Westchester County has until Aug. 9 to make the next set of revisions to its implementation plan for building 750 units of fair and affordable housing in 31 communities over the next seven years.

Federal monitor James Johnson set the new date in a letter to the county on Wednesday. In his letter, Johnson acknowledged progress made to date and offered comments and instructions for how the county should move its implementation plan forward. Areas covered in the letter included strategy and benchmarks; site information; model ordinance; financing; marketing and outreach; and capacity.

"The monitor's thoughtful comments are welcome," said County Executive Robert P. Astorino. "This is an evolving process and we are committed to developing an implementation plan that will deliver on the goal of bringing 750 units of fair and affordable housing to the market within the next seven years."

In the past three months, the county has held 14 meetings with municipal officials and 31 meetings with private land owners to discuss possible developments in Larchmont, Yorktown, Dobbs Ferry, Eastchester, Lewisboro, Cortlandt, Irvington, North Salem, Bedford, New Castle, North Castle, Rye Brook, City of Rye, Briarcliff and Pleasantville.

On July 13, the county Planning Board is scheduled to consider making a recommendation to the county Board of Legislators for funding approval for 18 fair and affordable housing units in the City of Rye. The project was originally proposed as exclusively for seniors. However, at the request of the county, the age restriction was removed by the City of Rye so that the project could comply with the settlement.

The Rye project, made up of homeowner-occupied townhouse units, is being called Rye Cottage Town Homes. The town homes will be marketed at a price between $150,000 and $165,000. The county's proposed contribution totals $2.4 million, two thirds of which comes from the $51.6 million settlement fund and one third from federal funds. This project is an example of how municipalities are working with the county to meet the obligations of the settlement.

"We are making progress – more than 40 meetings in 90 days is a clear demonstration of how we are moving forward," Astorino said. "People should not lose sight of the fact that the implementation plan is simply a tool to help guide the process. Critical to our success will be building relationships with the municipal officials, developers and the communities involved, and that's where we have been spending the bulk of our time to date."

Attached to the monitor's letter was a report from the Pratt Institute, which has been advising the monitor. The county will now review that report.