Croton United just makes stuff up. Last week Roseann Schuyler wrote in the Gazette that the Village is run by people who “make public policy in secret while sitting in their mansions behind stone walls” in the part of town where they will never face the results of their zoning decisions.

Well, the Village Board makes those decisions.  We have no secrets, and here is where we Board members actually live:  a small ranch on Whelan in Harmon, above a business on Maple Street, a raised ranch on Briggs near Albany Post Road, another raised ranch at Old Post Road North and Stevenson and a walkup apartment on Benedict Blvd.

We on the Board are a cross section of our community. And we are doing what we honestly believe is needed for the Village to thrive in future.

We have no precooked plan but are gathering citizen inputs before debating and deciding whether and what to do.   The point of the Zoning Study for the North Riverside and Municipal Place area is to make sure that whether we decide on any rezoning or make no changes, our decision will be consistent with market conditions and responsive to residents.

Me, I believe it’s important to encourage new investment in our community to broaden the tax base so that we can control property taxes, and increase our moderate-priced housing stock.  The Village applied this concept in Harmon through rezoning several years ago, over the objections of the same people attacking the Board now. Contrary to those critics, we are now seeing positive results in Harmon with new business and market rate housing opportunities for our community.

If Croton United has ideas, we want to listen, and will listen.  If they want to propose and attempt to implement a program of their own, they can run candidates for the Board.  But they don’t.  So far, all I hear from them is negative nonsense – an unfortunate amalgam of conspiracy theories, personal attacks and inflammatory and misleading statements.  Is this how we unite Croton?

Rick Olver, Trustee