RealShare Westchester: Fair Housing Battle And the New Tappan Zee Bridge

WHITE PLAINS, NY-Panelists at the RealShare Westchester Fairfield Counties Conference here on Thursday spoke of the county's emerging biotech and health care clusters and the construction of the new $3.9-billion Tappan Zee Bridge as key drivers for jobs, investment and economic growth in the years to come in Westchester County.

While Westchester County Executive Robert Astorino also spoke of these growth markets, he described the county as being “at the epicenter” of a philosophical dispute between the federal government and localities over who will eventually determine a community's zoning and development and he warned that the outcome of this battle could impact communities across the nation.

Astorino, the keynote speaker at the RealShare conference held at the Crowne Plaza Hotel in White Plains, related that the county and the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development continue to disagree over some of the terms of a $56-million fair housing settlement reached between the federal agency and Westchester County in 2009 that required the county build 750 affordable housing units in seven years time. Astorino, who noted the county was ahead of schedule in terms of developing those court-mandated units, said the county and HUD continue to disagree over the county's role in enforcing what the federal agency perceives as exclusionary zoning in some county communities.

The Westchester County Executive said that the next battleground will be surrounding new fair housing rules that are now in a public comment period. “The question is going to be…whether or not under their definition of affirmatively furthering fair housing will national rules apply locally? That is to say that HUD will determine through its own data how communities must develop itself and zone for itself. This is going to be the next battle nationally and unfortunately Westchester is at the epicenter of this because of our current settlement from 2009 with the federal government.”

He then added the question for Westchester and perhaps other communities over the next several months and perhaps the next several years will be: Who determines local zoning—"bureaucrats in Washington, DC or local community members on planning boards and zoning boards.”

He said the eventual outcome of this debate “will fundamentally change nationally how communities are developed.” Astorino pledged to fight for local community control on zoning and development against what he termed as “out of control bureaucrats in Washington, DC.”

The RealShare conference also included a panel of business and construction experts who discussed the impact of the new $3.9-billion Tappan Zee Bridge project that will eventually replace the outdated bridge span that now connects Westchester and Rockland counties.

The panel featured: moderator Ross Pepe, president of the Construction Industry Council of Westchester & Hudson Valley, Inc., of Tarrytown; Brian Conybeare, special advisor to Gov. Andrew Cuomo on the bridge project; John Ravitz, executive vice president of The Business Council of Westchester, based in White Plains; Al Samuels, president and CEO of the Rockland Business Association in Pearl River; and Richard Haggerty, CEO of the Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors, Inc. of White Plains.

Pepe, who also heads the Building Contractors Association, said that construction of the span will create anywhere from 10,000 to 13,000 construction jobs.

Conybeare provided an update on the design-build construction project that will be completed in a little more than five years. At present, a host of barges and cranes are now in the Hudson River adjacent to the Rockland and Westchester shorelines and near the existing span that are engaged in test pile driving and dredging in preparation for the construction of the new span that will increase capacity and be built to accommodate future mass transit.

He said that “the door of opportunity is just beginning to open on this project,” noting that the contractor Tappan Zee Constructors has awarded less than 10% of the subcontracts on the new bridge.

The bridge project has also spurred a number of significant lease deals on both sides of the Hudson. He noted that Tappan Zee Constructors has leased 31,000 square feet of space at RXR Realty's 555 White Plains Road in Tarrytown, 30,000 square feet at Hudson Harbor in Tarrytown, and 42,000 square feet at the former Journal News printing plant on Route 303 in West Nyack, which is where the New York State Thruway Authority maintenance personnel and the New York State Police Barracks are moving during construction. The state is also leasing retail space in Tarrytown and Nyack for outreach purposes.

While Gov. Cuomo has established a Mass Transit Task Force to discuss and come up with recommendations on what mass transit should be added to the span, all panelists said that the new span was necessary.

The Business Council's Ravitz termed the new Tappan Zee Bridge as a “game changer” for a host of industries in the region. The Hudson Gateway Association of Realtors' Haggerty and the RBA's Samuels agreed the existing span has been an “inhibitor” for business growth in the region. Both said that all counties in the region, including Orange on the western side of the Hudson and Putnam and Dutchess counties to the east, along with Westchester and Rockland counties, would benefit from the completion of the new bridge. Samuels said that the tourism industries in the Hudson Valley will thrive on the visitors that will be attracted to the area due to the construction of the new bridge and the improved regional access the new span will create.