Mayor: Some Scarsdale Residents Misinformed On Role Of Building Department

Scarsdale Mayor Miriam Levitt Flisser on Tuesday responded to a petition focusing on the village Building Department, saying that confusion in the public over the role of the department is a contributing factor to issues raised by the peition.

Here's a response to the petition from Flisser:

As you know, your current Village Board is careful about response to written and oral communications.

We recently received a petition concerning complaints about the Building Department, which was signed by over 200 residents. In response to the petition, we held a Municipal Service Committee Meeting on Feb 22. The meeting was well attended by residents, Village Board members (all were present) and Staff.  The residents present were given the opportunity to review personal experience with Building issues.

Some general points expressed became apparent:

1) The dissatisfaction is sometimes not actually with "The Building Dept." In fact, some Scarsdale residents are unaware of the jurisdiction of the Building Department.

2) Land Use Boards' decisions, particularly Planning&ZBA, are part of the dissatisfaction expressed. The BAR doesn't seem to be part of this issue as stated, but residents sometimes think the BAR has wider jurisdiction than it does, and express building issue concerns at BAR meetings  (about storm water, demolition, and trees preservation, for example.)

3) The Legislation and rules that govern the Land Use Board decisions may be part of the reasons for dissatisfaction.

4) Changes in our water table and water courses, due to development, and/or water events, have contributed to these issues.

5) Residents are unsure what the Villages' jurisdiction is, and what constitutes an inter-neighbor dispute. This is a confusing situation that requires education.  

6) It is generally unclear which complaints are appropriate for the Building Dept/Engineering Dept  to respond to, how it responds and what the usual for practices  for response are.

a) It is often not apparent which complaints require representation by professional personnel, and which do not.

7) Residents are unaware how many complaints are handled, and what procedures are for serious actions by the Village (ie Stop Work Orders.)

8) Some better behavior by builders, ie, voluntary screening, etc, as given by examples at the meeting, would do much to calm neighborhoods during construction phases.

9) Building procedures, and the Building Dept itself, is an important interface between residents and government, and needs better public inter-relations process.

10) Ecology/Sustainability solutions, ie, best practices re water use, etc, should be developed and encouraged.

11)  Some enforcement issues were mentioned by residents, especially concerning  Article 254 (Storm water management.)

 This above list is from notes that I took from residents' comments at the meeting.

Land Use regulation, Open Space Preservation, Development Impacts on our community's environment (both natural and financial); Regulation of Private Property and other items presented, should be seen in the context of a major issue of our time, Development vs Preservation. In addition, Administrative management practices concerning building must be improved to create more efficiency, better resident and neighborhood satisfaction with the process, and better final outcomes.

The Village Board will continue to define these issues, and to search for solutions

to the problems voiced, at upcoming meetings.