As Croton's newest residents begin moving into Maple Commons today, our mayor weighs in on many recent discussions about housing policy in the village.
It's disingenuous to say that affordable units will benefit Croton residents experiencing housing insecurity. Mayor Pugh, how many of the units at Maple Commons will go to a Croton resident in need? Zero. How many of the affordable units yet to be built will house Croton residents who would otherwise be priced out? Also zero.
Our water and sewer systems are only at 60% capacity? Really? Aside from finding that hard to believe, that’s a pretty vague statement. On what “day” are they at 60% of capacity? 60% sewer capacity at peak usage? What about infiltration and inflow? Not to mention that the Village’s separate drainage system is already overtaxed.
Is it 60% water supply capacity at peak consumption with fire flow requirements while maintaining required residual pressure? And the distribution tanks are sufficient to balance supply and future demand without needing additional capacity?
Just staying with the water supply, let’s start with the most basic simple question: what is our safe yield during a historic drought year?
Disingenuous stats like that caused low pressure situations in multiple apartment building fires in Peekskill developments - why wasn’t the engineers sued for this blatant miscalculations on water capacity and pressure?
I was a professional engineer in public service for 40 years, and one thing I can tell you with certainty is that political agendas and public infrastructure don’t mix.
Do we know which entities have rights to our aquifer? The school district? Public services? Single family homes? What happens during a drought? Who will be forced to cut back on water consumption? In Los Angeles during the height of the drought in 2015, residents in single family homes were allowed to flush their toilets once per day. Will that happen here in Croton? What restrictions will be put on residents in these new developments?
I appreciate the mayor’s in depth response. It doesn’t address that Croton is already dense due to buildable land and the size and layout of the village. He doesn’t take into consideration the typography and the fact the Croton is full of cliffs, hills and ravines. He doesn’t take into consideration our schools are experiencing a major growth since the pandemic. He doesn’t seem to understand our infrastructure and services, especially police, fire, garbage and water management will be stretched thin. We are not Ardsley or Dobbs Ferry. We are Croton on Hudson. A proud tree village. We are displacing wildlife with all the buildings too. Sad. He approved the hardware store site for development of a massive apartment building too. That looks like a total hot mess now. I wouldn’t trust his judgment on any future projects or we will just have more problems on our hands. The way business and governance in Croton works is not working for the residents and it’s time for a change.
As I said before, we have been down this road before. We stopped the plans to change our village before. The mayor’s statement, number 3, was BS then BS now. they said then, every village had to do their share .well Croton did do their share. then and now .we’re not interested in what other villages are doing .I’m sure they’re not happy either. I understand 70% of Croton residence signed petitions and voted no for the Maple Street commons, how did that get through? As far as 1 half Moon Bay ,why not bring a business here? I can only guess on that one .could it be New York has the highest taxes .people and businesses are leaving because of this reason ?One last remark regarding the mayors worry about economic conditions forced on the American people . Yes !!we are living paycheck to paycheck .How did that happen? Could it be policies changes? I pray that the people of Croton on the Hudson will be able to win this fight.
Just my opinion, but the sudden haste of these projects along with the lack of proper disclosure to the public and then overall indifference to public opinion at each step for what are now multiple projects has me questioning how much of this is for the reasons put forth compared to how much is for a future political platform to run on in a higher office?
If the above office leadership and the constituents are pro housing on a large scale, it’s a nice platform to be able to say that you were responsible for what will eventually be dramatic increases in both population and housing (at least apartments) in a small village like Croton. Percentage-wise, the increases will be substantial if everything in question passes, along with ET at some point in the future.
It's disingenuous to say that affordable units will benefit Croton residents experiencing housing insecurity. Mayor Pugh, how many of the units at Maple Commons will go to a Croton resident in need? Zero. How many of the affordable units yet to be built will house Croton residents who would otherwise be priced out? Also zero.
Our water and sewer systems are only at 60% capacity? Really? Aside from finding that hard to believe, that’s a pretty vague statement. On what “day” are they at 60% of capacity? 60% sewer capacity at peak usage? What about infiltration and inflow? Not to mention that the Village’s separate drainage system is already overtaxed.
Is it 60% water supply capacity at peak consumption with fire flow requirements while maintaining required residual pressure? And the distribution tanks are sufficient to balance supply and future demand without needing additional capacity?
Just staying with the water supply, let’s start with the most basic simple question: what is our safe yield during a historic drought year?
Disingenuous stats like that caused low pressure situations in multiple apartment building fires in Peekskill developments - why wasn’t the engineers sued for this blatant miscalculations on water capacity and pressure?
https://abc7ny.com/amp/peekskill-fire-westchester-county-blaze/12657690/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR0Ym0hIrnPhu6KtoLFwik6rkKNTSdmp6dpvo22jB63wbSs8IDwMmL5tamI_aem_lkZeuiZz3PVq9G2A06JVAQ
https://www.lohud.com/story/news/local/westchester/peekskill/2019/12/09/fire-destroys-peekskill-housing-complex-crompond-road/2628284001/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR1WCVDnAK8a9lsOb-y8fvYA3P2I0c2K0axIc46tAclMwv0vS8-tcJUOusA_aem_ggwuYmo1Ou5WlAh8x98D6A#lzpm7z1ewgfcw5cfdmb
I was a professional engineer in public service for 40 years, and one thing I can tell you with certainty is that political agendas and public infrastructure don’t mix.
Do we know which entities have rights to our aquifer? The school district? Public services? Single family homes? What happens during a drought? Who will be forced to cut back on water consumption? In Los Angeles during the height of the drought in 2015, residents in single family homes were allowed to flush their toilets once per day. Will that happen here in Croton? What restrictions will be put on residents in these new developments?
I appreciate the mayor’s in depth response. It doesn’t address that Croton is already dense due to buildable land and the size and layout of the village. He doesn’t take into consideration the typography and the fact the Croton is full of cliffs, hills and ravines. He doesn’t take into consideration our schools are experiencing a major growth since the pandemic. He doesn’t seem to understand our infrastructure and services, especially police, fire, garbage and water management will be stretched thin. We are not Ardsley or Dobbs Ferry. We are Croton on Hudson. A proud tree village. We are displacing wildlife with all the buildings too. Sad. He approved the hardware store site for development of a massive apartment building too. That looks like a total hot mess now. I wouldn’t trust his judgment on any future projects or we will just have more problems on our hands. The way business and governance in Croton works is not working for the residents and it’s time for a change.
As I said before, we have been down this road before. We stopped the plans to change our village before. The mayor’s statement, number 3, was BS then BS now. they said then, every village had to do their share .well Croton did do their share. then and now .we’re not interested in what other villages are doing .I’m sure they’re not happy either. I understand 70% of Croton residence signed petitions and voted no for the Maple Street commons, how did that get through? As far as 1 half Moon Bay ,why not bring a business here? I can only guess on that one .could it be New York has the highest taxes .people and businesses are leaving because of this reason ?One last remark regarding the mayors worry about economic conditions forced on the American people . Yes !!we are living paycheck to paycheck .How did that happen? Could it be policies changes? I pray that the people of Croton on the Hudson will be able to win this fight.
Deann S
Seems like that could be an interesting spot for a business for sure!
I’m not sure the residents of Half Moon Bay would agree with this statement by the mayor when referring to the development of 1 Half Moon Bay.
“ Simply put, there is no existing residential neighborhood, in any meaningful sense, that new homes at that location would need to fit in with.”’
Expanding the radius of the TOD to reach 1 HMB will forever disfigure our village.
Just my opinion, but the sudden haste of these projects along with the lack of proper disclosure to the public and then overall indifference to public opinion at each step for what are now multiple projects has me questioning how much of this is for the reasons put forth compared to how much is for a future political platform to run on in a higher office?
If the above office leadership and the constituents are pro housing on a large scale, it’s a nice platform to be able to say that you were responsible for what will eventually be dramatic increases in both population and housing (at least apartments) in a small village like Croton. Percentage-wise, the increases will be substantial if everything in question passes, along with ET at some point in the future.
Not sure if this would be considered a guest editorial at this point. More the opposition as it’s definitely not that of a neutral opinion.
There is no such thing as a neutral opinion and a Guest Editorial by definition is someone expressing their own opinion.