Breaking: Owners of 1 Half Moon Bay propose 280 unit development at the "Finkelstein" site and ask village to rezone the property. Only 10% would be affordable.
The proposals are on the agenda for Thursday's Board of Trustees work session. Public comment may be possible at the regular BoT meeting the evening before.
Nearly nine months after the developer Monday Properties purchased the so-called “Finkelstein” tire company site at 1 Half Moon Bay Drive, the partners involved in the investment have unveiled their plans for the 5.66 acre property. They include a major, 280 unit apartment complex at the site, most of which would be five stories high (with a smaller section, no more than 5% of the total, at six stories.)
The proposal is up for discussion at Thursday’s Board of Trustees work session. While no public comment is allowed during work sessions, the Board does have a planned regular meeting the evening before, and public comment would normally be allowed during the non-agenda section.
The agenda for the work session includes links to numerous documents submitted by the developers. The property is currently zoned for Light Industrial use, which does not allow a multifamily development. Thus the investors are asking the village to rezone the property. A July 15 memo to the Board by Village Manager Bryan Healy lays out in detail the steps that both the developer and the Board, along with other village bodies such as the Planning Board, would have to go through for the project to be approved in whole or in part.
The documents also include a number of studies which the investors, operating under the name 1 HMB Property Owner LLC, have already carried out concerning the impact of the project if it is approved. For example, a study prepared by BFJ Planning looks at the number of new schoolchildren the 280 unit complex would add to the Croton-Harmon school district’s student population. Using data including New York state and Westchester County birth rates, comparisons of the number of public school age children in other districts in New York and Connecticut, and other parameters, the consultant concludes that the project would add at most about 17 children to our local district, at an annual cost of $443, 745 to $502,911 annually.
Another study, prepared by Urbanomics, Inc., predicts that the project will have a large beneficial economic impact for the Westchester County region.
Finally, an 82 page traffic study, prepared by DTS Provident Design Engineering, LLP of White Plains, concludes that the 280 unit project would have only minimal impact on traffic in the immediate area:
It is the considered professional opinion of DTS Provident that the traffic volumes associated with the proposed Project will not have an adverse impact upon the adjacent roadway network. Safe and efficient traffic operating conditions will be provided for through traffic as well as traffic destined to and from the Site. No additional infrastructure improvements are required in conjunction with the proposed Project other than construction of the Site Driveways.
As we have reported and commented in the past, the planning for a major development at 1 Half Moon Bay Drive, including two years of non-public discussions with a few select village officials, has raised numerous questions about transparency in Croton-on-Hudson’s housing policies. With a formal proposal, the developer and the village enter into a new phase in which transparency becomes not only possible, but very necessary. We expect that there will be a great deal of public discussion of this project and its wisdom over the coming months.
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Well, well, well no surprise here, let’s see how little existing residents will be taken into consideration.
I don’t know. I’d much rather a tire business that was out of sight and out of mind compared to a 300 unit development which will have far reaching consequences on this town for years to come, mostly negative in my opinion.