His View

August 11, 2005

Misinformation clouds Woodbury housing project

By Jonathan Swiller

In a truly astonishing display of misinformation, Ralph Caruso, an aide to state Sen. Bill Larkin, produced a "My View" (July 29) titled "Who's fooling whom on Woodbury housing projects?"
The central theme of the piece is the supposed demand by a developer for a rezone to high-density in order to realize excessive profits. And, as Caruso, head of the Woodbury Zoning Board of Appeals, should know, every part of this theme runs counter to the facts.
The "high density" he speaks of comes to an average of just over one house per acre.
This compares quite favorably to Caruso's own home, which sits on less than half an acre and which, I am certain, he would never describe as high-density.
Caruso claims that a rezone is not permitted, while, in fact, the town's master plan specifically says that this property can be granted three-quarter-acre to 1-acre zoning if water and sewer are made available – precisely the condition that the developer is offering to meet.
But it is when Caruso writes about the cost of the land to the developer that his piece is most misleading. He uses the price already paid for one portion of the land to extrapolate the future cost for the remaining, larger portion. Employing such phrases as "based on the purchase price" (of the original acreage), he comes up with a totally unrealistic number for the projected cost of the total acreage.
Caruso could just as easily say "based on the selling price of Alaskan tundra, the developer would only pay 10 cents an acre." He is well aware that the initial purchase was made two years ago and that the subsequent purchase of the neighboring ACE Farms property by the development arm of Kiryas Joel has created a bidding war for the remaining property, making the price of the earlier purchase irrelevant. And yet he bases all his projections of cost and profit on this meaningless number.
The project under discussion has pluses and minuses. It must be judged on its own merits. But there is no way that the public can make an informed judgment as long as they are handed such misinformation.
There are many roads to the truth, but Caruso wishes to lead us down a cul de sac. He has convincingly answered his own question: "Who's fooling whom on Woodbury housing projects"?

Jonathan Swiller of Highland Mills is chairman, SOCA at Work.