Saturday, September 27, 2014

VILLAGE ADMITS IT DOES NOT KNOW WHETHER CROTON IS STILL ON THE LIST OF EXCLUSIONARY ZONING COMMUNITIES DESPITE TRUSTEE GALLELLI'S 9/25/14 GAZETTE LETTER

A 9/25 letter in the Gazette from Trustee Ann Gallelli strongly implies that Croton has been removed from the list of communities that were accused by the federal monitor of having exclusionary zoning under what is known as the Huntington analysis.  The letter goes on to congratulate certain Croton officials, etal. The mayor and other officials have repeatedly stated that the village was in trouble with HUD due to certain provisions in Harmon re-zoning, among them the special permit.

There was only one problem with Ms. Gallelli's congratulatory letter--and that was the part she LEFT OUT.

You see, the federal monitor used TWO analyses to make his determination of exclusionary zoning in Westchester communities: Huntington AND Berensen--and Croton was cited not under HUNTINGTON but under BERENSEN.

Your editor immediately submitted a freedom of information request for the documentation from the monitor informing Croton officials that they are no longer on the list of exclusionary communities, under ANY analysis methodology--Berenson, Huntington, whatever.

The village manager answered in an email dated 9/25/14 that there was no documentation responsive to the FOIL request. More importantly, however, he also said this: 

"We do not know at this time if we are or are not on the list of exclusionary communities as determined by the Berenson analysis." 

In short, Trustee Gallelli's congratulatory 9/25 letter was at best incomplete, and at worst--you fill in the blanks...

Again, in the village's own words: 

"We do not know at this time if we are or are not on the list of exclusionary communities as determined by the Berenson analysis." 

Stay tuned for more info. 

UPDATED: AS OF DEC. 2014, WE REMAIN ON THE LIST. There will be followup foil requests in the new year.

11 comments:

  1. Thanks for getting an answer from the village.

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  2. So I guess the call to pop the champagne corks was premature. Thanks for foil-ing.

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    1. Yes, at the present time--and at best--premature.

      Again in the village manager's own words, and he also copied the entire board and the village attorney on his response to the foil request:

      "We do not know at this time if we are or are not on the list of exclusionary communities as determined by the Berenson analysis."

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    2. You have this in writing?

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  3. Yes. Once again--and if you would like a copy of the email exchange, just email me:

    Your editor immediately submitted a freedom of information request for the documentation from the monitor informing Croton officials that they are no longer on the list of exclusionary communities, under ANY analysis methodology--Berenson, Huntington, whatever.

    The village manager answered in an email dated 9/25/14 that there was no documentation responsive to the FOIL request. More importantly, however, he also said this:

    "We do not know at this time if we are or are not on the list of exclusionary communities as determined by the Berenson analysis."

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  4. Thanks Mzzzzzzzzzz M

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  5. I knew the minute that her letter selected the Huntington case, said nothing about Berenson and having read the report on the monitor's site, that something was wrong. The 9/8 report mentions the Berenson case and the communities that had problems including Croton. It mentioned Mamaroneck being off but not us. I also listened to a tape on the county website about a meeting that Kaplowitz was at and he said he expected Croton to be off, but then there has been nothing about us and Berenson for months. Now we had to submit a foil to find out the village doesn't know one way or the other. I'm tired of getting half truths from our officials unless someone submits a foil. That's no way to build public trust. Besides they're the ones that got us into this mess in the first place. Let's not forget that.

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  6. I knew something was up. If we were off any of the lists completely, we would have read about it someplace else. I'll let Gary from the gaz. know.

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  7. I don't understand Zambrano's response. We were on the list of violators under Berensen. If we didn't receive some sort of notice removing us from the Berensen list, then we are still on it. It is impossible to "not know" if we are or aren't on a list. You're either on it, or received notice that you're off it.

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    Replies
    1. Indeed. This will be addressed as appropriate.

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  8. I don't believe that letter for one moment. We would have heard about this not in an election letter. I am calling just above everyone I know to find out more. Linda

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