Tuesday, March 17, 2015
Editor’s Note: Last Wednesday Board of Ed members discussed a draft letter to the Town Board stating that the Board of Ed will not pass on cost overruns if Summit Greenfield’s $600,000 for proposed changes to Greeley’s interior roadways proves insufficient. The letter is below:
Read MoreDecember 19, 2014
by Christine Yeres
Because Town Court was in session on Thursday, Town Board members met in the Chappaqua Library theater to vote on several amendments related to the retail zoning change for Chappaqua Crossing. Board members were somber, a handful of residents were present, Felix Charney of Summit Development sat listening from high in the raked theater. No questions or comments were allowed. The Board’s counsel, Nick Ward-Willis ran through minor changes to the latest version of the each amendment to be considered.
Read MoreThe Town Board will vote on the Chappaqua Crossing application on Thursday, December 18.
December 12, 2014
Editor’s Note: Below are updates from Supervisor Rob Greenstein on the status of the Conifer and Chappaqua Crossing proposals. Following them is a four-minute video of the Supervisor’s report from last Tuesday’s Town Board meeting.
Read More“The Board will not have the ability to pick and choose tenants in the future.”
Saturday, December 13, 2014
by Jeff Blockinger
Editor’s Note: On Monday, December 8, Jeff Blockinger sent the following comments to Town Board members. Blockinger has spoken at previous public hearings, telling Town Board members should concern themselves with fixing the existing problems of downtown Chappaqua before creating a “third hamlet’ at Chappaqua Crossing.
Read MoreDesign-wise, Summit Greenfield’s plan is a Whole Foods 50,000 square foot strip center within a fake-traditional neighborhood development
Tuesday, December 9, 2014—UPDATED December 13, 2014—with answers
by Christine Yeres
Ignoring Planning Board and County Planning Board objections to the proposed retail “mixed use” development of Chappaqua Crossing, the Town Board is fine-tuning its draft zoning—and seems to be giving Summit Greenfield everything it asks for. The draft zoning has bypassed the original “adaptive reuse” concept advanced by Susan Carpenter: a grocery special enough to draw customers even though relatively hidden away in existing buildings, plus some accompanying retail.
Read MoreOpportunity to meet and talk at Lange’s on Monday, Nov. 17, 9:30 am to 11:30 am.
November 14, 2014
by Deputy Supervisor Lisa Katz
It’s no secret that, for many reasons, I am opposed to the current retail development proposal at Chappaqua Crossing. However, I also realize that some retail may be approved by the Town Board, and, if so, I want to ensure that it is the best possible size and type of development for our whole community.
Read MoreTown Board will discuss elements of CC application in work session preceding Nov. 18 public hearing
November 17, 2014
~ by Supervisor Rob Greenstein
The Town Board is continuing its work on a draft local law and preliminary development concept plan that could allow a Whole Foods supermarket, a gym, restaurants and retail stores to be built at Chappaqua Crossing. With input from our Planning Board, we’ve persuaded Summit Greenfield to move away from its original proposal to build large format retail stores, and instead to design a more community-oriented, walkable retail development.
Read MoreTuesday, November 18, 2014
by Christine Yeres
Town Board members have said they intend to make a decision on the Chappaqua Crossing application for retail rezoning before year’s end, and they will likely close the public hearing at the end of the November 18 public hearing. Despite the advice of the Planning Board, Town Board members showed in their meeting on Monday that they intend to keep approval authority for the preliminary development concept plan for themselves. “We’ve consulted them already,” explained Greenstein, “and we’ll continue to listen to them.” The plan has been made better by the Planning Board, he said. But formal power-sharing is too complicated.
Read MoreDeveloper’s litigator says time’s up, Whole Foods will walk, SG will sue
With 100 comments since publication
Saturday, November 1, 2014
by Christine Yeres
In last Tuesday’s public hearing on Chappaqua Crossing, a Whole Foods representative testified that a total of 120,000 square feet of retail—40,000 of which would be Whole Foods’ part—is the number its corporate office likes. And a new memo on traffic from the Summit Greenfield says that to reduce the 120,000 square feet would violate the terms of its conditional lease with Whole Foods. Yet Town Board members seemed still to be trying to find a way to work the amount-of-retail-square-footage and volume-of-traffic levers to find a formula that all parties can live with. And all three parties—Town Board, Summit Greenfield and Whole Foods—want the matter decided by end-of-year.
Read More
DOT and Collins traffic correspondence recently added
October 24, 2014
by Christine Yeres
In last Tuesday’s work session, in preparation for the public hearing on Chappaqua Crossing at 8:00 p.m. on Tuesday, October 28, Town Board counsel Nick Ward-Willis took Town Board members through not only the amendments that are the subjects of the hearing, but also the many documents that have been submitted by the applicant’s consultants, the town’s consultants, the County Planning Board and NYS Department of Transportation. Below are links to many of them, some with summaries.
Read MoreTuesday, October 21, 2014
by Christine Yeres
With the public hearing one week away, a raft of new documents related to the Chappaqua Crossing application for retail zoning has appeared on the town’s website over the last couple of weeks. Planning Board comments are in, recommending that “adaptive reuse of the existing buildings remain a primary feature of any preliminary development concept plan for retail development.” Michael Galante says his traffic analysis is still valid. And the authors of the AKRF report assert that a reduced Chappaqua Crossing will be more harmful to the hamlet than a full 120,000-square-foot version.
Read MoreOctober 20, 2014
Editor’s Note: The AKRF report on the competitive effects on the existing Chappaqua hamlet of retail at Chappaqua Crossing—as proposed most recently, with all 120,000 square feet of retail in new construction— appeared Friday on the town’s website. The report addresses the following topics:
• Likely Retail Composition and Consumer Base of 2014 Revised Retail PDCP
• Potential Competitive Effects Assuming 25 to 50 Percent Reductions in Chappaqua Crossing Retail Space
• 2014 Revised Retail PDCP and the 1989 Town Development Plan
• Property Tax Implications of the Proposed Whole Foods Market and Small Store Format
Friday, August 8, 2014
by Robin K. Liebowitz, Principal and Founder of rkl3D llc
To the Editor:
I was interested to read the story and the wide range of reader comments in the current edition of New Castle NOW pertaining to the New Castle resident opinion survey my company, rkl3D llc, conducted for the owners of Chappaqua Crossing regarding a Whole Foods Market and ancillary retail being built at the site.
Read MoreMonday, July 28, 2014
by Christine Yeres
In last Tuesday’s public hearing on a zoning change for Chappaqua Crossing to permit retail on the site, former Town Board member John Buckley suggested that the Board revisit the residential option for Chappaqua Crossing, telling Board members that he believed that around 200 residential units might have worked for all parties. (The original application proposed 348 units, then 278, then 199, before a previous Town Board settled in April 2011 on 111 units). Two interesting responses to Buckley followed:
Read MoreTuesday, June 24, 2014
by Chuck Napoli
How a “Main Street,” the grand formal approach to the cupola building—the inspiration of the “neighborhood design” theme—was never a fit with the retail overlay zoning intention and wound up a truck route instead.
Read MoreJune 20, 2014
by Rita Tobin
Having attended the Town Board meeting on June 10th, I have a few comments to add to those made at the meeting.
Read MoreThe public hearing on zoning to permit grocery and retail opens Tuesday, June 22 at 7:45 p.m.
June 20, 2014
by Christine Yeres
The public hearing on the proposed rezoning of Chappaqua Crossing to permit a grocery and retail opens officially on Tuesday, June 24 at town hall, 7:45 p.m. Incorporated at the beginning of the draft zoning text is the change proposed to the Town Development Plan to make it match the change in zoning. It reads:
Read More“One chance to get this right”
Thursday, May 15, 2014
by John and Liza Norton
Dear Board Members;
Allow us please to add our voices to the chorus of New Castle residents who are greatly concerned about the impact that the proposed retail development at Chappaqua Crossing will have on local traffic volume and flow.
Read MoreApril 25, 2014
by Supervisor Rob Greenstein
Although the prior Town Supervisor was on the Master Planning Committee, this was not an assignment I asked for. I did not want to be on the Steering Committee. It was offered to every single town board member, and many non board members as well. It was also offered to a few members of the commercial work group committee.
Read MoreApril 8, 2014
by Supervisor Rob Greenstein
Please keep in mind that the prior town conducted the SEQRA review. The prior TB adopted the findings the week before elections. They made specific findings as to traffic and other impacts that would be associated with retail zoning. I do not believe the current town board is at liberty to disregard those findings as it considers whether retail zoning is appropriate for the property.
Read MoreApril 8, 2014
by Christine Yeres
Editor’s Note: In an interview yesterday, Supervisor Rob Greenstein, now in office for three months, gave an update of his accomplishments in these first 100 days. The following article treats only the subjects of the search for a “win-win” at Chappaqua Crossing and the Spa @ New Castle, now renamed “Homes @ New Castle,” due, according to Greenstein, to his efforts to bring neighbors and developer toward something both can support.
Read MoreHours before Town Board votes on zoning—8:15 p.m. @ Chappaqua Library—Planning Board finalizes its comments on Chappaqua Crossing
Thursday, December 18, 2014
Editor’s Note: Planning Board members followed up their Monday discussion of Chappaqua Crossing’s application for retail zoning with final comments to the Town Board. The 8-point letter ends: “In sum, after all this time and effort, the Planning Board believes that we need to look beyond the applicant’s immediate financial needs and legal posturing and get this right. Frankly, a broader enabling law should work better than the more limited approval that [Summit Greenfield] seek[s]. At the same time, broader enabling legislation should serve as an important signal from the Town to the applicant that there is an expectation that we need to continue to work jointly toward a ‘best’ plan.”
Read MoreTown Board will vote on the zoning legislation at 8:15 p.m. on Thursday, December 18, at Chappaqua Library Theater
Tuesday, December 16, 2014
by Christine Yeres
Last night, Bob Kirkwood, chair of Planning Board, proposed a way forward with the Chappaqua Crossing application that could lessen the impacts of the proposed retail development. In a letter shared with Town Board members, Kirkwood proposed that that the Town Board give the town and the developer more flexibility to plan the site as genuine mixed-use. Instead of three disparate office, residential and retail zones, he suggested, maintain the overall cap for retail of 120,000 square feet (and office space of 500,000 square feet), but draw a boundary around the entire property designating it as “mixed use.” The single “mixed use” zoning could permit uses to move or mingle and create “traditional neighborhood development” conditions as both county and town Planning Boards have consistently called for over the 2.5 years of reviewing the application.
Read MoreDecember 12, 2014
Editor’s Note: What follows is an op-ed + public comment. Since today is the deadline for comments on the proposed rezoning of Chappaqua Crossing as a retail shopping center, I am submitting into the record an email discussion with Town Board and Board of Education members. It was triggered by my email to them suggesting they consider a roundabout rather than a “signalized” six-lane intersection at the high school entrance. Roundabouts have been proven safer for pedestrians and vehicles that conventional intersections with traffic lights. In the group email below, Supervisor Greenstein and Board of Ed members Jeffrey Mester and Vicky Tipp weighed in. Thanks to a reference by Mester to a previous article in NCNOW, I found that the Town’s traffic consultant Michael Galante had told Board of Ed members in August of 2013 that only 5% of traffic could be “counted on” to use the back road into Chappaqua Crossing; the Greeley entrance and the main entrance on Bedford Road would serve as main access drives.
Read More
December 12, 2014
by Christine Yeres
Speaking for neighbors in Lawrence Farms East, Bill Devaney challenged the work of Summit Greenfield’s traffic consultant, John Collins, with a report of his own. In the December 9 continuation of the public hearing on Chappaqua Crossing, Devaney asked Town Board counsel Nick Ward-Willis to confirm that the State would require Summit Greenfield to construct all roadway improvements before any certificate of occupancy were issued. Ward-Willis did so, explaining that Summit Greenfield cannot get a building permit until New York State’s Department of Transportation has approved Summit Greenfield’s proposed road improvements or “mitigations,” and cannot obtain a certificate of occupancy until those improvements are completed. Devaney then read sections of the report he had commissioned from an independent traffic consultant.
Read MoreSaturday, December 6, 2014
by Christine Yeres
In Whole Foods’ conditional lease with Summit Greenfield, the planned 40,000-square-foot grocery requires that no more than 16,000 square feet of the 120,000-square-foot shopping center should be leased for restaurant use. Whether or not to allow them to be chain restaurants is still a point of disagreement among Town Board members.
Read MoreTuesday, December 2, 2014
by Christine Yeres
Editor’s Note: The following is an account of November 18 public hearing on changes to the town’s zoning that would permit retail at Chappaqua Crossing. The hearing continues tonight at 8:45 p.m.
Read MoreTuesday, December 2, 2014
Editor’s Note: The finances of Chappaqua Crossing were again a topic of discussion in the November 18 public hearing. With the public hearing on Tuesday, December 2, NCNOW is reprinting a piece by Jason Chapin from August 2013, setting out Summit Greenfield’s tax revenue projections for Chappaqua Crossing. Chapin provided the piece in response to a statement in August 2013 by then-Supervisor Susan Carpenter that the revenues from Chappaqua Crossing were “just projections,” and that the Town Assessor could not determine the value of the property and its taxes until the proposed retail was leased and operating. They may indeed be “just projections,” but in Chapin’s view they are projections that count. Below is his thinking. NCNOW has added some bracketed information, for clarification.
Read More
Monday, December 1, 2014
by Chuck Napoli
If anyone has any doubts about whether Chappaqua Crossing will challenge the viability of downtown Chappaqua, rest assured: it will. It’s exactly the kind of place the first AKRF study told us “would more directly compete with the function of the hamlet centers.”
Read More. . . and remains non-committal on Planning Board request to share PDCP approval authority
Saturday, November 8, 2014
by Christine Yeres
Last Wednesday Town Board members ran through the draft retail zoning from May of this year. Early on they discussed whether to agree to the Planning Board’s request that its members be included in the approval process for the preliminary development concept plan, “so that the Planning Board’s concerns and comments could be folded into the Town Board’s actions.”
Read More
October 17, 2014
by Christine Yeres
At last Tuesday’s Town Board meeting, New Castle resident Dan Googel brought to public attention a concept first floated around 2005, when Mt. Kisco needed to reline a sewer main running south through New Castle along the east side of the railroad tracks between Horace Greeley High School and North Greeley Avenue in downtown Chappaqua. Gravel was laid down along the path so that trucks could come and go. At the time, former Town Administrator Gerry Faiella thought to ask the county to replace the gravel with asphalt once the project was completed and even lay an electrical conduit for low path-lights someday.
Read More
August 22, 2014
by Christine Yeres
In its August 12 public hearing on zoning changes to permit a grocery and retail at Chappaqua Crossing totaling 120,000 square feet of new building space, Town Board members heard from several property owners in downtown Chappaqua including Bill Holmes, who urged Board members, as “caretakers of the town” to first develop a Master Plan. “Listen to everything,” he said, “and have a moratorium if you have to.” Supervisor Greenstein reiterated his commitment to revitalize the hamlets, “whatever happens at Chappaqua Crossing.” Town Board members asked Summit Greenfield to supply “a sliding scale” of traffic figures associated with retail space of as much as 50% less than the 120,000 square feet studied in the environmental review.
Read MoreMonday, July 28, 2014
by Michael Shapiro
Dear Supervisor Greenstein:
As I have mentioned to several people in town government over many years, The Chappaqua Orchestra is in favor of the renovation of the Wallace Auditorium at Chappaqua Crossing, and the auditorium thereafter being run by the Town or a not-for-profit corporation. Properly renovated, the Wallace Auditorium could become the long desired home of the The Chappaqua Orchestra and other performing arts organizations. Due to the very busy schedule at the high school, Greeley is not readily available for us. Having a performing arts center at Chappaqua Crossing would also enliven the development by giving Chappaqua a priceless cultural resource, and the Chappaqua Orchestra a home.
Read More… Brodsky says surveyors seemed able to “tailor” responses
Friday, July 25, 2014
by Christine Yeres
An exchange between Town Board member Jason Chapin and attorney for Summit Greenfield John Marwell about their mutual frustration over the Chappaqua Crossing application led to a presentation of the results of a “community survey” undertaken by Summit Greenfield confirm for itself that it was “on the right track” in proposing the new “main street” configuration and smaller stores in its grocery-retail application.
Read MoreMonday, July 28, 2014
Editor’s Note: Planning Board members Bob Kirkwood (Chair), Dick Brownell, Sheila Crespi and Tom Curley met on Friday, July 18, to finish up the comments they must produce for the Town Board on the zoning amendments proposed for a grocery and retail at Chappaqua Crossing. They also discussed whether—and how—to pose their objections to the application in a separate cover letter. At the request of the Planning Board, the Town Board will meet with them soon to discuss the application. The public hearing continues on August 12. The Planning Board’s discussion below is arranged by topic.
Read MoreAdvises the matter be run through a master planning process
Thursday, July 17, 2014
by Christine Yeres
Racing to finish their comments on the Chappaqua Crossing proposal before the July 22 public hearing, last Tuesday the Planning Board members Bob Kirkwood, Tom Curley and Sheila Crespi didn’t confine themselves to questions of size of the retail proposed, big stores versus smaller ones, how many restaurants, or additional uses such as garden or auditorium; they also expressed deep reservations about the project.
Read MoreTuesday, July 22, 2014
by Christine Yeres
• The public hearing on proposed zoning changes to permit retail at Chappaqua Crossing opens tonight, Tuesday July 22, around 8:00 p.m. Click HERE for agenda (several items come before the CC public hearing).
Read MoreThursday, July 17, 2014
by Christine Yeres
The public hearing on Summit Greenfield’s application for 120,000 square feet of grocery-with-retail at Chappaqua Crossing reopens next week, on Tuesday, July 22. In order to make some sense of the Chappaqua Crossing debate that has sprawled across so many years and applications, documents and studies, boards and experts, I thought I’d revisit the Greenstein of a little more than one year ago. I’ve used his letter of May 2013 as an organizing tool. I’ll say it up front: This is an argument for a genuine, professionally-handled Master Plan review not of two years’ duration, but for a fast-tracked feasibility study of the of the town’s existing hamlets and retail at Chappaqua Crossing, something the Planning Board has recently called for yet again.
Read MoreAt 7:00 pm on Monday, June 9, a special PB meeting to discuss CC new PDCP; on Tuesday, June 10 a public hearing on zoning change to permit grocery-retail
Saturday, June 7, 2014
by Christine Yeres
On Tuesday the Planning Board reviewed the changes the town and Summit Greenfield are proposing to the town’s zoning that would allow a portion of the Chappaqua Crossing site to be used for a grocery of 40,000 square feet and for 80,000 square feet of additional retail.
Read MoreTown traffic expert leaves Boards with more questions than answers
With 89 comments since publication
May 30, 2014
by Christine Yeres
In a joint meeting of Town Board and Planning Board members both boards heard a presentation of the latest plan by Summit Greenfield for 120,000 square feet of retail (40,000 of it a Whole Foods grocery, 25,000 SF gym, a small bank building and “a series of smaller buildings that could be further subdivided”). “We believe,” said planning and engineering consultant for SG, Andy Tung, “that the traffic is the same, the program is the same and access to the site is the same.” But without SG’s traffic consultant present, traffic questions from residents and board members remained close to the same degree of unanswered.
Read MoreMonday, May 19, 2014
Reprinted from November 26, 2012, April 19, 2013 and—most recently, with updates—Monday, May 19, 2014
by Christine Yeres
Editor’s Note: This primer on the Chappaqua Crossing situation is still a good one. With a Tuesday, May 20 meeting at Town Hall scheduled, here it is again, with further updates:
Chapter One in the saga of town’s relationship with Summit Greenfield and Chappaqua Crossing concluded with the Town Board’s decision in April 2011 to allow 111 units of multi-family housing (60 market-rate fee simple and 51 condos, 20 of them affordable) to be built on the former Reader’s Digest property and a lifting of restrictions on the number of tenants allowed in the 662,000 square feet of office space. Of the two lawsuits that are part of that chapter, the state suit (dismissed and appealed) and the federal case against the town have been suspended in a settlement between Summit Greenfield and the town.
So could Chapter Two work with a grocery and retail?
Read More
Three meetings in one on Chappaqua Crossing
6:00 p.m. Tuesday, May 13, 2014
UPDATE Saturday, May 17: THE MEETING TIME HAS BEEN CHANGED: The Tuesday, May 20 work session will now begin at 8:30 p.m. [The public hearing on Homeland’s cell tower proposal for Armonk Road will take place, as originally scheduled, at 7:00 p.m. and run until 8:30 p.m.]
The Town Board’s agenda states: “8:30 pm – 10: 30 pm Referral to Planning Board/Westchester County / Planning Joint meeting” and the Planning Board’s agenda states: “8:30 P.M. JOINT WORK SESSION WITH TOWN BOARD / Chappaqua Crossing Amended PDCP.”
UPDATE Monday, May 19: On Tuesday, May 20, at 8:30 p.m. at Town Hall Summit Greenfield will make a presentation of its latest proposal, the Town and Planning Boards will discuss the new site plan, the TB will officially refer the plan to the Planning Board, and traffic consultant for the town, Michael Galante, will talk traffic. Need to catch up? This article originally published in Nov. 2012 is still a good summary of the issues and the thinking at the time: A primer on the proposal for grocery and retail at Chappaqua Crossing, NCNOW.org, with notes updating it.
Read More
