By Tina Traster

Once again, Haverstraw Town Supervisor Howard Phillips is hoping to derail a transformative waterfront redevelopment in the Village of Haverstraw but this time he doesn’t hold the levers of power.

That did not stop him from offering a fusillade of comments and complaints about the proposed Chair Factory development, a mixed-use affordable housing project, during a public hearing held Monday by Empire State Development via ZOOM. After years of frustrating the developers’ ability to get the Town of Haverstraw to agree to a PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) program, the developers found a way around the obstacle. Empire State Development (ESD), an economic development arm of New York State, will acquire the 14-acre fallow property from the village and issue a ground lease to the development team.

ESD stepped in because Gov. Kathy Hochul has made the critical need for affordable housing a keystone issue.

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