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UPDATE: FINAL BIDS COME IN FROM
DEVELOPERS WHO
WANT VA'S MONTROSE CAMPUS -- "There are so many
vested interests," including "the lobbyists who
go to
Congress on behalf of the real estate community."
The "Sacred Grove" on the VA campus,
Montrose, New York.
For more about the struggle to save the VA's
Montrose, New York campus from developers, use the VA Watchdog search
engine... click here...
http://www.yourvabenefits.org/sess
earch.php?q=montrose&op=and
Story here...
http://www.lohu
d.com/article/2008902170348
Story below:
Your comments accepted at bottom of
page.
Share story/email link.
-------------------------
Feds take final bids to develop VA parcel
By Susan Elan
The Journal News
The period to submit development proposals for the 184-acre Franklin D.
Roosevelt campus of the VA Hudson Valley Healthcare System in Montrose has
closed.
A Department of Veterans Affairs spokesman in Washington wouldn't comment
on how many private developers participated in the bidding process, which
ended Feb. 9.
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"We will have something to say in three or four months," Terry Jemison
said.
The Journal News has filed a federal Freedom of Information Act request
for information on the bidders.
Meanwhile, a West Point-based development group, the Montrose Elders,
confirmed that it had met the deadline with its proposal for a "veterans
village" on the Hudson River property.
That proposal has Cortlandt Supervisor Linda Puglisi and Westchester
County Executive Andrew Spano at odds over the property's future use.
Puglisi opposes private development of the VA hospital property not
designated for veterans' care. Spano supports the "veterans village"
concept, which is designed to bring housing, shops, more medical services
and recreation to the campus.
But it is unclear whether the plan for a 75-year lease to a private
developer would be pursued under the Obama administration. Many veterans
and elected officials have opposed the idea that would leave only 12 acres
at Montrose for veterans' services, saying the property is needed to house
and treat aging veterans and those returning from the wars in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, has asked the newly appointed Veterans
Affairs secretary, retired Gen. Eric Shinseki, to look into the long-term
lease plan developed under the Bush administration.
"I expressed my concerns over the future of Montrose Hospital," Hall said.
"I stressed the needs of the area's veterans and that the highest and best
use of the campus is for veterans' care. The veterans of the Lower Hudson
Valley deserve the best medical care this nation has to offer and at a
convenient location."
After a review process that lasted several years, VA officials decided on
a reorganization plan that would transfer 105 nursing-home beds and 70
psychiatric beds from Montrose to the VA facility at Castle Point in
Dutchess County. Twenty-one of the 24 beds for treating veterans suffering
from post-traumatic stress disorder would remain at Montrose, along with
all 42 beds for substance-abuse treatment and 53 of the 60 beds for
homeless veterans struggling with psychological and social impairments.
At a meeting in mid-October, VA officials told developers that they wanted
to complete a lease for 108 acres at the Montrose campus by the middle of
this year. Proposals were to include an affordable-housing component for
veterans, along with amenities for veterans and the community.
John Dodson, a West Point graduate who served three tours in Vietnam and
serves as executive director of the Montrose Elders, said last week that
his board, made up of 21 veterans, wanted to build affordable senior
housing, assisted living, medical facilities and a continuing-care
retirement community at Montrose.
The group hopes to operate as a nonprofit if it can finance the project
with Federal Housing Authority or other government bonds, he said.
Accompanying the development proposal was a letter reminding the VA of the
memorandum of understanding it signed in 2002 with the Montrose Elders and
urging the VA to honor that commitment.
Spano sent a letter of his own last week to the VA secretary, Shinseki, in
support of the Elders project in which he pointed out that the property
was originally Westchester County parkland. Spano also challenged the
methods used in the VA review, which found that Montrose medical
facilities were underutilized, arguing that it had neglected to count new
veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder and that it claimed demand
for services had shrunk for programs that already had been moved from
Montrose.
In her pleas to "save the VA," Puglisi also has invoked the large numbers
of veterans expected to need medical and psychological treatment after
serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. "Our veterans need care, not condos," she
said.
But Puglisi also has made it clear that the construction of a large number
of homes on the campus would strain the town's schools and municipal
services and add congestion to its roads.
As many as 400 housing units could be built on the federally owned land,
despite a 4-acre zoning law enacted to try to limit development there,
Puglisi said.
Albert Singerman of Peekskill, former president of Westchester County
Chapter 49 of the Vietnam Veterans of America, said he didn't think there
was much chance of stopping the momentum that has built up within the VA
bureaucracy to develop the Montrose campus.
"There are so many vested interests," said Singerman, a certified public
accountant. "There are the lobbyists who go to Congress on behalf of the
real estate community and all the big accounting firms that have huge
contracts with the VA. All of them have such a big piece of it."
Reach Susan Elan at 914-666-6205.
-------------------------
posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
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