North Castle Officials Force Armonk Restaurant Plan to Address Parking

A new restaurant proposed for downtown Armonk has been waylaid for months as the applicant has failed to convince the North Castle Planning Board that the establishment’s parking plan is workable.

Stefan Martinovic, who hopes to open a farm-to-table new American restaurant featuring organic foods at 12 Maple Ave. that would be called Wren of the Woods, continues to face pushback after being granted a 33-space variance by the town’s Zoning Board of Appeals on Feb. 1. He has agreements in place with two other property owners to provide the 33 spaces offsite that would be within short walking distance of the restaurant.

Martinovic has proposed to expand the 1,700-square foot structure to 3,600 square feet and have 90 seats indoors and another 54 seats of seasonal dining outside. Under the town’s parking requirements for a restaurant, an owner must provide either one space for every three seats or one space for every 75 square feet of gross floor area, whichever is higher, said North Castle Director of Planning Adam Kaufman. Outdoor seating does not count toward the calculation, he said.

Although the ZBA granted a variance lowering the requirement from 48 to 15 spaces onsite, it attached two conditions to the variance: that the applicant produce proof of the outside parking agreements and that the Planning Board has final say regarding parking and traffic during site plan review.

Martinovic said he has reached an agreement with the owner of 20 Maple Ave., a few hundred feet away, to use that parcel for 25 spaces after 5 p.m. when people working at that commercial space leave for the day. He also has an agreement with the American Legion on Bedford Road to provide nine spaces for employees only.

“There’s obviously support for it and the concern has been mitigated thoroughly, right, using the same principles that the town itself laid out,” Martinovic told The Examiner, referring to the town’s Comprehensive Plan that was updated in 2018 calling for more use of shared parking. “I just don’t know what can possibly be done. My reaction on this has been like that the underlying issue here has been resolved. This is effectively a moratorium on new businesses opening in town.”

Last week, during a more than three-hour public hearing on the application, the Planning Board expressed concern about lunchtime diners when the 25 spaces at 20 Maple Ave. would be unavailable and whether that would overload the downtown with vehicles.

With more development either having been approved or in the pipeline relatively close to downtown, there is fear that business district traffic and parking could be snarled.

“We’ve got, as you look at the next several years, we’ve got 400 new rooftops coming into this town between all the various projects, and the town is going to have to consider the parking,” said Planning Board member Larry Ruisi. “So, we do have a code in this town, and the fact that you say (you) can make it work, I’m not sure I get there yet, okay.”

Of the 90 indoor seats, there would be 30 in the main dining area, 18 at the bar, another 18 in a lounge area and 24 seats in a mezzanine.

Martinovic’s chef and business partner, Roxanne Spruance, who led the kitchen at Richard Gere’s Bedford Post restaurant, said she expects there to be no more than 62 people entering the restaurant at lunch, with staggered arrivals and departures, necessitating the need for about 13 parking spaces.

Complicating the matter last week was that the ZBA granted the variance under the belief that there would be valet parking at the restaurant and at the nearby 20 Maple Ave. site to help maximize the space in those lots. However, those plans have since changed.

Last week, Town Attorney Roland Baroni said that the applicant should return to the ZBA to have language added that would reflect that change.

Martinovic, and his attorney, Anthony Veneziano, balked at spending more time heading back to the ZBA. Valet parking had been removed from the plans after the police department had concerns that there could be spillover as vehicles que, which could negatively affect traffic.

“This is not a very large project,” Veneziano said. “It’s a significant business. It’s not 175 (residential) units.”

Martinovic also appeared before the Town Board two nights later urging officials to allow prospective downtown business owners to pay a fee in lieu of parking or to encourage parking districts.

During the hearing there were several speakers who provided comments, the majority of whom urged the Planning Board to approve the restaurant. Other than Frosty Day over Thanksgiving weekend and one or two other days, parking spaces are typically available in downtown Armonk, they contended.

“In the four years that we’ve been here parking’s never been an issue for us,” said resident Matt Levy.

“During the peak of COVID, obviously, a lot of people worked from home,” he added. “I saw that everyone in town trying to get out of their house when they could, and we never really experienced any parking issues, and now that everything is pretty much back to normal in a post-COVID environment, people are out, going to the office, coming back, stopping in town to grab things on their way home, the farthest I’ve ever had to walk (for a parking space), I don’t know, a couple hundred feet.”

Another resident, Michael Rosen, said the town should welcome an entrepreneur who wants to invest and bring another dining option to Armonk.

“There are a lot of affluent people in this community who are looking to go out to restaurants in this town,” Rosen said. “They do not want to leave (town). They have sitters watching their children. They want to be close by and they want to be able to go out on a weekend and not be far from their homes.”

But there were two speakers who said unless the board is confident that any parking problems could be mitigated, it shouldn’t be approved.

Local developer Michael Fareri said he’s been in town for nearly 50 years and believes there is a parking problem. He asked the board if there aren’t parking challenges, then why is the town building more lots.

The old Verizon lot, which would add about 45 spaces to the downtown inventory behind the library, is likely to be ready within the year.

“If your restaurant were to be successful, and I’m sure it would, parking would become an even bigger issue,” Fareri said. “I don’t think it would be proper to have customers or your employees parked on other people’s properties.”

Conservation Board member Vincent Giordano added that the application is not about the merits of the restaurant, but about the parking. With all the new development coming on board, there needs to be a bigger parking plan in place, he said.

Board Chair Christopher Carthy said the goal is to make sure that Wren of the Woods does well, and parking is part of the equation,

“I’d really like to see a really successful restaurant that’s doing a beautiful lunch,” he said. “I want to see how you’ll do that.”

Martinovic said he anticipates the public hearing will resume next Monday where they will return with their valet parking plan.