train station of the Long Island Rail Road, and is also one block away from Farmingdale's Main Street retail corridor that includes a variety of charming shops and restaurants."
Nevertheless, Alexander and JPI/TDI (whose East Coast office is in Irvington across the street from its train station in true TOD style), are pushing the fiction that The Jefferson,which is nowhere near a train station or a block away from "charming shops and restaurants" is both necessary and good.
Yes, its good for those who are peddling the snake oil that The Jefferson will help our community "facilitate an efficient working and living environment."
At the next scoping session, lets ask that it include the cost of giving these hucksters a one way ticket back to Irving, Texas.
"Land Use and Planning: Preventing Flight of Millennials" in which he claims that "Unless suburban municipalities plan to attract the millennial generation, employers will not relocate to the suburban areas."
He then asserts that in order to compete with the the "aesthetic draw to New York City,"
"Westchester, Fairfield, Long Island, and other suburban municipalities must reexamine their local planning goals and transition from "bedroom" communities to communities that facilitate an efficient working and living environment."
The accuracy of these contentions (unlike climate change) is highly debatable. If you look at study after study, the truth is no one knows from year to year what the so called millennials (including the millennials themselves) want or where they desire to live. Moreover, businesses expand or contract for many reasons. Office parks were once the flavor of the day. Now, as is true with, for example, the relocation by General Electric out of suburban Connecticut, they want to be near a technology hub like the City of Boston. Housing for millennials was not a factor.
Even before the millennials were discovered as a marketing tool to get municipalities to bend over backward to accommodate developers and ignore the quality of life concerns of local residents, Westchester County and in particular Greenburgh (in Ardsley and Tarrytown) developed a strong bio-tech presence. Decades earlier and at the very location where The Jefferson is planned to be built, giant chemical companies like Ciba-Geigy, Stauffer Chemical and Azko Nobel had extensive manufacturing and research facilities. Greenburgh Town Board councilmember Diana Juettner's late husband, Paul Juettner, was a patent attorney for Stauffer Chemical. This is why the property is zoned for General Industrial use.
Alexander then writes about JPI/TDI's recent TOD project in Farmingdale, NY in Nassau County on Long Island, Jefferson Plaza where he was also their legal advisor:
"Most important to the attraction of millennials, the development is located diagonally across the street from the Farmingdale train station of the Long Island Rail Road, and is also one block away from Farmingdale's Main Street retail corridor that includes a variety of charming shops and restaurants."
Nevertheless, Alexander and JPI/TDI (whose East Coast office is in Irvington across the street from its train station in true TOD style), are pushing the fiction that The Jefferson,which is nowhere near a train station or a block away from "charming shops and restaurants" is both necessary and good.
Yes, its good for those who are peddling the snake oil that The Jefferson will help our community "facilitate an efficient working and living environment."
At the next scoping session, lets ask that it include the cost of giving these hucksters a one way ticket back to Irving, Texas.
No comments:
Post a Comment