Where do you live? In lower Westchester its not always easy to know.
You may live in the Ardsley School District but also in the Village of Hastings on Hudson as well as in the Town of Greenburgh but in the Chauncey Fire Protection District and have a Scarsdale post office address.
Essentially the Town of Greenburgh (previously spelled without the "h") has two parts - the unincorporated areas which consists of approximately 19 different neighborhoods such as Fairview (near Town Hall) , Fulton Park (near the County Center), Edgemont (southeast of Ardsley but adjacent to the Ardsley School District's borders), Boulder Ridge, and Hartlsey (near the Ardsley High School but having a Hartsdale postal address but in the Ardsley School District) and the incorporated areas of the Town which consist of the six incorporated villages of Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry, Irvington, Hastings on Hudson, Tarrytown and Elmsford.
Why the overlap between villages and school districts? The short answer is the borders of the various school districts were created roughly 200 years ago while the villages carved themselves out of the Town of Greenburgh in the late 19th century with the last village being created in 1910 (Elmsford). Changing school borders is a cumbersome and difficult process. The same is true for creating new villages. Moreover, the trend is toward municipal consolidation and not the creation of more taxing authorities.
Some communities in Westchester have village/town/school district borders that are co-terminous. but thats rare. Scarsdale, for example, has a portion of Mamaroneck in its school district. Having the same borders would be ideal for Ardsleyans so its residents could control the zoning and planning that takes place in the school district in a uniform manner. But Westchester is tribal and the residents of Dobbs Ferry (10% in the Ardsley School District) are not leaving Dobbs Ferry and joining a greater Ardsley. The same is true for Hartsley residents who can use the Town Pool ( 20 percent located in the Village of Ardsley!) as they are residents of unincorporated Greenburgh which is closed for the most part to residents who live in the incorporated villages as well as take advantage of parking at the Hartsdale train station at the lots controlled by the Hartsdale Parking District. Hartsdale, by the way, is considered a hamlet - a holdover term from our British colonial heritage.
With The Jefferson, the site of the proposed development is in unincorporated Greenburgh. This means land use approvals are governed by the Town Board of Greenburgh which has five members elected by voters who live in both the incorporated and unincorporated areas of Greenburgh. Normally land use in Greenburgh is handled by its own zoning and planning boards but as the site is more than five acres, the Town Board acts as the ultimate zoning board as to whether the developer's plan will be approved.
In contrast to The Jefferson, the Lofts at Saw Mill were approved by the Village of Hastings on Hudson as its located in that Village, the Rivertowns Square was approved by Dobbs Ferry for the same reason and the Waterwheel was approved by Ardsley (however its mostly affordable and workforce housing because of a federal court order imposed on Westchester County which was binding on Ardsley requiring the creation of such housing in areas where it was lacking.
It should be noted that almost all local governments now require any development to have at least 10% of its units set aside for affordable housing. In fact, the concept of affordable housing was pioneered in Greenburgh (starting in Tarrytown in 1947) to address the needs of returning veterans.
In our next post we will address the members of the Town Board of Greenburgh who will be making the final decision whether to approve The Jefferson in the run up to Wednesday night's scoping session meeting.
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