Workforce Housing Coalition
c/o 75 South Broadway-Suite 340
W hite Plains, NY 10601
(914) 683-1010
www.workforcehousingcoalition.org

April 27, 2015
The Hon. Robert Astorino
Westchester County Executive
48 Martine Avenue
White Plains, NY 10601
Dear County Executive Astorino:
In July 2003, the Westchester County and the Town of Lewisboro entered into an Inter-Municipal Agreement (IMA)
under which the County provided $1,000,000 in taxpayer funding to assist the Town in purchasing the 111-acre
Houlihan property in Waccabuc for open space.
As stated in Article V Section 5.2 of the agreement with the County, “the Town’s action shall represent good faith
efforts to realize within 10 years the development of the lesser of the number of units as specified in the Westchester
County Affordable Housing Allocation Plan…or the number of units in an amended Westchester County Affordable
Housing Allocation Plan as recommended by the Rutgers Study to be completed in 2003.” Under Section 5.7(i), if
“the required number of units of middle income workforce housing as described in Section 5.2 hereof are not
developed by the Town by 9/1/13…because of the Town’s failure to comply with the terms of Article V of this
Agreement the parties agree that, upon demand of the County, the Town shall pay the County Five Hundred
Thousand ($500,000) Dollars.”
During the period 1990 through 1999, the affordable housing allocation for Lewisboro was 129 units, of which eight
were constructed. During the period 2000 through 2014, the affordable housing allocation for Lewisboro was 239
units and not one unit was constructed. In addition, the Lewisboro Town Board is currently fighting against
adoption of the Model Ordinance required by the County’s discretionary funding policy. Clearly, Lewisboro has
neither met the required affordable housing targets nor acted in good faith. Therefore, Lewisboro is in violation of
Section 5.2 of the IMA and is subject to the repayment of $500,000 to the County.
While it would have been better if Lewisboro met the requirements of the IMA and the affordable housing units
were constructed, it is now up to the County to defend the interests of the taxpayers. We believe that as county
executive, you have a fiduciary responsibility to enforce Section 5.7(i) of the agreement and should demand the
return of $500,000 to the County.
Very truly yours,
Richard Hyman, AICP
For the Westchester Workforce Housing Coalition
Alexander H. Roberts, Community Housing Innovations, Inc.
James Killoran, Westchester Habitat for Humanity
Lena Anderson, White Plains/Greenburgh NAACP
Graciela Heymann, Westchester Hispanic Coalition
Dennis Hanratty, Mount Vernon United Tenants and Hunger Action Network
David Schwartz, Working Families Party
Greg Maher, The Leviticus Fund
Nada Khader, WESPAC
Mara Winokur, ULI Westchester/Fairfield
Andrea Kocsis, Human Development Services of Westchester

 Fr. Wilfred Tyrrell, S.A. Catholic Chaplain, Director-Duchesne Center/Manhattanville College
Charles Pateman, Developer
Timothy Lewis, Greenburgh Town Attorney
cc:

Peter Parsons, Supervisor
Ed Buroughs, Planning Commissioner
James Johnson, Housing Monitor