At a private meeting between the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and multiple village of Mamaroneck officials and volunteers this week, governing and regulatory bodies were able to voice their growing concern over a proposed $75 million federal flood mitigation project.
According to Tony Gelber, chairman of the village Flood Mitigation Advisory Committee, the two-hour meeting—which took place Wednesday, May 25 in New York City—addressed the scope of multiple facets of the proposed project.
“The mission of the meeting is to get information,” Gelber told the Review prior to the meeting. “It would be great to get answers, and then get [those] answers to the village [residents].”
According to documents obtained by the Review, the Army Corps’ official agenda included talks regarding both the Ward Avenue and Halstead Avenue bridges, the project’s aesthetics, possible real estate that would be affected by the project, as well as the project’s future.
Major discussions during the meeting gravitated around the future of several bridges named in the project that could be altered or completely removed, Gelber said.
Among the bridges discussed was the Ward Avenue Bridge, which is currently recommended for complete removal in the project. According to Gelber, the Corps will look into possibly altering river flow in the area to keep the bridge, but nothing is yet guaranteed.
Also among the items discussed was any real estate that might be affected by the project’s construction and easements provided to residents as a result.
As far as the scope of this facet of the project, and how many residents it may affect, Gelber said, “The definite answer is that they don’t have a definite answer.”
The Corps will do its best to keep the easements to a minimum, he said. Currently, the Corps lists 110 potential parcels that could fall under the project’s scope, with 88 being permanent easements and 22 being temporary.
The easements—which would compensate residents for any private land that would have to be repurposed for the project’s construction—would be required for the Corps’ plan to build several thousand feet of concrete retaining wall as well as any river widening.
Also in attendance were village Trustee Leon Potok, a Democrat, Mayor Norman Rosenblum, a Republican, Village Manager Richard Slingerland, and Cindy Goldstein, chairwoman of the village Harbor and Coastal Zone Management Commission.
Both advisory committees—flood mitigation and coastal management—were permitted to bring a maximum of three total members to the talks, according to Goldstein, which is just under the minimum of four members required to meet quorum, which would have required the meeting to be noticed in advance and also open to the public.
According to Goldstein, despite committee members’ plea for the talks to be public, the Corps has repeatedly demurred, citing the necessity of cumbersome levels of congressional approval.
“The meeting isn’t public and it should be,” Goldstein told the Review before the talks. “At this point, the public deserves to have their questions answered directly.”
Already, the project has run into some initial roadblocks after a formal environmental review from the Corps was sent back by the New York Department of State; the body responsible for carrying out a consistency review.
Among the concerns from the State Department was the Corps’ determination that the proposed project would have no impact whatsoever on Mamaroneck’s environment, in addition to its incoherence with the Local Waterfront Revitalization Program, LWRP, a local doctrine that regulates waterfront development in the area as well as the environment.
According to Mamaroneck officials, the village is currently waiting for the Corps to resubmit an amended environmental review to the State Department who will provide a final consistency review.
While Potok declined to state whether or not he was in support of the project, Rosenblum has repeatedly championed the proposal as Mamaroneck’s best chance at proper flood mitigation.
Since the project’s unveiling in January, distinct camps on whether or not the project as it stands would benefit the village—which could pay as much as $10 million of its own money for the construction—have already formed.
Gelber, however, contends that the only way to bring flood mitigation to the village is by galvanizing all parties.
“Rather than throwing stones at each other we have to work together,” he said. “What is the best plan? We don’t really know.”
