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Cold Spring Village Board Begins Examining Planning Consequences of Butterfield Hospital Property Sale
by Kevin Foley
The deal by Hudson Valley Hospital to sell the old Butterfield Hospital property in Cold Spring Village to Unicorn Contracting, a private developer, for $2 million, has brought fresh urgency to the effort to define the community's development future. The outlines of the challenge ahead began to form at the weekly workshop meeting of the Cold Spring Village Board of Trustees on Tuesday, August 28, 2007. During a thirtyfive minute discussion before an audience of a dozen citizens, who waited until 8:45pm for the Board to finish a lengthy executive session on police matters, the trustees tried to come to grips with the impact of the property sale and to determine how best to proceed to address the planning questions development of the 5.7 acre property will entail.
"It just seems we're out of the loop when we have to read about this in the newspaper," said Seth Gallagher, who joined fellow trustee John Teagle in voicing frustration over the surprise of the announcement and the absence of details. "Perhaps the developer said he would do specific things in his bid to the hospital, maybe we could see that," said Teagle, who referred to Hudson Valley Hospital's announcement of the sale, which alluded to senior citizen housing as a possibility. Asked by Gallagher what he knew about the developer's intentions, Mayor Anthony Phillips said he had spoken with Paul Guillaro of Unicorn Contracting only hours before the deal was announced and nothing regarding the details of the developer's plans was discussed. The mayor said he had used the opportunity to express his intention to seek community amenities, possibly a new firehouse and a senior community center as part of any final plan for the site. The Mayor also said that Mr. Guillaro had expressed his intention to meet with the Board when he had more specifics, perhaps in six to eight weeks. Unicorn Contracting is the developer of the new luxury condominiums on the Cold Spring waterfront.
Addressing this event in the normal course of board business did not appear to be something several trustees and audience members were prepared to accept. Trustee Karen Dunn, in response to a question from audience member Jim Smith regarding the relationship of the Village's comprehensive plan process to the Butterfield site, galvanized the discussion by declaring, "this is the perfect moment to look at a moratorium (on development) with the idea of looking at the whole village." Dunn, who raised the idea of a moratorium earlier in the year, pointed out that the Comprehensive Plan Special Board was making good progress in inventorying Village properties as well as gathering information on Village demographics, income levels, affordable housing needs and other issues. "With a moratorium, all stakeholders, including this developer, can be part of a comprehensive look at identifying the community's needs," said Dunn.
Seth Gallagher, sounded a similar theme emphasizing the Board's power to act, "We have a great deal of leverage... the developer will want to work with the Village." Dunn said she believed a moratorium was a preferable procedure because "it provides breathing space where everyone gets to look at the Village as a whole and the Village gets to decide what it needs most there."
Audience member Judith Rose, a volunteer member of the Committee on Natural Resources and Waterfront Open Space for the Comprehensive Plan Special Board, echoed Dunn. Referring to the Butterfield site she said, "the Special Board is really working well, this would pull the rug out from under us." Trustee Teagle suggested that the Special Board make a formal recommendation to the Village Board for a moratorium on planning. Trustee Dunn, the Village Board liaison to the Special Board, urged community members to attend the next meeting of the Special Board on Thursday, September 6 at 7pm at the Cold Spring Firehouse.
The legal ramifications involved in the procedures under discussion resulted in a consensus among the trustees that the Board needed to ask its new legal counsel, Stephen Gaba, to assist them in understanding their options. In particular, trustee Dunn said she would ask counsel to prepare a briefing on how a moratorium could be introduced.
Trustee Edward Mancari agreed that counsel should do research on the legal context for any actions and report at the monthly Village Board meeting on September 11. He cautioned that it was important to carefully consider any legal implications. "We want to do this right. Lawsuits hurt the budget, and they can also hurt the work others are doing," he said, referring to the Special Board for a Comprehensive Plan.
The next scheduled workshop meeting of the Cold Spring
Village Board of Trustees meeting is Tuesday, September 4 at 7:30 in the Village
Hall.
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