Public Hearing Set for First Phase of Pace Consolidation Plan
A proposal by Pace University to consolidate its Pleasantville and Briarcliff campuses continues to advance as the Mount Pleasant Planning Board unanimously agreed last week to schedule a public hearing.
The board, which discussed the first of the project’s multiple phases at its April 4 meeting, set the hearing for Thursday, May 2. The university must obtain site plan approval. Last month the town board approved a series of zoning changes to allow the project to be evaluated by the planning board.
Pace is hoping to sell its 35-acre Briarcliff campus, which opened in 1977, and add facilities to the 200-acre Pleasantville campus.
Landscape architect Andrew Tung, representing Pace University, told the planning board that the first phase of the project would include construction of two new student residence halls; new athletic fields to replace those lost on the Briarcliff campus; the dredging of Choat Pond; construction of a new athletic field house; and building a pedestrian walkway in the center of the campus, which would become a central commons area.
Planning board member Regina Pellegrino said she wanted grass to be planted near the proposed four-story student dormitories. Tung said the central commons, where the dormitories would be located, would have grass but concrete sidewalks are planned at the entrances to the dormitories.
Planning Board member John Cohen said the reconfigured campus should have a “safety valve” for ingress and egress in the back of the site in case of emergencies.
Tung replied that the front of the property on Pleasantville Road would be used to evacuate the campus. Evacuating the site from the back of the property, which is being kept as open space, would be difficult, he said.
Steven Kavee, the town’s Conservation Advisory Council chairman who posed a series of questions and comments, said the university should hire an engineer with knowledge of how to properly drain Choat Pond. Planning Board Chairman Michael McLaughlin said a plan to drain and replenish the pond would need to be approved by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the state Department of Environmental Conservation. The pond was last dredged 20 years ago.
Prior to next month’s public hearing, town planning consultant Pat Cleary said he had some questions for university representatives to answer, such as the location of handicapped access at one of the planned dormitories.
If Pace receives site plan approval, it plans to complete the project in five to eight years.
Pace representatives have previously said the remaining phases would be implemented to minimize the impact on activities on the 48-year-old Pleasantville campus and the adjacent area.
