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Maria Cudequest's avatar

Thank you. This has been quietly under discussion locally for quite some time. The Chronicle bringing this out into the open is a good thing.

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Brian M's avatar

And another interesting note was this proposal being received on July 11th it was on July 18th the village began to discuss giving developers of affordable unit housing an exemption on the one time parkland fee (a tax that is put directly into the parks) this also saves the developer about 700k and removing its need to pay into our parks. Something that all new construction pays into to keep the park budget healthy. And although its a requirement there is no village accessible green-space (requirement per village code) in the plans submitted. Just a few other under discussed facts about this project.

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Jessica Dieckman's avatar

I’m just reading this over now. Interesting that the realty group is headed by the former Lyons Club president. This massive housing project being forced on us that will raise our taxes is concerning since it’s subsidized affordable housing. All people involved in the selling and dealing of this land should be named public. I’m sick of everything done in secret. How do we find this information out? Does The Croton Chronicle have any FOIL requests in? I personally feel very concerned about affordability for current home owners. We have a stake in big village decisions like this and should not be kept in the dark. Please keep the updates coming on Lot A. Thank you.

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Michael Balter's avatar

Yes, this is still an active investigation.

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John Ryan's avatar

Eh, owners arent obligated to disclose anything and have every right to sell their private property. Much ado about nothing here.

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Michael Balter's avatar

I have to admit I find this comment pretty amusing. I carefully provided the context, the history, and reasons why this has to be seen as an intersection of public and private interests, plus I raised the possibility of hidden conflicts of interest (I did not do that as an idle exercise.) You stripped out all of the history and context and made a strictly private enterprise/private property argument, case closed. It’s kind of a head in the sand argument, nothing to see here, don’t look at it too closely, in fact don’t look at it at all. I will let readers decide which way of approaching this they find most relevant to current debates in the village. [Also, not true that no one has to disclose anything in a sale of land. Deeds and land sales transactions are public records, although usually after the fact. Mortgages are too.]

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John Ryan's avatar

Right so if it's public record then what exactly are you asking? I don't think there is much here, the lot in question is directly next to the lot WBP bought, so they purchased it from this private owner. What else is there to know?

Maybe if there was an alternate rfp for an alternate location then it would be worth asking why did

the village choose this location over another?

However, that's not the case here.

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