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CROTON-ON-HUDSON, N.Y. A proposed Harmon rezoning law drew at least 100 people to the Croton municipal building for a public hearing Monday night. For more than three hours, a divided crowd spoke one-by-one for or against the proposal.
Mayor Leo Wiegman, in introducing the proposed law, said the Board of Trustees was attempting to answer a nagging problem with the new zoning regulations. Why did the Harmon district experience persistent vacancies or underdeveloped lots? Wiegman said.
The law was crafted to subsidize commercial first floors with residential dwellings behind stores and on second and third stories, he said. These buildings have the lowest commercial vacancy rates, said Wiegman, and provide smaller, more affordable commercial or retail spaces. Special permit mixed-use buildings are among the most difficult and costly arrangements to obtain from the village through special permits, he said.
Incentives to bring more residential units into the buildings could bring more children into the school district, negating any possible tax revenue boost, opponents say. They say the plan is more a residential policy than a commercial one.
The new law would still require landowners in the four-block Gateway district to obtain special permits before developing mixed-use buildings. But it reconfigures the percentage of a building that may be residential. At least 50 percent of the first floor would need to be nonresidential, and any residential space on the first floor would be required to be located behind the nonresidential use.
The second and third floors would have no percentage restrictions for residential, but buildings could only be developed into studios, one-bedroom or two-bedroom apartments. No more than half of the total number of dwellings in a building could be two-bedroom apartments.
Buildings could not be constructed more than 35 feet tall and three stories, a regulation already in place. Some three story buildings already exist in Harmon.
As in current zoning regulations, the law would require one parking space per studio or one-bedroom apartment and two spaces per two-bedroom apartment. The board could review parking and possibly require more parking during the special permit review process.
The zoning law would prohibit commercial parking lots, automobile storage lots, drive-through windows and vehicle dealerships.
The new law would repeal Local Law Number 4 of 2009, which attempted to make similar zoning changes but because of a court injunction is not currently active. After the zoning law was enacted, some residents of Croton filed an Article 78 petition in New York State Supreme Court in White Plains to keep the law from going into effect.
Residents who filed the lawsuit attended the public hearing. Pat Moran, who prepared the lawsuit, said the group has not decided whether it would file another lawsuit.
One resident compared the years between when the proposal of the original law and the many meetings since to the movie Groundhog Day. Adam Rothberg said, Here I am four years later, and Im still in favor of the rezoning, and Harmon is still the same. He said, I really hope that in four years from now. Im not standing here saying the same thing.
We have a relatively small group of people opposed to this law, who have not proposed anything else, said Denise Savage, a resident of the village.
Croton Planning Board members are also divided, Mark Aarons said, Round peg, square hole, thats what this development is going to be. He said the new zoning rules would cause a parking problem in an area he says is already crowded.
Robert Luntz, chairman of the Croton Planning Board, said, Its the right thing to do; its the right thing at the right time.
The Croton Board of Trustees could bring the law to a vote as early as the next agenda. Trustee Greg Schmidt has been the most vocal opponent of the law on the board. To the surprise of many, he announced Monday evening he would not seek re-election in Crotons November election.
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