No. Castle Receives $250G State Grant to Improve Armonk Parking
North Castle will receive a $250,000 state grant to help pay for expanded parking behind Hergenhan Recreation Center in Armonk, a first step toward easing the hamlet’s downtown parking crunch.
The grant, from the Dormitory Authority of the State of New York (DASNY), was announced last Wednesday by Assemblyman David Buchwald (D-White Plains) and state Sen. George Latimer (D-Rye) during a visit to the North Castle Town Board meeting.
“That’s something that will go a long way in making the broader vision for downtown Armonk a reality,” Buchwald said. “I look forward to seeing that come to fruition and more importantly, getting to make use of it with my own shopping and visiting and eating in your restaurants.”
Director of Planning Adam Kaufman said he must still submit additional information to the state for the town to receive the money. When completed, the area will be paved and striped and have 73 spaces, he said.
Once the town receives the funds, it has three years to use the money. The town should be able to easily complete the Hergenhan parking project within that timeframe, Kaufman said.
Officials are optimistic that with the extra parking behind the recreation center, employees of downtown businesses will utilize the new area in order to free up spaces for customers that are closer to the establishments. It is often feared that if parking is too much of a problem or potential patrons have to walk too far, they won’t stop and will choose somewhere else to shop.
“It’s a good utilization of some excess land that we have that can serve multiple purposes,” Kaufman said.
Since Armonk Square opened with the busy DeCicco Family Markets, the parking problems downtown have become more severe during certain hours.
While the recreation center parking is an important piece toward solving the congestion problem in downtown Armonk, it’s not the only parking-related project that is anticipated. The town is before its own planning board with designs for the area that is referred to as Wampus Park South across Bedford Road from Wampus Brook Park that will be developed as passive park space.
Plans call for the new Wampus Park South to have a lot with 20 new spaces that can be used mainly by park visitors or other members of the public who visit downtown, Kaufman said.
Furthermore, the town is still considering the possibility of creating more parking on land that it owns at the end of Kent Place. Kaufman said that would require the construction of a culvert to get vehicles over the stream. There would be about 40 additional spaces at that location, he said.
Supervisor Michael Schiliro said the town submitted a different grant application to the state to help defray the Kent Place expenses should it decide to move forward with that project. If approved, North Castle would receive $80,000, or about 20 percent of the projected cost of the work, he said.
Schiliro said that receiving the grant would be helpful but would not decide whether the town would pursue Kent Place as a parking option if officials concluded more parking was needed.
The supervisor thanked Buchwald and Latimer for helping to secure the DASNY grant, critical funds the town won’t have to spend of its own money. It’s also needed with word across the area that Armonk’s downtown is booming.
“We have a situation where we want to continue to improve our parking in this hamlet downtown because people are coming and we want to provide as much parking as we can and make it a good experience,” Schiliro said.
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/