Chappaqua Crossing Retail Plan Blasted at New Castle Hearing
Developer Summit/Greenfield’s request to rezone a portion of the former Reader’s Digest property to allow 120,000 square feet of retail space was harshly criticized by opponents Tuesday night before the New Castle Town Board.
During the more than two-hour public hearing, every one of the more than 20 speakers panned the proposal to allow a full-service supermarket and other retail uses at the 116-acre Chappaqua Crossing campus. The detractors cited the likelihood of adding burdensome traffic on Route 117 in an area that already has excessive vehicular congestion from Horace Greeley High School and the Saw Mill Parkway as well as jeopardizing smaller merchants in downtown Chappaqua and the Millwood business hamlet.
Others were adamant that opening up the property to a supermarket that would be between 36,000 and 66,000 square feet and a variety of other shops would forever alter the town.
“Putting a regional strip mall and megastore will change the character of our town to that of Paramus, Jefferson Valley or Yonkers,” said Chappaqua resident Jim Runde.
The town board has been entertaining the idea of rezoning a portion of the site to allow certain retail uses in the Business, Research and Office zone (BRO) as a possible way to increase the tax base and take pressure off the residential property taxpayer.
Attorney John Marwell, representing applicant Summit/Greenfield, said aside from the supermarket, the retail space could include a mix of a drive-through pharmacy, a bank and a combination of national and local retailers and perhaps restaurants. A maximum of four stores would be less than 5,000 square feet to limit the competition the new businesses would pose to the current business centers. There would be no fast food or big box retailers.
Marwell also said the new retail, on one-third of the commercially zoned 72 acres, would replace 120,000 square feet of unused office space. Currently, only about 140,000 of the site’s 662,000 square feet of office and commercial space is occupied. The supermarket would be located in the ground floor of the old Reader’s Digest signature main building with the cupola on the roof and an adjacent building. Marwell said the architectural qualities in the main building would be maintained.
The proposed supermarket would help replace the loss of D’Agostino, Chappaqua’s only supermarket, more than a year ago, he added.
“You recognize that Chappaqua Crossing is an immediately available commercial opportunity for the town and that it presents the potential for both a healthier commercial tax base and to provide a location to provide goods and services that the town residents want and need,” Marwell told the board.
In April 2011, the town board approved 111 condominium units on the residentially zoned portion of the property as part of the mixed use project.
However, some residents said a new supermarket would be helpful downtown but would be of little use at Chappaqua Crossing. The A&P in Millwood and supermarkets in Mount Kisco and other neighboring communities are sufficient.
“We don’t need another supermarket,” said Chappaqua resident Michael Silverstein. “Why do we need another one to destroy every food market in the place?”
Rob Greenstein, co-founder of the Chappaqua-Millwood Chamber of Commerce, said a petition carried last year asked for another supermarket to go in the same location as D’Agostino, in the mall on King Street near Route 117, not at Chappaqua Crossing.
“These guys get up there and say ‘Ooh, we’re fulfilling a need,’ like they’re coming to the rescue of Chappaqua and then adding in another 80,000 square feet of retail,” Greenstein said. “The joke is they’re going to preserve the rotunda and the architectural design of the structure and then they’re going to put a supermarket there.”
The only board member who commented was Councilman Jason Chapin, who kicked off the hearing by reading a statement explaining the town’s rationale for considering the partial rezone for some retail uses. He said that the town must weigh the rezone request while it is likely to update its Comprehensive Plan and studying the Chappaqua and Millwood business hamlets.
“There is no doubt that New Castle remains challenged by a lack of potential commercial development sites that puts upward pressure on our residential tax base,” Chapin said.
Chapin criticized an online petition that has collected more than 750 signatures opposing the project as “misleading.”
Currently, the town board is awaiting a recommendation on the rezone from the town’s planning board. Planning board members have expressed concern about creating a third business hamlet with the potential to harm existing businesses in downtown Chappaqua and Millwood as well as possible traffic problems.
The town board adjourned the public hearing until an unspecified date. At the start of the meeting, Councilwoman Elise Kessler-Mottel recused herself from the proceedings because the law firm that she works for previously represented a subsidiary of Summit/Greenfield.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
