SNAP May Meeting

Scarsdale Neighborhood Association Presidents convened on May 17 at Village Hall for the SNAP meeting, led by Vice Chair Diane Hirschberg. It was the night before the School Board election and both Suzanne Seiden and Bob Harrison stopped by the meeting to introduce themselves and campaign for the support of the Neighborhood Association leadership.

On the agenda was John Bonanno from the TVCC Neighborhood Character Committee. Bonnano’s Committee is working with the Neighborhood Associations on developing a profile of each neighborhood to identify home styles, homes of distinction, heritage trees and other factors that define the area. The goal is to develop a miniature comprehensive plan for each area, which in the long term could be used to enforce contextual zoning. This is zoning that would regulate construction based on the character of the existing housing inventory including style, building heights, sizes and setbacks so that new construction and renovations would conform to existing homes. The Committee has asked each Neighborhood Association to complete an extensive questionnaire and so far a few have been completed.

Scarsdale Trustee David Irwin gave the group an update on Village business. He reported that the Village budget was passed and is up 5.95% over last year. All Village revenue sources have declined including mortgage recording taxes, sales tax, fees for building permits and interest income. All told, these revenue sources declined 9% or $3 million dollars at a time when health insurance and labor costs rose. Due to this decline in revenues, the Village is now behind in it’s road repair schedule and unless revenues recover the Village may be forced to raise taxes, reduce services or consolidate with other villages. Irwin credited the League of Women Voters with recommending that the Village gather community input and indicated that the Village may do so.

Irwin also reported that developer Frederick Fish would submit a revised proposal for a 15-year lease of Village land adjacent to the Bistro Citron Building. His last letter had proposed a 49-year lease of the driveway with an option for a 49-year renewal.

In other business, the Village is looking into measures to improve emergency response in light of communication failures during the March, 2010 storm. SNAP is slated to have representation on the committee that will study this issue and make recommendations.

Also on the minds of Village Trustees is a possible tax revaluation. Due to over 500 tax grievances filed this past year, the village had to raise the overall tax rate by 1% to fund the budget. Though it is not likely that the County will fund the revaluation the Trustees are hopeful they will find an outside funding source as the revaluation is expected to cost $1.5MM- $1.8MM dollars. The Trustees will be studying this issue in the coming months.

Janet Bell raised an issue of concern to the Heathcote Five Corners Coalition and area residents. The large “Office For Rent” signs at the Bistor Citron building violate village code and she asked Irwin why the village is not enforcing regulations.

The organization approved the nominating committee slate of SNAP officers for 2010-11 and renamed Linda Lieberman as Chair, Diane Hirschberg as Vice Chair, Jim Pullman as Secretary and Jay Klein as Treasurer.