YonkersGone

ABOUT THE YONKERS COMMITTEE FOR SMART DEVELOPMENT

The is the YonkersGone blog for the Yonkers Committee for Smart Development, which was formed in spring, 2007, by a diverse cross-section of Yonkers residents in response to the planned overdevelopment of the Yonkers Hudson River waterfront and historic downtown Yonkers. We insist that the city administration and prospective developers collaborate with the citizens of Yonkers in planning for our City’s future and making the key decisions that will affect our environment, quality of life, and access to the waterfront.

Many Yonkers residents do not realize that the construction planned and underway around the Yonkers Train Station is just the beginning of the proposed high-rise renewal projects! The city currently plans to construct up to thirty buildings, some of them 25-38 stories tall, along the entire length of the Yonkers waterfront.

The new buildings could total as many as 3000 apartments stretching from Ludlow to north of Glenwood.

It is important to understand that the Ad Hoc Committee accepts the need for redevelopment of downtown areas of Yonkers to restore a safe, vibrant city center and provide job opportunities to existing residents. However, we also recognize that the consequences of overdevelopment can be devastating to the environment and damaging to our City’s bottom line, municipal services, and overall quality-of-life. We embrace sensible and sensitive redevelopment that emphasizes Yonkers unique and unsurpassed location, history and diversity. Key Points of Concern:

· Open/Green Space on the waterfront that is cursory and uninviting and difficult to access
· Traffic that clogs already crowded streets and introduces traffic problems onto streets where it is not presently an issue.
· Excessive luxury high rise residential density on the waterfront, resulting in loss of low-income and affordable housing and a further division of economic and social classes in this diverse city.
· Increased air, water and noise pollution.
· Loss of Hudson River and Palisades panoramic views from public buildings, parks, sidewalks and streets as well as existing residences and businesses that currently support the City’s tax base.
· Over- reliance on TIF (Tax Incremental Financing) as a financial method of underwriting the cost of development.
· Overly generous tax abatements and concessions for developers.
· Strain on municipal services (police, fire, sanitation, schools, etc.) which the projected taxes from new development may not cover.

YonkersGone

Friday, November 2, 2007

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ABOUT THE YONKERS COMMITTEE FOR SMART DEVELOPMENT