May 2024 Newsletter
On May 13, 2024, the Mayor of White Plains scheduled a meeting of the Common Council to be held the very next morning, at 10:00am on May 14, 2024. One of the few agenda items was legislation to permit the sale of the Galleria Mall's public parking garages (and underlying land) "without public auction or sealed bids." The recording of the meeting can be viewed on the City's website.
You may remember that such legislation already passed last year (S7521 & A7674, passed by the State Legislature as of June 8, 2023 and signed by Governor Hochul on September 15, 2023). Based on our review, the reason additional legislation was introduced was to correct technical errors in the original legislation, concerning how the parcels to be sold were identified.
We believe that only if the State Legislature passes this new, corrective legislation will the plan to sell the parking garages and land "without public auction or sealed bids" be able to proceed.
On May 15, 2024, CAWS issued letters to the State Legislature's two sponsors of the legislation, State Senator Shelley Mayer and State Assemblywoman Amy Paulin (copies attached). The letters explain our concerns about the legislation in detail.
More background on the issues involved in the legislation:
“$ Isn’t Everything | Don’t Let an Invaluable Public Asset Be Transferred Away for Private Gain”
(Explainer video produced by CAWS on March 10, 2024, exploring the issues with the site’s publicly owned parking garages.)“Timeline: The Galleria Site’s Public Parking Garages” (Interactive online timeline.)
Public Comment Opportunity for White Plains Common Council:
Citizens to Be Heard – the Council takes oral public comment, maximum three minutes in length per individual, during a half-hour session preceding the regularly scheduled Common Council meeting.
Citizens to Be Heard – 7:00pm, June 3, 2024, City Hall, 255 Main St, White Plains, NY 10601 (We recommend arriving at 6:30pm. A sign-up sheet is passed around in the hallway before Citizens to Be Heard begins.)
We urge members and supporters of CAWS to contact local legislators and seek engagement on the issue of the Galleria site's parking garages. Why does the legislation continue to say the garages may be sold "without public auction or sealed bids"? Why does the City's May 6, 2024 scoping document say that the developer will be able to buy-out a portion of the required affordable units? Why does the scoping document only provide for a small amount of affordable housing at a high affordability threshold? (I.e., low-income and even many middle-income households will not be able to qualify for the so-called "affordable housing.")
State Senator Shelley Mayer (a sponsor of the current legislation):
235 Mamaroneck Avenue, Suite 400
White Plains, NY 10605
Phone: 914-934-5250
Fax: 914-948-2469
smayer@nysenate.gov
State Assemblymember Amy Paulin (a sponsor of the current legislation):
700 White Plains Rd.
Suite 355
Scarsdale, NY 10583
914-723-1115
PaulinA@nyassembly.gov
State Assemblymember Chris Burdick (not a sponsor, but a local State Assemblymember who will be participating in the ultimate vote on the legislation):
100 S. Bedford Rd
Suite 150
Mount Kisco, NY 10549
914-244-4450
burdickc@nyassembly.gov
