The following "legislative package" was recently passed by the Board of Legislators.
Click on the link below to read about an IMA (inter-municipal agreement) with assorted municipalities, including Croton, committing those municipalities to affordable/low income housing in exchange for certain funding. This pdf file is 23 pages; the cover letter is dated May 5th. Among the highlights:
1) Contrary to claims made by local officials, the housing will not be for firemen, teachers, to expand the business community, or so that your children "will get out of the house". The document states that in exchange for the money:
--The Eligible Municipal Recipient will market the housing units in accordance with the fair housing marketing plan approved pursuant to the Spano-brokered settlement (bottom of page 2). In short, NO preference could be given to Croton residents--their words exactly: "A BAN ON LOCAL RESIDENCY REQUIREMENTS". See page 5, items a,b,c, for the rest of what the municipality is expected to do, etc. Also extends to top of page 6.
2) The money is for communities with "a high proportion of low to moderate" income population; Croton is listed as such; Croton's money is for the Farrington Road project; see page 9
There is much more; the county has right of first refusal on properties, etc. In short, if you want the money, there will be obligations.
Again, click on the link--you will see a prompt/message to either save or open the file; click on the word open http://bit.ly/1PYujya
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Sorry I can't think of anything thoughtful. Why would a community allow itself to be categorized as a place with a "high proportion of low to moderate income population" just to get cash when it has cash for something like the un-ncessary Croton Point Avenue project? Why not use that money for something we really need instead of putting ourselves on the line for this kind of housing? You can really tell how bad we look by looking at what other nearby communities are NOT on this list.
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