The developers of a proposed 272-unit apartment building on Lawrence Street in Greenburgh can be assured of one thing come Jan. 13 – opposition from Town Supervisor Paul Feiner.
Feiner said that this could be “the worst project I’ve seen in the town.”
The second Wednesday of 2016 is the date scheduled for a public hearing on a draft scoping document outlining preliminary plans to build the Jefferson at Saw Mill, east of the Saw Mill River Parkway on what is now a brownfield cleanup site and formerly the location of the Akzo Nobel chemical plant.
The new four-story, 239,000 square-foot residential complex – which would be across the parkway from the rising 202-unit Rivertowns Square residence – could have adverse effects on the community including the potential for increased traffic and overcrowding in the school district, Feiner said.
In an email, the town supervisor encouraged the community to attend the meeting asking residents to raise issues and provide comment with “specific concerns about this project.”
The Irving, Texas-based development group JPI Multifamily Partners LLC has spent months doing its own community outreach on the project, the result of a suggestion from the town board after a pre-application meeting with JPI in February.
Neil J. Alexander, an attorney and partner with the White Plains firm Cuddy & Feder LLP that is representing JPI, said that getting additional input from the public at the January meeting will allow the parties to have a more targeted and focused discussion as JPI and the town move through the application process.
After receiving feedback from open house meetings, calling and mailing information out to thousands of residents last spring, the JPI planners scaled back their original plans before submitting a formal application with the town in May.
JPI had initially planned on building 296 units, but reduced that by 24 units and eliminated three-bedroom apartments entirely. The current four-story proposal includes 24 studios, 164 one-bedroom and 84 two-bedroom apartments; of those, 10 percent will be at affordable rates. In addition, JPI has proposed a four-story, 316-space parking structure with an additional 122 parking spots at the site.
JPI anticipates spending millions of dollars to clean up the 11-acre contaminated property – though the firm has not yet given an estimate on the total cost of the project – and has proposed upgrading the nearby South County Trailway with parking, bicycle parking and a water fountain.
Issues that are expected to be of the most interest at the meeting include traffic and the impact on school districts.
Feiner said the size of the Jefferson project could contribute to the existing traffic issues in the area, more specifically in the village of Ardsley, while adding to anticipated traffic woes with the forthcoming Rivertowns Square complex.
Rivertowns is being built directly across the Saw Mill River Parkway in the village of Dobbs Ferry and is expected to open late in 2016.
“I personally think this (Jefferson) project is way too big,” Feiner said. “When Rivertowns Square opens there’s going to be more traffic.”
As part of its application, JPI has proposed traffic mitigation suggestions including the extension of parts of Lawrence Street and Route 9A as well as modifying traffic signals in both of those areas. JPI said that their traffic-lessening measures are in addition to other roadway construction projects that have not yet occurred, including the Ashford Avenue Bridge Replacement and the 510-foot extension of the southbound right lane on Route 9A.
On June 9, the Ardsley Union Free School District Board of Education passed a resolution asking the villages of Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry and Hastings and the unincorporated town of Greenburgh to place a moratorium on the development of residential units for five years.
The action, which cited 11 ongoing projects in the area, said the “approved and proposed residential developments will significantly increase student enrollment in the Ardsley Union Free School District” and that the district is “subject to a tax levy cap which does not take into account an increase in enrollment.”
JPI, according to its website, said it expects to generate no more than 32 students and said that since 2009-10 enrollment in Ardsley has dropped by nearly 5 percent.
In its application, JPI also said the school tax revenue generated will be “at a rate more than 15 percent over the cost for the number of school children generated from the project.” In addition, JPI said it anticipates the new residence could increase tax revenue to $2 million annually when it reaches full occupancy, up from the $217,000 it has paid yearly in property taxes.
The town of Greenburgh has hired the planning and development consultant firm Ferrandino & Associates Inc. of Elmsford, to assist with the review of the proposal.
