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Politics & Government

Washington Ave. Neighbors Reject Feeler on Housing

Informal meeting draws a vocal "no" from residents near the garden apartments' backyard, seen as a potential site for county's affordable units.

A dozen speakers backed by a roomful of vocal supporters urged Pleasantville officials Monday to shelve plans for affordable housing behind Washington Avenue’s garden apartments.

Such housing would increase taxes and traffic, some speakers maintained, while others insisted the village-owned land itself raised serious issues of suitability as a building site.

Mayor Peter Scherer had billed the gathering as an “informal meeting” and not a public hearing. He repeatedly assured residents while three developers have expressed interest in acquiring the land for affordable housing, none has yet submitted a formal proposal. He stated two of the three interested parties have proposed developing units for rent, while the third is interested in selling the residences to qualified homeowners. The range in number of proposed units stretches from 18 to above 30, said Scherer.

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The residential units, whether for sale or rent, would represent a part of 750 below-market-rate homes the county promised to build in communities that did not meet federal minimums for black and Hispanic residents. But while race was the standard in determining target communities for the housing, family income—not ethnicity—will be the qualification for potential buyers and renters, local and county officials said Monday.

Scherer explained eligible homeowners' annual income should equate to 80 percent of the area median income (AMI), based on number of persons in the family, while "the rental housing is mostly developed at 60 percent of the average median income."

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1-Person 2-Person 3-Person 4-Person 5-Person 6-Person 100% AMI $73,300 $83,750 $94,250 $104,700 $113,700 $121,450 80% AMI*
$58,600 $67,000 $75,400 $83,800 $90,500 $97,200 60% AMI**
$43,980 $50,280 $56,580 $62,820 $67,860 $72,900 50% AMI $36,650 $41,900 $47,150 $52,350 $56,550 $60,750 30% AMI $22,000 $25,150 $28,300 $31,400 $33,950 $36,450

*Qualifing income for buyers; **Qualifying income for renters

Nevertheless, in the only outburst to mar the meeting, an unidentified man hollered from the audience, insisting, “It is [about] race.”

Norma Drummond, Westchester County's deputy commissioner for planning, who oversees the county housing effort, disagreed.

“It’s creating opportunities," she insisted.

Unmollified, the man called out, “You’re spending our money against us," eliciting some applause by attendees.

In contrast, for most of the hour-and-a-half-plus meeting, objections followed the more-traditional fault lines of traffic and taxes while questions focused on preferences in selecting, say, local residents or public servants like police officers and teachers (no, a lottery chooses the finalists) as well as on the difficulties of building on the oddly situated village property (“No question, it’s a tough site,” Scherer conceded).

The land in question, an acre-and-a-half on village rolls since 1994, lies between the Metro-North tracks and the base of a steep drop from garden apartments above, built at Washington Avenue’s elevation. The vertical drop was not specified Monday but estimates ranged from a few dozen feet to as much as 100. A 34-foot-wide strip of property runs from curb to building lot below.

“If you had three builders tell you they can build there,” Christopher Marengo advised the board, “then you had three liars.”

Scherer said a multi-family residential unit on the site would generate tax revenue for the villages, as would the sale of the land to a private developer. He estimated the property is worth approximately $1 million.

Penelope Thomas, a resident of the apartments and “totally opposed” to the proposed development, questioned how the heavy equipment that supplies and works the building site would navigate the narrow driveway access. That driveway would also abut the apartments’ exit drive, she noted, setting up a potential conflict for cars entering the street.

Traffic on the busy thoroughfare was a recurring concern voiced by the residents, summed up by Thomas Rooney of Hillview Drive. Calling Washington Avenue—which directly links downtown Chappaqua with downtown Pleasantville—a “racetrack,” he warned of potential hazards for a family moving in with children.

“They’re going to drown in the Saw Mill [River], get run over by a car on Washington or get hit by a train,” he said.

No development of the land is possible without at least a site-plan review—and public hearing—by the village planning commission. In addition, the 34-foot-wide driveway on Washington Avenue might need a variance to meet zoning code frontage requirements, Scherer said. That would require action, and yet another public hearing, before the zoning board of appeals before the land could become part of the county’s affordable housing mix.

Westchester settled a federal lawsuit in 2009 by pledging to construct 630 of the 750 houses or apartments in communities whose black residents made up 3 percent or less of the population and Hispanic residents less than 7 percent.

Today’s Pleasantville—with a black population of 3.6 percent and Hispanic 11.7 percent, —would appear exempt. But the 2000 census figures, in effect when the housing accord was hammered out, left the village just short of the black population threshold.

According to Drummond, there are 31 municipalities in the county that qualify to help meet the terms of the affordable housing settlement, but no individual allocations have been given for specific villages and towns as of yet.

Different cost criteria and another model of ethnic concentration would be applied to the remaining 120 housing units.

If you missed the meeting, you can watch it in full here on PCTV76.org.

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