A Quick Recap

The public hearing regarding the enormous church that will demolish 2 single family homes, create an occupancy on the 2nd floor of 344 people, 6 school classrooms for 19 kids each, convertable into an auditorium for over 300 people while reducing the number of cars they park their to day is becoming a reality.  If you add the occupancy of both floors, you have almost 700 people as a potential occupancy.  Oh, but don't worry, they "promise" not to occupy--never, ever, ever--over 344 people.  Sure, they currently exceed the legal occupancy by 152 people and park over 70 cars than are allowed (23 max).


Cut to the chase:

Today they are allowed 100 people in the church 3 days a year, 3 hours at a time.  They illegally converted two single family homes that the Yorktown building department and the tax assessor still classify as a single family residences to a church. A church requires a special use permit in this (R1-10) zoning district.  I should note it is the smallest residential zone in the whole town, as far as lot area requirments; that is in keeping with the small, summer cottage nature of the area; that's literally what this specific neighborhood was established as and still has the flavor of--but this will destroy a prominent corner of it.

Now they occupy up to "252" people, against the law.  The town is spineless and refuses to enforce valid laws, even though the building inspector noted it was a violation to convert the homes to church without approval or permits.  Hire a prominent attorney and threaten to sue the town.  That is the takeaway from this story.

But we can and will fight to make this development a more reasonable size and in keeping with the character, while preserving the quality of life of all residents of Yorktown.  The church isn't bad and the congregation is full of beautiful families.  This is a town planning issue though and the proposal is wholly inappropriate.  There's a reason he hired Al Capellini. 

If I haven't been at your door with a good old fashioned paper petition regarding the planning board application for Faith Bible Church, then drop me a line, or email me (YorktownCode@gmail.com).  I have a couple community organizers gathering signatures, but am always looking additional help.

:(

I lost my lawsuit.  Details to come soon.  I'll scan and post the decision.

It reminds me of the first time I lost a wrestling match.  No one to blame but myself.  I got tossed on a technicality.  Lesson learned.

Gotta stay positive.  We have an exciting challenge coming up next month with the planning board.

A Good Sense of Humor

The Yorktown Planning Board conducted a great meeting tonight.  Not to be overly dramatic, but planning and zoning issues can be quite emotional.  I truly respect the care and consideration the board takes in their decisions.

The IBM Helipad issue, for example, shows the thin line these gracious volunteers have to navigate: concerned citizens who live literally a stone's throw from a proposed helipad v. keeping good relations with IBM who is a very decent corporate citizen.  

Planning board members have a tough job and offer up their expertise (and take classes, and things) to ensure we have a decent town.  From what I saw tonight, we're in good hands.  This video shows an--obviously joking--planning board member commenting that what we really need on the proposed FBC development site is an Amish church (no car traffic, get it? horse and buggies).  Obviously we love all churches, mosques, temples, etc..., and do not discriminate.  It's still funny though, because traffic and parking are of serious, serious concern.  It's funny cause it's true.  

The End Times Are Upon Us: September 10, 2012

Mark your calendars. Tonight there was a meeting at the Yorktown Planning Board regarding Faith Bible Church.  There will be a public hearing to approve over "344" people (on the 2nd floor) and "63" or "86 [note: they already park 90+ there already!] parking spaces, not to mention the school for troubled youths (114 classroom seats on the first floor, with the 344 aforementioned occupants on the second floor).

We are certainly not opposed to the church, nor their plans to build a new church.  A school for troubled youths, not so much.  Scale it down, considering they park more cars on site than is proposed under the new development (which eliminates two single family homes).

Please, expand your church, but please acknowledge that you've already done so without approval of the Yorktown Planning Board, nor the permit of the Building Department.  That has to be a part of the equation.

Please make sure you listen to this video of the pastor explaining about the "Youth Center" he plans to build here.  When a group of us met with him last April, he explained the program of the school to us as primarily music oriented for youths to get them away from drug and gang violence.  An honorable idea, but not right for this residential area of Mohegan Lake.  

Slackin' On My Bloggin'

The Westchester Supreme court is honorable and just.  They also have a huge back-log of cases, I imagine, with budget cuts [or do we call them austerity measures?] and the like.  I was hoping to have a decision 60 days or so after April 24th date the judge set for final submissions (there is never an in-person hearing with article 78 petitions, it is completely a written argument).

In the meantime, I've been slackin' on my bloggin'.  I aim to change that.

I think it would be wise for us to gear up for the public hearings for Faith Bible Church's development plans at various boards that will likely start back up again this fall.  To date, they have not authorized a contract with the town's traffic consultant to do the requisite traffic study.  Oh, hey, speaking of traffic studies, it just so happens that my neighbor just happened to sit on the town traffic board for a few years and actually has an historic traffic study of the intersection of Sagamore Trail and Mohegan Avenue. That's certainly a happy coincidence; I think I'll hold that card to my chest until we see the new traffic study.  Can't wait to share and compare though.

For today's discussion, please note the following:

1) Faith Bible Church illegally converted [editor's note: very un-churchly] two legal single family homes.  The tax assessor (see the Yorktown tax assessment records, below) and building department records support that assertion. 

Legal single family house occupied as such up until 5 years ago.

Legal single family house that a single family lived in until about 5 years ago after FBC took title.

Legal house of worship for 100 people 3 times a year, for 3 hours a day supported by 23 cars.  That's what the last Yorktown approval for FBC allows.  It's insane that Yorktown is so spineless they won't enforce this egregious infraction of the law after having it brought to their attention multiple times.

2)  Faith Bible Church is a great congregation of people.  All of the ones that park without permission on Shrub Oak Lake Estates' beach and walk by my house are beautiful people.  I always say hi and chat if they seem inclined. 


That is all for today.  I promise to quit slackin' on my bloggin'.  I leave you with this classic video from Jay-Z (featuring Jumain Dupri) which was the inspiration for the title of this post..."turn it up."

Mohegan Lake Day Is Going To Rock Your World [figuratively speaking]

Mohegan Lake Day is Sunday, July 15th, 2012 starting at 1pm on the MHPOA beach.  Please check out the tentative details by clicking on these ridiculously over-sized words to be transported to the MLID blog.

Mohegan Lake Day: Sunday July 15th, 2012

Has it already been another year?  My goodness, it has.

Mohegan Lake is great lake, worthy of celebration.  On Sunday July 15th, 2012--beginning at 1pm on the Mohegan Highlands beach we will kick off this year's festivities with a special guest speaker.  Refreshments?  Oh yes.  There are activities at nearly every beach association on the lake throughout the day.

I was at the Mohegan Lake Improvement District (MLID) meeting tonight and we are laying out a great itinerary.  There is a regatta (boat races!) for all different vessel classifications.  Wind permitting, we'll even have a sail boat class.  Live Music.  A kid friendly movie night?  You bet.  Lots more too.

You'll be receiving a mailing or seeing a poster here or there soon.  And of course, you can get information here.  In the meantime, let's revisit this video about how to save snapping turtles from getting hit on the road from a Will Ferrel doppelganger.  It's genuinely heart-warming.

Silly Geese

We are hoping the Court will make a decision on our article 78 petition in the next 60 to 90 days.  It's really hard to predict as the lead time varies from judge to judge, depending on case-load and other factors.

There are several other things we can discuss to pass the time such as the State Land Corp. rezone, the Costco site and the "Super" Walmart.  There will be a lot on that in the near future.  In the meantime, enjoy this video of baby geese walking down Mohegan Ave.  I'm going to use this post to propose the speed bumps that near the intersection of Scofield Road and Mohegan Ave be extended all the way up Mohegan to Sagamore Trail.  People actually walk on this sidewalk-less street while some people drive at break-neck speeds.  The speed bumps are very effective, in my personal experience.

Spring!

I'm personally not a fan of Canada geese because they poop on everything and I think their population could be responsibly and ethically thinned; much like Senator Gillibrand.  They are actually good meat; we could kill two birds with one stone (pun totally intended).  Donate the meat to food pantries and keep our environment well balanced.

However, I have to say I screamed like a little girl when I saw the babies down at the beach tonight.  So very cute.  And boy, do they ever have a unique, shall I say, locomotion.

Interesting Development

There's an article in this morning's Yorktown Examiner regarding the 100 acre development mentioned in the previous post for "State Land Corp." which is a private development and has nothing to do with the state.

Here's a choice quote from the Yorktown police chief:

In an April 26 letter to an environmental company assisting State Land Corp. in its efforts to rezone about half of the 100-acre parcel from four-acre residential (R-160 ) to commercial (C-3), Police Chief Daniel McMahon said, "The proposed State Land Corp. project will have a negative impact on the policing of the entire Town of Yorktown."

  

Let's hope the town board leaves this zoning district as it exists.  The developer can build several nice homes on the site and turn a handsome profit without detrimentally altering the character of the area.  The last thing the Yorktown Town Board should do is give another developer a handout at the detriment of the rest of Yorktown.

SaveYorktown.com?

Boy, I tell ya, northern Westchester is chocked full o' nuts crazy development and legislative proposals.  It's really, truly, very hard to keep up.  It's no wonder there's such a fatalistic mentality within the residential population of Yorktown when it comes to planning issues.  "You can't fight town hall" is a ubiquitous refrain with people who resign themselves to having to "live with it."

While this site was definitively set up to fight one particular issue, we may have to expand the scope of our discussion.  For example: there is a proposal to transfer approval authority to the town board, from the planning board.  I was heartened to see a lively group of people show up, en masse, to highlight the drawbacks of such a move.  The law was changed in 1994 based on sound reasoning.  There's not much of an argument to change it back other than "it used to be like that."  Imagine if we started changing laws back to how they used to be just because "it used to be like that."

Moving on, here's an issue that deserves some attention.  At the end of the day, to make a new commercial development a stone's throw from the Costco project site to move forward, there is a 100 acre site that needs to be rezoned to make that viable.  Under the agenda item titled "Forest Management Plan" , there is a substanative discussion that directly affects the viability of both of those projects; it's imperative that the public insert itself into this disclosure early and often [note: the preceding link is to Town Board summaries lovingly prepared by former supervisor Susan Siegel who maintains a LISTSERV here; I encourage you to sign up for mailings].

I leave you with the following moments of nature recently captured on the northern tip of Mohegan Lake:

Sidebar

There's some healthy public discourse going on with the Yorktown town board.  It involves transferring approval authority from the planning board to the town board (scroll to the end of this link, to read the meeting summary regarding the transfer of approval authority).  The town board will vote on the matter, soon.  I'm still gathering facts, but am leaning towards it's a terrible idea to approve such a change.

While I gather facts, please enjoy this photo from the meeting.  Those in the know may find some humor in that sign referencing the Yonkers town council/board member who was convicted of corruption and is serving jail time for yadda, yadda...

Glad to know that Yorktown has retained it's sense of humor.