Submitted By The Mayor's Committee On St. Paul's

After nearly three years of work, the Mayor's Committee on St. Paul's recommended that the Board of Trustees present to the public AvalonBay Communities' $54-million apartment plan without public space as a way for the Village to preserve the historic Neo-Gothic St. Paul's Main Building, according to Trustee Thomas Lamberti, committee chair.

In its report to the Board, the committee said the plan calls for creating 62 apartments in the Main Building, demolishing Ellis Hall and adding new construction to the rear of the existing building consisting of 46 apartment units. AvalonBay would renovate the existing chapel as an amenity and make it available free at least once a week to Village groups for meetings or relaxation. In addition, an annual event would be held to allow Village residents additional access to the historic Main Building.

The proposal allows AvalonBay to pay payments in lieu of real estate taxes (PILOTs) for 20 years. The difference between the payments and real estate taxes in present value terms is $17.5 million.

The committee also explored the costs of demolishing the Main Building or mothballing it for the future. Demolition is expected to cost about $5.8 million and mothballing would cost about $13.9 million and the building would still be uninhabitable.

The committee said spending $13.9 million to mothball the Main Building and paying ongoing maintenance costs of at least $200,000 annually is "a waste of money and makes little sense."

Mayor Peter A. Bee offered the Board's and the Village's thanks to the committee members. He said the next steps in the process are presentations of the new plan to Village residents by AvalonBay to inform them of the plan's details. He said the entire Village Board will review the plan over the summer. This is anticipated to be followed by a procedure overseen by the Property Owners' Associations in which residents will be given an opportunity to cast a non-binding ballot on the final plans. State law does not permit Village-sponsored advisory referendums.

Mayor Bee said, "We will not make a hasty decision on this important proposal and we certainly will not make it without the public's participation and input. Recognizing that so many Village residents are away from the Village in the summer, I don't anticipate a final decision process until sometime in the fall."

At that time, the Village Board is expected to make a decision on whether to proceed. Assuming a decision to proceed with AvalonBay, the plan would still be subject to state legislation to remove the parkland designation of the site before the project could be started. It would also be subject to negotiation of a formal contract with AvalonBay, and various other conditions.

Mayor Bee said, "The Village certainly owes a great debt of gratitude to all of the committee members who worked so hard for nearly three years to carefully examine the proposals, sift through thousands of documents and make a final report to the Board of Trustees." The committee chair was Trustee Thomas M. Lamberti. Committee members included James Carney, Robert T. Davis, Trustee Gerard Lundquist and Cosmo Veneziale.

Lamberti said some legal matters are still to be worked out: "The committee's report is filed, subject to a legal opinion of the Village Counsel on the authority of the Village to enter into an agreement with AvalonBay based on the financial deal terms set forth in this report.

"We had expected to receive such an opinion before issuing the report as counsel has been aware of this proposal for some time. However, counsel recently advised us that his legal opinion would not be ready until the August 21st Board meeting. We did not want to delay the issuance of the report which we said would be completed by the end of June. Therefore, the committee recommends that until counsel's opinion has been received and reviewed that no further action be taken by the Village with respect to this proposal."

The full report of the Mayor's Committee on St. Paul's is available on the Village's website: www.gardencityny.net/ , at the Garden City Public Library and at Village Hall. Mayor Bee added, "It is my sincere hope that all residents will read this important document to become fully informed about what is proposed and to provide their input to the Village."