New Castle to Vote on 10% Affordable Requirement in Business Zones

New Castle is likely to vote on expanding the 10 percent affordable housing requirement into two downtown business zones next week after it closed a public hearing on the proposed local law.

Two of the three speakers at last Tuesday’s hearing were in favor of obligating a developer who builds a project with residential units in the Business Retail (B-R) and Business Retail and Parking (B-RP) zones to include an affordable unit if there are at least five apartments. Larger project would require the 10 percent threshold.

The two zones can be found in downtown Chappaqua and a portion of the Millwood hamlet.

“Whatever other zoning changes are made, I think you need to have this in place now and as soon as possible, so that nothing else slips through the cracks, so that anybody who is thinking about building here in districts, that is an expectation of the town in terms of what they’re looking to achieve going forward,” said Chappaqua resident Robert Fleisher.

A few years ago, some residents and affordable housing advocates questioned why the developer of 91 Bedford Rd., a mixed-use project on Route 117 near King St., was not required to include at least one affordable unit. Since it was part of the B-R zoning district, the town’s affordable zoning ordinance did not apply.

Holly McCall, last year’s unsuccessful Democratic candidate for supervisor, however, said the law would do little to increase the town’s affordable housing stock in those two zones because of structural limitations within the code. There are currently requirements for ground-floor commercial and a three-story limit on building heights in the B-R and B-RP zones.

She said there should be steps taken to overhaul portions of the code that could more effectively encourage developers to build, but this law would likely impede the construction of housing units unless the requirements are addressed.

“In the absence of a study and a holistic update of our (zoning) code, this additional requirement is likely to deter the development of new housing units rather than add affordable housing units to the town that we need,” McCall said.

West End resident Sidney Finehirsh, an advocate for affordable housing, encouraged the town to give the legislation a try because New Castle must begin to reverse decades of resistance to multifamily housing. It remains one of the most segregated towns in the area, he said.

“I’m willing to give it a test, but what I really want to see is that test should really have a limit of time,” Finehirsh said. “If developers don’t take the bait, we should come up with something new, if nothing else. I don’t know what that is.”

Town Attorney Edward Phillips said if the legislation were to be approved it would then include the 10 percent affordable requirement in every zone in which this type of housing is buildable.

The Town Board voted by a 4-1 margin to close the public hearing and kept the period for written comments open until Monday. Councilman Jeremy Saland, who was the lone vote to keep the hearing open, reiterated how the law would have little impact on increasing affordable housing without other code revisions.

“I think it’s something we should work through to make sure it’s a viable, successful means to affordable housing in conjunction with other zoning changes,” he said.

The board could vote on the legislation at its Mar. 22 meeting.

Martin Wilbur

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/