10/29/2026
Statement from Mayor Arlene Burgos and the Irvington Board of Trustees on the October 14 Facilities Plan Work Session
On behalf of the Board of Trustees, thank you to everyone who attended the October 14 work session and took part in the Village’s facilities planning process. Your questions and ideas matter, and they are shaping the work ahead. If you missed the meeting, you can watch the recording here. Please keep sending questions and comments to the Board.
The report released on October 6 and presented on October 14 is part of the initial planning stage. The scenarios in the Beyer Blinder Belle (BBB) Facilities Planning Report are a starting point, not a decision. Copies are available for public review at the Village Clerk’s Office in Village Hall and at the Irvington Public Library Reference Desk, and we encourage residents to review them.
The facilities challenges we face are a community problem, and they will need community solutions. We understand that any facilities project raises concerns about its impact on neighbors, neighborhoods, and the environment, and we take those concerns seriously. But the needs that prompted this process will not go away. Doing nothing, while an option, does not meet today’s needs, does not prepare Irvington for its future, and exposes the Village to a higher risk of emergency repairs. We invite everyone who has concerns about a particular approach to also bring forward ideas for how to address these needs. Constructive alternatives help us find solutions together.
We also want to address the tone of some comments at the meeting. Passionate disagreement is part of the public process, and we welcome it. We ask that everyone engage with one another with the respect this work and our community deserve. We are all residents and neighbors, including the volunteer members of this Board, who give their time because they care about this village.
Next steps
This is a long-term planning process, not a commitment to undertake every (or even any) project identified in the report. The Village has engaged experts to help us find thoughtful, well-informed solutions, and we are committed to seeing this process through with the community. Over the next few months, the Board will review the BBB report and resident comments to determine what further studies are needed. We understand that the sites need further study and, if other sites become available, we may need to study those as well. All of this will happen at public meetings.
More opportunities to engage. We will invite BBB to two additional public meetings so residents can keep asking questions and giving feedback. The Board will consider inviting BBB to additional meetings if we believe it is necessary and helpful to the process. We will continue to seek expert advice throughout this process and budget appropriately for this expense.
Financial analysis. The cost estimates in the BBB report are preliminary, planning-level figures, not detailed construction budgets. The fiscal impact analysis from Karp Strategies, which examines the potential financial effects of redeveloping Village-owned properties, including property tax revenue, development costs, and funding sources, is expected to be posted within the next few days, ahead of its presentation on Thursday, November 12, at 7 p.m. during the regular trustee work session, at which consultant Karp Strategies will participate. Additional analysis will include the Village’s existing debt, anticipated debt retirement, potential grants, future borrowing needs, and the impact on taxpayers.
TOD: The Village’s study of a transit-oriented zoning district for the Astor Street area is a separate effort, recommended in the 2018 Comprehensive Plan Update. It runs on its own schedule, with its own steering committee and public process. Both efforts address some of the same sites, and the Board will keep them coordinated, but the zoning study will make zoning decisions for the transit-oriented district, which was not part of BBB’s scope of work.
Expertise and budgeting. The Board will discuss the professional expertise and funding needed to advance this work, including more detailed cost estimating, financial modeling, capital planning, and environmental analysis (including, without limitation, site impact studies that evaluate traffic, noise, drainage, soil testing and well testing, heavy metal from the firing range). We will also determine how future studies fit into the Village budget process, which begins in January.
Additional Sites: If other sites become available, we may choose to study those sites as well.
The next phase will focus on which options best meet the Village’s long-term needs and how to finance those improvements responsibly, and how to implement them over time. A critical objective is a realistic, phased financial strategy that sets project priorities, evaluates financing alternatives, and projects the impact on Village property taxes over time. This will help the Board and the community understand what the Village can reasonably afford, when individual projects might proceed, and how to manage costs. Before making major decisions, we need a clearer picture of each option’s costs, resources, and financial implications. Our goal is a thoughtful, financially sustainable roadmap that addresses the Village’s facility needs while staying mindful of the burden on taxpayers.
The Village’s Facilities Planning Project FAQ here, https://www.irvingtonny.gov/827/Facilities-Planning-Project, answers many questions residents have sent, will be updated with those raised on October 14, and will be revised as new questions arise.
We look forward to continuing this conversation together.
Arlene Burgos
Mayor
Village of Irvington
