OPENPUBLICA · PUBLIC MEETING RECORD
Record of Proceedings

New Rochelle Committee of the Whole Meeting - January 13, 2026

Meeting Portal — Tuesday, January 13, 2026
BodyNew Rochelle, New York
SessionMeeting Portal
DateTuesday, January 13, 2026
StatusFILED
Video Record
0:00 / 2:15:40

Transcript — Verbatim
0:07

Good afternoon, happy 2026, and welcome to the first committee of the whole session for the city of New Rochelle.

0:14

Madam City Clerk, please call the roll.

0:17

My name is Herbert.

0:18

Here, Councilmember Lopez, Councilmember Tarantino.

0:22

Here, Councilmember Peters.

0:24

Councilmember Aston Laye.

0:26

Councilmember Kay.

0:27

Here, and Councilmember Slick.

0:28

Here.

0:29

Good afternoon again.

0:30

The first item on our agenda this afternoon is a presentation for a local safety action plan.

0:38

City managers, our commissioner development and team will be presenting today.

0:42

Yes.

0:42

Excellent.

0:57

She looked.

0:59

Okay.

1:00

Love it.

1:04

And just the right intersection.

1:06

Literally.

1:13

I was hoping Sarah Spicer would join us this evening, but I think she might be wrestling with the copier in the development department fortuitous struggles and our local safety act presentation.

1:28

But good evening, good evening, Mayor, City Manager, and City Council.

1:32

I'm joined here today.

1:36

That's all right.

1:43

I said you were less than how they printer in staff here.

1:51

Thank you.

1:54

So we're joined this evening by some staff from development and some outside folks who I'll introduce Deputy Commissioner for Planning and Sustainability Safety K, Sarah Spicer, our senior resiliency development manager, and Jesse Minz Roth, a consultant of Stantec, who was selected via RFP to help us with the preparation of the local safety action plan.

2:14

So Jesse, tonight we'll walk through what the local safety action plan is, how we're developing it, and the tools and techniques that will be used to compile it.

2:24

Yes, that matters because it builds on our complete streets network and provides a data-driven framework to evaluate our capital and policy pipeline to identify those projects that are along what we coin the term high injury network and helps us to identify also important priority locations such as uh schools uh to assist with the development of a safe walks to school program.

2:53

Um the this plan is important because it positions us for additional federal and state funding, uh including the Safe Streets for All program, which you may have read in your updates to council.

3:07

We were uh very fortunate to receive money for a demonstration project for tactical urbanism improvements in the downtown.

3:15

But again, that was just a demonstration project and was limited in sort of size.

3:19

This plan will position us and make us more eligible and competitive for larger real infrastructure-based uh transportation improvement projects.

3:29

So we're really excited to work with uh Jesse and Stantec to develop the plan.

3:35

Uh finally, the approach to the plan is holistic.

3:38

It takes data that we obtain from various data sources, state and uh state sources, county sources, and integrates it with uh robust public engagement.

3:49

So we get uh real we take the data and we work with uh individuals in the city to uh compile uh input and arrive at uh recommendations that are based on real lived experience.

4:03

So uh with that I will hand it to Jesse Minzroth of Stan to uh walk us through the safe local safety action plan and uh we can answer any questions you may have.

4:14

Uh well thank you for the introduction.

4:17

So my name is Jesse Minzroth, and um stand tech, and excited to work with you all on this local safety action plan.

4:26

Um as Adam mentioned, you might see SS for A on some of these slides, and that stands for Safe Streets for All.

4:33

Um just a little bit about myself is that I have a lot of experience working in this area.

4:40

I worked for the New York City Department of Transportation for a while, um, and I redesigned streets in all boroughs of New York City.

4:48

Um I also worked on the West Coast uh in Silicon Valley for the city of San Jose.

4:54

Um and so it's great to be working with communities like yours on this plan.

5:00

So let's go ahead.

5:03

So our agenda today is what is a local safety action plan, what its context is in New Rochelle's work on complete streets, and also the Safe Sheets for All federal grant program.

5:16

Its required components.

5:38

So the local safety action plan will serve as a roadmap for achieving safer streets in New Rochelle.

5:45

It'll have those elements that I just mentioned, where in addition to data analysis and public engagement, we'll go through existing plans and policies and create a prioritized strategy list.

6:00

And we will work on and really focus on reducing traffic fatalities and serious injuries.

6:08

And so a brief word on that.

6:11

Crashes that produce injuries are called injury crashes, and injury crashes are ranked in their severity.

6:18

There's minor and moderate, serious or severe, the same thing, and then there's traffic fatalities at the top.

6:26

And so serious injuries sometimes can become a traffic fatality.

6:32

And so those two categories, those top two severity levels, are the focus of this federal program and will also be the focus of local safety action plan.

6:42

And that work will build on Eurochell's complete streets work.

6:47

And it will through this work, we'll work on creating the high injury network, which Adam mentioned.

6:54

And we'll also do sort of more than that, which I'll explain on one of the next slides.

7:00

So that is the what, and in terms of the why, the New York Metropolitan Transportation Council, known as NIMTIC, has requested that the City of New Rochelle have a local safety action plan to use as a reference to fund local safety projects in the future and now.

7:18

And completing it will also set up Eurechelle to be competitive, more competitive on SS4A and other safety transportation funds.

Discussion Breakdown — Share of Meeting
Transportation Safety████████████████████████████████32%
Public Engagement████████████████████20%
Procedural██████████████14%
Community Engagement████████8%
Zoning And Land Use███████7%
Public Safety███3%
Pending Litigation███3%
Cannabis Regulation███3%
Budget Equity Analysis██2%
Summary of Proceedings

New Rochelle Committee of the Whole Meeting - January 13, 2026

The New Rochelle City Council held its first Committee of the Whole meeting of 2026 on Tuesday, January 13, 2026, starting at approximately 6:45 PM (local time). The session featured a detailed presentation on the Local Safety Action Plan (LSAP) and an overview of a new Participatory Budgeting (PB) pilot program. Council also acted on a series of administrative and legislative items, including parking regulation changes, grant awards, and eminent domain proceedings for two key properties. Several items were bundled into a consent agenda and approved unanimously. The meeting concluded with public comments from four residents.

Consent Calendar

  • Item 7: Parking regulation change establishing an ADA handicap space at 44 Woodbury Street. Moved to consent.
  • Item 9: Parking regulation change on Plain Avenue. Moved to consent.
  • Item 10: Acceptance of a $150,000 grant ($50,000/year for three years) from the Westchester County Youth Bureau for the NRPS Steppers program. Moved to consent.
  • Item 11: Acceptance of a $108,000 grant ($36,000/year for three years) from the Westchester County Youth Bureau for the Rodney’s Place after-school program for middle school boys. Moved to consent.
  • Item 12: Acceptance of a grant for a Mommy and Me Sports and Fitness Academy. Moved to consent.
  • Item 13: Amendment to the City Code establishing a Participatory Budgeting Steering Committee (with two technical corrections read into the record). Moved to consent.
  • Item 14: Amendment to Chapter 312-62 authorizing 80 permit parking spaces at the Clinton Garage valet facility, with a 30% discount to encourage relocation from the Prospect Street lot. Moved to consent.
  • Item 15: Authorization to initiate the Local Safety Action Plan (LSAP) and establish the Local Road Safety Action Committee. Moved to consent.
  • Item 16: Resolution declaring lead agency and issuing a positive declaration for amendments to the Downtown Overlay Zone (DOZ) zoning code and zoning map. Moved to consent (Councilmember Tarantino abstained).
  • Item 17: Resolution authorizing eminent domain proceedings for 662 Main Street (former Carnegie Library) with a written offer of $2,024,000 ($2,000,000 for property, $24,000 for fixtures). Moved to consent (Councilmember Tarantino abstained).
  • Item 18: Resolution authorizing eminent domain proceedings for 625 North Avenue (former CVS property), consolidating three parcels for an intergenerational housing project. Moved to consent (Councilmember Tarantino abstained).

Public Comments & Testimony

  • Miriam Decim (Mountjoy): Expressed concern about a perceived disconnect between the community and the city’s development process, citing the Flowers Park RFP as an example. Urged the council to restore public input earlier in the process and to avoid repeating past mistakes.
  • Sean Lewatsky (25 Leroy Place): Presented a “wish list” for the upcoming DOZ amendment review, including: (1) extending the proposed moratorium to all of DO2, (2) encouraging mid-rise buildings instead of high-rises, (3) requiring community benefit funds to be used in the zone that generated them, (4) mandating privately-owned public spaces in new developments, (5) barring campaign contributions from developers, (6) (skipped), (7) adopting a visionary goal such as “most bikeable city in Westchester”, and (8) strengthening clawback provisions on tax breaks for developers who do not provide promised community benefits.
  • Jim Calorin (25 Le Replace): Called on each council member to hold four public meetings in their districts. Criticized the lack of retail in the downtown, the condition of historic buildings, and idling construction trucks. Urged the council to bring city offices downtown to fill empty storefronts and to prioritize community needs over developer tax breaks.
  • Serge Becker (address not stated, spoke after Jim Calorin): Reflected on the 10-year anniversary of the DOZ plan, noting original goals of nearly 1 million sq. ft. retail and 2.4 million sq. ft. office space. Reported that 4,600 of the originally projected 6,400 residential units have been built, with 460 affordable units (10%). Encouraged the council to engage the community meaningfully as the 2026 DOZ amendment is developed.

Discussion Items

Local Safety Action Plan (LSAP) Presentation

Commissioner of Development, Adam, along with consultant Jesse Minzroth of Stantec, presented the LSAP. The plan aims to reduce traffic fatalities and severe injuries by creating a data-driven “high injury network” using crash data (2020-2024) and predictive risk factors (e.g., proximity to schools, senior centers). Key details:

  • Goal: Zero traffic fatalities by 2040.
  • Funding Position: The LSAP makes New Rochelle eligible for U.S. DOT Safe Streets for All (SS4A) implementation grants up to $25 million. The city recently won a $400,000 demonstration grant for tactical urbanism at six intersections.
  • Timeline: Public input map to launch late January 2026; safety advisory committee to be formed in February; draft plan in April/May; final adoption and SS4A grant submission anticipated by June 25, 2026.
  • Engagement: Includes interactive mapping, workshops, pop-ups, and a project website. Council members raised questions about expediting hot-spot improvements, overlapping with the existing Complete Streets program, and ensuring the high injury network analysis is shared by council district. The council expressed urgency to meet the June deadline. The resolution authorizing the plan and committee formation was later moved to the consent agenda (Item 15).

Participatory Budgeting (PB) Pilot Overview

Council Member Matt Stern introduced the initiative, which was adopted as a priority in the 2026 budget. The pilot will allocate $200,000 from capital funds (less than 1% of the city’s capital budget) plus $20,000 in operating funds for administration.

  • Process: A 10-member steering committee (7 voting members including one from each district, one youth selected by the mayor; plus three non-voting members: one council member, one city staffer, one school district rep) will develop a rulebook, oversee community engagement (spring/summer events), review proposals, and craft a ballot. Residents will vote, and the winning project(s) will be presented to council for final approval in November 2026.
  • Focus for Year One: Improvements at the New Rochelle High School campus (including Huguenot Park) to leverage student participation as a civics lesson.
  • Council Concerns: Councilmember Tarantino raised the need to ensure only New Rochelle residents vote on projects. Staff noted the steering committee will establish eligibility rules. Councilmembers expressed support for the transparency and accountability aspects. The code amendment establishing the committee (Item 13) was moved to the consent agenda after minor corrections.

Cannabis Sales Tax Revenue Discussion (Item 19)

Council Member Kay proposed directing staff to develop a proposal for dedicating cannabis tax revenues to specific community programs (e.g., education, mental health, substance use treatment). She noted that two licensed businesses are now operating, with more in the pipeline. Council members voiced support for reinvesting the funds. Consensus was reached to have the city manager return with a formal proposal.

Other Discussion Items

  • Item 8 (Parking on Westchester Place): Held after Councilmember Tarantino raised concerns about gridlock from valet, delivery trucks, and fire access. Commissioner will assess and return with a map.
  • Items 5-6: Pulled due to updated guidance from the NYS Assessors Association regarding a proposed veteran exemption amendment; staff recommended waiting for legislative clarity.

Key Outcomes

  • Votes: Items 7, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 were moved to the consent agenda and unanimously approved (noted as “all in favor say aye,” no opposition recorded).
  • Votes with Abstentions: Items 16, 17, and 18 were moved to the consent agenda with Councilmember Tarantino abstaining on each, following his stated conflict of interest related to property ownership in the DOZ and advice from Corporation Counsel.
  • Directives: The city manager is authorized to form the Local Road Safety Action Committee for the LSAP (Item 15) and the Participatory Budgeting Steering Committee (Item 13). The city manager will develop a proposal for dedicating cannabis sales tax revenues (Item 19).
  • Public Hearing: The public hearing for the Hudson Country Montessori School special permit was rescheduled to February 10, 2026.
  • Next Steps: Staff will provide a detailed timeline for LSAP community engagement and committee formation within the next week. The PB steering committee member selection is expected in March 2026.

Meeting Transcript

Good afternoon, happy 2026, and welcome to the first committee of the whole session for the city of New Rochelle. Madam City Clerk, please call the roll. My name is Herbert. Here, Councilmember Lopez, Councilmember Tarantino. Here, Councilmember Peters. Councilmember Aston Laye. Councilmember Kay. Here, and Councilmember Slick. Here. Good afternoon again. The first item on our agenda this afternoon is a presentation for a local safety action plan. City managers, our commissioner development and team will be presenting today. Yes. Excellent. She looked. Okay. Love it. And just the right intersection. Literally. I was hoping Sarah Spicer would join us this evening, but I think she might be wrestling with the copier in the development department fortuitous struggles and our local safety act presentation. But good evening, good evening, Mayor, City Manager, and City Council. I'm joined here today. That's all right. I said you were less than how they printer in staff here. Thank you. So we're joined this evening by some staff from development and some outside folks who I'll introduce Deputy Commissioner for Planning and Sustainability Safety K, Sarah Spicer, our senior resiliency development manager, and Jesse Minz Roth, a consultant of Stantec, who was selected via RFP to help us with the preparation of the local safety action plan. So Jesse, tonight we'll walk through what the local safety action plan is, how we're developing it, and the tools and techniques that will be used to compile it. Yes, that matters because it builds on our complete streets network and provides a data-driven framework to evaluate our capital and policy pipeline to identify those projects that are along what we coin the term high injury network and helps us to identify also important priority locations such as uh schools uh to assist with the development of a safe walks to school program. Um the this plan is important because it positions us for additional federal and state funding, uh including the Safe Streets for All program, which you may have read in your updates to council. We were uh very fortunate to receive money for a demonstration project for tactical urbanism improvements in the downtown. But again, that was just a demonstration project and was limited in sort of size. This plan will position us and make us more eligible and competitive for larger real infrastructure-based uh transportation improvement projects. So we're really excited to work with uh Jesse and Stantec to develop the plan. Uh finally, the approach to the plan is holistic. It takes data that we obtain from various data sources, state and uh state sources, county sources, and integrates it with uh robust public engagement. So we get uh real we take the data and we work with uh individuals in the city to uh compile uh input and arrive at uh recommendations that are based on real lived experience. So uh with that I will hand it to Jesse Minzroth of Stan to uh walk us through the safe local safety action plan and uh we can answer any questions you may have. Uh well thank you for the introduction. So my name is Jesse Minzroth, and um stand tech, and excited to work with you all on this local safety action plan. Um as Adam mentioned, you might see SS for A on some of these slides, and that stands for Safe Streets for All. Um just a little bit about myself is that I have a lot of experience working in this area. I worked for the New York City Department of Transportation for a while, um, and I redesigned streets in all boroughs of New York City. Um I also worked on the West Coast uh in Silicon Valley for the city of San Jose. Um and so it's great to be working with communities like yours on this plan. So let's go ahead. So our agenda today is what is a local safety action plan, what its context is in New Rochelle's work on complete streets, and also the Safe Sheets for All federal grant program. Its required components. So the local safety action plan will serve as a roadmap for achieving safer streets in New Rochelle. It'll have those elements that I just mentioned, where in addition to data analysis and public engagement, we'll go through existing plans and policies and create a prioritized strategy list. And we will work on and really focus on reducing traffic fatalities and serious injuries.

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