Discussion of Bailey Hall Housing Project Continues at Bedford Planning Board

BEDFORD, N.Y. - An emergency entrance off Harris Road to the proposed Bailey Hall housing project needs a second look, Bedford’s Planning Board chair said last week.

Deirdre Courtney-Batson said the alternate entrance, a part of the subdivision’s site plan for at least 13 years, “should be re-evaluated, both for the possibility of a second entryway and also in regard to concerns that the fire department has had about the temporary access design.”

She said the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) should address the issues.

Her remarks came near the end of a two-hour public hearing, the latest in a years-long series on the proposal to build 22 new homes on a 26-acre site bounded by Harris Road on the north and New Street on the south. Nearby residents have repeatedly raised multiple concerns, including traffic, water runoff, noise and rock blasting.

James and Adelaide Murphy have a home on Harris Road and own 1.84 of the site’s 25.59 acres. Developer Cosimo Trippi owns the rest. Jointly, the Murphys and Trippi have sought Planning Board approval for a conservation subdivision that would cluster the new homes around a loop road, with principal access from New Street. 

The Murphys’ driveway off Harris Road would provide right-of-way for a paved, 12-foot-wide “emergency-only” road. But at a public hearing last month, the Murphys’ son James challenged the driveway plans.

“That driveway comes off Harris Road . . . and ends up in my garage. How’re you getting up to the top of the hill? It’s not there anymore. Hasn’t been there for years and years and years,” he told the Oct. 28 hearing. 

Moreover, the younger Murphy suggested he would bar access to the driveway. “You can’t come out,” he said. “I won’t let you out; nobody’s got an easement. Nothing.”

The hearing was adjourned until the board’s next meeting on Dec. 9. 

After closing last week’s hearing, Courtney-Batson returned to a situation she has highlighted before. “There is a housing crisis in this area,” she said, “and it isn’t just a crisis about affordable housing. . . . We’re talking about housing for our kids who have very good jobs, and two incomes coming in, and still can’t find a house here.”

Referring to an initiative pressed by Gov. Kathy Hochul, Courtney-Batson said, “We came very close about a year ago to having a housing plan passed by the governor.” 

It would have imposed zoning that permitted up to 25 housing units on a single acre within a mile of a transit center like Katonah’s Metro-North station. “I don’t think there’s anybody in this room that wants that,” the Planning Board chair said.

“The best way we avoid that is being responsible about the fact that we are going to be expected to build housing,” she continued. “And to be honest, we should be expected to build housing.”