Croton Board of Trustees votes to begin zoning change approval process for a proposed development at 1 Half Moon Bay Drive. Trustee Nora Nicholson votes no.
At least 80 villagers showed up to oppose a 280 apartment development at the "Finkelstein" tire site. After more than two hours of public comment, the Board voted to formally consider the project.
As we reported earlier today, the Board of Trustees meeting agenda for this evening included a request by the consortium that now owns 1 Half Moon Bay Drive, the so-called “Finkelstein property,” to change its zoning from light industrial to a designation that would allow construction of a 280 unit multifamily apartment complex. The bitter debate which has attended this and other housing projects in the village was in full evidence at the meeting, where at least 80 residents at any given time—and possibly as many as 100 counting comings and goings—showed up to oppose the project.
The only Crotonite who spoke in favor of the project was Croton Housing Network president Nance Shatzkin, who ended up giving the “finger” to the crowd when she was roundly booed by the angry and animated attendees.
The resolution the Board was considering read as follows:
Consider acknowledging receipt of a zoning text amendment petition for the Light Industrial District in conjunction with a development proposal for a multifamily building at 1 Half Moon Bay Drive, determine that the petition is a Type 1 Action under SEQRA, declare the Board of Trustees' intent to be lead agency under SEQRA and refer the petition and associated documents to the Village Planning Board and Westchester County Planning Department in accordance with law.
A number of speakers during the public comment segment asked the Board to “slow things down” and “Just Say No” to the application from Monday Properties and its partners in the proposed development. When the Board finally began its own discussion, trustee Nora Nicholson asked the developers to withdraw their application for a zoning change and come back in a year, after some other housing projects in Croton—such as Maple Commons and 25 South Riverside—were completed and occupied.
But that position was not taken up by the other trustees nor Mayor Brian Pugh. While trustee Len Simon said that if he had to vote on the project today he would vote no, both he and trustee Ian Murtaugh stated that they wanted to see the approval process—which would involve supposedly independent studies of traffic, school enrollment, and other possible consequences of the project—carried out by the relevant village bodies, including the Planning Board and the Waterfront Advisory Committee, before they made up their minds.
Trustee Cara Politi was not in attendance, so the final vote was 3 to 1 in favor of moving ahead, with Nicholson voting “nay.”
As she and other village officials have done with other projects in the works, such as the development of Lot A, village attorney Linda Whitehead stressed that “this is just the beginning” of a long process and that the Board is under no obligation to grant the zoning change. That suggestion was met with skepticism by many audience members, some of whom are veterans of other fights over housing and other projects in which a process of attrition eventually led to their approval—what some have called “a done deal.”
Whether the 280 apartments at 1 Half Moon Bay are a “done deal” remains to be seen. But opponents, armed with a petition and other organizing tools, vow to continue the battle.
We will have more news and analysis soon.
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Thank you for covering this. The vote was disappointing last night but people must not give up and fight this radical development until the very end.
A heartfelt Thank You! to those who showed up. They give me hope that not all of our community has fallen off the cliff into extreme left ideology, and most importantly, transformed into useful idiots for a power hungry mayor with higher political ambitions. Let’s organize and make this a ballot issue. Enough with the soviet era style of unopposed elections. I never contribute $ to the national parties, but I am more than willing to open my wallet for local issues. We have become a community that keeps voting against our self interest, not very different from the poor southern whites that vote for the crooked orangeman.
If a Croton Dem party apparatchik reads this: you will start hemorrhaging and send more votes MAGA’s way if you continue down this path. Lawler’s win was not a fluke, Hochul’s close call was not a fluke.