Common Sense and Logic

September 12, 2012
Dear Mayor Roach and members of the Common Council,

Common sense and logic.  What could you, our elected public 'servants', be thinking and deliberating on about the FASNY development?   Maybe 'How did this get so out of control?' 'How did the City get itself in such a position?'  'How did the City stumble through this whole SEQRA process?'   Common sense dictates that a developer who has not profited on their investment will do anything in their power to get their project approved...anything. 

A 20-year employee of the City of White Plains building department said that it was not business as usual for the developer to be working so closely with city departments and for the city's legal department to have a gag order on public input.  The FASNY project smells fishy to him and to many informed White Plains citizens.  He said that if the city is working so closely behind closed doors with the developer something will go through. The city has thrown its hat in the ring with the developer.

Many letters have already discussed the impossibility of FASNY's latest unvetted project plans:  entrance on North Street with a roundabout at the White Plains High School entrance, Bryant Avenue entrance with 'demapping' of Hathaway Lane both traversing the very wet lands of the formerly open space 'Conservancy' and the most ludicrous of all, 'mandatory busing'.   FASNY's true colors about maintaining open space for White Plains were apparent when it jettisoned the most environmentally sensitive portion of its Conversancy to develop roads on the wetlands.

FASNY proposes three untenable entrances to its untenable development and asks the city to decide.  They want the city to take ownership in this mess by choosing an option.  The city should reject this quasi-responsibility option and do its job.  This is not the way this is supposed to work.  The city should be working for the tax-paying citizens of White Plains to protect us from unwanted and inappropriate development of its dwindling open space.

Remember,  tax-exempt FASNY does not have a 'right' to develop the land it owns.  This is where the judgement, common sense and logic of the Common Council as lead agency in this process comes in.   The people have spoken loud and clear.  No special permit for FASNY.

Thank you,
Anne M. Casey, M.D.