Politics & Government

Citizen: A 'Virtuoso Performance' from Tarrytown Planning Board Chair

Toll Brothers won't be able to seek approval for the next three large-home site plans until they solve the soccer field problem at Wilson Park.

 

It's not often that a Planning Board gets rave reviews. But so went the sentiment of resident Rob DeRocker, one of a few dozen who camped out for all four-plus hours of Monday night's meeting.

DeRocker, as a former city reporter, has seen his share of board meetings, but said this one “ranks right up there. It was fairly remarkable; one of the most remarkable hearings I've ever been to.”

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This, for a meeting that he didn't even get a chance to speak at.

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After waiting for so many hours through other items on the agenda – , , – it was time for Toll Brothers to seek approval on three site plans and not see action on any. The conversation got stuck instead on the access, or lack thereof, from Wilson Park Drive to the soccer field, the sogginess of this field, and its potential dangers to young children. The Toll Brothers machinary getting slowed down was good news to many citizens, wary of more McMansions in their neighborhood.

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DeRocker was most impressed by the “virtuoso performance” of newly reappointed Board Chairman Stanley Friedlander, who could be described as fairly subdued in the last few years but really hit his stride Monday night. “Basically we got to the point where they were laying out plans for three houses and Stanley Friedlander said, 'Hold the phone.'”

“Before they move an inch of dirt to build these houses, they have to fix the soccer field,” DeRocker said, feeling positive about this progress and his having witnessed it.

In another high note of the arduous meeting, Friedlander was able to appease a woman crying about how hard it is to live adjacent to a car dealership. He pointed out that her street will see less rather than more traffic from the proposed rebuild of Honda. She stopped crying.


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