Members of the Public Information Committee of the Board of Trustees, Nicholas Episcopia, chair, and Robert Rothschild, approved this report. Trustee Donald Brudie did not.

The definitions and projected costs of both demolition for an approximate cost $5,818,569, and mothballing for an approximate cost of $13,879,179, detailed in last week's edition of The Garden City News have prompted a large number of requests for more details on the AvalonBay proposal and why redevelopment of St. Paul's by privatization is under consideration.

Having presented the details and costs of demolition and mothballing, in fairness to those residents who want more information on AvalonBay, their questions should be answered. At the same time, it is important to correct certain inaccurate and misleading statements about the AvalonBay proposal that have consistently been made by some residents at BOT meetings and published in their Letters to the Editor.

It is also necessary to underscore the fact that since 1993, the Village has used the Field House and Cluett Hall for public activities, improved the playing fields and constructed a new playground and parking lot. All of these facilities will remain in place for continued Village use, regardless of the disposition of the main school building.

Contrary to comments made at recent Board of Trustees [BOT] meetings, no decision has been made to accept the AvalonBay proposal as it appears in the Mayor's Committee July, 2008 Summary Report, or with the enhancements offered at the November 6th BOT meeting.

The Board is interested in the results of the forthcoming public opinion poll to be conducted on December 2 by the Eastern and Estates Property Owners' Associations as a public service. Participation is open to all eligible voters from the Eastern, Estates, Central and Western sections of Garden City who will be asked to choose AvalonBay, demolition or mothballing for the St. Paul's School building.

The poll is directly based on the conclusions contained in the Summary Report of Mayor's Committee on St. Paul's, which has been available to the public since July when it was posted on the Village website, www.gardencityny.net, and copies were made available at the Library and Village Hall. The Summary Report was submitted to the full BOT by committee members Trustees Thomas Lamberti and Gerard Lundquist, and resident experts in the fields of engineering, architecture, real estate and finance: James Carney, Robert Davis and Cosmo Veneziale.

Why Saving St. Paul's Through Privatization

is Under Consideration

The current Board of Trustees [BOT] recognized that many residents strongly wish to save the building for public use. In consideration of all taxpayers who would bear the cost for years to come, in a final effort to bring the problem to conclusion, in 2005, the BOT retained Karen Backus Associates as consultants and the current Mayor's Committee on St. Paul's was appointed. They were commissioned to explore the feasibility of returning the building to productive use, restoring its historic exterior and other distinguished features to the extent possible, and providing for its long-term maintenance at little or no cost to the taxpayers by means of private redevelopment. To this end, a detailed Request for Proposal [RFP] was issued.

After serious review, all but three applicants were eliminated because they either did not meet the stringent requirements of the RFP, and/or did not have the financial resources or measured experience to complete a project of this complexity and magnitude.

The three remaining proposals were the Albanese Corporation's plan for condominiums, AvalonBay's for rental apartments and the Committee to Save St. Paul's (CSSP) plan for public/private use, which included conversion of part of the building into apartments. All three were given nearly a year to refine their proposals and financial plans. Eventually Albanese withdrew.

Although the CSSP submitted a proposal for redevelopment, they were unable to show a viable financial plan that would guarantee completion of their project for public/private use.

In an effort to bring the St. Paul's issue to conclusion, in October, 2007, the Mayor's Committee recommended to the full BOT that the CSSP plan be eliminated and AvalonBay's proposal further explored, since only AvalonBay presented the financial resources to complete the project at little or no cost to the taxpayers.

As an accommodation to the CSSP and their developer, after making the decision to eliminate the CSSP proposal, the trustees did not publicly present a side-by-side comparison to AvalonBay's that would have shown why the CSSP plan was financially unworkable and could leave the taxpayers at risk if the project could not be completed.

Unlike other developers, including the developer proposed by the Committee to Save St. Paul's, AvalonBay has its own internal sources of funding, and is not reliant on obtaining construction mortgages or other sources of senior financing to undertake the project.

The proposals from both the CSSP and AvalonBay include the use of IDA bonds, which are permissible for restoration projects.

Concern For Rising Property Taxes

Over the years, the Village has been diligent in controlling tax increases. However, certain increases are unavoidable if the Village infrastructure, which includes aging water mains, 75 miles of Village-owned roadways, acres of municipal parking lots, green space and parks, and municipal services Garden City residents expect such as police, fire, recreation programs for all age groups, rear yard garbage pick-ups, and leaf collection, are to be maintained.

The current disastrous situation in the equity markets will require all municipalities and school districts to pay increased amounts to fund the deficits in their employee pension plans. Because it is the law, there will be no choice but to fund the deficits for our employees through our tax dollars. Additionally, there may be a mid-year cut in state aid to school districts which will create a tax increase and/or decrease school services.

Changing property values, coupled with tax certiorari suits, have resulted in single-family home owners paying a larger percentage share of taxes, while the percentage shares paid by commercial property owners and multiple-family dwellings have decreased. Of the total taxes collected, approximately 30 percent is paid to the Village, 60 percent is paid to the school district, and 10 percent is paid to the county.

Because Garden City is nearly fully developed, there are few, if any, new ways to create new tax ratables. The only near-term means of obtaining new sources of revenue for both the Village and School District would be the PILOTs [payments in lieu of taxes] from AvalonBay's restoration of the St. Paul's School main building, which has never generated taxes.

While the CSSP and other residents maintain that the AvalonBay proposal is a "bad deal for the Village," and a "giveaway," it should be noted that the CSSP's proposed redevelopment of St. Paul's, which also included apartments and a 99-year ground lease, called for a 21-year PILOT program plus a $1,000,000 annual payment by the Village to the developer for the use of public space within the main building.

The Police and Fire Departments have advised the BOT that the proposed AvalonBay project will not require additional personnel or equipment. The Village could require AvalonBay to contract with private carters for refuse removal, and water would be paid for by AvalonBay residents.

PILOTs and Taxes

PILOTS are payments in lieu of taxes. In October, 2007, AvalonBay initially proposed a 35-year PILOT term and projected that $29,500,000 would be paid over the period of the 35-year term. However, in their enhanced proposal, the PILOT term has been shortened to 20 years, after which property taxes are to be paid at full market rate, so that the Village and school district would garner the benefit of 15 additional years of taxes at the market rate.

The $3,900,000 present value for the PILOT program in the first 20 years does not take into the account the benefit of years 21-99. If the ensuing years are taken into account, using the Mayor's Committee's assumptions of a 4 percent discount rate and a 5 percent tax growth rate, the new breakdown is as follows:

Sum of PILOT payments years 1-20:$6,130,317.00

Present Value of the 20-year PILOT payments: $3,910.580.00

Sum of tax payments years 21-35: $53,064,752.00

Present Value of 15 years taxes (21-35) $17,322,559.00

Sum of payments years 1-99: $2,278,823,815.00

Present Value of Years 1-99: $130,718.087.00

of which approximately 60 percent would be distributed to the Village, 30 percent to the school district and 10 percent to the county.

The Village would also share in the net operating income of the project and receive a percentage from a sale or refinancing after AvalonBay achieves the agreed upon return on its investment. (See page 16, Mayor's Committee Summary Report, July, 2008)

AvalonBay has offered to pay for $1,000,000 of improvements to Cluett Hall and/or the Field House and do the work.

Village Ownership and Control

of the Property

As it does now, Garden City will continue to own the land. As the landlord, the Village would take control of the building if the PILOTs or taxes are not paid, or if there is any breach to the covenants in the lease agreement.

The present would keep Garden City's land in a superior position to the leasehold position held by AvalonBay or any other entity. As a component of the leasehold arrangement, AvalonBay will not be able to sell the building without adhering to the restrictions that the Village will put in the ground lease agreement. These restrictions will most likely include a covenant requiring a minimum net worth of a new owner as well as other protections. AvalonBay has agreed to similar terms in their ground lease with the Cathedral of St. John the Divine.

In the event that AvalonBay chooses to sell the building to a developer for a cooperative or condominium conversion, the proposed new purchaser would have to buy the land from the Village. Under the present policy of the New York State Attorney General, cooperative or condominium ownership cannot be subordinate to a senior ground position held by the owner of the land.

Garden City would govern the zoning which controls the size and use of buildings. Therefore, no modification to any building plan could be made without Village approval.

Density

By comparison, the density of AvalonBay's proposed 108 apartments on the seven-acre site amounts to 15.5 units/per acre, which is less than that of existing nearby apartment and condominium complexes. For example, the 312 unit Wyndham complex has 19 apartments per acre and Hilton Hall has 49 units per acre. If the entire 141 unit per acre proposed Winston apartment complex on Old Country Road in Mineola were to built at St. Paul's, there would be over 950 units on the 7 acre St. Paul's site.

Height of the Proposed New Construction

The AvalonBay proposal includes the demolition of the existing Ellis Hall. Of the 108 proposed apartments, 62 would be contained in the existing main building, and 46 would be in new construction located directly to rear. Although the new building would be four stories in height, it will be lower than the existing school because rooms in the old building have 10- to 14- foot ceiling heights in from the Victorian Era, as opposed to the standard 8-foot ceiling heights in today's residential construction.

Potential Effect on the School Population

There is no way to absolutely know the exact number of school children who would reside in the proposed 108 apartments proposed for St. Paul's. Nevertheless, certain residents claim that the 108 apartments in the AvalonBay project would generate at least 30 to 67 or more school-aged children who will attend our schools.

However, historically of the 900+ existing apartments in Garden City, approximately less than 30 to 40 school-aged children attend our public schools, spanning all grade levels.

AvalonBay estimates that this project could generate approximately eight new school-aged children. To determine this number an analysis was performed by Cameron Engineering based on information from the Garden City School District. AvalonBay also completed a comparative analysis of their other Long Island properties.

Nonetheless, AvalonBay's new proposal addresses the residents' concern over the potential for an increased burden on the school population by increasing the number of 1-bedroom units from 33 to 41, reducing the number of 2-bedroom units from 65 to 59 and of 3-bedroom units from 10 to 8, and by "setting aside 20 percent of the apartments for persons 55 years or older with preference given to Garden City residents." This configuration of apartments, when compared to historical data in Garden City and respected research such as the Rutgers Report, suggests little impact on the school-aged population.

Traffic and Parking

Residential development generates the least amount of traffic as compared to office, retail or public use. The Village Planning Commission approved the required 227 parking spaces for 108 apartment units, which include 177 surface spaces and 50 underground garage spaces in the new building.

Parking for Public Use Within the Building and at the Fields

In their new proposal, AvalonBay has offered to give the Village total use of the West Parlor and Chapel for public use at any time, and at no charge, and give the Village total control over the times and usage of the space. Although on weekend mornings during the sports seasons, parking is at premium at the St. Paul's fields, the problem could be mitigated by relocating the youngest teams of 5- and 6-year-olds to other fields in the Village, which the Recreation Dept. says is feasible.

Since the use of the public space within the building would be under Village control, the Village would have the option of denying permits for use when parking is in demand for the sports teams.

At issue is the amount of parking required for the public space within the building pursuant to the Village Code. AvalonBay has volunteered to build, at their expense, 120 parking spaces on Village property that is not within the 7 acres of the proposed apartment project. It is up to the Village to determine the location and configuration of these spaces, and to decide whether or not to waive the existing Village Code parking requirements.

To quote Mayor Peter Bee's column in last week's Garden City News, "Reasonable people can differ over what we should do with the main building at St. Paul's, but let us not be unreasonable in considering accurate information before making that decision."