What people think about Summit Greenfield’s proposal for the former Reader’s Digest property

Hearings continue on Tuesday, July 28. More photos inside
July 10, 2009
by Christine Yeres

Editor’s Note:  On a perfect summer evening, this Wednesday, as New Castle residents relaxed on the Recreation Field in town and enjoyed the sounds of great American music played by The Chappaqua Orchestra from the gazebo, NewCastleNOW.org gathered comments from concert goers of all ages, from parents with young children to grandparents, about the Chappaqua Crossings proposal for the former Reader’s Digest property. Each of the 39 people polled was asked the same question: 

What’s your awareness level of the proposal to redevelop the Reader’s Digest property, and what do you think should or will happen?

“We’re older parents, and there are a lot of us, so 55+ doesn’t help. The community has to decide whether it wants condos or commercial up there. But if condos bring kids into the schools, then we can’t afford it.”

“I wouldn’t mind living there. Developers are piggy and always ask for more than they can get because they know that they’ll have to come down.”

“The developer’s said in his literature that he’s going to contribute $5 million in taxes to our town. That $5 million’s not material to the quality of life here. But the traffic it will bring? We’ll find the traffic very material.”

“The 55+ [age restriction] the developer is claiming is untenable.  Does the covenant run with the land?  That’s the only way it could possibly hold.”

“I understand the developers want to widen [Roaring Brook Road] and knock down all those trees. That would be an ecological disaster.”

“Am I aware? I’m against the developer’s request for a variance. This town is already overcrowded. We don’t have the capacity. He invested in that property. You can’t invest in a property and then think you’re going to get a change in the law.”

“I really felt sympathetic to the person who said ‘I collect garbage in your town. I’d really like to live here and send my kid to school here.’ But then a friend said to me, ‘Hey, what about me?  I’d really like to live on Lexington Avenue in Manhattan, near where I work, but I can’t afford to.’ ”

“It’ll be a much harder sell for the developer now that we’ve all seen how single-minded pursuit of profits can inflict really bad collateral damage on everybody else. We have to protect ourselves. I’m glad the town is taking all this time to examine the developer’s proposal.”

“I don’t like gated gray ghettos [55+ developments].”

“It’s pretty funny the way the developer is trying to play on our school budget worries.  The graphic artist in me admires it – the big postcard with the blackboards, the chalk, the checkmarks. But that’s a pretty big claim, $5 million. I think I need to see how he thinks he can do that. If he can, let’s see how.”

“I’m in favor of it in a general sense. If they would add $5 million to our revenues, then yes. If no $5 million, or if it would cost us, then it depends.”

“We need what we can get to bring vitality to the downtown.”

“Well, we’d like to live there.  And if we don’t let this guy make a buck, he’ll sue the town and he’ll win and then he’ll build something we really don’t want.”

“I’m concerned about the traffic near the high school. I’m not concerned about the taxes, but more taxes wouldn’t be bad.  I’m more concerned about the motives of developers.”

“Didn’t the developer buy the property with office zoning? Why would we change it?  Because he asked?  Can I ask to put a small bed-and-breakfast on my other acre of land in my residential zoning?”

“Hey, the entire world has changed since this economic meltdown. I think people have a much higher index of suspicion about promises having to do with land, money, housing, investments – everything financial. What would the Reader’s Digest property look like right now if the developer had gotten permission from the town the last time he asked to build a huge condo development up there? What state would it be in right now? It would be a mess.”

“I’d like to see a pool, but if there’s no $5 million, the plan is a poor use of land.”

“I’d like more playing fields for our kids.”

“I’m a developer too, so I’m sympathetic, naturally. I pretty much favor development everywhere.  But not when it comes to where I live.”

“Leave it ‘as is,’ or build a community center. I heard the developer keeps grieving his taxes.  If the property goes low enough, let’s buy it ourselves!”

“The town should put the developer out of his misery and just tell him “No” on the residential. That might help concentrate his mind on the commercial. Let him rent it out.  Didn’t the town remove restrictions on his office space?  If they didn’t yet, they should.”

“The town changed the zoning once to let him rent more office space. Now he wants another office change plus residential. Too bad. I don’t get chances like that with my property. What if I want to operate a ribs place?”

“It will take forever.”

“It will get built.”

“I care more about a mixture of people in the community. We’re so homogenous. I miss the mix of the city, where we came from. The development would only be bad if everything goes wrong. I don’t think everything will go wrong.”

“My level of awareness?  It’s been a long time. They’re back?”

“They’ll drop the 55+ age restriction when the units don’t sell, like up at [the Capelli/Trump project] in Yorktown.”

“There’s no such thing as an adult-only community. School taxes will go up and there will be much too much traffic.”
 

“$5 million would be good; $10 million would be better. I’m listening.”

“I’ve lost touch with the issues. Hasn’t the developer come down in the number of units and the height of the condos?”

“An influx of people with no children will make a voting block that cares less about kids in school.”

“Affordable and senior housing, great.  My concern is that the couple of hundred market rate condos are going to dump a bunch of kids into the school district.”

“I’m in real estate and I wouldn’t mind. More overall revenue would be good. And I think it can stay [age] restricted.”

“I’m kind of aware of it.  If they live up to the 55+ and the $5 million in taxes, then OK.  If there’s no enforcement and kids in the schools, that’s not good.”

“Does the developer offer to show his finances?  Don’t we really need to see them?  He might be making enough money on the property now. I’d like to know how much.”

“I heard what she said, and I don’t think we can judge whether the developer’s making enough money. What’s enough?  What if he gets a great rent from Reader’s Digest but he has huge debt to cover? We can’t know that.”

“We definitely need taxes, but I don’t know. Business parks for big outfits are kind of over. He probably needs to do a lot of work. The problem is the traffic flow. On occasion we drive our son to the high school and it’s a nightmare. Let’s figure out with the developer how to make that whole drop-off thing work.”

“I’m not in favor of opening up to hundreds of new units we can’t enforce age restrictions on. What do we do? Have our police check the condos?”

I’m torn. I’m a designer and I put projects together. Part of me doesn’t trust the developer, but part of me doesn’t think the town is thinking creatively about the possibilities, or about some of the pros of the project. The document they turned in is definitely too large. They’re not making it easy for the town to work with them.” 

Write the town board with your comments and ideas and copy us at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) for publication in NewCastleNOW.org.

Public comment on the DEIS and on Summit Greenfield’s proposal for rezoning continues on Tuesday, July 28, 7:00 p.m. at town hall. The town board has mounted the DEIS and related documents on a dedicated website:

http://chappaquacrossingreview.mynewcastle.org/

and has set up an email address to receive comments from the community at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

For a complete listing of NewCastleNOW.org’s previous articles and letters to the editor on Reader’s Digest, click here.

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NewCastleNOW.org surveyed 39 concert-goers at the rec field on Wednesday evening.