In Opposition to the 2016 Scarsdale Homestead Tax Option

Below is a letter from Christie Place resident Richard Garwin:
I am Richard Garwin, living with my wife Lois Garwin at 1 Christie Place, Unit 402W since September 2010—5 years ago. We had lived for 55 years in a house at 16 Ridgecrest East which we sold in order to buy our condominium apartment at Christie Place. Our ages: 87 and 88. Our three children attended and graduated from the Scarsdale schools.

For Scarsdale to adopt Homestead would be a misuse of the law, the stated purpose of which is to "prevent any large shift to the residential class of properties" as a result of revaluation. Homestead would apply only to the 42 residential units on Christie Place and not to the cooperative apartments in Scarsdale that are of comparable size and market price. Contrary to the implication that the traditional valuation of residential condominium units is "special interest legislation" for Christie Place, it was the only valuation approach possible under NYS law. Although the NYS legislature passed Homestead legislation in 1981, Scarsdale could consider it only after the revaluation of 2014, when the Village Board unanimously rejected the Homestead option.

The Christie Place development is an award-winning public-private partnership which made possible the 42 residential suites that can be sold only for occupancy by a resident over 55, two restaurants and three commercial units, plus off-street parking for the residents, the short-term municipal garage on Christie Place, and underground commuter parking, for which the Condominium provided the mortgage—all on 1.73 acres of land. The Village controls, manages, and profits from 310 of the 370 parking spaces; on weekends and holidays the 234 underground commuter parking spaces are available to all for free.

According to the Village Assessor at the Joint Board meeting of 02/01/2016, the 42 condos are valued for tax purposes in 2016 at $31 million, and under Homestead they would be valued at a market sales price of $59 million, so that the tax bill would just about double if Homestead were adopted. As a matter of fact, without Homestead, my own tax bill doubled last year as a result of the 2014 revaluation and would apparently double again if Homestead is adopted.

The Town of Greenburgh will consider adopting Homestead as it completes its revaluation, but Greenburgh has 5,000 residential condominium units in contrast to the 42 in Scarsdale, If Scarsdale adopts Homestead it risks turning Christie Place from a triumph of public-private partnership into a travesty.

It was not in the distant past that the Village leadership saw the Christie Place development as a good package deal, including the traditional approach to real estate tax on the 42 residential condominium units. Less than two years ago, the Village Board confirmed that judgment. I ask it to do so again.

Here are remarks from Mayor Carolyn Stevens, made at a joint meeting of the Village Trustees and Board of Education on May 27 [2010]. "Earlier this week I attended the New York Conference of Mayors (NYCOM) Annual meeting in Saratoga, New York. One of the reasons I attended was that Scarsdale was awarded First Place in the area of Economic Development for the Christie Place development. NYCOM found the project to be an innovative and creative. The project, as many of you know, involved a public/private partnership that provided the Village with many benefits, including much needed parking, senior housing, and accessibility to transportation, while adding to the vitality of the Village center with retail on the first level and housing above. In addition, the development provides the Village with several streams of revenue. For all these reasons, the NYCOM board found the project to be a model of progressive and innovative problem solving."