North Castle Planners Okay Assisted Living Facility
A 160-bed assisted living facility proposal has been given the okay by the North Castle Planning Board, pending approval from the town’s Architectural Review Board (ARB).
The 140-unit, nearly 120,000-square residence, which will be constructed on a nearly five acre lot at 90 Business Park Drive in Armonk, will be operated by Bristal Assisted Living, which has similar facilities on Long Island.
The town board approved a special permit to allow the residence to be built in the light industrial zone in October.
However, before the project can go forward, it must be approved by the ARB, which had three of its members attend the Nov. 21 planning board meeting, in which the planners unanimously provided preliminary and final subdivision and site plan approvals.
“We thought it would be helpful to sit down together,” Planning Board Chairman John Delano said. The ARB should feel under no obligation to rush their approval, he said. The ARB should treat the application as if they would have had they received it in the beginning of the review process, rather than the end,Delanosaid.
“We feel strongly about the architecture,” Mark Miller, an attorney representing Bristal Assisted Living, said. The layout of the facility would be an X shape. The residents would feel “like living in a fine hotel.” Miller said. “It’s an elegant building.”
But Miller added that his client was willing to consider making changes based on comments from the ARB members. “We are not rigidly inflexible,” he said.
ARB members said they did not like aspects of the look of the facility. “It has this look of McMansion faux elegance,” ARB Chairman Anthony Calvello said. Architect David Lawrence Mammina said his client was willing to work with the ARB to come up with a color for the facility the members would favor.
ARB member Susan Geffen said she did not want air conditioning units placed on the outside of the homes. Mammina said heating and cooling equipment could not be placed on the roof because his client wants each unit to be equipped with “100 percent personal climate control” that would allow each tenant to heat or cool their own units.
“There doesn’t seem to be a lot of screening from 684,” Geffen said. Mammina said his client was willing to do additional screening. Some of the new trees his client would plant on their property would grow to 18-feet-high in two or three years, Mammina said.
Though ARB members had various complaints about the look of the proposed facility, Geffen said, “We like the (X) shape” of the structure.
Geffen stressed that despite their concerns, the ARB supported the overall concept of the proposal. “We are very happy this is coming to town,” she said.
One of the conditions for approval of the development was the payment of a $210,000 recreation fee to the town. But Steven Krieger, a principal for the Engel Burman Group, Bristal’s developer, said several recreational facilities would be provided on the property and the fee should be waved because the project would have little impact on the town’s recreational programs. Some of the facilities will include a swimming pool, a bocce court, walking paths, plus various other activities in the site, including a cinema and arts and crafts programs.
“It sounds great. I can’t wait to move in there,” Delano joked.
Town Counsel Roland Baroni convinced the planning board members to not wave a fee until the town’s recreation department submitted a written opinion on the matter.
Another condition of approval was to have the developer follow the recommendations of Armonk Fire Department regarding such issues as no parking zones and emergency vehicle access to the site.
Baroni said the fire department believes the development would increase calls to them in the area by about 10 percent annually. Representatives of the applicant told the planning board that a person trained as an EMT would be on the property at all times to assist in the event of an emergency involving one of the tenants
Though a public hearing was not scheduled, the board accepted comments from one resident who said he supported the project.
Jeff Garson, owner of the Armonk Towne Center, said the assisted living facility was “much needed in this town” and would bring new residents to North Castle who would patronize such local businesses as stores and restaurants.
The ARB is scheduled to discuss the assisted living facility project during one of its upcoming meetings.
