Tuesday evening the Rye Brook Trustees approved Kip Konigsberg Bowman Avenue development. One of two things just happened: A. one of the most obvious flood mitigation opportunities just went down the proverbial drain; or B. the buyout price for the land just went way up for Rye City and Westchester County.
If government can’t organize itself a little better, that $50 million over five years Andy Spano set aside won’t mitigate very much.
MyRye.com received this update from the Rye Flood Action Coalition in reaction to the Bowman development:
It was not an unexpected setback for the Rye Flood Action Coalition. The development was approved after one of the Trustees tried to rationalize for 20 min. how she came up to her decision. It sounded more like an apology to us than an endorsement for the project.
Our legal department is following up on what options we might have. There’s a 30 day window in which we or the City can act.
The next Council meeting is Aug. 15th and we should be there to push for some legal action.
Again Mr. Konigsberg approached me and reiterated his willingness to negotiate with the County.
He said the County wanted to wait until he got his permits, Judy Myers said it’s the other way around.
I wish I knew what’s really going on. (Myers has already been notified)
The fact that he’s open to negotiate is encouraging. The 25 of us who got there last night heard all the conditions he has to abide by to be able to build on that peninsula or to even donate the piece of park land.
This Saturday Judy Myers and George Latimer will be at On the Way Cafe from 9:30-11 am for a coffee with the community. We should be there.
We need county politicians with the willingness to persue eminent domain. Federal, state and county governments (and certain agencies) are allowed to seize private property without the consent of the owner to protect the interests of the public. While it is usually used in highway and railroad construction, there is precedent for using this power for public water management and to protect environments.
Unfortunately, eminent domain has been abused recently, namely in the City of New London which condemned privately held property in order to transfer the real estate to a another private party, one which promised to replace the existing homes with businesses. These businesses generated jobs – and by extension increased taxes – for the City of New London. The wide amount of justified criticism of this case has caused most politicians to shy away from eminent domain as a solution.
When asked, our county representatives did not want to pursue eminent domain, believing they could negotiate with Konigsberg to achieve a mutually agreeable solution. This option has failed. What is needed is a politician willing to do the difficult – but right – task of ensuring the hundreds of downstream families won’t pay collective hundreds of millions in flood damage so that a single property owner can profit by this sale.