Opposition builds to new apartment development in Katonah

BEDFORD, N.Y. - Bedford's updated plan for future growth, years in the making and adopted less than a year ago, is already facing a real-world test.

Katonah residents are pushing back on a proposed apartment project now before the Planning Board. And they’re invoking, among other things, the comprehensive plan's housing recommendations.

Katonah’s latest multifamily housing proposal envisions a three-story, 15-unit apartment building at 150 Bedford Road. It would go up just north of The Mark, a three-story, 13-unit structure built on the former site of Jimmy’s Bar, and could someday sit beside a third building, one that for now is just talk.

Steve Helmes’ 150 Bedford Road application as well as one for a 27-unit, mixed-use apartment building at 633-647 Old Post Road, next to the Bedford Playhouse, have their own data pages on the town website. Both proposals have stirred enough community reaction to warrant the postings, Supervisor Ellen Calves told the Town Board’s March 17 meeting.

Bedford Together, the latest update of the town's comprehensive plan, is providing some of the ammunition for critics. Adopted last April, it’s only a guide for development, not black-letter law. Still, it represents the best thinking of community members and planning professionals.

And Teryn Kendall quotes some of that thinking. Speaking at a March 9 public hearing, Kendall pointed out that the 150 Bedford Road project was at odds with recommendations contained in the Bedford Together document.

Noting that applicants and residents alike cite the comprehensive plan in seeking approval for more housing, Kendall quoted Bedford Together’s text. It makes clear, she said, that the town should support “cluster developments and subdivision styles with single-family houses, townhomes or small apartment buildings on large sites (e.g. 10 acres or more).”   

“The reason this specific language/acreage was included,” Kendall said, “is to avoid what is being proposed here: Multiple apartment buildings in a small area resulting in a dense cluster of developments that is out of scale and character with the village.”

While she’s a member of the Katonah Village Improvement Society, Kendall told the board, she was speaking as a private resident.

KVIS, the all-volunteer community organization, spoke for itself in a letter to Calves and the Town Board. Expressing concern over “the increased pressure for large-scale residential development” townwide, KVIS co-presidents Pamela Veith and Elena Becker wrote, “Developers are increasingly advancing projects that do not align with the scale, infrastructure capacity, or architectural fabric of Katonah. . . . Often, they seek to bypass longstanding zoning protections that were implemented precisely to ensure balanced, intentional growth.”

Deirdre Courtney-Batson, the planning panel’s longtime chair, told the March 9 meeting, “This board has no intention of allowing any such thing to happen.”

But she heard from a succession of other Katonah residents who voiced concern the Helmes project would upend the hamlet’s longstanding character.

Frank Veith raised visions of Bronxville, Scarsdale and Rye, calling them “all very nice places, but it’s much more hustle-bustle than Katonah. And it’s what I like about Katonah that I think this application will change.”

Similarly, Karen Ferris worried that “this proposal would eventually place three large buildings” in the gateway to Katonah. “We’re looking at three separate buildings, essentially right next to each other,” she told the board.

Laureen Campanelli made a case for viewing the area’s development, in effect, through the lens of a mini comprehensive plan. “While the current application focuses on 150 Bedford Road, the developer has publicly stated on multiple occasions that their client is also interested in developing the nearby Arrow Way property,” she said.

“Given these statements,” Campanelli continued, “it would be prudent for the Planning Board to evaluate the potential cumulative impacts of both sites rather than reviewing them in isolation.”

Two neighbors with homes on Sunrise Avenue—“right across the street from this proposal”—also weighed in.

Referring to the vista if three apartment buildings should ultimately go up, Karen Fuchs said, “You come into Katonah and all you see is these massive buildings. . . . Maybe the buildings [that once occupied the sites] weren’t pretty before, but it still looked like a quaint town.”

Tim Murphy said he believes the project is “totally opposite what people of Katonah have lived with and want.”

The Planning Board will continue the hearing at its April 13 meeting, when it expects to receive a traffic consultant’s review and contextual renderings that better show the proposed building's visual impact alongside its neighbors.