No. Castle Doesn’t Plan to Consider Latest Fareri Affordable Unit Pitch
The North Castle Town Board appeared disinterested last week in entertaining a request from Armonk developer Michael Fareri to relocate affordable units from his condominium project at the old lumberyard on Bedford Road.
Fareri made another plea to the board at the Jan. 24 meeting, asking that he be allowed to move three of the six units to his 16-unit project at 470 Main St. while he keeps three units at the lumberyard site. The three affordable residences for 470 Main St. would be to satisfy a future developer’s affordable housing requirements.
To make his latest proposal more attractive to town officials, Fareri said he would donate $500,000 to the town’s recreation fund in addition to the $131,000 he is required to pay.
“Every job I’ve done in this town has been to the best of my ability,” Fareri told the board while accompanied by a group of town residents who supported the change. “It’s the best it can be. I can’t put my arms around the lumberyard (project) the way that it is, even though it looks as beautiful as it is. The reason is it’s not the best it can be. It’s not the best it can be. There’s potential future problems that can be avoided with your help and with your cooperation.”
Fareri walked out of the meeting room after he was done speaking, not waiting to hear whether the board would be receptive to his plan.
He has maintained that mixing affordable units with market-rate condominiums would cause problems because there would be a large discrepancy in common charges between the two types of units. When work would need to be done on the property, it would be unfair to the market-rate condo owners to shoulder a large share of the expense.
Following comments from Fareri and the residents, board members said there was nothing for them to consider because there was no application before them. The town approved a 36-unit structure at the old lumberyard site with 30 market-rate condos and the six affordable units under the same roof.
Fareri continues to hold a building permit, said Supervisor Michael Schiliro.
“This is a proposal in his mind,” he said. “This is just a public comment period. We’ve gone through this on this property for probably over 10 years. I’ve been on the board a little over 10 years. We’ve been through different iterations and all the decisions have been made.”
Town Attorney Roland Baroni said if Fareri wants a change in his plans he would have to submit a formal application for a zoning text change and go through the public hearing process – provided the Town Board wants to entertain another change.
Fareri has pointed to other developers in town being allowed to relocate affordable units or units that were regulated under North Castle’s Middle Income Unit program as an example.
Schiliro said there has only been one instance of a developer in the county being allowed to relocate affordable units offsite. For that to happen, there has to be a practical reason. The Middle Income Units had a different threshold.
Also, the zoning for the lumberyard property was written to require 20 percent of the units be affordable because Fareri received permission to have a project with greater density than what would be allowed on a little more than an acre, Baroni said. Under the ordinance approved by the town in 2014, projects of at least eight residences require only that 10 percent of the units be affordable.
However, it was Fareri who agreed to the 20 percent threshold at the time, town officials said. The town had recently passed the affordable housing ordinance and had reduced the requirement that was 35 percent under the Middle Income program.
Even if the board would consider Fareri’s proposal there would be obstacles. After the building permit was issued, Westchester County counted the six affordable units at the lumberyard toward its 750 units needed to satisfy the affordable housing settlement requirement with the federal government, Baroni said.
“How now do we transfer them? How now do we change the zoning code in light of them being counted already by the county or something else?” Baroni said. “It’s really an impossible situation.”
Fareri also continues to appeal his Article 78 against the town where he accused the town of being arbitrary and capricious in rejecting his previous request. His litigation was thrown out by a state Supreme Court justice last year.
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/