INTRODUCTIONMount Vernon residents are watching a familiar pattern unfold: rushed legislation, missing documents, unexplained rewrites, and decisions made without substance, transparency, oversight, or respect for due process.
The latest example is the City’s attempt to push through a 419-page “Comprehensive Plan” — the first in more than 50 years — along with proposed zoning changes that could reshape every neighborhood in the city for decades.
Documents obtained by The Voice of Mount Vernon — including a detailed 25-page expert memorandum and a FOIL request filed November 12, 2025 — reveal a troubling picture:
- The legally required environmental documents were not posted before the public hearings.
- The City Council opened and closed a public hearing that appears to have never been legally noticed.
- Key zoning impacts, traffic consequences, density projections, fiscal concerns, and infrastructure stress tests were never analyzed.
- The City’s Long Form Environmental Assessment Form (EAF) was left largely blank, unsigned, and undated.
- Proposed rezonings and other land use regulations were characterized as having “no environmental impact,” despite clear contradictions in the documents.
These failures — procedural, ethical, and administrative — reflect a leadership culture in City Hall that treats laws as optional and transparency as a threat.
THE KEY OFFICIALS DRIVING THIS PROCESS ARE:- Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard
- Planning Commissioner James Rausse
- Deputy Planning Commissioner Marlon Molina
- Deputy Planning Commissioner Pamela Tarlow
- The Mount Vernon City Council
In addition, the consulting team — paid approximately $600,000 in local taxpayer funds — played a central role in producing the flawed, incomplete, and error-ridden draft, contributing significantly to the current crisis.
At the center of the critique is Vince Ferrandino, AICP, former Mount Vernon Planning Commissioner, private planning consultant, and current resident. His thoroughly researched analysis presents a detailed, fact-based indictment of the City’s process.
PART I — THE PROCESS: RUSHED, VIOLATED, AND CLOSED OFF
A. Hearings Scheduled Before Anyone Read the PlanOn September 24, 2025, the Planning Department submitted a 475-page plan (later amended to 419 pages), and the City Council scheduled two public hearings that same night, with no public discussion.Documents confirm:- Council members had no time to review the nearly 500-page document.
- The public lacked access to required materials.
B. Missing Documents: A Violation of State LawUnder both the Open Meetings Law and NYS SEQR, all documents to be discussed must be posted well in advance.Instead, the City failed to post:
- The complete Comprehensive Plan
- The amended Long Form EAF
- The Lead Agency resolution
- Supporting environmental materials
- Full appendices
This is not conjecture — it is confirmed by the City’s own Legistar portal.
C. The November 10 Hearing: Never Legally NoticedOne of the most serious findings — supported by Ferrandino’s research, testimony, and the public record — is that the third public hearing on November 10, 2025 appears to have never been authorized by a City Council resolution.
Without such a resolution, a public hearing cannot be legally held.Yet the hearing occurred — and was abruptly closed while many residents were still waiting to speak.
This alone exposes the process to legal challenge.
PART II — THE ENVIRONMENTAL REVIEW FAILUREUnder SEQR, adoption of a Comprehensive Plan and/or zoning overhaul is a Type 1 action presumed to have significant environmental impacts and typically requires a Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS).
Instead, the City submitted a 13-page Long Form EAF that:- Was undated
- Was unsigned
- Had only three pages completed
- Checked “NO IMPACT” for nearly every category
- Claimed the plan would cause no transportation, density, infrastructure, fiscal, visual, or community character impacts
This contradicts:- The City’s own rezoning proposals
- Density increases are outlined in the Phase I Downtown Report and other Plan sections
- Major redevelopment planned for MacQuesten Parkway, Fleetwood, South Fulton Avenue, and Third Street
- Thousands of new units are already in the downtown pipeline
These contradictions are visible in the document itself.
PART III — THE SUBSTANCE OF THE PLAN: ERRORS, OMISSIONS, AND ABSURDITIES
A. Undefined Zoning Category: “Mixed Use Corridor”The Plan repeatedly recommends rezoning large areas of the city to “Mixed Use Corridor.”
Nowhere in the 419-page document is this district defined.
B. Rezoning Single-Family Areas for Duplexes & TriplexesThe Plan recommends:- Allowing duplexes and triplexes by right
- Increasing FAR to 1.0 and potentially more
- Legalizing existing illegal conversions
No infrastructure, traffic, fiscal, visual, or school impact studies accompany these proposals.
C. Parking: A Policy Detached From RealityThe Plan proposes downtown parking ratios of:- 0.6 spaces per unit in Transit-Oriented Development zones
This defies:- Regional transit realities
- Existing parking shortages
- The height and density increases the City seeks
No supporting studies are included.
D. Missing Neighborhood Plans
Entire neighborhoods — including Fleetwood, Mount Vernon Avenue, and West Sandford Boulevard — lack targeted improvement plans.
Residents have asked for these for over a decade.
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