Are right good evening everyone and welcome to the wednesday may six, 2026 planning board
meeting. It is 7:06 p.m. And I will call the meeting to order.
>> deputy commissioner schmidt may conduct the role chairperson pine here mr. Weinberg here. Mr. Belanger here. Ms. Robinson here.
note for the record that ms. Anderson is not present so ms. Robinson will be a full voting
member also not present this evening is alternate member patel great.
>> thank you very much. >> staff distributed the april 15th minutes that everyone have
a chance to review them. >> yes. >> yes. Were there any questions or comments or edits to the minutes?
>> no. No. No. All right then I will entertain a motion to approve the april 15th 2020 six minutes as
distributed so moved moved mr. Pullinger second ms. Robinson all in favor I chair votes I we
have one piece of correspondence this evening related to case number pb 1506
shelburne an assisted living facility the applicant is seeking a fourth site plan
planning board steep permit and wetland watercourse permit extension.
>> I'm just going to step away from the dais for a second because I'm conflicted about the case very well. Deputy commissioner schmidt can you walk us through the request
? Yes. So by letter dated for 2126
from daniel tartaglia on behalf of the site owner alfred h. Crowder as chairperson pine
indicated they are seeking a two year additional extension of the existing site plan
planning board steep permit and wetland watercourse permit approvals issued in connection
with case number 15 dash zero six for a project located at 448 underhill road scarsdale.
the letter is fairly detailed it was distributed to the board.
>> I'm happy to answer any questions. >> are there any questions on the request from the board? No. No.
mr. Weinberg um has this been going on since 2015? And I guess related to that as
soon as the case went when was the second approval issue? >> okay. So the case is a 2015 case. It was originally approved by the planning board in 2018.
there were some legal matters that took place over a period of time and that led to a
fairly significant delay. >> so the current status is the contract that they had was
terminated with the assisted living developer? >> yes. And and what based on what was that terminated you know, were there conditions in there that
weren't satisfied within the decision window which in the you know, purchase and sale
agreement with I don't know if it was a timing matter or something else that led to the
termination of the contract. >> and so you know, in how many acres that property is just up
on just over four yeah yeah it's right around four acres. >> so let me ask it is a senior
citizen facility practical over there that that property you know has slowly closed down
it's been vacant abandoned for years now. It's an utter eyesore and you
know my concern is and there's a for sale sign up now right I can't I'm hard pressed to
believe that you know that a senior citizen facility is a practical use of that property
given the you know, the size and the fact that, you know, people worked on it obviously
spent a lot of money on it, walked away from it so I'm concerned about just continuing
what I think is a futile effort rather than, you know, moving on and trying to find something
to do with that property that's going to you know, turn it into a you know, a productive, you
know, real estate property in the town. Right.
so let me answer that quickly. So I think the owner of the property wants to continue to
to have these approvals in place in the event you know, a senior assisted living facility
developer comes along. However, as you noted, the property is on the market, the
property is zoned single family residential with four 20,000 square foot lots.
so I would have to double check but yeah it is something around the half acre range so the
property could be developed with single family homes if someone was interested in doing
so. So they would need to come back to this board to obtain
subdivision approval from the planning board because subdivision approval is not in place in connection what was previously approved. So they would have to come back
and go through the entire planning board process for a single family subdivision which
very well may be the case and we don't know on the because there's for site for sale signs
up now we don't know what they're marketing for and they marketing it as a senior citizen project are they marketing for single family? >> I don't I don't know I could
I have seen a listing for the property being being advertised for a single family home
development. I've seen that on a traditional you know residential retail
residential residential housing website. You know that doesn't mean that
it's not also, you know, simultaneously being listed for for assisted living uses as
well for commercial uses as well. >> and do you know of any other
senior citizen project in the town that's on four acres of land?
well, the four acre minimum is the requirement in the town code so there are there's
bright few integrity down which is you know, not much more than four acres.
that was the first one that came in was built and is a successful facility off of kind
of benedict avenue and old white plains road the the chelsea site on down tree road
is greater than I think it's 6 or 7 acres this a large piece of undeveloped portion but
portion of that property at the rear the brightview metropolis which is a different facility
required more acreage okay then and today we're able to obtain that acreage and subdividing it
off of the golf course site but they do meet code in that regard.
they needed variances and did obtain those variance. >> so you know when when the
contract was terminated I do know you know, it was I believe somewhat recently I mean
whether it was 2025 or 2026 I'm not certain but it wasn't prior to that.
>> and do you have any idea I mean in terms of I think there was litigation going on if I
remember right. I my understanding was the fire department greenville fire
department which had jurisdiction over that property had, you know, series concerns
about access for fire engines and medical and ambulances uh, I mean it just seems like it's
a futile effort to you know, I wish the applicant was here to answer some of these questions
because I just feel like we're oh, you know, please feel free to step up to the mike.
>> thank you. I wasn't aware you were in in attendance. I didn't know whether you were going to entertain comments or not.
hi, my name is dan tartaglia, the attorney for the crowder's in connection with this application and in answer to some of your questions all of which are good questions, the
contract recently terminated it terminated by its term. >> it just basically ran out of
time. The the last time these approvals were extended they
were extended at the request of shelburne and not the crowder's.
this is the first time that the crowder's are asking to have the application of the these approvals extended. There's there's a possibility that it could get marketed and
sold to an assisted living operator. My guess is any operator that
comes along and looks at these specific plans is probably going to want to tinker with it
a little bit and more or more likely than not will be back here for some amendments.
>> that's not the that's obviously the highest and best use for the property and the
crowder's would like to be able to get the return that they can have and carry this property
for many years. >> there were three pieces of litigation one by the fire, one by the greenville just yeah, yeah the greenville fire district sued on the zoning
variances and the special permit and the council of greenburg civic associations
also sued. All the cases were thrown out at the lower level because they
were not timely brought one of them one up to the appellate division in the appellate
division affirmed the lower court. So the combination of all of
this litigation covid and then coming out of covid if you recall what happened to the
construction material prices went through the roof. I think all of that kind of
kind of softened the interest of the developer or the the operator here to go forward.
so the crowder's are now marketing the property. They may find that they can
only sell it for single family development in which case as mr. Schmidt indicated they will have to come back here for subdivision approval if they find a new operator who wants
to deviate from the approved plan, they'll be back here for amendments.
but to let all of this time and all of this money and energy expire without an opportunity
by the property owner to to remarket this property and sell it would actually be a shame.
so I don't know that anything has changed from the original approvals so normally when you
terminate a contract you know it doesn't run like just out to a certain date you may have a
closing date but you're hard on, you know, having to close by a certain you know, at some
point you've gotten all your conditions satisfied you your title whatever. I'm just confused what's been going on with this property you know, to say that time ran out
and why didn't they you know if they if they hadn't if there was litigation that that hadn't
been resolved to the buyer satisfaction if there were conditions in the contract that weren't satisfied, you know, they would have walked away and gotten their money back a lot
earlier than this. So something's missing here as to whether this is a viable
project and you know that prop properties an eyesore it's ripe for vandalism.
I think there was vandalism years ago on it as it's been closed down was a wonderful
nursery for mr. Crowder. >> I used to see him running, you know, well into his 80s,
you know, in that neighborhood. >> but you know, it is in fact in the last two weeks there were school busses parked on that property, you know? >> yeah, I don't know anything
about the school busses. I did I did when I was when I was engaged by the crowd as I
did drive by you know, I was unfamiliar with the site I mentioned to them at the time
and and mr. Tours crowder was here this evening and mentioned to him earlier about the
condition of the property and he did assure me that it was originally the contract vendor
was taking care of the property so now the crowd is have taken over again cleaning and
maintenance of the property and it is going to be taken care of in terms of its appearance.
>> I mean if the if the contract vendors took care of it, I don't know what they did
but you know, they must have blinders on and no tools because it's an eyesore if you
go by there it is an eyesore and it's ripe for vandalism. They put some, you know,
horrible looking fence up over part of it a few months back and you know, I'd certainly
like to know that they're doing it and I might be willing to you know, consider a shorter,
you know, extension period. But dragging this out for two years to me is you know, just
doesn't make any sense if either you know, there's either there's interest in in this
kind of use in a senior citizen facility which I personally just doubt or you know or you
ought to move on and do something that's going to be viable. >> I agree with you. You know the the I think the crowder's I think the crowder's
who have been in this community a long time have operated a business in this community a
long time as you indicate have put a lot of time and sweat and energy and money into
attempting to develop this really should be given their own opportunity to try to
market it. Is is it viable like that? We'll find out. We don't we don't really know I don't know whether the economics for an 80 unit type
facility are still viable but you know I'm if they don't find a viable use and they end up
coming back for a different type of development or a residential development, I don't really see the harm or the foul to extending it for another two years.
it's really not a we're not asking for something discretionary here. We're just asking we're seeing nothing has really changed. Give us an opportunity to see
what we can do and if we can find somebody else interested and if we can't we'll have to
look to market it and some other means. >> and if I can just interject, I think the opportunity to you know for for for the board you know, the opportunity to to
weigh the pros and cons of the specifics of the project you know that that was that that
that opportunity was some time ago with the previous board and ultimately they came to the
decision they did you know the project was approved. You know we now have an
extension request in front of us. You know, deputy commissioner
schmidt can you just remind me sort of the parameters in which we look at when considering
whether or not an extension is granted? I know typically you know, we
ask if the applicant has been in communication with the town ,if the applicant has been earnest in in trying to move the project along I guess could you could you speak to you know
those those those facts and then also you know if there's anything that we really have
the ability to consider beyond that when considering an extension. >> sure so yes I mean the crowder's have been in touch with the town staff regarding
the property in the project itself following termination of the contract we were contacted
to actually find out if if the owners could seek the extension that is sought this evening and
it was reviewed by the town's legal department deemed acceptable and then we received
this letter just a couple of few weeks ago. So they certainly have been in
touch with the town. One of the things that can be considered in connection with the extension is something came up regarding property maintenance and it sounds like
that's fallen back on to the owners. You know this board could ask and I think we've heard already that the crowder's are going to be you know maintaining their
property and perhaps they can do a better job than the prior contract then these beyond that
the board could consider a lesser time for the extension perhaps one year.
but I think whether you whether the board considers a one year or two year extension as
requested by the owners maybe it would make sense for there to be quarterly updates
provided to town staff on you know, the marketing that they've done and any interest
that they've got you know not necessarily specifics but just to continue the lines of
communication. So you know we're in the know and we're aware that you know
you're actively with the crowder's are actively marketing and attempting to you
will be happy to do that would we do that through your department by corresponding yes
or that's correct. >> okay. And and the steps being taken to maintain the property, we will take care of that for sure and and I imagine that would
only help you in trying to market the property to make it as as appealing as possible
can't hurt again. >> sure. >> can you just can I just go
back? Yes, sir. The question I asked about why the contract terminated where there conditions in there that weren't satisfied give me to
much financing and considering just not to be so I just spoke with my client and mr. Mark
hallowell who was involved with the original approvals. Apparently this was a joint
venture between shelburne and information. >> one was more the developer,
the other one was more the financial partner and I think formation just basically got tired of waiting with the project to move forward and lost interest in it over the
course of years and eventually decided not to go forward with it and the contract was finally
terminated. >> one of the lawyers in my office who I work with I
believe was over the summer sent a termination letter confirming the termination and
I did show the planning department that there was clear there's there's a clear
assignment of all of the plans approvals and intellectual property that have been that have been paid for and approved are now the ownership of the crowder's.
so that was one of the things we needed to clear with your legal department with your client consider a shorter extension then we'll be moving probably we just be back again.
>> that's I mean if you're going to if you're going to sell it for a you know, for a
senior citizen facility, you know, I don't know that it takes two years to go find a
buyer inside something it so to me it would be an indication that it's just not going to
happen. >> move on. Well, they may be moving on
anyway. They're they're not going to just sit there. I mean I you know, extension doesn't preclude, you know, the ownership or microphone and
thank you the extension doesn't preclude another entity where the owners themselves from
coming in with an application for single family subdivision right no, I understand.
>> as I said, this is the highest and best use will we find somebody for this? >> we're not sure. Will they have a fallback position?
they're going to have to I mean the property's just sitting there fallow so they're going to need to do something with it and have single family residential is the only way
they can go. Then at some point they'll do that.
>> all right. Are there any other questions on the extension?
>> okay. All right then I will entertain a motion to approve a fourth
extension on the site plan planning board steep permit and wetland watercourse permit
approvals for a two year term valid through may 17th, 2028. >> and we conditioned and
conditioned on the quarterly meetings with our quarterly updates to staff on the
progress of marketing and marketing of the property both for use as a single family home
and the approved and senior living and also you know maintaining you know up keeping
the property you know within the next what's reasonable 90 days you know I'm sure it's
spring I mean everybody's doing their spring cleaning now that's probably a good time 90 days so I'll entertain a motion for for for that with those conditions so some second moved
ms. Robinson seconded mr. Bellinger all in favor I I'm going to abstain chair votes I
and mr. Weinberg abstains thank you. >> all right thank you everyone
have a good evening. >> thank you. All right.
next up we have one item of old business case number 2505 205207 sawmill river road llc
the applicant is seeking a site plan and landscape buffer waivers.
>> a draft decision was distributed to the board. >> did everyone have a chance
to review the draft decision? Yes. Yes. >> all right. Deputy commissioner schmidt, can you walk us through the
site specific conditions? >> yes. And just a quick update. So following the board's public hearing which was conducted on april 15th, the written record
was kept open through april 24th. No additional comments were
received. There are three actions and three votes that the board will
consider this evening. One is to classify the project as a type two action under c.a.
second is to consider voting on the site plan application and third is to consider voting on
the planning board waivers requests related to landscape buffers to the northeast, south
and west property lines in terms of site specific requirements call your
attention condition 4.1 on page four which indicates that the applicant shall repair the
sidewalk across the property's frontage and obtain all necessary permits from the new york state department of transportation to affect such repair.
no final certificate of occupancy shall be issued by the town building inspector
until the sidewalk repair work is completed and then we have on page five condition four
point to the applicant shall install landscape planters on the property in accordance with the plans listed in section one of this approval. I do believe that mr. Robinson
may have a comment related to that condition. >> I, I just want to make sure
that the applicant is aware that they have to maintain the plants in the plants or within
the plants are for the duration. It's not something that's going
to that we're just going to let get away from us. >> we love the beautification.
we just need it to stay the same. >> mr. Zapata right.
so my suggestion to the board based on that would be to update condition 4.2 to
indicate that the applicant shall install and appropriately maintain the landscape planters on the property to the satisfaction of the town forestry officer and in
accordance with the plans listed in section one of this approval. So it would just be in there as language. So it's very clear both to the
town and town staff as well as you and your client that you know if depending on the types
of plants you know, if they were to not survive they need to be replaced or if you know
they were annuals they'd need to be, you know, installed every year because they only oh
yes, yes, we are aware about it and basically as much as possible depend of this
easement on the pain of the the plant that we have to remember that we are going we are proposing planters. Yes. And the idea is to try to get
the evergreens to keep it at least in green and then in soil for the spring or summer change
here it'll be because of the season but then we have to worry about great rains.
>> thank you. Are there any other questions or comments on the draft
decision? All right then as was stated we have three votes to consider in
front of us classifying the action as a type two action or secre approving the site plan
decision and approving the landscape buffer waivers draft decision.
so first I will entertain a motion to classify the action as a type two action under
secre so move move mr. Bellinger second second. >> ms. Robinson all in favor I
I chair votes side next up I will entertain a motion to approve the draft decision for
the site plan application as amended with ms. Robinson's edits so moved move mr.
bellinger second second ms. Robinson all in favor I chair votes I and lastly I will
entertain a motion to approve the draft decision for the landscape buffers waiver
request also as amended so moved moved ms. Robinson second seconded mr. Bellinger all in
favor I chair votes I. All right thank you very much have a good evening all right
so now I will call a public hearing session of the planning board to order it is seven 30 3
p.m.. Deputy commissioner schmidt may you conduct the role.
>> sure. Chairperson pine here. Mr. Weinberg here. Mr. Bellinger here. Ms. Robinson here. >> note for the record that
ms.. Anderson and mr. Patel are not present this evening and ms.
robinson will be a full voting member in place of ms. Anderson thank you.
>> so we have one public hearing here this evening. Case number pb 2513 cone at
zero peter bond road in irvington irvington the applicant is seeking a planning
board steep permit, a wetland watercourse permit and a tree removal permit.
>> just to confirm for the record town planner britton this hearing was noticed in
accordance with the code in the town's newspaper of record. >> I can confirm that.
great. >> thank you. Representing the applicant.
good evening. >> good evening, chair members of the board. My name is andy chung ac engineering. >> so anyone g anybody who's
basically zero peter road is a 4.72 acre undeveloped lot. It is at the end of the cul de
sac of blueberry hill road there is an existing shared driveway which serves two
existing homes along that driveway and the I'm here with the property owner guy cohen
who's also the architect of the property and we're we're proposing on building a single
family dwelling on that lot I think there is a lot of due diligence that was done.
>> so just to go over a couple of the things we went through shpo state historic
preservation went through a lengthy stormwater design stormwater plan in a swap that
was approved by the engineering department. >> we have utilities that are connecting to the end of blueberry hill road. There's existing gas water,
sewer and electric lots like I mentioned electric that will be connecting to the existing
house. There is a couple of zoning variances that we went to the
zoning board last month and we were we got approval from the zoning board of appeals one
requiring the street frontage and then the and the other one requiring the whole island type
and whoever that might be. Can you turn down the volume? Thank you.
>> thank you. Sorry. 25 foot requires street frontage and the new york consolidated town law to 80 a we got approval for the
variances for that we went through the conservation advisory council. We got approvals for the the landscaping on the property to offset the trees that were
going to be removed for the construction of the house and the driveway.
so there is wetland on the property completed. >> the jurisdictional
determination met with dc and we were able to procure a dc permit from dc to allow for a
construction within 100 foot wetland buffer. >> so I think that pretty much takes care of everything that we have to take care of. >> can you speak a little bit
to the steep disturbances and do you have accurate tree removal and landscaping figures
and if you have the ability to walk through the plans both for the benefit of the board even
though they saw them in the work session but for the benefit of the public as well? Sure. Including the stormwater management system, its
maintenance requirements. Sure. And the landscaping you spoke of briefly. >> thank you. Sure.
>> so this plan is the steep plan. >> there's actually only a
small portion of slopes that exceed a 25% to 35% that we're doing.
the majority of the work is really done in the green area that you see which is not a
steep but because there are this this property is kind of like a bowl.
so there are steep slopes kind of going up the bowl on the north on the east side and also
on on the west side the house actually sits. You can see the the foot the
the outline of the house on this plan. You know, again, the majority
of the construction is located within the flat part of the upper plateau of the property.
so there's there's there's a small portion. Can you see my cursor?
>> yeah. If you see my cursor there's a small portion here where there's some construction going on. And then here's the driveway
that comes down and then right here at the entrance there's a little bit of steep here.
but again, the majority of the construction is is kind of limited to where the houses up
. >> and just to clarify is the green class classified as 0 to
15? Correct? Yes. Thank you. >> all right. So that's the steep plan as we
move into the stormwater plan. I think that's the next one is the so that's the grading plan.
so here's the stormwater plan. >> so for the stormwater plan how we designed this is pretty
much all of the impervious surfaces of the roof and in the driveway will be collected.
the stormwater will be collected via catch basins on the on the on on the on the
property so roof drains would be draining into catch basins showing little circles on the
plan and from the catch basins they would flow into one of three bio retention basins and
the bar retention basin is basically a basin filled with a bar retention soil mix
typically mixture of concrete sand and topsoil to allow for attenuation of volume of
stormwater as well as water quality and the outlets on the bottom of the bar retention
basin which will be landscaped as well as water enters the bar retention basin there is a
particular holding time for that water to sit in that basin until it percolates through that soil mixture and underneath that soil mixture there is a perforated pipe
which takes the flow out back into the wetland area. None of the work is done inside
the wetland. All the work is done outside of the wetland as per these
requirements the flows from the driveway will be similarly will flow into a a vegetated channel
along the side of the driveway located here and that flow goes into a bio retention basin as
well similar to the other ones. So as you can see here there's one bar retention basin right
here with an overflow pipe out here is the second bar retention basin here with an
overflow pipe out and a third bar retention basin here with an overflow out.
so and again, all of these bio retention basins the storm water design was based on a new
york state storm water design manual swap was prepared it was was reviewed by the town
engineering department and was and was approved. >> just stay on this plan
before you move on. A couple of questions in terms of maintenance of the bio
retention basins, what's the typical old you know, type of maintenance and rough schedule
of maintenance of that type of ,you know, facility for managing storm water?
>> yeah. >> so these bio retention basins are vegetated. There's going to be plants so like wetland type plants that are going to be growing and
they're really the the the only maintenance that will have to be done is you know, make sure
the the plants are are still thriving. They are designed to absorb
water as well. So having the vegetation and the plants, you know, thriving
in these bio retention basins is is is optimal. The the soil mixture is it
doesn't happen quickly but over time the the the soil mixture will eventually get clogged
with debris in which case that soil mixture would just be removed replaced with a new bar
retention mixture of concrete sand and topsoil and then the vegetation gets gets replaced
and they ask a question here sure. In the application the p e
roman numeral three it states overflow of the bio retention basin will be directed to the
wetland on the property. >> could you clarify that for me please?
>> so there's so there's two outlets to the bar retention basin there there's under
drainpipe which is at the very bottom of the bar retention basin which takes the flow as storm water percolates through the soil mixture eventually gets into the perforated pipe
and then it drains out into the wetland. There's also an emergency overflow right if we get a 200 year storm that comes we don't want the basin to get full and
then spill outside. There is an overflow. We're just about just six
inches below the top elevation of the basin which allows water to flow out of the weir and
then into the wetland. Thank you. And just a follow up to that.
I was going to ask this before currently the site at least partially drains down toward
the wetland area. Correct. So is the intent to mimic kind of the existing condition in the proposed condition? >> correct.
so in the post development condition calculations were done to determine what the post
development flows were in comparison with the predevelopment flows and with
the addition of the three bar retention basins were able to get or post development flows
to be less than our predevelopment flows just because the basins have the ability to retain and slow down right? So imagine a drop of water from
high point going down to the wetland if there was nothing there it would take say five
minutes to get there with the addition of the bar retention basins that drop of water with
the bar retention basin slow down that that you know allow it to store as it goes into the
drain pipe that five minutes ends up being 20 minutes, right?
so there's same volume of water but longer duration of time for that water to get to that same
spot. Thank you to evening board members.
my name is guy cone of the architects as well as the owner of the house.
I also did the landscaping plan. I just want to add as far as the maintenance of the bio retention basins we're going to weed them.
so we've done the planting plan with extensive plants that are based on different levels
within the bio retention basins . So there's wet plants, there's
medium and there's dried plants and so we're going to have to get in there and weed them on occasion to make sure that they thrive and continue to live properly.
don't get so overwhelmed by weeds or other plants invasive plants if they happen to you
know, seed in their. So I just wanted to add that to the to the maintenance question
. I appreciate that. One of the follow up quick follow up that I have is is one way to know that there may be clogged areas within the bio
retention basins. Would that be evident by like ponding of water versus, you
know, slow infiltration? >> so typically the bio retention basin will de water
the entire area of the basin within within a day. So if we're if if you're
getting ponding water for more than a day, you we know it's it's about time to replace the
media okay thank you and that's that's that's the typical in the appendix d of the new york
state stormwater design manual and actually in the in the appendix of my swept through
there is a maintenance schedule. >> okay that's in there thank you. So I have a question. Yes the d c previously issued a
jurisdictional determination and since then indicating that they had jurisdiction once you
start you know developing the property in the interim there was a court case appealing the
changes to the regulations. >> so it's kind of in limbo at the moment.
we haven't seen what the issues going to do yet. Yes. However, I did discuss how they're treating applications currently with region three
which is applicable to here and they are not applying the urban area which was the grounds for
obtaining a jurisdictional determination. So I'm just curious to see if you've received any correspondence or anything regarding application of this
permit. >> we have not for this particular property but I do
know what you're talking about because I tried to file another jurisdictional determination on
another property and they wouldn't let me that said we we have a dc permit that was
mailed to us that was that's valid for five years. >> five years.
yeah. Yeah. So regardless of what happens to the jurisdictional determination that's already been done we have an official
permit from d.c.. Thank you. >> I think we go first.
yeah, because I think this will be my last one, sir. >> thank you.
there's really two but you do so the question about essentially the shared driveway
coming in off the cul de sac of blueberry hill road are there any improvements proposed along
that segment? Yeah. And if so, can you walk us through those? Yes. Let me pull up the utility plan
and then I'll just state it while you're getting to the plan.
one of the board in the public to be aware of we don't have to go through species by species
but I've been out at the site we've walked it. I do believe while there are
native species there are a number of invasive species that are going to be removed in
connection with the property and then touching on your replacement plantings in terms
of tree species, if you could just touch on that you're not going to be planting in any new
invasive species. >> it's going to be well I'll I'll I'll let that guy discuss
the the plantings he's the he's the landscaping expert here but there's there's there's 100
trees to be removed. We have submitted an arborist report that that documents
every tree the condition of the tree the size of the tree that's to be removed.
why it has to be removed the majority of the reason is because it's in the area where
we're going to be building the house and the driveway in the bar retention basins.
but I like I discussed with the plantings that we're proposing on here but on the on this
utility plan so the shared driveway is going to be the existing asphalt will have to
get removed and we're going to trenched for the electric the gas, the water in the sewer.
and what we're planning on doing is basically replacing and enhancing the existing
shared driveway right now the existing shared driveways not in great condition portions of
the asphalt or cracking you know parts of it are are damaged.
so after we're done trenching and installing our utilities we're going to replace it with you know, with a proper asphalt driveway. In addition to that we're going
to create a little channel on the right side to accommodate flows from neighbors driveways
that are just discharging out. Right because there's everything there's there uphill
there uphill of this shared driveway so when it rains all the water just kind of comes on
to this your driveway and comes down the hill. So we've taken into account you
know, the neighbors water that comes off the driveway at the bottom of the hill where the
shared driveway is the water currently pitches towards the neighbor to the east and then
there's that water I think constantly floods their driveway and floods the garage
. So we're doing some we're doing some regrading in that area to
allow for that water to come onto our property stored in the catch basin goes into the bar
retention basin and then back out into the wetland and that property to the east is that
the eight blueberry hill road? Yes. Okay. So that's the property where we received some correspondence so it sounds like there's going to
be some improvements in that regard, correct? >> okay. Correct. You know like I talk about the plantings that we're proposing
to you have the planting but you know, no. And while you're pulling that
up, you know, 100 trees is, you know, a fair amount of trees to be removed in connection with
that one single family home. But if I recall correctly, this site is, you know,
predominantly wooded and many of the trees on the property are going to be preserved.
if you could just oh, I think this depicts that fairly well. Thank you.
maybe we could go to the tree removal plan first. A lot of the way to go back to
this so here is show the the list so this is the tree the tree removal plan on my side of
plans. This table is from the arborist report of all the trees that are to be removed. >> oops. And as you can see there's this
there's this this lot is is is you know, fully wooded, completely vegetated.
so you can see where the majority of the trees are are to be removed are really you
know, in the areas of the house the areas of the bar retention basins, the driveway and pretty
much all the other trees that are surrounding that property is going to going to remain as
as is. We're not we're not proposing or removing any trees that are
not necessary to be removed. Thank you. I also just want to add that a
lot of those trees are in really bad shape, critical in some cases where if we can move
this um if you look at the tree list you can see that a good number of them are critical in
poor condition because we've got you know, all kinds of invasive well the deer have
basically eaten everything that grows new. There is a lot of barberry bush
around there. >> we're going to remove the barberry bush.
the trees have fallen victim of disease and you know, vines there have been a lot of what
are they called blanking out the what's the name of the strangler vine.
>> oh, porcelain baby buried there's some I'm blanking out grape vines there.
I mean there's there well the vines have taken over a lot of the trees and so they're
they've grown up and sort of decapitated a lot of the trees .
and so part of the idea of the planting plan is to replace a lot of these trees with healthy
new trees of species that won't be prone to disease and other various you know, destructive
types of effects. >> so as you can see the uh the planting plan here um, we're
going to be planting uh see if we can do a go down to the next plan so these are the planting
plans that we presented to the conservation advisory council. You can see that we have quite
an extensive list in here which includes the bio retention planting mix as well as you
know where and when. So this this it's a fairly dense planting all based on
native plants and it's you can see the on the c of that this planting plan right there
that's a typical bio retention planting plan and then that is covered by the chart up here
and we did the number of plants that the species whether or not they are thrive, whether or not
we're going to lose power and oh okay, you know based on their position within the
actual bio retention basin wet medium dry so that's been thought through fairly
extensively around the house itself there's going to be a lawn area planted grass but
then on the perimeter is going to be a native meadow that's going to be planted along there
leading up to the house along the driveway will also be native shrubs plants, border
plants, ground covers. So for the most part I'd say 95% of the plants are native.
there are few non-natives but most of those are just sort of I guess meant to be used as
kind of a a decorative feature type of plant ornamental plant. Okay.
there you can see as a section of the bio retention planting basin, can we go to the actual
planting plan list? So there there we have the tree. Um the eye tree report with the trees were planning on replacing those at the tree
removal. This is also repeated there again there was another those
are the plans that I brought here. It gives you sort of a three
dimensional idea of what the overall site's going to look like once it's finished and
planted. So we're going to retain most of the trees around there, the
forest around there. It's going to remain a predominantly wooded site except for the one area around the house. We're not really touching
anything in the wetlands area although we have added some plants along the perimeter as
per the conservation advisory council recommendations. There's another view if we go
back a step there I know the one before that so there's the actual planting plan key where
you can see all the plants that we're adding to the site. It's combination of azaleas,
rhododendrons, some dogwoods, things like river birch the I won't go into the meadow
because the meadows fairly extensive but there's also a matrix for the meadow planting
if we have that one which will be I think further on there so there's some the native meadow
planting mix that's also based on a seasonal planting. So the idea was to create
seasonal interest and color from spring all the way through fall and that you can see the
typical sort of meadow planting section which will be repeated that's a 12 by 40 foot section
that will be repeated but varied along the entire it's very interesting I had a lot of
fun with this. I used I to create the actual matrix. In other words I, I actually have been doing a lot of research and I do a lot of
planting on my own property so I had the plants and I knew what species I wanted but it
was really hard to create a matrix that would repeat that would be different and would
sort of represent and sort of create a native meadow type of mix.
so if you did it in a very regular way where you just did a grid and you had the same
plants in the same grid, you would always kind of look the same. It would looked a little boring. So based on I created a list of
plants the types of plants that I wanted and then I said based on this mix maybe 60%
structural grasses and 15% of certain flowering plants and another 15% of these plants I
created this mix and then within each one of these sections it varies.
so I have 16 sections which when you link them together in piecing together creates a
natural flow throughout the entire meadow that doesn't make it look like it repeats.
it's just it looks like it's been influenced by wind plants have been blown in certain
ways. There's been a kind of natural meadow pollinator meadow effect
so that there are certain areas that might be more have more interest as far as color than
others. So it was really kind of developed to be a very, very
natural and native type of design. >> so we've got a lot of plants
we've got over 8000 plants I think total that we're planting in this.
some will be actual plugs, others will be you know, certain diameter of of the the
trunk and I think the this landscaping plan is almost as important as the actual
architecture of the house itself to me at least. So it's going to be quite a
project. It certainly is and I promise I only asked these final two so
and then I because I want the board and anyone from the public um this is going to be
your residence. >> it is, yes. I wanted that to be on the record definitely and to I think the vine that was escaping me as well is
bittersweet. >> bittersweet. That's it exactly. The bittersweet vines are like anaconda on that property and they're choking out half of the
trees. >> thank you, senior moment miss robinson, you have some
questions? >> yes. The buyer attention systems that you have on the plans currently have those areas been evaluated and do we know that
that's exactly where they are going to go? >> well, maybe I'll let andy
answer that. We did do test pits to determine if they would work
geo tactically in those areas and they do. >> all right.
any other questions, miss robinson? I do. >> so it is clear that you have thought this out with consideration of everyone
especially with the bio systems especially with making sure that water isn't going on to
the neighbor's property and with it being your forever home you will take good care of the
bio retention systems. >> so my concern ultimately is how well the next person will
take care of this. Our retention system. So I just want to voice that for the record correct me if I'm wrong but there's maintenance plan associated
with the installation. Yes. >> on the on the in the
appendix of the swap there is a maintenance plan. Yeah. My concern is the next owner how well they will maintain the bio retention system so it's a
condition that would run with the land and failure to maintain it could be called upon and yes a notice sent and an action taken. >> yes please.
>> any other questions, mr. Robinson? That's it. All right. I did have a few questions before I pass it off to the
rest of the board and then this is a public hearing so I do want to hear from the public.
>> we received one letter of comment that was distributed to the board and so I just for the
record just wanted to paraphrase and or reframe the questions and then get the responses on the record. I think the first one will actually be for you deputy
commissioner schmidt I just wanted to confirm that the town engineer who is a third party
from the applicant reviewed the stormwater management plan prior to this hearing.
>> yes, that's correct. Right. I just wanted to confirm that
the town engineer or other town staff will conduct inspections at key milestones during
construction including grading basin basin installation final stabilization and certify that
the work has been complete in accordance with the plans and with the conditions that if we
approve this application would be included with the approval. >> yes. So if this project's approved by the planning board before the applicant can obtain a
building permit from the building department they need to obtain a stormwater management control permit from the town engineer and it sounds like they've already prepared
they mentioned they've prepared a stormwater pollution prevention plan and they have
drawings that would go with that but ultimately they need the stormwater management control permit from issued by the and signed off on by the town engineer when the town
engineer issues the stormwater management control permit there is a schedule of mandated
inspections that include it's known or referred to as the yellow sheet which is your
schedule of inspections and they can their office can come out at any time to inspect but
at a minimum at milestone points within the project during construction and then
post construction day and even prior to construction for instance to verify that the
silt fence and any other protection measures on the site are installed properly and
according to plan they will be out on site. So I just wanted that to be on
the record. >> thank you and I thank you. And lastly, you know if if a
resident and this could be a general question for for any application you know if a
resident had a question or a comment or wanted to report a concern regarding a development
project, who would be the best point of contact within the town for a neighbor to reach
out? >> so typically the best point of contact during construction
is our building inspectors office. If the complaint doesn't
involve the building inspectors office specifically they will route that comment question or
concern to the appropriate office which may be the bureau of engineering or if it was
tree related to the forestry officer or if it was a legal question down to our legal
department. But certainly our building inspectors office would be the
best point of contact and not not that this is a pop quiz but the the email for the building
department is building at greenberg ny.gov is that correct? Correct. Great. So if a neighbor ever had a
comment or concern they could email building at greenberg ny.gov and get a timely
response and if the building department is not the appropriate recipient as deputy
commissioner schmidt mentioned, that question would be routed to the appropriate office and
their phone number would be on the town website as well. Great.
>> thank you. Are there any questions from any burning questions from the board before we go to the public and then we'll have a second crack at it after after
we hear from the public. >> I have no burning question do have any questions? >> no, I just I appreciated your enthusiasm on the landscaping as somebody who's a
member of the bronx botanic gardens in prospect park botanical gardens and who
appreciates museums with the landscaping you're love to shown in your presentation.
well, I'm also a member of the garden conservancy. Yeah.
mr. Weinberg the access to the property and how it's a shared driveway right.
was that what was shown to the fire department? >> there was a comment from the
engineering department so we had made provisions there. >> there was a comment about
fire truck access. So we we we modified our driveway design to include a
little turnaround area and the engineering department had no other comments from the fire
department. Okay. Uh, the access agreement that
you included. Okay. So I think the applicant signed
it has everyone else there's two there's two other parts. >> there's a little confused about mr. Monk's and what what his property has to do with the shared driveway.
you know, I thought it was just one other house. >> both parties all parties
signed the agreement mr. Monk's driveways at the bottom he he purchased the his property
while we were in process of getting the access agreement the easement and did sign it
before he purchased the property. Right, right.
yeah. And so that's also a maintenance agreement we maintain it for snow and for you know overall maintenance of the exist.
we're going to as andy said, we're going to after we trench it and build the utilities
through it, we're going to repave it and then we're going to modify it.
so the access agreement and the easement agreement calls for shared maintenance after we've
already done all this in perpetuity as long as we're there and one of the neighbors
likes plowing his own driveway so he'll do his own I'm not sure what our new neighbor
wants to do but I. I know that we're going to have to plow our driveway so we're
going to all probably get together and decide, you know, before the first snow when
we're there who does what, you know, because it was a little when I looked at this, you
know, easement one the one that we have. So it was only signed by you.
>> it's only signed well, I can send you the one that's signed by everybody and if you send it
to me. Sure. I thought I thought we had you may have matt you know offhand if a signed agreement is in hand and so I.
I mean I've certainly seen it. I don't I can try to pull it off.
>> okay. >> if not we'll distribute to the board and so they have and so there's the monks, the cones and the series. So there's three houses that
are using this access drive. That's correct. And how do you you know you're
talking to everyone now you're going to live here. What happens because it to me
it wasn't really clear how all this is going to be worked out when there are new owners there
and they don't want to plow you know, they're property themselves. >> I believe the access agreement is in perpetuity and and carries on if we leave well
it is in perpetuity. >> but what you know what I'm not sure about is the
understanding of exactly what you're all obligated to do in perpetuity.
it's you know, you're already making exceptions to just some of what's in here and I'm not
sure that I really saw, you know, the you know, maintenance of this you know, how what kind
of exceptions are we making? >> I'm not so there's an easement for, you know,
maintenance. There's an easement for the utilities and it's hard for me
to understand because I haven't seen a map with all the like a sort of a survey with the three
properties and how they all feed into this access road and who's going to do if you're just going to plow yours? >> I'm not sure that I understand without seeing
something exactly what you are plowing as opposed to the rest of the people.
>> and if someone who's closer to the street doesn't plow who takes care of it?
so maybe we can ask you how do you how are you sharing all these costs when it's not clear
who's doing what exactly who's doing what and there's no there's you know it talks about sharing but it doesn't say there's nothing about the process for how that's going to
work. Let me see if we can get the a a better draw a better drawing
of the shared driveway maybe. >> well, syria syria had been there.
siri's been there for I don't know how many maybe a dozen years they have the property
closest to the cul de sac and so their driveway is the first one on the left as you come off
the cul de sac he's been plowing his own driveway up to the cul de sac for as long as
he's lived there. The prior neighbor who was in monk's house was markey and
markey plowed from his house up to series house so what we I'm assuming we're going to do when
we work it out is we will plow from our house to monk's house .
monks will plow from his house to series house and siri will plow from his house to the cul
de sac and I assume that that's kind of what we're going to eventually work out and if monk
if there's another owner of the monk house and he decides you know, I don't need to, you
know, plow this, you know, whatever but the other people they got to get out.
they can plow my property. >> yeah, I just I think someone should take a clear look at
this and not assume that you're all going to get together today and agree on something and then
in 5 or 10 years or the different owners you know, they don't see it the same way they're not working together. What's in here is what's going to, you know, prevail.
you can always amend it, you know, informally among yourselves while you're there and you're talking to each other. But ultimately this document in
terms of the easements, exactly what they are, the maintenance, how we're going to get people
are going to get charged and pay for it and if they don't pay what the remedies are, this
doesn't really deal with a lot of that and I think for everyone's sake it ought to be
looked at and cleaned up and tightened up so that it works for anyone even if you're not
talking to each other. Well, I'm not an attorney. I believe that this is an issue
between neighbors and not necessarily an issue for the planning board and it's been
worked out and everyone has agreed to it. So unless there's an objection
from a neighbor, I'm not sure it's really pertinent to our discussion in this particular
case. >> I think the fire department did want the road plowed just in case there's a problem. >> well, I think everybody needs to get in and out and I
once again I'm not an attorney so I have I don't have the easement agreement right here
in front of me but I believe that it carries through to all neighbors whether or not they
move out and a new neighbor comes in and takes over. I think it's it runs with the
entire land. >> it does wrong with the land and respectfully it is not
that's not allowed. It's a driveway and the fire department would plow through when they needed to. >> it's you know, perpetual I'm just saying that there's a lot
that's missing in here that that really makes it clear ironclad who's got to do what?
if you want to have informal agreements, that's fine. You know, do it shake hands.
but if someone you know if someone doesn't you know, following through does think
that the serious problems and monks shall be solely responsible for their own snow and ice removal from the driveway which they will do for their own benefit and not for
the benefit of the other parties related to that, this similar line of questioning
came up at a previous application before the board clayton road.
right. And the question similarly came up about who's going to plow
the road and if no one does it, what's going to happen and what mr. Garner had indicated and
what was told to us is that if the fire department needs to access you know, the road in
the roads not plowed, they will plowing and they will charge the owners. There's also the potential for them to be issued violation if they fail to plow.
so those are the remedies if a future homeowner fails to properly keep their driveway
clear of snow and ice. >> so the only difference matt ,is that the application
you're referring to previously all of that's true except for one piece and that was the
prior application was a private road whereas this is a driveway. >> so the inherent well except for the fact that we likely wouldn't issue violations for a
driveway for failure to plow but the cost of plowing said driveway to get to the house
for an emergency would be charged back. >> and if I can just add we had
an interesting situation like that happened this winter where we have a long driveway
currently it's about 512ft long. It's a narrow driveway and the day of the heaviest snow the second snow that we had there was almost two feet.
our plow company decided to ghost us so we called around. We called around just we
finally got in touch with them and they said it was too hard. They decided not to plow our
driveway anymore so we called a bunch of people found somebody and took two days but we got a
plowed now in a case like that if you run into an emergency situation somebody needs
medical care or something like that. What do you do? You're kind of stuck. You're you're held you're holding the bag.
so I can just tell you that we would you know, be as diligent as we possibly could and we
will try to cooperate with all of our neighbors as best we can and it would be in everyone's
best interest if they maintain their driveway and that's you know, rather than setting up a
schedule right now which you know, we haven't done yet because we haven't moved in, we
haven't built the house, we've got the formwork or the the I guess the outline of what we
need to do and I think it makes it a good starting point to kind of develop a relationship
with our neighbors which will be cooperative and everyone can work together. I mean that's all we can really do at this point I think. >> all right.
so this this is a public hearing and I would like to hear from the public.
is there anyone here in person in the audience who would like to speak on this application
please? >> it's up, bro. >> closer.
come up. Introduce yourself name, name and address. >> thank you. Thank you. My name is jonathan monk.
I live at eight blueberry hill road the property to the east in question the correspondence
I said has already been referenced and mr. Chair you touched on pretty much all of
it. >> so I guess the only thing I wanted to ask regarding the town engineer's inspection at key milestones during the construction is what those
milestones are. >> if we know that and if those inspections will be public and
just able to be monitored like obviously we have an avenue to raise concerns but if we can
just independently kind of keep track of progress, right? >> so my suggestion would be we
can put you in touch with the town's bureau of engineering. I don't want to speak and
unintentionally leave out one of the key milestones so they deal with an issue a number of
stormwater permits probably dozens each if not more each year. So we're happy to put you in touch with them so you can understand that process,
understand the milestones and understand the public inspection of records.
>> correct? Okay. Thank you. That's all I have. Thank thank you. Thank thank you for coming out.
please mr. Or mr. Cohen and I know you want to mr. You want to speak and then if it's in
response is it in response to yes. >> okay. So I just want to respond to jonathan monk's concern. I can just tell you that we're
going to do everything we know that it's going to be a lot of disturbance and once construction starts there's going to be dirt and mud and noise and all kinds of things
that will kind of break the peace and quiet of that area a little bit.
so we're going to be very, very diligent and make the contractors know that they've
got to make sure that that's got to be kept clean and that we're going to try to minimize
the disturbance as much as possible and also any sort of disturbance that might cause
stormwater runoff such as silt sill fence. >> if if they get knocked down
we will immediately put them back up. So we're going to try to be as good neighbors as we possibly can and you know, try to mitigate.
it's going to it's going to be a process it's going to probably take about a year or
so to do this. But we're going to do our best to kind of make it as easy on you as possible. And and I'm not sure we've we're even going to know when
the inspections are going to happen. Are we going to get notifications of when the inspections are going to happen?
>> yeah. So there's an inspection checklist so they're going to come out periodically but there are going to be times where your team will contact the
bureau of engineering and say we've installed all the silt fencing according to the plan
we'd like you to come out for an inspection. Okay. But there will be spot inspections. They have the ability to
perform spot inspections and to to our best knowledge if you if you want to know if if we're
notified that there's going to be an inspection, I'm happy to let you know in I might suggest
if you haven't exchange information yet or we have great we have wonderful.
>> okay. All right. >> next member of the public
please state your name and address for the record. >> thank you.
>> good evening on clovis I live at 12 cayuga lane which is just north of the property on
the other side of the woods effectively again I'm also I'm supportive of the property.
I think it's going to be great for the area. My biggest concern I think I would have is around just storm water runoff just downstream flooding you probably already
are aware but this property resides near the wetland that feeds barney brook.
barney brook is a area that has seen a lot of issues in the town of irvington and irvington
has received federal funds or state funds I should say to mitigate that flooding.
so I think that's just an area of concern for all that the neighbors in the area is flooding. Flooding is extreme in this area.
the rainfall that we've had in the last couple flash floods have just inundated the area.
there was recently a hearing about an adjacent property on 50 morgan road as well where
they were trying to build a garage addition and I'm just curious like between those
properties because they're relatively closely situated. Has there been any assessment
done about the combined impact of that and how that feeds the downhill especially like how
you go in an area? >> and I'll ask you a slightly different question and deputy commissioner schmidt, could could you just sort of walk us through what the code
requirements is? Are in terms of stormwater mitigation? >> right. So broken down to its simplest form the code requires that
there be no net increase in water discharging from the property in the
post-construction condition versus the pre construction condition so the applicant as
part of the storm water pollution prevention plan to very like it can be a very
lengthy document has to do an analysis of preexisting conditions how water moves
through the site and then off the site in the preexisting condition and then modeling and
inserting the new home driveway removal of trees, etc. And any regrading that's done along
with their new systems that they're putting in place in this case the buyer retention basins, the various catch basins they model that and they have to submit all that
documentation on to the town's bureau of engineering to ensure that in that post-construction
condition there is no additional water leaving the site and oftentimes it's
actually less often time oftentimes, right. >> so we're we have to speak
about the current project before I sign I was around during the construction process of 50 mile again and I'm sorry the mulligans. >> yeah the little more that
the bell right yes so but I'm not an engineer I only know what the code requires and what
our bureau of engineering looks at and analyzes and then the inspections and to get to the
heart of your question or ultimately what deputy commissioner schmidt explain
that that net reduction is on a site by site basis and so ultimately the the fact that
there's two projects or two sites near each other that both had development ultimate
ultimately each site independently had to have a net reduction right it's it's you
can't you know if one of them is doing more and the other one's doing less they don't
balance out if you're you know they're individually okay I know I understand.
I appreciate that of course and what you guys have done to kind of assess the situation it's exactly like you said morgan development and it's probably a function of weather conditions
changing radically and I think maybe that's part of the the the the review that's pending
has changed significantly like the amount of water that comes down.
so what was fine before is just not and I guess the other concern I would have is the
there's a 100 yes there's a lot of invasive species but there's one hundred mature probably 50
year old trees that retain a significant amount of water in their root system and putting
72 saplings which isn't even equivalent to the number of trees coming out which are tiny
they're not I get it there's retention ponds but there's still also a like the grading
of the slopes, right? Like just the retention of soil and stuff. The roots do that like ponds not going to retain the dirt on these steep slopes which
there's about 5000ft2 of which is like the size of a basketball court. It's a relatively large area, right? >> so I know that prior to
closing out the stormwater management control permit which is completely separate from the
building permit and you know other related permit, the site has to be fully stabilized so
you can't have erosion happening with erosion gullies and silt and whatnot entering
into the wetland and then discharging to offsite properties that would not be
something that would satisfy the bureau of engineering tont r permit is closed.
>> okay. That's good to hear and I guess the last thing was and if I
could actually so I'm not too sure if I could just ask one question so deputy commissioner
schmidt could you also just explain briefly so you know, certainly there has been I
would say an evolution in weather events or over time our code currently requires is a 25
year storm. That's correct. And I'm and for the record what what level storm is the applicant proposing for the storm water retention system I
believe the 25 year storm. Okay. That yeah I did have a comment.
I was going to relay back to the applicant and I believe miss anderson I've just
robinson had a question as well but the last point it partly touched on it was the fire
access. This is a heavily wooded area that is also relatively close
to a nature reserve that's just on the other side of the street.
so I think the concern was I think even in the application it said substandard with
driveway 14ft there is that concern whether it's snow or anything else of if they have
to plow to even get in there that's a problem like fires aren't going to wait for the
plow to arrive for the fire department to access what is an extensively long driveway to
get to a property and that I think is just another concern for people that live around.
there is that it is heavily wooded fire spreads quick and so that's just I'm just
wondering if has the irvington beyond like because I think irvington also covers this area
off a mountain road as does the irvington fire department chiefs and off there.
>> yes. Okay. And I can speak on that. We voted the plans in their entirety to the irvington fire district and they indicated
that they had no issues with the project as presented. >> okay, great.
that's a I appreciate your time. >> yeah. It's not just in house, you know. No, no review we do send to the
districts that cover the properties. Okay throughout the town what's
I appreciate your congrats I responded to yes please mr.. >> mr. Cohen a couple of things
I just wanted to respond to in regards to the route the uptake of water, the hydrology of the
trees as I said, I would say a majority of the trees are in critical condition so there are
almost dead in a lot of cases or they are dead . So their route their water
uptake is minimal right now and it's going to decline even more over time.
so I do agree that a full sized tree takes up much more water than a smaller sapling that you
plant but ultimately the idea is to fully vegetate the whole property so that it actually
has a much better hydro logical profile than it does now because now it's pretty much
barren except for the trees and we're going to be planting it extensively and trying to enhance the property as well as the wetlands. So I think it may take a few
years to get to that point but ultimately I think it will be a much better sort of condition
as far as the landscaping and the trees and the plantings go than it is now.
thank you. >> is there anyone here in in person who would like to speak
on this application all right. Is there anyone on zoom who would like to speak on this
application? >> mr. Lefler? >> hey, how you doing?
sorry I couldn't be there in person but I appreciate the opportunity. I live at 15 cayuga lane right next to sven and I look, I'm not opposed in the project in
principle my concern is what happens actually in practice once construction begins and
the site is elevated and my property sits right at the bottom of that, it's the first
kind of drainage point from where where the swamp drains to and so if stormwater controls
don't work in the real world I live with the consequences sandwiched with the
consequences the other neighbors on our cul de sac live with the consequences and
I want to be candid I'm I cannot stress how concerned I am about this.
it's not theoretical. We we lived with the impact of the mulligan lane construction
and you know and mr. Schmidt I believe I order it I, I appreciate the what the code it
is to me for water runoff. I cannot imagine that that is being met right now for the
mulligan lane properties and we're not here to talk about that but it gets to my point
which is accountability. So I was in this room where you guys are years ago when similar
the exact same assurances were made about the mulligan lane development before it started
stormwater performance storage capacity all the plantings, the mitigation measures, everything
right we heard it all. We were told all of this and the reality on the ground
didn't match those assurances as fen mentioned as many others mentioned, you know weather
patterns have changed. That doesn't help the situation at all but it is the reality that we deal with. So you know, my neighbors and I live with the the runoff impact
when it rains to this day I still get runoff debris and garbage on my property from the
prior construction area. We're not here to talk about that but I do want to talk
about accountability because I'm the one who has to deal with the garbage and it's it's
not a fun thing like I want to be. I also want to say, mr. Cohen,
when you might recall we met I think a year or two two years ago I thought you were
thoughtful. I thought you were sincere. You seemed like an excellent neighbor. And you know, I look forward to having you as a neighbor.
I appreciate the care that you've taken with these plans and the plantings and
everything there and I can imagine it might possibly improve the health of the
woods. That would be great. My concern isn't about intent. It's about how do we make sure that there is good intentions and good plans come with real
oversight that prevents damage . So I'll I'll stop there and one
one key question that I want to ask is if if the standard is no net increase in runoff in the
post-construction condition and that's you know and that's not what neighbors are experiencing
in practice from the mulligan lane construction. Well, how do we square that
with what we're hearing now from ten minutes ago? How do we enforce
accountability? >> who is accountable? And it's not necessarily
intentional. I don't think anyone had bad intentions but it's the reality of the situation that we're that we're dealing with. >> thank you.
thank you, mr. Leffler. Thank you. Yes, deputy commissioner schmidt, would you like to respond? So I'm going to let legal
respond to the accountability matter. >> but in terms of in terms of
responding to comments about additional measures, let's say that perhaps could be
undertaken by the applicant and the project team I was going to bring this up before but we wanted to get to the public commentary with there be the possibility to further protect
downstream properties during the course of construction, would you be open to
utilization of both wire backed reinforced silt fencing as well as potentially straw bales to
support that silt fencing so that you know with the more intense rain events that we've
experience over these the last handful of years we've seen the typical silt fencing get
breached much more often than in years prior. So one of the things we've
asked applicants to consider is the wire backed combined with the straw bales as an
additional measure. >> so I just like to respond to the gentleman.
thanks for your comments. I certainly appreciate what you're saying.
when we first went to the site and sort of looked at the lay of the land, it was very kind
of unique because the stream runs in two directions and my guess and this is based on
working with the stormwater prevention pollution plan and and everything that we working
on that the mulligan lane situation and I correct me if I'm wrong but I think mulligan
lane is up on the hill up on the the top of the valley there so it runs directly down into
the backyards of that area I think and in the particular case of this property, most of
the runoff comes from the pond up above there's a there's a manmade pond to the east and
they have two areas of runoff that run right down the hill. Then the at a certain point
right after it gets across the property line at some point maybe the girl scouts who are
on the property or somebody before that built a stone where almost like a little dam so
when the water runs off it runs in two directions. It hits that area and it runs
backwards towards the pond on blueberry hill road and then it runs down towards your
properties. So most of the water that I've seen collects in the spring and
when there's heavy rain seasons and then in the summer that whole area dries out if there's
a big rain event it continues. It runs both ways. My guess is that most of the
runoff you're seeing is coming from the new construction in mulligan lane.
maybe I don't know. And the area that is has the pond above it the area we're
planning on doing the construction is kind of up on a plateau and of course we're going to be moving we're moving trees and that you know, speeds up the flow of rain.
but I'm certainly open to putting in a reinforced fencing if you think that's going to
make a difference. I don't see that would make that much of a difference as
far as overall cost goes. >> but my guess my guess is that even after we clear the
property there's not going to be as much runoff because most of the runoff comes from the
the pond in the area above that and I've walked that property when it's rained a lot and I
never see water running from the west to the east. It's all it all gets absorbed
into the into the soil and you know we're going to be planting the soil.
obviously there's going to be construction and we're going to have silt fence fencing around there. So we're going to do everything we can to mitigate that and if
we have to harden up the soil fencing and put in hay bales in certain areas, maybe it isn't
necessary all along it but we'll sort of identify that and we're work with the town and
kind of figure those areas out . >> thank you. Thank you. I have no question that that you will be meticulous in
maintaining the property and overseeing your your contractors but you know mr.
leffler referenced construction debris that was left by a developer at a at a different
property. Would you be open as a condition to you know, ensure
that all construction debris is removed from the property before building permits are
final final approval is issued . >> so you definitely and that
was part of why I asked earlier you're intending to live at this property.
>> I don't want to see construction debris around which which is which is different from a developer building and then selling off some people might consider the
sculptures that we put up there construction debris but but that that's a difference. >> well we'll let these guys fine tune that when we had a draft draft and I just wanted
to add as part of the condition of the swap the the contractor that mr. Cone chooses to do the
construction will be required to have a dc trained individual as part of the contractors team
to make daily inspections of the cell phones double up cell phones of necessary hay bales
if necessary. So all of those provisions are requirements of of the
contractor who's going to be doing the work. >> yeah and is it once a week
or once every other week where reports or you know those inspections are compiled into a report correct. >> emitted to the town? Yes.
okay. Thank you. I just wanted to note so if there is an issue you can reach out to the town engineer or a building inspector and they
will respond that day and if it's after hours then they'll respond the next day.
>> I just want to mention if there's something like a hurricane and it's beyond our
control, there's not much we can do but we'll do everything we can to if there's something like that coming to strengthen and harden the the protections .
>> all right. Things to clarify this is for 100 year storm, right? >> correct. The storm water design was designed for 2525.
>> okay. All right, mr. Lefler, you have another yeah, if you don't mind, I just gave thank you, man and I obviously your intentions are not the same as
you know what happened a mulligan and it's really just unfortunate luck I think for
everybody here, especially you that we have to bring this up now.
it would be irresponsible to our families and our ourselves if we didn't bring it up.
>> I just want to clarify one 1 or 2 points we get run off now from that from that the the
swamp there usually during it'll happen during snowmelt it'll happen during heavy rains
and the heavy rains are happening way more often than they used to.
it creates a waterfall in my backyard and spends backyard it's no one's fault.
>> that's just the reality of the situation. And you used a word earlier
that you said my guess is that it will go down right and I agree and you've done that this
is your profession. You're an expert at it. Your guess is a pretty good
guess. But what if you're wrong because we've now dealt with
the repercussions of all the assurances the 25 year storm drains and all that and all the
runoff. >> you know, we've we've dealt with the you know the the so
what and it's it's a pretty big oops now where no one no one's accountable every time it rains
my neighbor not to find the guy who lives on the other side of me you know his there's a river
that runs through his yard and rip and and dumps his river stones heavy river stones that
are three inches in in diameter just dumps them all out into the cul de sac and he has to
get out there with a shovel and he makes his kids do it now you know, gives them a workout but
you know, shovels them back into onto his property. >> so I'm not again, I'm not
trying to prevent this. I truly am trying to raise issues that are the reality of
of what we live on a daily basis and just hope that we can come to some some solutions
that we're not there for. Mulligan right. So I'll stop now.
thank you for the opportunity and anyone can contact me any time.
my phone number is (202) 531-5358. Really this is important to to
me so don't hesitate to reach out. >> thank you, mr. Lefler.
I appreciate that. I just wanted to respond quickly and because we do have
multiple other projects on the agenda this evening I think I don't want to speak for mr.
khan but I do know that there are multiple areas or properties that contribute to
that wetland. Mr. Cohen site and I think what he was pointing out is on the
other side of the wetland where the east side of the wetland there's a down to it and
there's actually a pond up above and I'm happy to meet with you mr. Lefler and any of
the neighbors to kind of show you what contributes to this wetland area. Well, mr. Cone can't be held responsible for what happens on the other side.
he is going to be held responsible for what his property contrib shoots and
he's going to be held to this standard of the town. >> but he can't if there's
water moving down the opposite side of the hill and down into the wetland area and then
ultimately down towards cayuga, you know, that's not something he can tackle or you know,
handle or you know, do anything about really. So it's it's kind of a dynamic
situation and there are multiple properties involved but certainly with respect to
his site, you know they're going to be held to the standard and and we do you know
now we're fully outfitted with a full bureau of engineering that has multiple inspectors
that are out on properties, you know, every day if not every other day. So I can appreciate your concerns. I do live in irvington as well
and I'm familiar with the area I grew up in the area. So there is certainly well
received. >> thank you. Are there any additional
questions from the board I guess are there any additional anyone else on zoom who would
like to speak at this public hearing? >> I don't believe so. All right. Anyone from the board have any additional questions or
comments? No, no. All right. Great. >> thank you very much. Thank you very much you thanks
for your time. Does the board want to entertain closing or a journey? >> we are in public hearing. Yes. I think we've heard all the
comments and we appreciate the comments and there's been responses. Anything that was not directly responded to in terms of inspection reports and those
reports being open to the public. I've identified that I'm happy
to put the neighbors and or the applicant in touch with our bureau of engineering so that
they can understand that process of the stormwater management control permit the
various inspections and the public inspection of those records. So I think we've responded to to those points and the board could entertain to close or
adjourn. Okay. >> just someone raised the issue of you know designing the storm plan for 25 years. Is there any way to increase
that given the discussions we're hearing and the risks referred to?
>> right. Yeah. So as mr. Chang is coming up,
this is something that you know, has been brought up at almost every application that
comes before the planning board just given the severity of storm events more in more
recent history and if they're either a has been exploration of the potential to design for
something greater than the minimum standard required by the town or if not if that you
know can be done or research any additional well I so the stormwater design all the catch
basins, all the piping the bar retention basins were all designed for 25 year storms.
I can run the model to see what larger storms I can handle. Don't quote me I think it
probably will be able to accept 100 year storm although I would have to check the calculation
if you could really be a battery grant thank you. Do you think you would need
more than a week to be able to determine that? >> no, I think I can probably
get it to you the next couple of days. >> correct. Okay. That'd be thank you. All right. And I will entertain a motion to close the public hearing and keep the written record open
through may 13th. >> so move, move. Mr. Bellinger second, second. >> ms.. Robinson all in favor? I chair votes I and I will
entertain a motion to close this public hearing session of the planning board so moved
moved ms. Robinson second second mr. Bellinger on favor I chair votes I and I will call
for a five minute recess and I'll come bac all right.
welcome back to the wednesday, may 6th, 2026 planning board meeting.
>> it is 902 pm. >> we are back to our work session.
we have four items of new business this evening. >> first up we have case number
2530 to conquer at 14 hurst stone circle in scarsdale. The applicant is seeking a
wetland watercourse permit is someone here representing the applicant this evening matt was
there communication with the applicant and to a representative?
>> yes. >> is henry in the audience and very now it looks like the
other apple oh there was a gentleman sitting there before well let's that's stepped out
for me so so we'll skip around and we'll we'll come back to conquer all right the next up
we have case number pb 2603 mccann's cuban cafe at 17 east hartsdale avenue in parts dale
the applicant is seeking a special use permit for a restaurant and a shared parking
reduction. >> good evening. I agree with many members of the board. We are here with narula hernandez.
she's the owner of attention school cafe 17 is hartsdale high so we are coming on three
year anniversary of being in hartzell community so we're looking to expand our seating into our next door neighbor who has been vacant for about eight months eight nine months now
I'm looking to expand seating at about seven tables 28 seats to accommodate families aunts,
uncles, babies. I currently just have five bar stools in a little takeout area
so I'm just looking to expand and have the community kind of sit and hang a little bit
longer. >> so yeah, that's our special permit request.
well and just a couple of questions would there be an interconnection between the
existing space and the new space interior? >> yes.
yes. >> we're going to we're going to be making an opening around
four feet but not in the area. >> what is the kitchen? It's going to be just in front.
so he's not going to be anything exposed for the fire department.
>> fire department mean common zoning and we we knew and we made plans for that right that
I deploying that plan right now so this also her new location is the same square footage
she's 488ft2 so basically is an empty space with a bathroom in the back and what we're going
to do is turn that pattern into a handicapped bathroom for easy access for for the customers is
going to be basically two entrances for in the front and two exits in the back right and
we have everything related with the fire department and the sprinkler system is the only
request that they they mention and right. >> and you show the sprinkler
logo. Yes. Yes we we made an extra set of plans for that just to show them that we're going to have a sprinkler system and the new
location. >> great. And one other question the project in addition to the special use permit requires a shared parking reduction by or
via this conversion of the space to into a restaurant and there's a greater parking
requirement right. >> and this additional use would require an additional 13
off street parking spaces. We know that this property does not provide for off street
parking so that's why you're seeking the shared parking reduction.
I guess the question is, you know, have you evaluated it? Just walk us through your
evaluation of nearby locations that patrons would be able to park and yes, basically we have
a discussion with the parking district and they do have the comments that they do is going
to bring them here. Yes. The ones that they give us this is a across the street they say that is fine because I believe in the whole section where you
have the company which owns it just yeah, but it comes for the parking district like we have.
okay. They say we we're concerned about the street and around
this is adequate parking is available to restaurant patrons through the nearby municipal
parking lot which provides 95 off street spaces as well as 52 on street parking spaces along
the corridor to support the proposed expansion. >> thank you.
yes. >> so just expanding upon that as required under the town
code, the zoning ordinance specifically the building inspectors office is to issue a
recommendation on all shared parking reductions to this board and the building
inspectors office did did do that via memorandum dated march 23rd, 2026 where they indicated
that while the applicant does not have any dedicated off street parking spaces, this
condition is not unique as many businesses along east hartsdale avenue similarly lack yes the
onsite parking and while the applicant seeks a shared parking reduction to zero
adequate parking is available to the patrons via those 95 off street parking spaces in the
nearby municipal lot as well as 52 on street parking spaces along the corridor to support
the proposed expansion based on availability of these nearby parking resources.
>> the building department recommends approval of the requested shared parking
reduction. I just wanted to read that into the roadmap.
thank you, jeff. You're welcome. Great. Are there any questions from the board on this application or do you know whether the rest
of that march 23rd memo from liz was shared with the applicant?
>> yes, the entire memo was shared. >> so if you have a specific
question I'm just wondering where with with whether they've reviewed it and they can comply
with those requirements. >> right. So we can walk through that
quickly. But there were some other comments that primarily relate
to, you know, building department review and code compliance.
yes. So for instance, the building department provided the
following information or comments. So comm check compliance
documentation submitting a comm check report demonstrating compliance with section c4o
31.1.3 of the 2025 energy conservation construction code of new york state as part of
the building permit application . >> yeah that's part of it.
that's that's that's my actually my architect is the person who's going to be doing
that. Very good. We go through the plans and what he's going to be doing that okay and similarly there are other comments you know
about accessible routes this primary function area access through the storage area is not
permitted and in the if you look into a new set of drawings that I provide about that
comment, I don't know if you still one do you have the other one that I provide my I don't
see the that that storage area has already the separate wall to okay yeah the partition that
we're going to do okay and yeah is I don't see it in this one but we provide that already to
the to the building. >> yeah yeah this one right here it doesn't show the wall
right there in the back but the other said the drawings that we provide to the city it has to
one okay so in other words when you walk all the way to the back to the exit of the store you you have a wall in there, there's a wall it's wall to wall and also the storage is
going to have a door. >> do you have to have determined I mean let me say
this it we will what we can do because the project is going to require a public hearing.
yeah. So we'll ensure that we have those plans available to show
both to the public and to the board as part of the public hearing.
>> okay. Okay. No problem there beyond that, you know fire alarm that has a horns and a stroke. >> yeah.
we also I also provide the new set of drawings and with all those alarms and strobes and
everything that they required then the restroom door clearance compliance, the fire
resistance requirement. Yes. Or wall penetrations the
accessible dining services required plumbing fixtures, foreign fixtures separate mep
permits. Okay. Okay.
>> we wanted to be sure that you were aware of those and you're prepared to comply. >> yeah. Mr. Bellinger yeah. I have a quick question.
are you going to expand the kitchen so kitchen's going to remain the same fire
suppression system in the kitchen will remain the same. Yes.
the only thing is the seating as we show and the plans want the one on the left is the
kitchen and the one that is empty is the store that used to be the tailor and that's the
one we use him for there and he's not going to be no opinions in the kitchen area.
>> okay. So no fire the fire will be is all prevention ready?
>> hopefully there'll be no, no, no. >> that was one of the comments
of the fire department. >> we we we told them that we don't we're going to have any
opening in the kitchen area. >> okay? Okay. Thank you. >> did you see any any other questions from the board?
no. No. All right then I will schedule a public hearing for this project for may 20th of this year.
>> thank you. Great. Thank you very much. I'll get you the notice and the signage that needs to be placed.
okay. You'll hear from us tomorrow. Thank you. All right. >> have a great evening. Thank you.
have a good thank you. Thank you for your patience. >> thank you.
next next up we have case number 2532 donkor at 14 earth stone circle, scarsdale and the
applicant is seeking a wetland watercourse permit. >> the applicant approach the
the podium. >> good evening. Good evening.
>> can you present the application yet? >> so this is a renovation
project. There's an existing vinyl and a pool and we're proposing putting in ground and a pool in its place. >> let me just pull up the
drawings before you identify yourself. >> yeah, absolutely. I'm the I work for the pool company. >> my name is henry gonzalez
and I'm the permit administrator. And of course the name of the pool company pool company is called cool pool. >> okay.
so here's the drawing which shows the pool e stockpile soil area erosion control measures
and sit essentially like the construction vehicle or pad for for cleaning off the tires for
access into the site off the driveway. So this is her.
so in circle this is the driveway and the access point would come off that it'd be
protected on both sides and that's how they would enter in to construct the pool.
there are some stormwater management units that call tech units to handle because there
is going to be a patio surrounding the pool so they have to accommodate that runoff
and those contacts are designed to manage how many or storm? >> oh 100.
we were actually reviewing that in house. Yeah. So let me just pan over to that because matt and I did did look this over.
bear with me just for a second. >> so the 25 year storm event requires which is a 6.4in
rainfall over a 24 hour period requires that the units be designed for three, four, 327
cubic feet required storage. >> the applicant as designed the units to accommodate 351
cubic feet of storage so they exceed the 25 year storm event. So they they meet to meet and
exceed. I don't know that it rises to the next storm event which is
the 50 year but it certainly exceeds the 25 year rate. And does does this application
require any variances? >> yeah for in permeability. Okay.
could you walk us through the variances? >> yeah. So the existing is 25% and the proposed is a little over 28% 28.366% which is about 1000ft2
more right. >> so this was and is there how much of the patio would have to
be removed for this application to be currently to be compliant or is the patio is the patio
existing or is the patio being added? >> I think already as her home
stands she's not in you know I think she bought something that's not in oh it's already over. >> yeah she has a really big front driveway that takes up a
lot of square and if you guys kind of the 20 8% proposed and 25% permitted I'm going to see
if we can pull up what exists. So I'm just going to look at that real quick.
okay. >> so the memo doesn't indicate I mean just see if the
application do on the cover memo on number nine on page four at the last sentence talks
about the variance from 25% to 28 point three. >> correct.
but it doesn't indicate the what the existing coverage or impervious sorry impervious
coverage is. I'm just going to try and look that up. >> and matt, if you know offhand, feel free. I guess the question is is you
know and I do think it'd be relevant if the property as it exists is is not compliant with
the code or if it's if you were to the very end there and yes, so it exists at 26.33 which is
just so it's already it's already not code compliant and this is adding so if it's
currently 26 and it's going to 28 and just adding about 2% correct that but but no no
amount of the patio being scaled back would would bring it into compliance.
>> correct. Okay. So are there any other questions from the board? Could could you use pervious stones on the patio?
I know the customer would like to use marble if there's a system that exists that your
township approves as permeable and so so we don't actually permit permeable surface to
apply it would not you can't bring that percentage down it would still be calculated at
28.36 but nevertheless it would have the effect. >> so maybe this board tonight
could can potentially consider issuing a recommendation to the zoning board and then
ultimately come back. But if there is a marble surface that is porous, you
know that may be something that the board recommends for you to consider and look into as you
move into the zoning variance and it wouldn't change your need to seek a variance but it
would make it more favorable make it more favorable just from an impact perspective.
>> are there any other questions from the board so we have an opportunity to make a
recommendation to the zba on this variance. My my instinct is that this is
a classic neutral recommendation especially considering that no amount of
reduction would would bring this into compliance and the site is is not code compliant
as it currently exists. >> so everyone everyone agrees so then I will entertain a
motion to direct staff to prepare a recommendation to the zba for a neutral
recommendation on the one variance. >> can we put something in
there about those surface? >> yeah about encouraging permeable surface.
yeah yeah we can certainly do that if it's the board's desire.
>> yes please. So I will entertain a motion. >> so move, move.
mr. Killinger, may I? Oh, the surface as it exists has no perimeter drain to it.
right. And so what you have currently is running off as you guys know not you know, not into it perimeter drain. And so if we're proposing a
marble surface it would almost seem as though it would be beneficial because it would
direct the water to a cold chamber which is I think better. >> I'm not you know, I'm not an expert on the subject but we're not disagreeing with that part.
>> but the concern we have is that if you can look into something still the marble that
can potentially absorb some of the water in addition to the cold tech that's what we're
asking for. So the way it is right now everything just runs off.
you are adding the cold tech thank you very much. But if you could look into
something that is a little more uh that can be penetrate as far as the water flow that would be
helpful and we're not we're not mandating impermeable surface. >> we're just encouraging you
to inquiry investigate it. Okay, great. >> is this next to a wetlands
buffer? Is this wetlands buffer? No, it's a watercourse.
it's a watercourse and are there any plans to protect that watercourse during the dirt
instructing the pool could you point out the watercourse on the plans? >> yeah. >> so yeah, the whole job is basically within the you know
within the 100 foot buffer, right? >> so if you see on the drawing here denoted as a brook and it's running along the side yard here and during the course
of construction they have the silt fence wrapping the entire area so that the water source
is protected during the course of work and they won't be working outside of everything
would be contained within this silt area, right? Yeah. Including their including their access you know into the property off the driveway not
make a comment. Town planner britton did you have a comment?
no sorry. The owner of the site sent the chair in the zoom meeting
asking how he was not compliant and he's he's got it. Thank you.
all right. So then we'll let's try this again. So I will entertain a motion to direct staff to draft a neutral recommendation to the zba on
the one area variance including language about encouraging the applicant to investigate
permeable surface options for the patio. So moved moved mr. Weinberg
second second mr. Bellenger on favor I chair votes I thank you thank you.
>> yeah. All right we doing a long time okay next up we have case
number 2507 zamudio 32 central park avenue north po hartsdale the applicant is seeking a site
plan a planning board steep permit, a tree removal permit and a landscape buffer waivers
request. >> good evening again. Good evening again.
mr. Yes I'm not here of my architects not here tonight but as much as I can I could answer
two questions. >> um yeah so I'm just going to pull up the plan and if you
could walk the board through the proposal that would be helpful.
>> I can assist with I mean it is I mean for the last year we've been working with with
arron and his department. >> um, we fixed all the comments we've been making
through the year. >> I actually I have I don't know if you the members of the
board so the that they were here a year ago I don't know if you do well some of us
somewhere some yeah I think somewhere go ahead that's the plan yeah we should send out
the recording from that last meeting. Yeah we can do it so mrs.
amodeo, if you could just speak to well mr. Tomorrow's pulling out the model just about what's
in vision for the site because right now it's just a blank slate. >> it's an empty parcel of land right now 32 north central. And our vision is five small
shops and I mean basically we've already changed the the plans through the year trying
to uh accommodate with all the comments that we've been here through the whole year this is
now and instead of ten is to have parking spaces before the west end for that we came to to
the meeting and the solar panels I mean we did through the whole year so many changes
but yeah so let me just fill in a few of the blanks. So the project does involve a
site plan planning board steep permit because there are some slopes into this site rising up
from central park avenue to the property to the rear as well as tree removal permit application
. There are a few trees over the years that have grown to the size of meeting the regulated regulations of the town and then there are landscape buffer
waivers requested by the applicant in connection with the proposal which is to
construct a new multi-tenant commercial building on this vacant lot as was mentioned,
the building as noted would be split into five separate tenants spaces in total
approximately 4116ft2 of gross floor area. >> the building as designed
would require or requires 27 off street parking spaces and the applicant has prepared the
plans as they mentioned to provide for 12 off street parking spaces and they've
prepared an analysis of off site parking availability within the vicinity of the
site. The applicant, as mentioned is now as part of the review
process with not only initial comments issued by the planning board but also and will distribute the meet the video link to the prior meeting that the board had on this
application. >> but the applicant now proposes to install sole solar panels on the roof of the proposed building. As I mentioned there is steep
disturbance. There's going to be approximately 1500 cubic yards
of excavation because it does up from the road. >> they would be putting in a
retaining wall on essentially three sides of the property the the north, the south and the
east. The building inspector there's no important fill coming on to
the site at all and export in terms of variances. The building inspector
identified a total of 16 variances required in connection with the project.
in a memorandum dated april 21st 2026 and also identified that landscape buffer waivers
would be required from the planning board for the side yard both side yards and the
rear yard as well as a landscape buffer between residential and nonresidential
uses. So this being a nonresidential use and then to the rear is a
residential use coincidentally the residential use to the rear is the applicant's single
family home. >> this and I actually had a quick question about that was
were these two properties at some point combined and were they later subdivided?
yes. And when did that subdivision occur and like in 2010 or 11
something that was requested that was before you built the home?
>> correct. Or is it? >> I think I did I think it was
after years. Okay. >> it was after and I guess what was was the house approvede lot. >> yes.
requirements that was one of the requirements a lot and now the subdivision and basically
backed out of yeah they we don't they don't give the subdivision if you the house
don't have the yeah right so they had to show as part of the subdivision that the house
would meet comply with comply with the lot if it was subdivided okay which they were
able to do so also so this lot didn't apply to the lot and bulk requirements of the house
and then was later subdivided right yeah so the value and after that we we intend to do a
medical offices there and we got a proof of that a few years ago but we couldn't go through
because of covid and of what happened at the time but right now this is the project that we
try to see if we can go through it. >> and are you familiar with and perhaps mr. Weinberg as a member of the committee can share some perspective but are
you familiar with the ongoing four corners rezoning study? >> yes.
yes. This this actually would try to, you know, come together
with the what is planned for four corners but I mean for the last time that we discussed
four corners what, like five, six years ago and again they coming back to see if they can
do something with four corners so hopefully our project will be one of the first four four
corners. >> okay. I also have some comments I believe was for the law department something that do you have any of that?
I'm not sure what they're talking about but no, no, no. >> it was just a comment but it
it was maybe not related with the construction. I don't know what it was.
deputy commissioner schmidt for the edification of the board, could you give us a high level
overview of sort of what the four corners committee is currently studying and how how
this might fit into the vision of that committee? Yes.
so and mr. Weinberg can certainly fill in any blanks um just in light of the fact that
we do have another application, I'm going to move through this quickly and then just for the boards information from a procedural standpoint being that there is site plan and
other approvals required through the planning board but then a number of variance is
required by the zoning board. >> the project does qualifies unless that action so from a
seeker standpoint it's recommended that the board consider carrying out a
coordinate aided review with the zoning board when when that is the route that's taken and
there are two agencies, two or more agencies involved one of the agencies seeks to be the
lead agency to carry out all environmental reviews with respect to the project and then
that's distributed to the other agencies. It's recommended in this project due to the approvals before required before the planning board that the
planning board declare its intent to serve as lead agency .
if that's actions taken tonight staff would distribute the planning board's notice of
intent to the other agencies. There would be a 30 day window for any objections and then
this project would come back before the board for another full on work session to really
dive into it given that we're a little pressed for time tonight.
>> so I just wanted to touch on that with yeah. So just to give everyone a little bit of comfort that we're not trying to just speed through this here tonight.
we'll certainly be back before. >> so with respect to the four corners I did have a brief
meeting with commissioner you came this afternoon and he gave me some slides. The area outlined in red on the attachment is the four corners study area.
the parcel that this board is looking at in connection with this project is one of the
perimeter properties which is right down here on the right hand side of the screen it is
this 10,001 10,019 square foot parcel. Okay.
so right on the periphery of the study area for the four corners draft overlay zoning in
connection with what is currently proposed there are three tiers and basically
that's broken down into the minimums square footage required for development under
the proposed overlay zone the lowest tier or tier one requires a minimum of 16,000ft2
as currently envisioned and proposed. This therefore this lot on its
own which is a hair over 10,000ft2 would not meet this minimum and therefore in order
to develop under the overlay zone I would likely have to combine with an adjacent parcel
in order to meet that and we'll get to that quickly. So I just wanted the board to
understand that this parcel on its own would not meet the minimum requirements and there
are some other parcels. >> this isn't one outlier parcel. >> we'll speak to that briefly so just showing that tier one as as identified minimum lot
area of 16,000ft2 we identify parcels and there happens to be the next door parcel that's
also undersized that parcel is developed okay that's 7800 and square feet and change.
there are other parcels on the northerly side that are also under the 16,000ft2 and then
there's some other parcels scattered throughout the study area that do not quite meet the
minimum lot size. However um oh the other thing it does stay on here and we can
get into a little more detail on this at a future time but indicates that there are four sites that can opt in okay and those are in the yellow this 19,602 the 26 572 the 77
thousand 972 and the 2429 the reason why the the parcels that have the brown shading on them
are not included is because they're envisioned for more dense development in a higher
tier through likely consolidation of lots so it's envisioned to be most dense and
most stories in the most max build out right at the four corners and then as it as you
spread out from the four corners less dense, less height things of that nature that's
what's envisioned in terms of the tier one four stories this what this graphic depicts is if
parcels were combined they could meet the minimum requirement of 16,000ft2.
so I mentioned the two parcels on the northern side were ten and 15 roughly.
if they were combined together they would hit that 25 to 65 and then meet the minimum lot
area for tier one. Similarly the applicant's property at roughly 10,000ft2
and its neighboring property at 7800 or so if they happen to be combined to the 1760 they would
meet the minimum lot size requirement of 16,000ft2 for the tier one which would permit
up to four storeys with the fourth fourth storey recessed so that you don't have that
impact on the jason properties that are outside the the study area.
okay. And basically you would uh through this combination of of
properties that are undersized you could increase the potential development of
parcels from four which were previously outlined up to eight sites.
>> okay. Um I'm going to brief breezed through this this was a
conceptual rendering. Okay so actually to the left is heading north and to the right
is heading south along central park avenue east towards dale going down to the train station
is in this direction and then west hartsdale up the hill and into the adjacent community is
down a page down the parcel that we are reviewing under this application is this
undeveloped parcel shown with my cursor and some trees on. >> okay.
hope that was helpful. >> I know it was a speedy review but mr. Weinberg if you
have anything to add to it just briefly when aaron mentions an overlay overlay district you
would have to opt in so you elected not to opt in by you know, joining with the
adjoining property so you're over 16,000ft2. Yeah your zoning stays the same
. You know none of this would apply to you unless you affirmatively opt in to this overlay plan and that's okay. Have you had any conversations
with your adjacent neighbor about joining forces or no really he's really he has I
believe three stores and they they have invited so I ask him and I believe they he has a
phone number and he told me he has a contract for the next few years so basically what I want
to do with this project is just to do just one store for two small stores for for that
corner that is coming up if I join him I had to build maybe four I can build four stores
but that's not my intentions. But I know I said we just want to, you know, help the
community for this small stores that if they do all their construction based on size and
setbacks these little stores in that section might disappear because I don't think the the
builder who's going to do those dwellings he's going to just bully the stores and the bottom
he might going to be just one big store or maybe a restaurant or something.
>> but this little store is basically for the community that is in castle avenue like
you know small and do you have you been in contact with any potential tenants or is this on
? >> yes. Okay. Yes, I did. Yeah, I have a used to be dunkin donuts across the street
and now he's in the in the south side. Yeah. And I mentioned him I he likes the location because he says that he will actually traffic
going to white plains so he would like to have he would like to look at it once I get a
proof at this point he told me he's interested in okay I have another person that is
interested but again everything is based on approval is on okay, sure.
>> and have you submitted to the zba yet or are you waiting to submit to the zoning board for the for the variance? >> yes, yes, yes we did that. No, I won't be somebody I know
you've worked with miss jones on the application but I don't know if you formally submitted.
>> you mean the four do so in connection so you previously on the former application went to
the zoning board and were successful. Yes.
in obtaining you know, multiple variances. Now under this proposal you
require a number of variance. Yes as well and I know you've spoken with miss jones, the
secretary of the zoning board but I was not 100% sure if you filed the paperwork yet.
okay. So that's something that you'd be working on. That's something that I believe market that would know better than me. >> and the point is if if we as deputy commissioner schmidt mentioned, we'll have to vote
to consider this evening or one vote to consider to be lead agency we won't make
recommendations on the variances this evening but because you haven't submitted
to the zba yet if we wait until the next meeting to make those recommendations that wouldn't delay your your process to go in front of the tva. >> oh okay.
so that was just first for the board's information we would encourage you to work with your architect. The filing deadline is always the 15th of the month.
so I mean that's coming up quickly. It might take some time and there is you can't just drop off the sets on the 15th. You have to have a
pre-submission review with miss jones if you can reach out to our office tomorrow, we'll walk
you through that. So you may or may not hit the 15th of may.
if you don't that's okay. You would probably hit the 15th of june and then potentially be
on in july with the zoning board that would give this board some additional time. Clearly there's a 30 day window if the board declares its intent to serve as lead agency
following tonight, then we would have you back go into much more depth of this plan
with your architect present because we didn't even talk about stormwater management or manscaping of that nature. So we'll continue to work with you and feel free to reach out
to us tomorrow, okay? >> okay great. >> then I will entertain a
motion to declare the planning board's intent to serve as lead agency or secret review of this
project. >> mr. Philander so second ms. Robinson all in favor? I chair votes. >> I thank you. Have a good evening and we'll
we'll coordinate with staff on on when we'll schedule you to return.
>> yeah thank you. The last case of the evening case number pb 1526 neurol girl
at 14 castle lock pond scarsdale the applicant is seeking a preliminary
subdivision, a planning board, steep permit and a tree removal permit.
>> thank you for your for your patience this evening and good evening. >> good evening. How could I share my screen? >> sure I'll take down mine
only just because I have no swimming pool to get through things. >> are you in the zoom? Yes. Okay.
sure. Go for it to to save time while he's doing that.
>> yeah. Please just turn on this architect and if you can just speaking to the microphone j.b hernandez architect for the project chris isaac engineer
this project has been around for a while and we've been working with the staff for a
while now. It's a 2.26 acre of castle walk on four hill road of four, hill
road is an r 20 sony district and we were trying to create three lots bulk regulations
compliance all of it and we can talk about engineering. Yeah.
okay. Thank you chairman members of the board chris I I'm the civil
engineer for the project. I took it over about a year ago from parvati who started it and
and got to this point so but I feel pretty well versed in it so just I thought maybe we'd
start talking about the property itself a little bit so the property is bordered by on
the bottom part of the property the easterly side by our commercial property.
that property front on central avenue. So basically to orient you
central avenue runs basically parallel with the bottom of the paper that property that wraps
around to the southerly portion of our property so we're basically bordered to the south
and to the east by a commercial property above us are three residential properties that sit
up basically on a plateau above this property basically come off of that road the property
line there's a down to our property and then our property slopes towards central avenue.
so all the drainage slopes towards central avenue there is an existing right of way which
I highlighted in yellow that goes through this property and then feeds down into the
commercial property and you could see at the bottom of the sheet I highlighted green that
is an existing sewer that we're going to connect to. So our designs will tie into
that. There's also the yellow line that's on here is an existing
drainage line which we also utilize. >> the property was occupied by
a very large existing house that has been removed. The existing driveway on the
property still remains. When was the house removed? Almost 20 years ago.
yeah. Yeah I remember I was here. Is it really?
I'm not honestly I don't know at least I don't think it was that long because the survey shows that the earliest and it was it was demolished quite a bit before this application was
made and 2015 was the time it was time flies it on uninhabitable or off as it
turned out it was in pretty poor condition. >> yeah. At the time I recall being able to say okay so as you know it's a three lot subdivision that
we're proposing. All of it is called compliant as far as dimensional standards
. We're planning on accessing it with about a 500 foot town to
be dedicated town right of way with a town design road. So it's got a 26 foot wide car
way with sewer water and storm. So everything the town standards that gets dedicated to the town the stormwater system which resulted will reside on one of the lots as
far as the retention system goes that'll be kept to be maintained by the nature way
that will be for the for the three lots for maintenance in the future as far as utilities
I highlighted in blue where connected to the existing main just off from the property
bringing that down through to the end of the cul de sac we're adding two hydrants along with
that the sewer is a fairly simple system. I highlighted that in green
there's a three manholes. >> it picks up each of the lots and then that comes down to
this existing right of way and the down the right of way to the existing sewer mantel down
down the hill the storm drainage design for the hundred year storm we designed it so
that each of the lots were each lot is 100 years yeah each so we decided as four different
elements to each lot independently and then the right away independently all of
it is designed for the whole year long all of it. >> okay thank you all impervious surfaces are being directed to infiltration systems the infiltration system
and just prior to the infiltration. So we have a filter system to
each of the infiltration system. So we go we collect we pipe it to the filter from the filter at the infiltration systems so each of the lots of a separate
infiltration system our lots we labeled abc working from the right to left of it from the
left to the right. So so at the end of the cul de sac that lot had ten cold type
three 30s with a filter the next log over b has five and a filter and c so similarly we
basically designed the lot to keep the houses as close to the right away as possible but
still leave us enough room to be able to have the setbacks necessary for the cold tech
systems and to be able to collect it. And we did that so that we've
been what is the amount of steep slopes disturbance as far as the road goes? Everything gets collected in a pair of catch basins basically at the low spot which I
highlight in yellow they run into an infiltration practice with 20 cal tech units and then
that overflow system comes back and connects to the drainage system in the existing right
away that goes offsite. So that's the utility system as far as grading goes.
we designed architecture here that basically fits into the. So basically from the road over
the goes up so we basically build designed tuck under houses that fit into those
slopes. We minimize how much yard we had behind.
we wanted to have some yard for you know, for play areas and so forth basically and then we
utilize that some walls starting with on lots see we have a two foot eye wall to be
able to make the grade change a lot be the wall varies from 4 to 8ft behind the house and
then later we have a basically a small four foot high wall and again all those are just to be
able to minimize how much we're going into the steep slopes as far as the road goes, the road
comes off of our from our existing connection out about a 10% but then transitions to
about an 8% to a low spot basically cut out the elbow where the drains are and then
it's basically flat through the cul de sac and so and so I did have a quick question about you
mentioned the existing connection. >> so my my I was able to drive by the site earlier this week and from what I was able to observe there's the the town
road and then it looked like there was a I'd say less less than good condition roadway
that I think is beyond the the property that's here in front of us.
and then there's your property . And so if you were to maintain
if you were to improve the roadway to town standards for what's on the site plan, what would be the plan to connect from I guess your property to the town road that's that's
paved there's a stretch that your property does in front. Okay.
we talked about this because that prior application with mr. Hernandez the so castle walk
comes and then has an elbow and then there's probably a 2 or 300 foot stretch until you get
to your so we're improving all of that all the way from where basically to where the where
the chain is across the road that all gets in. >> so you'll improve and I
guess you have permission from the property owners to improve. >> well that's in the right of way. There's an easement and potentially right away you know
well our survey call is where I can get clarification is is your proposed cul de sac in
roadway going to tie all the way in to existing castle walk or will it stub out because
then we start so so if you keep the upper basically yeah you see my cursor right there.
yeah yeah so that's that's the intention is that's where the end of the existing improved castle walk is and we're picking up improvements at that point right so this area just
beyond where your cursor is is currently unimproved. >> it was approved as part of
the subdivision and in fact on this plan it says proposed residence you see that?
yes. To the right of your cursor. This residence was not constructed but this the subdivision was approved because they subdivided off the
lot just above and in connection with that project they were going to improve this
driveway undersized roadway and then stub it out right here with the understanding that you
would then be carrying the improvement all the way. But this section has not been
improved. >> oh, I apologize. I didn't I didn't realize there was that gap there. >> yeah, that's just the point. Okay.
so we will have to be aware of the and resolve that. Yeah that's all appreciate that
we we have to get to the property so of course right right and I don't think you
guys are going to pay for it so we'll figure it out. >> yeah okay so so that's
really the grading so the architecture we did all talk gunders to you know to be able
to get the first floors up as high as possible and work with the grades as much as we possibly can. Basically the road comes in and as best we could basically
follows grade we do need a retaining wall on the east side of the of the road just because
there is a fair amount of steep there and we just couldn't touch grade and we had to keep
basically the front yards at existing grade so that we could utilize that area for
infiltration practices because there is fairly shallow ledge there.
so it wasn't like we could drop the grade 5 or 6ft and then keep the wall on the road low.
we went to be able to use a trailer practices so there was it was a balancing act or
speaking of infiltration practices it was brought to my attention in passing that there
are some recently modified regulations. I don't know if it applies
specifically to this project but if I if I recall correctly previously or in years past
infiltration system would need to be separated from structures by a minimum of ten feet.
my understanding is that was recently increased to 25ft if you're not aware of it I am I
don't know if it applies to this project specifically based on the units or type of system
you're using but something we wanted to bring to your attention.
>> okay I've done that's that's a big surprise. Yes.
I have not heard that new york state has changed that. Yeah. So we can put you in touch with jason coppola, the town engineer.
>> I actually mentioned it to the town. So with this these plans have been reviewed. I mean I know they've been old and they've got maybe review in
the past but they've been reviewed by jason and they were correct to go rounds right,
right. >> so just one is that 25 foot is a local. No, no as I understand it from the state so but I heard it in passing so I just wanted to
bring it up to make you aware we can you know, we're we want to get through the rest of the
presentation so I didn't want to trip you up. >> I just want to okay.
thank you. So regarding steep slopes basically the yellowish areas
the lightest color are the zero fifteen's the the greens are the 15 to 20 fires.
the ten or the 25 to 35 and then the blues are 35 and above again we we try to incorporate
architecture that would minimize that. We tried to utilize retaining
walls to also minimize how much space that we needed to to utilize and minimize how much
steep the service that we had with regard to trees. We're proposing to cut down 85
trees. We had an arborist do a study if you look at his conclusions
he talks about that many of the trees are in failing health. They've got rot, they've got
vines over. I've generally if you were out there you know I'm sure you saw a lot of the trees. Yeah. The proposal is to reestablish
trees through the property. We're actually mitigating at about twice what the code would
require with 102 trees. So then that's all incorporated in the arbors report.
so then I do have a question about that. So the report you know your
plan show 102 trees but your report only shows about 80 eight trees on page 44 through
46 of your application. >> yeah I passed along that info to mr. Bob macintyre just
to relay it back to you that there seem to be in it. >> okay we'll get that resolved. The 102 count is right that's on the plan so I don't know if
the arborist I mean that will only just mean that if he did it on 80 some odd that were
even well beyond that as far as I think we're almost double what the mitigation is for for
carbon dioxide and it's hydrology this is the the landscaping plan that you could
see it's it's fairly intense. >> right? We've spent a lot of time on
it. Yeah. Okay. So so take any questions. >> so so this is what I would recommend to the board
considering the late hour we will bring this back for our next meeting and if the board
can submit questions to deputy commissioner schmidt by say next next wednesday, may 13th
then we can turn those questions around to the applicant and we can get
written response will be sent out so that we can stay on track and the board can have all of their questions answered by then by wednesday. Is everyone okay with that?
yes. Yes. Great. All right. Thank you. Thank you. And I did also just want to remind the board and for those in the in the viewing public
that are still watching the town board at a meeting last month referred the chapter to
85 amendments to the planning board. And so at our next meeting we
will begin receiving presentations from the staff on the 285 proposed changes at the
next meeting on may 20th we will receive a presentation on the new tr district which will
replace the urban renewal district as well as the new and 30 district at the may at the
june 3rd meeting will receive a presentation on workforce housing, the keeping of chickens and cannabis at the june 17th meeting we will receive a presentation on the
central avenue and d. S district updates the restaurant reclassifications
and off street parking the june the july 1st meeting will receive a lengthy presentation
on all of the environmental updates including the cd overlay, the pod and wetland
disturbance updates and the charging and will begin our discussions on all of the
amendments with a goal of continuing to work on our recommendation at the july 15th
meeting and ultimately be in a position to make a recommendation back to the town
board at our august 5th meeting. So we'll have a we'll have a an
expedite basis but detailed review of the 285 amendments over the next three months and
I'm looking forward to receiving the first presentation from staff next
month and and I would just tack on that the ci the informal side sessions that staff has
been holding with board members have been productive and we appreciate the board members
that have been able to do it. Anyone that hasn't met does have time or want to meet with
us. We've been meeting um on thursdays and or fridays so we
can there is some flexibility there. Feel free to reach out to staff . Like I said they've been productive and certainly
appreciate it and I encourage anyone who hasn't hasn't scheduled that yet to do so who
should we reach out to? >> you can reach out to aaron and aaron will coordinate that
aaron and aaron and garrett our deputy deputy commissioner schmidt and commissioner
duquesne. >> all right. So seeing no additional new
business I will entertain a motion to adjourn the planning board meeting at ten oh 4 p.m.
so moved moved ms. Robinson second. >> mr. Bellinger all in favor