NEW YORK (AP) - A federal appeals judge scolded Westchester County Friday, saying it’s not doing enough to promote affordable housing in mostly-white towns and villages.
Judge Guido Calabresi of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan angrily accused the county of failing to fully meet obligations under a consent decree to build affordable housing that can be marketed to nonwhites, a contention which Westchester officials dispute.
“You know, I rarely get angry but it seems to me that what is going on is consistent evasion, consistent trying each time to find something new why you shouldn’t live up to something that you agreed to. And that is bad when parties do it. It is outrageous when the government does it,” Calabresi said, raising his voice.
He commented as a three-judge appeals panel heard arguments on an appeal by Westchester of a lower court’s most recent orders, including a finding that the county failed to adequately address opposition in the town of New Castle to a development known as Chappaqua Station. It did not immediately rule.
Calabresi noted the consent decree requires the county to help clear obstacles to construction of affordable housing, including providing publicity to counter opposition.
“Delay, even for good reason, is the same thing as hindering and it triggers the duty of the county to ameliorate the delay,” he said.
Although the Westchester housing discrimination case had come before the 2nd Circuit five times before, Calabresi said he was on the panel for the first time.
“I have looked at this new and looked at it from the standpoint of somebody who would say: ’Is the town making any arguments that seem to be anything new or real?’ And I gotta tell you, I aint found a single one,” he said.
Robert Meehan, representing Westchester County, said the county as of December was exceeding requirements of its 2009 settlement of a lawsuit calling for it to build or acquire 750 units of affordable housing over seven years and market them to nonwhites.
He said the county has obtained 790 building permits and will still meet the 750-unit goal if 28 units to be constructed immediately north of the Metro-North Rail station at Chappaqua do not materialize.
“Local government and local zoning is a complex process,” Meehan told the judges. “The government has done quite a bit here.”
In court papers, federal attorneys wrote that the Chappaqua Station project highlighted the extent to which the county permitted municipal opposition to thwart the aims of the consent decree. They said the town of New Castle, which includes Chappaqua, is overwhelmingly white with a population 4 percent Hispanic and 1.6 percent black, while Westchester County averages 21.8 percent Hispanic and 14.6 percent black.
Assistant U.S. Attorney David Kennedy, representing the government, said the county consistently manipulates statistics and “failed to address why the minority population of many of these municipalities was so low.”
He said that in some county towns, blacks make up fewer than 2 percent of the population.
“Judge Calabresi has it right,” he said.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.