Editor's note: Bill Fredericks is a current Trustee and is running for reelection as a Village Trustee on March 16, 2021
By Staff
Mar. 10, 2021: Like many native Bronxvillians, Bill Fredericks found his way back to Bronxville after years away when he and his family were looking for the perfect place to settle.
Bill's parents moved to Bronxville in 1967. His father, J. Wayne Fredericks, had been in the state department during the Kennedy/Johnson administration and then took a senior job at the Ford Foundation in New York directing its Middle East and Africa programs. The Fredericks family moved to Bronxville at that time.
Bill attended the Bronxville School through 9th grade, then on to Exeter and Swarthmore College. Upon graduation from Swarthmore, Bill headed to Oxford, where he got his masters in international relations and then returned to New York to attend Columbia Law School.
In 1995, when Bill was an associate at Wilkie Farr & Gallagher in New York, he married Ivy Jo Lindstrom, a managing director in corporate finance at KPMG Peat Marwick. He and Ivy lived in New York City at the time and moved to Bronxville in 1998 when their first child, Charlotte, was a baby and their second Thomas was on the way. Bill is now with Scott & Scott, a midsize specialty litigation firm.
Bill says that one of Bronxville's great attractions is its green space, neighbors, and quiet streets. "Kids can ride bikes on most streets and not worry," he says. He also believes that many of the village's best attributes are not an accident but are the result of "the excellent village staff and people who are involved in the village through so many volunteer activities."
As a longtime member and former chair of the Bronxville village zoning board, Bill has been one of these people. Bill initially joined the zoning board as its counsel and then moved into a full membership role. "Many people care about the character of the village," says Bill, "they have a vested interest in preserving the basic physical character of their neighborhoods from projects that may unduly conflict with, for example, the scale of existing homes." The zoning board focuses on these and other issues.
The board recently proposed several zoning changes focused on tightening up certain aspects of the code to assure that further development does not come at the expense of maintaining the village's unique physical character. At the same time, "there is still work to be done on modernizing aspects of the zoning code," says Bill, "particularly in the areas of stormwater drainage requirements, use of fill and solar technology."
In thinking about the role of trustee, Bill says it's primarily one of oversight, but "new things always come up." He mentions the recent Concordia sale as an example. "I'll always be out there for people to contact or approach," says Bill. "I hope to hear from residents."
Bill Fredericks is a current Trustee and is running for reelection as a Bronxville Village Trustee on March 16, 2021.
Photo courtesy of Bill Fredericks