New Castle Approves Retail Rezoning for Chappaqua Crossing
The New Castle Town Board approved the rezone of a 19-acre portion of the former Reader’s Digest property Thursday night that will allow up to 120,000 square feet of retail space at the site.
Each of the four resolutions was supported by a 4-1 margin during the special meeting at the Chappaqua Public Library, with Councilwoman Lisa Katz casting the dissenting vote. Board members who backed the rezone cited mainly economic reasons for approving developer Summit/Greenfield’s rezone application for the Chappaqua Crossing project.
A 40,000-square-foot Whole Foods supermarket is slated to be the anchor tenant along with a 25,000-square-foot fitness facility, restaurants, a bank and other retail shops.
Supervisor Robert Greenstein said while he had been in favor of a Whole Foods coming to town, expanding New Castle’s commercial tax base, which is currently only 3 percent, is essential. Leaving the 116-acre campus largely idle–only 21 percent of the current office space is in use–would have been a poor option, he said.
“I believe we’re building a better New Castle by our decision,” Greenstein said. “Chappaqua Crossing will bring new and different amenities for our residents while enhancing our commercial tax base, and to me, that’s the bottom line.”
Greenstein listed significant concessions agreed to by Summit/Greenfield, which makes the project more attractive. Among them are a $1.5 million payment to the town to go toward revitalizing New Castle’s existing business hamlets; $600,000 to improve the vehicular entrance to Horace Greeley High School across the street from the property on Roaring Brook Road; improving the Roaring Brook Road median; the transfer of ownership from the developer to the town of four parcels at the site to create green space and buffer for neighboring residents; a $100,000 recreation fee; free jitney service from the site to downtown; and paying for the town’s consultants.
But Katz countered that she thought the project’s size and scope were inappropriate for the residential area. She also contended that the concessions and the mitigation efforts are inadequate.
“Despite my reservations about this project, I tried to negotiate with my fellow board members to make this development as beneficial and unobtrusive to New Castle as possible, but, I don’t believe the concessions that were made have resulted in this project being in the best interests of the town,” Katz said. “The proposed mitigations from Summit/Greenfield that you heard about tonight are not enough. The proposed retail project is just too big.”
The vote, which came four days shy of the 10th anniversary of Summit/Greenfield’s acquisition of the property, was a major hurdle for the developer, said public relations spokesman Geoffrey Thompson. Thompson called it “a significant step forward.”
“We’re very pleased,” he said. “A 4-1 vote is certainly a solid endorsement of this. We know we have some issues that still need to be resolved but really this was the most significant step forward and it was an outcome we waited a long time for.”
Summit/Greenfield must still have the town board approve the Preliminary Development Concept Plan (PDCP), which will determine how the components of the project are laid out on the property. That vote is expected to occur in January or February. The developer then must head to the planning board for site plan approval and receive state Department of Transportation approval for its traffic mitigation plan for Route 117.
Neighboring residents and others opponents of the plan were disappointed at the outcome. They had argued that traffic, which is already a problem on Route 117, will become a nightmare even with the mitigation efforts. They also said their quality of life will be negatively impacted.
Roaring Brook Road resident Robert Lewis said he and his wife had lived in their house for years and the vote will make them reconsider their future.
“We believe in this town, we believe in our home and it certainly makes it very hard for us to figure out, going forward, how we’re going to cope with this news,” Lewis said. “We would like to think that we have roots here and it makes it very hard to think that way.”
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/
