Mayor Bill Hanauer

2008 Democratic and Independence Party Candidate for Re-election

Lays out His Positions.

• Comprehensive Plan
  
  The Village of Ossining is in the final phases of adopting the first Comprehensive Plan and wide-ranging amendments to our Zoning Codes and Local Waterfront Redevelopment Program since 1959 to concentrate on the realities of a municipality that has lost its industrial base and whose zoning may no longer adequately address its present or future residential and commercial needs. The current plan and zoning are obsolete, as are the never-adopted successor plans. In adopting a new Comprehensive Plan we will set the pattern for the economic and residential development of the Village for the next decade. The Plan, created by a committee of citizen volunteers who represent many geographic areas and social organization affiliations in Ossining, is now in the State Environmental Review Process. This summer, the report of that process will be available to the public and there will be two more public hearings before its adoption. The Committee has been under the guidance of our Village Planner and an association of consultants. Hundreds of residents and merchants have participated in the development of the Plan and Zoning Amendments, which present their vision of the Future of Ossining. I am proud to have helped its Chairman to steer the work of the 17-member Committee.
  
  
• Downtown
  
  That Plan includes the responsible development of a vibrant Downtown Business District, encouraging new commercial and business enterprises while supporting those merchants who have loyally contributed to the Village. Our new zoning for the district will also encourage the protection of existing residents and the development of new housing at all levels of affordability. This Village Board has already passed policy which includes mandating the inclusion of affordable housing in the zone and offering incentives to developers to make its construction profitable. Working with Westchester Legislator Bill Burton and with the County Department of Planning, in October 2007, I secured their subsidy for 12 (and, now, possibly 13) units Affordable Housing over a Restaurant in the former Ossining Bank and Trust Building at the Corner of Main Street, Central Avenue and Brandreth Street. Permits have been issued to the developers who will adapt the old Cambridge Instruments building across from the Court and Police Station, creating 21 more units of housing – some affordable. They are also going to build a 50-unit structure on State and Academy Street, all of whose units will be affordable. We encourage more destination restaurants, mini-chains of regionally successful stores, as well as bookstores, and entertainment and cultural facilities. Since I joined the Board in 2005, new restaurants have opened throughout the Village. Lucy’s Pizza is back with a new Chinese restaurant next door. Goldfish has replaced Dudley’s, Isabella’s has opened on Main Street, Golden Crust is on Spring Street and Lonnie is serving terrific fried fish on North Highland Avenue. Taking a lesson from the success of the Farmers’ Market, we are encouraging specialty food stores to set up shop. Ossining has always had a great diversity of ethnic foods. Four Seasons C Town is a prime example of a store that, by offering merchandise not widely available, caters to our diverse population and brings people from all over Northern Westchester to shop in our Village. Super Stop and Shop is slated to open this summer. It will reinvigorate the Arcadian Shopping Center, as will the new ice cream store and restaurants, also scheduled to be ready for ribbon cutting. We are looking at the feasibility of establishing a home for a year-round indoor farmer’s market, as well. With its eyes on the Comprehensive Plan and new Zoning, the Board will be developing Requests for Information or for Proposals from developers for several parcels throughout downtown and for the former DPW site at the foot of Main Street at Water Street. This will at last tie the Downtown Business District to the Waterfront.
  
  
• Parking and Traffic
  
  As our new zoning encourages new businesses and homes Downtown, it must include creative solutions to our parking problems. The new meters and greater code enforcement are steps in the right direction. The new zoning will also require developers of new construction on open land to build and maintain sufficient in-ground or multi-level parking for their tenants and customers. We are studying parking issues as they arise and I have proposed a major study of traffic and parking throughout the Village in 2009. We have had a multi–level parking structure designed to cover the lot on Brandreth and Leonard Street, but plans to build it are on hold until funding sources can be identified and put in place. However, merchants on the Crescent continue to tell me that, for now, they would prefer to have more customers fight for parking than more spots without cars. We are in the final phases of planning the realignment of Route 9. Working with the NY State Department of Transportation we will be making major changes in the lanes and intersections on Highland Avenue between now and 2011.
  
  
• Waterfront Development
  
  We must look at the Riverfront as a whole and build Riverwalk, parks, and open space with guaranteed access for all citizens, recreation facilities, pier improvements, new or rehabilitated residences at all economic levels, businesses, and restaurants — destinations that will draw longtime and new residents and tourists to our portion of one of the world’s great rivers. We’ve begun the development of Riverwalk, a linear park next to the Hudson shore, which will run from Scarborough Park to the Ossining Station and then through Crawbuckie Park and, thanks to our conservation easement agreement with the Dominican Sisters, around Mariandale. I am chairing the committee to build the Historic Sing Sing Prison Museum on the Riverfront and have applied for State and Federal funding. We already have a significant commitment from the County. I have joined the Board of Directors of a Foundation which was set up to raise private money, as well.
  
  
• Housing
  
  Ossining has always had housing for residents of all economic abilities. We must maintain it. In order to expand the tax base, while minimizing future tax increases, and to encourage the construction of workforce and affordable housing, we are encouraging high-end and mixed housing to be built on privately-owned and some Village-owned properties. To that effect, we have already passed the Village’s first policy on affordable housing, requiring all developments of over six units to include ten percent affordable units on-site, on another location, or to contribute significantly to a fund to subsidize their construction elsewhere. We can also achieve our housing goals through the Planning Board and site review process. As we experience the results of the policy, we are modifying it as necessary to best address the changing needs of our community’s future. The Village is making every effort to provide those of its employees who are required to live in its boundaries and whose incomes are below the Westchester County median, especially our police officers, with affordable units. We are looking at extending the program to include families whose income is as high as 120% of median income, as well.
  
  
• Emergency Tenant Protection Act (ETPA)
  
  The Village maintains its right to use ETPA as a tool to keep landlords of multi-family dwellings from exorbitantly increasing rents. But we must honestly and candidly acknowledge that we cannot legally stop the owners of Mitchell Lama Housing that was built and inhabited after December 31, 1973, from paying off their mortgages and increasing the rents on their properties to market value. In our Village, we must set aside political rhetoric and work together to elect legislators state-wide who are sympathetic to the needs of our residents and who will work with us on legislative remedies. We must also work with Westchester County to offer landlords incentives to remain in rent-subsidized programs.
  
  
• Other Housing Protections
  
  The Comprehensive Plan proposes enacting many of the initiatives recommended by the Village of Ossining Affordable Housing Policy Analysis of 2001-2002, including measures to encourage the rehabilitation and adaptive reuse of existing housing and underutilized commercial and industrial building stock. We continue to increase the enforcement of building codes throughout the Village to ensure the safety of all residents. I am soon to appoint some new members to the Landlord-Tenant Board, which looks into and tries to solve issues other than rent in multi-family dwellings.
  
  
• Senior Concerns
  
  We must continue to work with the senior community to define their needs and either extend the Community Center to meet those needs or look into constructing a separate facility. We also need housing for seniors at all economic levels. As a bonus, the availability of safe, attractive, well designed and maintained senior housing would free up larger older homes for younger families.
  
  
• Environment, Open Space
  
  The Village has an obligation to maintain our infrastructure, our historic nature, and our environment. While encouraging development, we are protecting our fragile multi-faceted environment. Ossining is endowed with riverfront, forested parks, developed parks, and reservoirs — all of which are being considered and protected when addressing the development needs of the future. We are encumbered with an aging infrastructure; we continue our investment in its rehabilitation. We require any new construction to pass rigorous tests to prove that impact on the environment and Village services will be negligible. We are vigilant that high standards be met. We are determined to establish more conservation easements and natural reservations in our most fragile ecological areas. Much of what makes the Village of Ossining unique is the juxtaposition of our spectacular waterfront with our densely constructed downtown and sub-urban and rural neighborhoods. The new Zoning Codes we will soon adopt guarantee sufficient open space to preserve the quality of our air, our water, and our lives, to be shared and enjoyed together. We are now a participant in the Tree City USA program, entitling the Village to receive grants for our tree planting program.
  
  
• Historic Preservation and Architecture.
  
  At present, the Village has only one designated Historic District: Sparta. We are graced with an distinctive downtown with many attractive Nineteenth Century buildings of historic significance Downtown and in other neighborhoods. We must continue a program of historical preservation throughout the Village. To that end, we are in the process of becoming a “Certified Local Government,” which will require us to enlarge our Historical Review Commission with architects, historians, archeologists, artists, and residents of historic neighborhoods and will make us eligible for grants for façade improvements and other miens of historic preservation. The Comprehensive Plan also addresses guidelines for new construction in historic neighborhoods, assuring a cohesive look to the buildings without stringent attention to details. I believe we must not use historical preservation as an excuse to deny reasonable development or contemporary designs of architectural significance.
  
  
• Improvements in the Infrastructure of Government
  
  In the last year, the Board has engaged a Personnel Director, an Assistant Village Planner, and a new Treasurer, all in our effort to update and further professionalize the Administration of the Village. With these new members of our team, we reinforce our policy of providing the optimal services for the lowest cost for our residents. In the interests of more fully open government, as well as cablecasting and streaming our Village Board meetings and Work Sessions, for the first time, we will soon be airing the public sessions of the Zoning Board of Appeals, the Planning Board, the Environmental Advisory Committee, and the Historic Review Commission. Most importantly, we have, after a nation-wide search, engaged a professional Village Manager, who, with her depth and breadth of knowledge and her connections in New York State and Westchester governments and in private sectors, will be a crucial part of our Governing team and help bring greater prosperity The Future of Ossining.
  
  

I invite all residents of the Village to join me and my colleagues on the Board of Trustees in our continuing dialogue on these and other matters that make representative democracy work for the future of Ossining. In that future, as the Village of Ossining continues to experience a long-awaited renaissance, I look forward to continuing to serve in a leadership position for years to come. Please contact me at 914 941.3554 or at wrhanauer@optonline.net.