Somers Town Board mulls amendment for townhouse project

SOMERS, N.Y. - The public will get another chance to weigh in on a proposed townhouse project in the Somers hamlet of Baldwin Place.

The Town Board held a hearing on Thursday, April 17, to address North Edge Realty Corp.’s request for a zoning map amendment.

No members of the audience commented. The hearing was adjourned to the board’s next regular meeting on May 8.

Meanwhile, the town Planning Board, which will be conducting the site plan review, indicated Wednesday, April 16, that it had no objection to the town’s acting as lead agency during the re-zoning process.

In March, the Town Board had accepted the applicant’s Environmental Assessment Form (EAF) as complete and ready for public viewing.

Information, the plan, and all available reports were posted on the town’s website, somersny.com, along with a link for comments, according to the town’s planning director, David Smith.

If the amendment is approved by the town, the designation of approximately 15 acres of land near at the intersection of Route 6 and Mahopac Avenue, would change from the current R-40 and R-80 to MFR-BP, or Multifamily Residence-Baldwin Place, as an “overlay” zone.

In zoning terminology, R-40 general indicates a low-density residential area that typically permits single-family detached or attached dwellings, with a maximum of one unit per acre, while R-80 districts allow for single-family detached homes – and possible some agricultural uses.

The latter also aims to discourage high-density development.

A 152-unit apartment complex and two senior housing communities already exist just east of the development proposed by Gus Boniello of North Edge Realty Corp.

According to the town’s zoning code, the MFR-BP district’s intent was to provide the opportunity for medium-density development (ie, multi-family dwellings) in and adjacent to the Baldwin Place business center.

To be designated MFR-BP, projects have to be located in an “existing, expanded, or new” sanitary sewer district, be capable of being served by a central water system, and have “convenient” access to major roads, regional shopping, and community facilities and services.

The MFR-BP district also aims to create and support more “affordable” housing

Overview

The Boniellos built Somers Crossing, a 66-unit luxury condo development near the intersection of routes 100 and 202.

Boniello told the Town Board that he planned on reducing the number of the “fee simple” townhouses proposed to 73 from the original 77, 15 percent of which will be deemed “affordable.”

Reminding town officials that the plan had initially envisioned 97 townhouses, Boniello explained that he “wanted a little nicer unit, a little more space.”

“We’re really emulating Somers Crossing,” he added of North Edge at Somers.

Under real estate law, “fee simple” means that the buyer owns both the land and the townhouse on it. They have full rights to the property, including selling, leasing, and/or transferring it.

According to documents submitted to the town, the North Edge townhouses have an estimated market value of about $825,000 for a two-bedroom unit and $950,000 for a three-bedroom one.

“Affordable” units are valued at approximately $450,000 and will be priced to be affordable to households whose incomes don’t exceed 80 percent of the area’s median income for Westchester, consistent with county guidelines.

A recreation building (for residents) with a lounge and gym is planned.

There would be 51 spaces allocated for visitors.

It’s estimated that the proposed project could add between 15 and 40 public school age students to the Somers Central School District.

Boniello explained that the proposed reduction in the number of units opens up the development’s layout “a little bit, but not significantly.”

Engineering consultant Tim Allen of Bibbo Associates noted that any impacts the development might have – environmental or otherwise – will “be lessened.”

Most of the land is wooded and as 13.4 of the site’s 15.6 acres is marked for “disturbance,” about 710 trees will have to be removed. None of those trees are located within the wetland or wetland buffer.

Animals found living there were: rabbits, fox, mice, bears, coyotes, snakes, opossum, skunks, raccoons, squirrels, deer, turkey, birds, bats, salamander, beaver, porcupines, muskrats, moles, and ducks.

None of these – or any plants found – are listed as “endangered or threatened,” according to the EAF.

The site is located within an archaeologically “sensitive” area, but multiple “shovel tests,” did not identify any “historic or precontact cultural resources.”

In archaeology, the "precontact period" refers to the time before significant interaction between European cultures and Native American populations.

An existing house on the property would be torn down

A sidewalk will be installed on the western side of Route 6 towards the Mahopac Avenue intersection, where it will meet up with an existing sidewalk accessing a bus stop, grocery store, eateries, and shops.

Community Benefits

As a “community benefit,” North Edge has indicted an intention to demolish never-completed – and left to rot – condominiums and other structures at the Angle Fly Preserve, a nature sanctuary on Route 139 (Primrose Street).

(“Community benefit" refers to agreements where a builder commits to actions that positively impact the local community -- often in exchange for support or reduced opposition to a project.)

Restoring that bit of Angle Fly for “passive recreation” is something that “can be enjoyed by not only the North Edge at Somers residents, but the general public as well,” documents said.

It will also “remove an existing unattractive nuisance.”

Councilman Anthony Cirieco asked North Edge’s counsel, Judson Siebert, if an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) had been crafted to that effect.

Siebert said he planned to send a draft to the town’s attorney, Roland Baroni, within the week.

Baroni asked that the document include a “timeline” for the work at Angle Fly.

“Jud, just so you’re aware, this board looks kindly upon community benefits (being done) early in the process, okay?” Councilman Tom Garrity advised Siebert, adding: “Not at the end.”

Both Garrity and Cirieco said they understood that cash flow was a factor and that North Edge might, the former noted, “want to start selling some units, get it rolling, and kind of fund it (the Angle Fly part) internally.”

Traffic

The development will be accessed from both Mahopac Avenue – via a full-movement driveway – and from Route 6 from a right turn entry/exit connection.

People exiting the development will not be able to make a left turn onto Route 6, a busy state road.

Water & Sewer

The North Edge site has access to the town’s Water District No. 1 and Sewer District No. 1 and the Westchester/Peekskill Sanitary Sewer District.

Extensions to these are being sought. Water and sewer connections have to be reviewed and approved by the Westchester County Department of Health.

According to documents, it’s been confirmed by the county’s Department of Environmental Facilities that sufficient capacity exists at the Peekskill sewage treatment plant, aka water resource recovery facility, to accommodate effluent from the new development.

The proposed development is located within the East of Hudson Watershed, a system that supplies New York City with drinking water.

Smith suggested that keeping the public hearing open for at least one more meeting would allow the Watershed Inspector General’s Office – the entity tasked with protecting city reservoirs and their tributaries -- to comment on the proposed project – to weigh in.

It was sent a letter “as part of the initial review as a courtesy and part of due process. You’re giving them an opportunity to review the materials just like the public,” he said, noting that once the comments are in hand, North Edge “should respond to those.”

Pressing for a reasonable timeline, Boniello and Siebert pointed out that the inspector general, Philip Bein, had already has 30 days to comment.

If Bein hasn’t by the Town Board’s May meeting then, Boniello said, he’d “respectfully ask” that it close the hearing and then vote on the requested amendment.

The office is “kind of an offshoot, so to speak, of the DEP,” Boniello said, referring to the city’s Department of Environmental Protection.

“We’ve gotten a pretty good letter from the DEP, which you normally don’t see,” said Boniello, adding with a shrug: “Everything is moving along nicely on that front so …”

After Baroni said that it really wasn't his role to contact Bein, the board suggested that Boniello's team itself do the nudging.