February 2025

Feb 3

In this newsletter, we notify our members of the February 3, 2025 Public Hearing Date regarding the Galleria Mall site. The public hearing is about (1) the developer's draft statement of environmental impacts, and (2) the developer's request to re-zone the land for much more height and density to facilitate its plans.

The hearing is a great opportunity to demand more transparency into the City's plans to transfer the publicly-owned parking garages and underlying publicly-owned land to the developer! (More information below.)
The February 3, 2025 Public Hearing is set to begin at 7:30pm (we suggest arriving at 6:45pm since the night's proceedings begin at 7:00pm) at White Plains' City Hall, 255 Main St.
The hearing began on January 6, 2025 and has been continued to February 3, 2025. Watch the first part of the hearing, from January 6, 2025, here (or at the alternate link hosted by CAWS).
The City will accept written comments for ten days following the public hearing.

(Rendering from the developer's Draft Environmental Impact Statement below.) The structures would range from 140 feet to 450 feet in height. Maximum height under existing zoning is 90 feet.

CAWS strongly encourages its members -- and indeed anyone interested in the fate of the Galleria Site -- to attend the public hearing and/or submit written public comments. At the public hearing, any member of the public may step up to a microphone and speak for up to five minutes.
Before the first hearing date on January 6, 2025, Ben Brown and Gary O'Brien made a video explaining issues at play in the developer's audacious proposal.
Take a look at the developer's "Draft Environmental Impact Statement" on the City's website -- with the re-zoning petition, this document is the focus of the hearing.
CAWS' suggested talking points:

What is the justification for including the public parking garages, and underlying publicly-owned land, in the re-zoning considering that these assets are not owned by the developer?
Will the developer be made to pay the fair value of not only receiving the publicly-owned land, but having it re-zoned for structures up to 450 feet in height?
Why not include more affordable housing? (The developer's proposal would include no more than the minimum required by the City's Code of Ordinances, with a possibility of a buy-out of up to 25 of the affordable units.)
How will gentrification be managed?
How will new traffic resulting from the 3,200 apartments, 3,400 parking spaces project be managed?
With the addition of 3,200 new apartments at the Galleria site, will the public be protected from overcrowding on Metro-North trains?
Is local infrastructure, especially sewer infrastructure, sufficient?
Can public services (police and fire departments, school system, etc.) keep up?
Will local business on Main Street be adversely affected as pedestrian traffic is dragged into the middle of the development instead of on Main Street? Can the development be more inclusive of Main Street as a public street that we hope to enliven?
Can the developer commit that it will actually build this version of the plan, and not a later, less attractive, watered-down, bulked-up version? The history of recent development in the City is tawdry indeed. Hamilton Green (the White Plains Mall site), 70 Westchester Ave, and 80 Westchester Ave were all significantly changed, adversely, and with more density, since initial approval. Meanwhile, the Westchester Pavilion site (60 S Broadway) has turned out to be a failed development leaving an ugly scraped lot with no progress for years.

For anyone who cannot attend the hearing, or wishes to both attend and submit a written comment, the City has indicated: All written comments should be sent to the City Clerk by email at: cityclerk@whiteplainsny.gov or by mail to: White Plains City Clerk, 255 Main Street, White Plains, New York 10601. (Accepted for ten days following the close of the hearing.)
More background on the developer's designs on the publicly-owned parking garages: