Letter to the Editor: Form Based Code Doesn’t Address Downtown Chappaqua’s Challenges
I have been a Chappaqua resident for the past eight years and have been trying to open a casual food business with carry-out and dine-in options for the past seven years. I have been told by numerous property owners or their representatives that they don’t want food businesses in their vacant spaces.
The Form Based Code provides as-of-right development ability to owners who will seek to maximize profits, not maximize benefits for the community. New developments will drive up rents and make it more difficult for potential tenants like me to afford lease space in Chappaqua.
The Form Based Code in its current iteration doesn’t benefit all of the stakeholders in the hamlet and is a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist. The real problem is the real estate owners’ inability to collaborate with the residents, school district, business owners and Town Board to create a thriving and flourishing commercial and residential hub. Chappaqua can do without more real estate agencies, banks, dry cleaners or salons – all tenants real estate owners love. Chappaqua needs more “social spaces” that include art and culture, restaurants and establishments that promote the hamlet to future residents and businesses, a category that doesn’t seem to appeal to property owners.
Chappaqua has a poor track record on development. The focus shouldn’t be on mediocre expansion but rather on improvement of the current tenant mix that benefits the community as a whole. The Form Based Code is going to offer more of what we already have and less of what we need.
Dan Soloway,
Chappaqua
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