The following clip from the NY Times brings into focus a variety of issues
that are all related to the work of the Croton Watershed Clean Water
Coalition and virtually every environmentalist who can see the forest for
the trees.
New York Times
October 6, 1997
Refugees From City Fear They've Started a Boom
By MONTE WILLIAMS
COLD SPRING, N.Y. -- By moving from a Hoboken, N.J., brownstone to Putnam
County, Aegis Frumento, a New York lawyer, and his family found what seems
impossible in the region these days: a house on a 5 1/2-acre plot of wooded
land for $270,000, good schools, relatively low taxes and a community where
crime is almost unheard of.
Mr. Frumento and his wife, Jane Vagnoni, bypassed Westchester County
altogether in settling here with their three children. "You can't find
anything like this in lower Westchester for less than a million dollars,"
he said.
The couple is representative of many families who, whether unable to afford
Westchester or wanting to get more for their money or seeking a more
bucolic setting, have discovered Putnam and made it the fastest growing
county in the state. Putnam's population grew by about 7,000, or 8.4
percent, between 1990 and July 1996, according to the United States Census
Bureau.
New residents are lured by the county's good schools, rural character,
affordability and low rates of crime and unemployment. "We've been called
one of the best-kept secrets in the metropolitan area," said Edward Heelan,
a real estate broker and developer.
But Putnam's growth is rapidly transforming an area that a generation ago
was a rural retreat for New Yorkers. Many people who moved to Putnam in
search of a simpler way of life feel threatened by the accelerating growth.
Complicating matters is that much of Putnam is in the New York City
watershed. Fearful that unbridled development is also threatening the
purity of water carried from reservoirs here to the city's residences and
businesses, the city's Department of Environmental Protection is enforcing
the first new pollution rules for the watershed in 44 years, some of which
could dictate where development can take place.
One indication of the bitterness of that fight is that 100 developers and
landowners, 98 of them from Putnam, have sued the city for the value of
their lost property and development rights.
As Putnam expands, many fear that it will go the way of southern
Westchester County, once a haven for those fleeing the ills of the city,
but now faced with urban problems like traffic, crime, pollution and poverty.
"New Rochelle and Mount Vernon once called themselves the city of homes,"
said Elizabeth Fuller, librarian for the Westchester County Historical
Society. "They were residential places, where you built nice parks and had
fresh air, but then they got large."
Up until the 1940's, much of Westchester consisted of farmland, summer
resorts and large estates, Ms. Fuller said. In the 1950's, the county
became a bedroom community and major corporations started moving their
headquarters into Westchester.
In Putnam County, with subdivisions and office buildings cropping up on
what was once farmland and a community of lakeside second homes, there are
fears that the county may lose its rustic beauty, the very thing that
attracted many people here in the first place.
Drawn by the combination of a bucolic atmosphere and easy access to urban
centers, William Clare, 36, and his wife, Shawn, 42, moved almost five
years ago from Port Chester, a largely working-class village in
Westchester, to the Putnam town of Southeast, where they bought a town
house. Mr. Clare, a court officer, and Mrs. Clare, a secretary, both work
45 minutes away, in White Plains.
"We have all the major arteries right here," he said. "Danbury is 10 miles
away for shopping. And we had hoped to start a family and we thought the
schools would be better. The taxes are much lower than in Westchester."
In Putnam, the median sales price for a single-family home was $172,500 in
the second quarter of this year, compared with $306,000 in Westchester,
according to the Westchester-Putnam Multiple Listing Service. In 1995,
Putnam, home to Gov. George E. Pataki, ranked 61st out of the state's 62
counties for both violent crime and property crime, according to the State
Division of Criminal Justice Services. The median household income in 1993
was $54,939 -- the highest in the state. In 1996, only 4,167 of its 90,983
residents, or 4.6 percent, fell below the poverty level, the lowest
percentage of poor people of any county in the state. The unemployment rate
was 2.9 percent in June -- tied with Albany County as the lowest in the
state.
Most of Putnam's residents commute to jobs in New York, Connecticut,
Westchester or Dutchess Counties. Mr. Frumento has a 70-minute ride into
Manhattan, much longer the trip from Hoboken. "But it's a quality commute,"
he said. He always gets a seat on the Metro-North train and with his laptop
computer, cellular phone and briefcase, he finds that his ride is often the
most productive time of day.
The Putnam County Executive, Bob Bondi, thinks the environment is a major
reason many people are drawn to the county. "There are no cities in Putnam,
so there's no urban blight," he said. "And there are plenty of trees."
But one factor that mitigates against development is that much of the
county is in the New York City watershed, and all of the 11 reservoirs in
the county are owned by the city. With tougher watershed regulations in
place, there are those who say there is little chance that the county will
become overdeveloped. Still, more than 7,100 acres of land that drain into
reservoirs are slated for development or have new construction under way,
according to Nell Keeler, an environmental analyst.
Depending on whom you talk to, the regulations are either too strict or too
lax.
Judith Jones, a philosophy professor at Fordham University who moved from
Yonkers to Mahopac earlier this year, thinks the restrictions are not tight
enough and that development is out of control. "Every parcel I pass is for
sale," she said. "Before you tear down the ecosystem, you should ask
yourself if it's good for humans or for the rest of the ecosystem."
One of the biggest projects planned for the county is a 450,000-square-foot
retail outlet center in Kent. Mr. Heelan is the broker and consultant for
the project. Putnam has very little retail. "If you want to buy a dress,
you have to go to Danbury, Poughkeepsie, White Plains or Mount Kisco," said
Ross M.
Weale, president of the Putnam County Economic Development Corporation.
Joseph L. Belvedere, the town supervisor of Kent, is one of the retail
center's biggest supporters. "Our tax base has been shrunk by the watershed
requirements," he said. "The town needs an economic taxpayer besides
homeowners. A lot of the costs, which the watershed regulations put on the
town, are not reimbursed and the amount that is set aside for reimbursement
is hardly enough."
In the town of Southeast, a huge multiplex cinema has been planned by Hoyts
Cinema Corporation. It has drawn opposition, even though the county has no
movie theaters. The site for the proposed cinema is across the street and
downhill from the East Branch reservoir and it borders the watershed.
"The parking lot is blacktop and impervious," said Michael Caputo, a member
of a civic group opposed to the multiplex. "In addition, the project will
increase traffic tremendously. It's a quiet road, and by Hoyts's own
estimate, there would be 745 cars during the peak hour."
Mr. Bondi thinks there is room for the county to grow and still maintain
its attractiveness. But some residents think that if Putnam is not careful,
it could become like nearby Danbury, Conn., where malls and heavy traffic
abound.
"I like a place where there's not a traffic jam every 100 yards or so," Ms.
Jones said. "I like a nighttime that's actually quiet. Thousands of people
feel like I do, and that's the reason we have the growth. Everybody tries
to get the same thing, and no one ends up getting it.
JOHN KLOTZ
http://www.walrus.com/~jklotz/
885 Third Avenue, Suite 2900
New York, NY 10022
(212) 230-2162
(718) 601-2044