OP ED
“This past year I formed an Economic Development Committee to investigate the possibility that Mount Airy is made of green cheese. We have looked into this and are now at a stage of being able to go forward with the sale of this cheese. What we want now is for the village to take the lead in marketing our plans and to get the public to buy into it. We want to encourage the public to take a big part in this process so as to avoid opposition down the road.”
The above satirical parody closely parallels a widely circulated sentiment expressed by a Croton trustee. It exemplifies the habit of Croton officials and planners to accept and vote on proposed legislation despite the lack of supporting data. Mount Airy may or may not be composed of green cheese, or cream cheese--but we would never know for sure unless we investigated what lies beneath the surface.
The lifeblood of sound and sensible scientific planning lies in the collection of observable and measurable evidence and the formulation and testing of hypotheses. Instead, Croton has the annoying habit of denying reality and making decisions unsupported by data. These decisions are then represented as the product of serious scientific investigation to be “sold” to the public. An added paradox is that Croton planners insist on hiring consultants who, like them, fail to recognize the unusual nature of Croton’s commercial economy.
First, let’s explore the repeated denial of reality. Croton’s officials and planners have consistently closed their eyes to its unusual history and peculiar marketing geography, make it anything but typical of a lower Hudson Valley community. Consider the following facts of Croton's history and geography that make it unique from a planning point of view:
Croton’s Unusual Marketing Geography
First and foremost, unlike other typical Hudson River communities along the old Albany Post Road, Croton lacks a central shopping area or street. For example, a strolling shopper in Tarrytown can start at the Warner Library and walk south on Broadway lined with restaurants, shops and boutiques on both sides of the street. On reaching Main Street, a right turn leads to another street lined with shops almost all the way to the station.
Croton, on the other hand, is cursed with five shopping “nodes” reflecting separate periods of historic growth. Dating from the 17th century is the Lower Village node, established on the waterfront to serve sloop and market boat traffic. Much of the Lower Village was destroyed by the construction of the Expressway. A vestigial remnant exists in the form of shops along one side of Riverside Avenue
The Upper Village node was established in the 18th century to serve stagecoach traffic on the Albany Post Road. In the early 20th century, the Harmon node was created to serve Clifford Harmon’s development that opened in 1907 and offered low-cost country lots to city dwellers.
Two other nodes were added in the 1950s and early 1960s. The Van Wyck shopping center, anchored by a Grand Union supermarket, was quickly followed by what is now Croton Commons, anchored by an A & P as part of the fourth node. Reflecting suburbia’s dependence on the automobile, these were fronted by large, unsightly parking areas and associated strip malls to compete with the shops in the older three nodes.
A fifth node was established in 1966, this time a shopping center and strip mall anchored by a ShopRite supermarket with an adjoining equally unsightly parking area. In the ensuing competition for customers, ShopRite prevailed and drove the A & P and Grand Union away. The two closed supermarkets were simply too small by latter day standards, and had no room in which to expand.
The remarkable quality of Croton’s five nodes is that they are noncontiguous and have little foot traffic between them. For example, although such complexes as Harmon and the ShopRite complex and the Van Wyck and Croton Commons shopping centers are proximal, no one walks from one to the other. In addition, three nodes--the Upper and Lower Village and Harmon all have limited parking facilities, mostly of the on-street variety.
As a result of the insularity induced by these five separate nodes, there is considerable duplication of retail establishments in them, such as delicatessens, pizzerias and nail salons. A marketing geographer would say that Croton’s fractionated retail pattern is more appropriate to a city’s neighborhoods than to a small 3suburban village. Nevertheless, in all planning efforts, planners must treat these scattered neighborhood-serving nodes as part of a cohesive commercial marketing whole--something they have neglected to do.
Other Obstacles to Commercial Development
In 1923, the Westchester Park Commission bought Croton Point and created the 508-acre Croton Point Park. In one stroke the Village was stripped of its tax revenue forever. In 1970, Croton’s oldest and largest taxpayer was removed from the tax rolls with the bankruptcy of the ailing Penn-Central Railroad. This effectively shifted an additional large portion of Croton’s tax burden onto the backs of other businesses and residents.
To add to Croton’s commercial woes, the Croton Expressway was opened in 1967, intended to be part of a superhighway linking New York City with Beacon, N.Y. Not only did it destroy much of the Lower Village, this 9.2-mile stub of limited-access highway between Ossining and Peekskill changed the face of Croton’s economy and made it a backwater village. Traffic counts show that the Expressway now carries 40,000 vehicles a day past Croton’s five shopping nodes, depriving them of potential customers. No wonder that for the past 43 years, with the exception of ShopRite, the customer base of most Croton shops and businesses has been largely limited to local residents.
In addition to ignoring the reality of Croton’s marketing geography, Croton’s planners have supported, and officials have passed, two Soviet-style pieces of legislation inimical to free enterprise and based on no empirical and measurable evidence. These were a so-called Gateway Law in 2004 and a 2009 amendment to the Gateway Law enlarging its scope.
The Gateway Law
Despite the lack of observed data to show that Croton’s customer base had a large component of other than residents, Croton passed a Gateway Law creating arbitrarily chosen hypothetical “gateways.” At least one "gateway" was omitted. The main thrust of the law was that if certain commercial areas of Croton were made more attractive, businesses would prosper because potential customers would be encouraged to exit the Expressway. Although this was stated as a fact, no supporting evidence was offered.
The text of the law plainly shows that it was directed at nonresidents: “Croton-on-Hudson’s commercial gateways are the major entry points from surrounding municipalities and roads. The physical gateway areas are comprised of the roads and surrounding properties a motorist or pedestrian encounters when first entering the Village. These areas create a sense of arrival and connection to the Village, and establish an image and initial impression of the community.”
As part of the Gateway Law and at the insistence of some local residents with no qualifications as planners, certain businesses and features of business operation were specifically banned in the gateway areas of Croton. These included automobile dealerships and fast-food restaurants (a designation that was undefined, although national chain restaurants like McDonald’s and Burger King were the obvious targets). Also banned for no discernible reason were drive-in windows, a fixture of many businesses such as banks, even though studies show that these reduce the need for space-wasting passive parking.
Underscoring the dictatorial style of its edicts, the Gateway Law imposed an unusual and intrusive requirement on developers: “to reinforce the area’s role as a major gateway, the Planning Board shall encourage the design and placement of a distinctive gateway feature such as a clock or sculpture near the corner of Croton Point Avenue and South Riverside Avenue.”
Marketing geographers recognize the importance of certain types of stores in attracting customers. Called “magnet stores,” as the name implies these draw customers from a wider geographic area than the immediate community in which they are located. Briarcliff manor has a Radio Shack; Ossining has a pet shop. Until recently, Croton had one magnet store, Blockbuster. It closed not so much because of lack of local support but as a result of major changes in delivery methods of DVDs. It is worth noting that the very businesses that Croton so specifically bans--automobile dealerships and chain fast-food restaurants--are magnet businesses.
No data were collected or offered to support the assertive conclusions upon which the Gateway Law was based. Yet a few high school students with clipboards stationed at Expressway exit ramps to question motorists would have shown that most of the drivers exiting the expressway were either Croton residents or were headed directly to neighboring communities like Yorktown Heights. Only a few drivers would have been shown to be prospective customers of Croton’s shops and businesses, aside from those heading only to ShopRite.
It is also significant to note for the record that in the six years the Gateway Law has been on the books it has not encouraged a single new business to come to Croton. The absence of new investment may be the result of an awareness of Croton’s unfriendliness to business, reinforced by its overt xenophobia exemplified by a policy of limiting use of all parks to residents. Nonresidents can purchase the makings for a sumptuous picnic at one of Croton’s many delicatessens—but they better not expect to unfold a blanket on the grass of any Croton park.
This elitism and fear of strangers may have deeper roots. Today’s Harmon residents may be chagrined to learn that starting in April of 1907 advertisements for the new Harmon community bore the words, “Improved and restricted.” The word “improved” referred to the presence of sidewalks and water pipes already installed under the streets. The word “restricted,” however, was a code word meaning that Jews or African-Americans were excluded. Overt anti-Semitism and racism were common at the time in real estate transactions, hotel accommodations and colleges and universities.
Mixed-Use Zoning Changes
Similarly, despite the absence of studies showing the need for additional retail space or for apartments in commercially zoned areas, Croton enacted a law making changes that would extend the limits of the so-called Harmon gateway area and increase the number of apartments and apartment dwellers permitted in it and other gateway areas. Its stated purpose is to encourage wholesale changes in the commercial complexion of Harmon to increase tax revenue for the Village.
The driving force behind this legislation was a committee of volunteers largely composed of residents of the Harmon area. Two consultants hired to offer support for the proposed change rendered totally useless reports that have been swept under the rug by the law's sponsors. The Village’s monumental error in this affair was to allow a small pressure group to force it into incremental planning for one neighborhood instead of making plans for the Village’s entire commercial economy. Another error was to base changes on a desire to “sock it to” commercial property owners—a stance highly unlikely to attract risk capital to Croton.
In the lead-up to passage of the 2009 Zoning Code’s changes that effectively double the number of apartments permitted in commercial areas, no studies were made of the need for additional apartments, the number of existing apartments in Croton or the levels of current rents, although proponents of the legislation frequently bandied about terms like “market rents”.
To complicate the apartment picture, the former chairperson of the Harmon Economic Development Committee is on record as having told Village officials on March 8, 2008, that there were some 400 illegal accessory apartments in Croton, yet this verbal bombshell has gone unnoticed and uninvestigated. The Village continues to exhibit abysmal ignorance about the true apartment situation in Croton.
Croton is fortunate that a community-minded attorney, Patricia Moran, undertook to research the error-ridden 2009 law and to petition the N.Y. Supreme Court for redress under Article 78 on behalf of two concerned residents. The impressive body of research and its inescapable conclusions can be seen elsewhere on this site at
http://crotonlocal.blogspot.com/2010/04/in-their-own-words-complete-article-78.html
Everyone responsible for the shoddy piece of careless legislation should be ashamed of it. Instead of attempting to defend the Village’s actions, Croton should open negotiations leading to Ms. Moran’s employment as the Village Attorney to protect the Village’s interests.
Summing Up
Before any other changes are made under the guise of “planning,” Croton would be well advised to undertake the following projects:
1. With a view to determining the proper mix of commercial and residential properties, Croton should make an inventory of all commercial properties. Such a survey should record property location, size, amenities, assessment, occupancy or rental history, and availability of apartments in each commercial node. One objective would be to discover the proper mix of retail establishments for the respective nodes. Such a census is vital, especially since the possibility exists that Croton may actually have too many properties zoned for commercial/retail use.
2. The 2009 Zoning Code change increasing the number of apartments available in commercially zoned areas was justified on absurd claims, including the howler that the market for them included “city people desiring to dip a toe in country living.” Croton should also make an apartment inventory to determine the true size of Croton’s stock of apartments. Illegal apartments should be closed forthwith and fines assessed for violations.
Based on the results of the above-described market research projects, changes in the Zoning Code should be considered, including outright repeal of those sections and conclusions not supported by the evidence. In support of commercial enterprises, Croton should especially consider repealing those exclusionary provisions that show the community to be virulently unfriendly to business.
The lifeblood of sound and sensible scientific planning lies in the collection of data and the formulation and testing of hypotheses. Until planners and officials in Croton pull up their socks and apply the principles of logic and the scientific method to decision making, they can expect to suffer the harsh light of fact-based criticism again and again.
