Friday, March 30, 2007

MEETING HELD WITH 50 CIVIC LEADERS AND RESIDENTS TO DISCUSS STOP & SHOP PROPOSAL

About 50 civic leaders and residents from E Irvington & the Tarrytown neighborhoods attended a meeting last night to discuss a possible proposal to place a Stop & Shop on 119 (near the new Sheraton Hotel on the Tarrytown border). This was a pre-application meeting. I believe that citizens should be briefed on land use applications BEFORE applications are submitted.
We had a good exchange of ideas. The developer & Stop & Shop will be presenting an application for a re-zone to the Town Board in the coming weeks. Rezoning property is totally discretionary on the part of the Town Board.
If you are interested in being kept informed of the status of this application please e mail pfeiner@greenburghny.com.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Residents of Greenburgh should beware. Feiner only does this type of "community outreach" for developers who fill his campaign coffers.

By arranging these sessions, he acts as their private lobbyist to try to generate support for their particular project.

The developer who wants to develop the site on Route 119 for Stop & Shop is Robert L. Martin. Its executives are Feiner campaign contributors (they gave him $500 for the 2005 campaign) and their lawyer raised more than $30,000 for Feiner in a March 2004 fundraiser.

Martin is the same developer responsible for Avalon II, the largest condominium development ever to be built in Greenburgh, which Feiner also lobbied for.

Martin's lawyer (the one who raised the $30,000) also represented Sunrise. In 2004, Feiner tried mightily to get the community to support his plan to sell the old town hall to Sunrise at a sweetheart price.

The same lawyer also represented Madison Square Garden. In 2005 and 2006, Feiner tried in vain to rally support for MSG's request to build a private helipad for its chief executive. Feiner even used the town's e-mail service to promote it.

The same lawyer also represented the Greenburgh Health Center in controversial efforts to relocate to a site on Knollwood Road. After the health center and its parent company in Mount Vernon gave Feiner another $500 -- as nonprofits these contributions were illegal -- Feiner lobbied extensively for passage of a broad zoning change in 2005 that would have resulted in methodone clinics being allowed to open near Edgemont's elementary schools and in storefronts along East Hartsdale Avenue.

Other examples of Feiner's "private" lobbying include the following:

After receiving $1,000 from D'Allessio, who was developing property in Edgemont, in summer 2004, Feiner tried to "mediate" a dispute with neighbors without telling anyone he'd gotten the money.

And, more recently, after receiving at least $750 from the local law firm representing Shell Hydrogen, Feiner arranged private meetings with his supporters in Edgemont in an attempt to generate public support for a Shell Hydrogen station on Central Avenue.

So, when Feiner says he believes citizens should be briefed on land use applications before they are filed, the public should know that what Feiner is really trying to do is generate support for projects being proposed by developers who have given him thousands of dollars in campaign contributions.

And if you fall for his pitch, and give him your name and e-mail address, you'll hear from him plenty as the election draws nearer.

Anonymous said...

Oh shut up, 2:23. When Feiner organizes information meetings you trash him. When he doesn't ask civic associations for input you trash him. If Feiner managed to end the Iraq war you would find a way of trashing him. You and your ilk are the problem.

Anonymous said...

Does that mean Garfunkel, Gooljar and their "ilk" aren't?

Anonymous said...

Setting up informational meetings is one thing, but setting these meetings up after Feiner got all this money from the developer, and not telling us about it, really stinks.

Anonymous said...

Mr. BERNSTEIN,enough is enough,you keep singing the same tune about Feiner.You keep mentioning the same Italian name in your vicinity.What's your reasoning in bashing both of these people.I do not think that the developer in EDGEMONT,received special favors from the supervisor.He's not alone in voting .When it comes to permits, zoning or planning how does Feiner's position help the developer. Now you are saying that everyone in Greenburgh is on the take.Get a life,coming to town meetings is becoming very boring.LISTENING to you at the meetings one cannot believe that you are a lawyer.You seem to have a vendetta against Feiner.Loosen up a bit ,we have heard enough.

Anonymous said...

Getting the town's highest elected official to lobby personally for a developer's pet project sure sounds like a special favor to me.

And who can forget what that developer in Edgemont got away with?

After giving Feiner the $1,000, he cut down the trees without waiting for Feiner and the rest of the town board to rule on the neighbors' appeal of his tree permit and despite their angry protests that day, Feiner did nothing about it.

Coincidence or special favor? You decide.

Anonymous said...

How come when Feiner gets himself in trouble like this, he always points the finger at that lawyer from Edgemont?

There's no reason to point the finger at him over this.

There are still plenty of us out there who remember Feiner lobbying to change the town's cell phone law in the 1990s after he took big bucks from the law firm representing the cell phone companies.

Now we see that Feiner never learned.

Anonymous said...

What difference does it make who posted all that information about the money Feiner's been raking in all these years?

All of the information seems to be backed up by irrefutable facts from the public record.

Anonymous said...

Who the hell said that Feiner is lobbying for the supermarket. All he did was give people a chance to speak out on this matter before the application was filed. In contrast, Sheehan & co don't let people speak at Town Board work sessions and they refuse to let people ask questions at Town Board meetings. They are legends in their own mind

Anonymous said...

Feiner initially only wanted to give SOME people the right to come to the meeting, but then so many complained about lack of access, he had to have an open the meeting.

Anonymous said...

Feiner sent out mailings to residents of the entire neighborhood weeks ago inviting them to attend the meeting. I attended the meeting. I was impressed with the civility and openness.

Anonymous said...

http://www.myspace.com/netroots4feiner

A new era in Westchester politics has begun! The "roots" have taken to Myspace to organize for Greenburgh Town Supervisor Paul Feiner.

After all he is the "Democracy.com Web 2.0" pol with attitude!

Can you feel the attitude? I know we can can!

Oh yeah.......

Anonymous said...

Why are we paying four town council members and an aide to assist them?

If everything is Feiner, then their role is superfluous.

See I wrote just a few words.
Thus everyone should agree.

Anonymous said...

Does the Board allow Kaminer to work part time elsewhere?

Anonymous said...

How about something more pedestrian friendly that can serve as a defacto town center for those of us that live nearby (Benedict and 119, Wyldwood, Carollwood, Wathc Hill) and who would like to walk with our families to a town center environment that offers just a bit more than the usual suburban strip mall Stop
& Shop.

Imagine a small "village green" with benches and shops (bagel & coffee, ice cream, family restaurants, other specialty stores that we and area's the office tenants can can support) that would encourage people tpo walk rather than take their cars. Reduce traffic, reduce emissions, encourage walking and pedestrian traffic.

We can not walk to either Tarrytown or Elmsford so this area has an opportunity to really be welcoming and fun destination in addition to the shopping at Stop & Shop. And if at all possible, I suggest that the surface parking lots be in the back of the porperty by 287 so that the shops are more welcoming and pedestrian friendly to poeple walking up from 119 neigboring residential.