Stop Sign Dispute Stirs Heritage Hills Residents

SOMERS, N.Y. - Somers has rescinded a recently enacted local law in the face of a jurisdictional dispute over certain traffic control devices in Heritage Hills.

Last August, the Town Board was approached by one of the private community’s condo groups that hoped to mitigate safety issues by paying for, installing, and maintaining three-way stops at Westridge Drive’s intersections with West Hill Drive and Waterview Drive.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP FOR THE FREE TAPINTO.NET NEWSLETTER

The town’s only responsibility would be to ticket offenders who ignored the signs.

Asking the board to amend the town’s Vehicle and Traffic code to allow that, Condo 29 provided officials with a 200-signature petition backing up the proposal.

According to one condo board member, Arthur Epstein, at least 95 percent of the traffic was found to exceed the posted 20 m.p.h. speed limit – “often by double, and more.”

Condo 29 also said it had the support of local police and highway officials.

DOWNLOAD THE FREE TAPINTO APP FOR MORE LOCAL NEWS. AVAILABLE IN THE APPLE STORE AND THE GOOGLE PLAY STORE .

According to its president Alan Tepper, the application had been prepared “with the explicit approval and assistance of Heritage Hills Society.”

That included the society’s delegating work to property manager John Milligan, who had directed Heritage’s security to implement a radar speed and traffic counting devices at two Westridge locations.

“The purpose was to demonstrate with data the need for action to the town,” Epstein explained.

Milligan could not be reached for comment before press time.

Society president Dom Rubino referred questions to his vice president, Gloria Anderson, a retired attorney who chairs its legal committee.

Anderson asserted that the society’s full board had never given the stop signs the green light.

Made up of 15 volunteers, it is responsible for the operation and maintenance of the community’s infrastructure, which includes buildings and roads.

The Town Board held a brief public hearing on Condo 29’s application in December.

The only two to speak then were Tepper, who also sits on the society’s board, and Robert Clarke, who recalled the near misses he’s experienced trying to pull out onto Westridge from his home on Waterview.

“It is extremely dangerous because just east of Waterview on Westridge is a blind turn,” Clarke said. “I’m a careful driver. I look very closely to make sure nobody’s coming, but people are flying down this road.”

Saying “safety is our No. 1 concern,” Town Supervisor Robert Scorrano noted that he’d heard no objections from police or fire officials and that he felt stop signs were “just another way for us to try to do something.”

“We can’t control bad drivers, but we can try to slow them down a little bit,” he said.

The board voted unanimously to add Article VII 158-23B to the town code.

In January, legal counsel Sharon Reich wrote to the society to say it was her opinion that its certificate of incorporation clearly establishes that it “operates, maintains, and supervises most of the roads in Heritage Hills.”

Condos are “therefore obligated to comply with the society’s authority,” she said, adding that “without society’s written request for stop signs, the town is not authorized to approve them.”

A Feb. 27 email sent by Rubino to Scorrano listed several alternative recommendations, including cutting back bushes and trees for a better line of sight, putting an electronic speed sign on Westridge on a regular basis, installing a “hidden driveway” sign on Westridge, and painting “slow down” on the road.

While Rubino argued that the application had not been “filed by the proper party” – the society – he accepted that everyone  had been acting in “good faith.”

However, he insisted that “going forward” the town shouldn’t entertain such applications unless they were filed by the society.
In March, Anderson informed the Town Board that the majority of the society board had voted to accept its Infrastructure Committee’s conclusion that Condo 29’s application for stop signs should be denied.

It asked the town to rescind its prior approval “based on the fact that only the society board has the authority to seek the town’s approval to install stop signs in Heritage Hills, as the society controls, maintains, and operates all the community’s A and B roads, as reflected in its founding documents and those of the 30 individual condos.”

Calling that request “deeply flawed,” Tepper subsequently implored the town in a letter not to rescind the law.

He argued that state Vehicle and Traffic Law §1660-a, “explicitly allows a town to mandate the installation of stop signs within private complexes if a written request is made by the owner or the party in charge of the operation of the area.”

“Being that Condo 29 is the owner of the roads in question; we absolutely had the right to request the stop signs in question,” Tepper wrote, telling town officials: “You did the right thing then. There is no reason for you to undo it now.”

Options Limited

In an interview with The Somers Record later, Anderson said that the “society is very concerned with the safety of its residents.”

(According to 2023 stats, more than 3,000 people live in Heritage Hills, a population big enough to qualify it as a “census-designated” place.)

The development – originally for folks 55 and older – was designed with no sidewalks.

That’s something that the pro-stop sign contingent has repeatedly emphasized was a major safety concern for pedestrians now that there are young families with children and pets there.

Anderson contended that “it’s not feasible to go back in time and redesign the community,” because each of the 30 condos would have to agree to install the sidewalks and pay for their upkeep.

The same goes for situations involving traffic control devices.

“It would be chaos if all 30 condos were working at cross purposes,” she said, pointing out that Heritage Hills encourages folks to make use of a former nine-hole golf course turned 62-acre park with walking trails and a playground.

Public Weighs In

In June, the Town Board scheduled a public hearing for July 11 on the request to rescind the law.

Scorrano explained that, since the taking the original vote, the board had been informed that it was the Heritage Hills Society, and not individual condos, that has “the legal authority to ask the town to authorize stops signs within the community.”

“Everyone will have the chance to speak then,” he said.

And they certainly did.

First up was Condo 209’s Douglas Cassetta, who pointed out that last year the Town Board had sought the opinion of its police, fire, highway, and engineering departments and each had supported approving the new law.

He added that he found it curious that the society doesn’t appear to have raised objections at the Dec. 14 public hearing.

(Society officials were waiting for the Infrastructure Committee to render an opinion.)

So now, Cassetta said, it “seems the committee is second guessing the town’s safety personnel. That’s arrogant and insulting.”

Westridge and Westhill are highly traveled roads and speeding doesn’t help, he said, adding: “It’s dangerous. Our lives are at stake here.”

As for the society’s argument that only it has the authority to request stop signs, Kenneth Falk, a retired attorney, argued that state Vehicle and Traffic law is on Condo 29’s side.

“We own Section A of our road, as stated in the site map, so we’re the perfect party to bring on the application,” he said, slamming the society for being “derelict for not voicing its objections from the beginning.”

Town Attorney Roland Baroni also had something to say about the extent of the town’s involvement in the thorny matter.

“The Town Board is not going to be the judge and the jury. You have to work it out,” he told Condo 29 and society folks.
Tepper was not at the July 11 hearing.

In his stead by Condo 29’s vice president, Kay Brancato, who read his statement imploring the town to reaffirm its decision to adopt the law.

Like Condo 29 had, the society consulted extensively with third-party experts before acting, Reisch said.

“They are volunteers. Their decision -- as long as it’s reasonable -- is protected by law,” she said, adding: “We’re not here tonight to decide whether the road is dangerous or there needs to be stop signs. There are other remedies that can be put into place.”

Catherine Petersen, 81, who moved to Heritage Hills eight years ago, also didn’t mince words.

Her children may think her biggest danger is not using her walker, but it’s not.

“My biggest danger is trying to walk or drive on Westridge. I still drive. They haven’t got the car keys yet,” she said. “Once you could visit friends and neighbors across the road, now you’re taking your life in your hands.”

Whether it’s stop signs, or some other solution, “it’s time to get this straightened out,” she admonished listeners.

Dina Epstein of Condo 29 was disappointed that the situation had gotten to the “point of friction where both sides are dug into their positions to a certain extent.”

She doubted that things would ever to able to be worked out “because there’s hard feelings on both sides.”

Mike McBride, a member of the society’s Meadowlark Park Committee who’s been trained in highway design and pedestrian safety, took a different stance.

Unwarranted stop signs “create more accidents than they solve,” he claimed, citing the increased likelihood of rear-end collisions. Resentful drivers might purposefully ignore them, he added, claiming that signs might create “a false sense of security.”

Westridge, West Hill, and Waterview aren’t the only trouble spots, according to Arthur Epstein, who’s compiled a map of at least nine more.

Taking down trees simply won’t cut it, he insisted, accusing the society of abdicating its responsibility to “manage the safety of Westridge Drive.”

Milton Karl, a longtime Red Cross volunteer, pleaded with folks not to ignore the possibility that someday someone will get injured or killed by a car.

“I’m concerned about blood in the streets, nothing else! Because I’m going to be out there wiping it up. Everyone else is going to run the other way. ‘Oh, what happened? I’m sorry about your grandchild; we didn’t know.’ You all know. Everybody knows!” he said.

Boiling Over

Councilman Tom Garitty agreed with Scorrano and Baroni that it’s not the town’s role to resolve the dispute over who has the authority to do what.

“I don’t think we’re the ones that can come down from on high and say, ‘Here’s what we’re going to do.’ It’s your community. It’s just my opinion, but I think you do need to get around a table,” he advised.

It wasn’t the Town Board’s first time at the rodeo.

This past year, the town also had to referee angry and frustrated folks in Shenorock, where two sides warred bitterly over stop signs and speed bumps. In the end, the bumps were gone, but the stop signs remained.

Shortly after Scorrano opined that “adults” should be able to act in good faith and handle things in “a civilized manner,” someone in the crowd couldn’t resist getting in a loud comment or two, including accusing the board of “being on the take.”

Apparently at the end of his rope, Scorrano said flatly: “Here we go. I make a motion to rescind the local law.”

The board voted instantly and unanimously.

A five-minute cooling-off break was declared but one audience member, whose body language had apparently alarmed another person, was escorted out of the meeting room by a police officer.

Going Forward

Anderson reiterated that the society never took an official position to support Condo 29’s application.

However, she confirmed that Rubino had sent an email in June 2023 to Condo 29’s president indicating that he would support its application.

“Mr. Rubino is a wonderful president. We all respect him greatly, but he is a lay person, he is not an attorney,” Anderson explained. “He has no background with this kind of situation, so he was completely unaware of what was going on.”

When she found out that the Town Board had adopted the law, Anderson questioned whether “that was proper.”

“First of all, it made no sense to me,” she said, noting that there are 30 individual condos in Heritage Hills and that “if each were permitted to decide where stop signs would go, there would be no continuity within the community.”

She didn’t blame any of the parties.

“We were all doing our best. We are all volunteers on the board,” Anderson said, adding that when the society realized that “a mistake had been made that had real implications for setting a precedent that would be a terrible headache for this Town Board and for the society going forward,” it immediately made its concerns known to the town and asked that the law be rescinded.

Anderson said that following the public hearing, the society reached out to Condo 29 to suggest that the two camps try to sit down and hash things out.

While still “a little skeptical,” Tepper said he’s open to the idea and is trying to figure out the logistics.

For more local news, visit TAPinto.net