61 East Main Street, zoned for office & living space
Neighboring East Main Street house
Neighboring East Main Street house
Proposed new apartment deelopment at 61 East Main Street
"Which picture is different?"
Despite the project presenters' assertions that their designed units would fit Washingtonville's colonial home & office area, residents were opposed. Anyone old enough to recall the Iowa Scholastic Achievement Tests, will remember when they asked "Which of these pictures is different from the others", to test the abilities of cognitive distinction. While residents thought the Family Villas drawing was a very nice design, they definitely thought it would not fit in with Washingtonville's goal to maintain its treasured strip of colonial style home/office-mix buildings along E. main Street just North of Village Center.. Planning Board member Patrice Gessner compared the rendering to adjacent buildings with both office and living space, of which there are about a dozen. She shook her head and emphasized "Theyre NOT the same".
With perhaps the most urgent issue on the minds of many residents in the VIllage of Washingtonville being "How to retain and emphasize its Historic Village Center Character", residents have been on edge for years about what will ultimately happen to 61 East Main Street. Originally a residence and then zoned as a combination residence and office, as are most of the houses along the half-mile north of the Route 208/Route 94 main intersection, its current fate will depend on new overlay zoning restrictions of the Village's nearly finished 2024 Comprehensive Plan. And so, with a request by property owner, Moshe Halpern, for a Hardship Exemption from the current building moratorium, the Village Hall was packed. The project plan calls for demolition of the existing building, replacing it with two apartment buildings of 14,000 sq. ft. each as well as parking for up to 2 vehicles per residence.
The current Moratorium is likely to have one more extension when it expires in June, and the project's attorney, engineer and traffic professionals were well prepared with statististical documentation of the financial burden that all of these delays have caused and will continue to cause Mr. Halpern unless they receive a Moratorium Exemption and are allowed to proceed.
Attorney Charles Gottlieb for the Applicant
Mike Morgante, Project Engineer for the Application
The main issue, according to the public, is that unlike retaining the colonial look of the other home and business properties on East Main, the Halpern project calls for 28 apartments, with 2 parking spaces for each residence, and would enter and exit from one "in" and one "out" driveway onto one of the busiest roadways in the area, and barely 1/2 mile from 2 main intersections (that of Route 208 and 94), the stoplight from Brotherhood Plaza, heavy commuter traffic and already long wait times while streams of buses bring students to and from both the Middle School and High School. The traffic is already such an issue that its BOE has already discussed where another school could go in the Town if expansion became necessary.
The professionals on the project were well prepared in their attempt to address the traffic issues, having spent time this past year going over plans and options with the Department of Transportation, who they said had come up with several traffic mitigation measures that included variable intersection light timing and video monitoring so that best alternate routes could be calculated during times that the traffic is backed up for one reason or another. But a little chuckle came from the public who already struggle with traffic at the main intersection and beyond, which they say continues from mid-afternoon to 6 pm, adding that there is not really any alternate route, and insisting that making a left turn from the property would be dangerous if not impossible during much of the day and early evening.. Route 94 is also a major commuter route North in early evening, at the same time as shops, restaurants, teams at Mays Field and classes at the NYPAC studio are in session.
Considering potential cumulative effect, if the Clovewood project moves forward at the border of the Village of South Blooming Grove, thousands of other additional vehicles will be entering the area's Route 208 growing gridlock.
The public in attendence said they were sincerely appreciative of the diligence and professionalism of the project, and acknowledged the need for more affordable housing in the village, but not at the cost of even worse traffic and loss of a main identity focal element of the village, i.e. the image visitors see of the colonial style houses along its main entrance and exit. In fact, during a complex survey and notes that residents posted on maps during a recent Comprehensive Plan Public Session, the desire to stick to single-family dwellings was the most frequently chosen housing option for the future.. Engineer on the project, Mike Morgante, pointed out that they had paid particular attention to the style of the buildings, in attempt to give them a historic colonial style, and showed an attractive rendering of 2 lines of buildings with a parklike frontage. He added that the studies they had done for historic relecs for SHPPO showed they were in fact sincere in attending to the Village's historic character. But Planning Committee member Patrice Gessner pointed to the styles of each of the surrounding home/office buildings, clearly very different from the apartment complex, and an associate on the Planning Board explained that while it may have somewhat of a colonial look, it is far different from the "textural character of the Village." Mr. Morgante and Attorney Charles Gottlieb described the years of negotiations and requests from this board and that over the span of two different administrations, of mitigations and revisions, Gottlieb saying he had never before had so many special requests on a project, nor a project where the applicant had agreed to every single change that had been requested.. However, the public stood fast said that they also had followed every step the project took during that time and had resolutely and consistently said "NO, not there!, it doesn't fit." Since then they have participated in dozens of village sessions and Comprehensive Plan meetings helping to outline what, in fact, they want any future development to look like, and contibuting to new overlay regulations, images and maps. With mumbles of new high density affordable homes becoming the mantra of Governor Hochul and with her calls for significant financial support for them (at the tax expense of many single family homeowners), and her failed attempt, defeated by NY Legislature, to impose a quota of new housing, she will have a big uphill challenge when it comes to communities like Washingtonville which are full of people who moved here from the City for a taste of country rural life and a love for the history and historic scenery it embraces. The best that she can hope for will probably be careful placement of the higher density housing variety, and significantly less than she first requested, where it doesn't obstruct treasured views or historic places, and an absolute "NO WAY!" to a threat of overruling local zoning.
Despite the numerous comments of recognition for the applicants' professionals' good work, and being sorry for the length of struggle they have so far endured re. the project, the public stood firm in their opposition. However, after the meeting ended a few attendees mentioned that there would probably be little opposition to that same plan or one like it being implemented at a different site in the Village, perhaps like a portion of the Casazza acres, likely a future mixed use project at the land on Route 208 East of the Village Center where there would be the space to keep it back from roadside within a parklike setting, and sized to not overwhelm its surroundings. It would also offer at least a few available reasonable traffic mitigation alternatives. away from the Middle and High School entrances and exits (which are also very busy during numerous athletic and other school events), Somewhere like that would also offer sufficient space for a second exit, which would be especially important for fire and police in the case of an emergency.
The public hearing on this project was closed, with the option to send in written comments and for the Village Board to make a decision within 30 days.
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