To The Editor:

Croton United is asking me to tell them how many new private apartments in Harmon will be affordable, and what the rents will be. But our Harmon zoning changes encourage private construction of smaller buildings with market rentals.  We don’t set these rents.

In our American system, the role of government is to encourage opportunity.  This is precisely what your Village Board did: we got professional help to identify needs and define the market for the what we want: small service businesses and apartments for empty nesters, young couples and moderate-income people.  We then obtained the democratic assent of the Village to the zoning changes that would encourage such private investments – three elections were fought and won by the Democrats over these changes.

No bureaucracy is involved: just zoning.  We are now seeing the very first, attractive fruits of this rezoning at the corner of Benedict and S. Riverside.  I neither know nor care what the landlord wants to charge.  What I want is for others to decide that they should invest in similar projects.  You see, the law of supply and demand will determine the outcome.  The more moderate-sized units built within the rezoned area along S. Riverside, the more reasonable the rents will become for businesses, offices and apartments.

Richard Olver

Croton Village Trustee