Local Leaders to Press County on Strings-Attached Community Grants

Construction of a new playground, implementing a Main Street beautification program, building wheelchair-accessible restroom facilities.

What do these projects have in common? They are partially funded by Community Development Block Grants (CDBG) – and all of them are on hold.

Villages across Westchester are refusing to accept federal, county-administered CDBG funds because of new language added to the grant contracts. The language requires that municipalities agree to the terms of the county's low-income housing settlement implementation plan (background here). 

That is a big problem for villages, because there is no approved implementation plan. 

"At this point you are probably talking about a million dollars," said Tarrytown Village Administrator Michael Blau of the delayed CDBG funds across the county. "As of now, no one has signed the (CDBG) agreements."

Those opposed to the new strings-attached CDBG requirements fall into two categories: villages that are not part of the housing settlement, who don't feel they should be subject to its stipulations; and villages that are part of the settlement, but are still wary of entering into a legal agreement without first seeing an approved implementation plan.

On Monday, a group of 10 mayors and village administrators met in Tarrytown to discuss a united strategy to get the county to change its requirements for accepting CDBG monies. The meeting was primarily for those municipalities that are not subject to the housing settlement, and therefor feel that strings-attached grants are unacceptable. 

"It seems we are on a united front in terms of our concern with the language in the CDGB release," Port Chester Mayor Dennis Pilla said on Monday. 

Those towns want different grant contracts with language that doesn't bind them to the county's affordable housing implementation plan, which will likely require forfeiting partial zoning control to promote the creation of affordable housing. 

"There are a certain number of communities that are exempt from the settlement," Blau said. "And even if they created affordable housing, it wouldn't be considered as part of the settlement's mandate."

Westchester is supposed to build and facilitate 750 affordable housing units in areas with the lowest concentrations of black and Hispanic residents. The settlement focuses on so-called "A" towns, places like Scarsdale, Rye and Irvington, where whites make up the vast majority of the population. Tarrytown is also listed as one of the communities to receive low-income housing. 

Subjecting integrated communities to the same regulations that predominantly white communities will have to abide by would only increase segregation, many officials feel. 

"The terms and the conditions should only apply to the communities that they call the eligible communities," Pilla said. "Yhat is consistent with the plan's objective."

Tarrytown hosted Monday's meeting because Tarrytown Village Administrator Michael Blau is the chair of the Westchester Urban County Council, which liases with the county and helps facilitate the administration of housing and community development grants. There are 31 communities that are members of the Urban County Council. Those called to the meeting on Monday were the municipalities with the highest amount of low-income housing and the greatest recipients of CDBG grants, communities such as Mt. Kisco, Port Chester, Peekskill and Mamaroneck. All have projects that are stalled due to the impasse. 

Tarrytown has $35,000 in CDBG money held up, it is earmarked to build a new playground in Patriots Park. The two biggest recipients of CDBG funds in the county, Peekskill and Port Chester, are also waiting for CDBG funds.

"We need to convey to the county how important CDBG is to communities," Blau said. 

Blau is taking the lead and has scheduled a meeting with county legislator Ken Jenkins to discuss the language of CDBG agreements, he will attend the meeting with some of the ten officials who were present at last Monday's meeting. They will then be taking their concerns to the county executive.

Their issue is time sensitive. The next round of CDBG funding is on the horizon and projects need to be submitted well before May 2011 when the funding round kicks in. 

Officials are hopeful that the county will amend their CDBG contracts, but it is not certain how that will affect the county's proposed implementation plan – placing restrictions on CDBG funds is one way the county is trying to get municipalities to sign--on to the settlement plan. 

Regarding that plan, Municipal officials believe there will be an approved implementation plan soon. The county submitted its third plan to the federal housing monitor, James E. Johnson, and his team on Aug. 9, 2010. There has been no word from the monitor since the plan was submitted, which has led to speculation that an agreement is on the horizon.

"Last time they submitted it, the monitor rejected it in two weeks. He's had this one for over four weeks," Blau said. "That means he's seriously looking at it or he's writing his own. Even if he's writing his own, we'll have an answer soon."