North Castle’s Concerns Persist Over Greenwich Housing Proposal

A major residential project proposed in Greenwich, Conn. pressed up against the state line continues to be monitored by North Castle officials who are concerned that traffic, parking and emergency services could be negatively affected.

While developer Tishman Speyer has reduced the size of the project at 1 American Lane from 456 to 198 units over the past two years, worries over the potential impacts spilling into the North Castle hamlet of Armonk remains the same.

The application was discussed most recently before the Greenwich Planning and Zoning Commission on July 9.

Commission Chair Margarita Alban told Thomas Heagney, the attorney for the project, that she hoped there would have been a layout that seemed less crowded. The 198 market-rate three-bedroom units would be clustered on about 45 acres of the 154-acre site.

“That being the case, what was bothering us is how condensed it looks, and how it looks like you’re going to an urban environment,” Alban said. “Everybody was saying it just looks urban, or tightly packed suburban.”

During the latest Planning and Zoning Commission meeting, North Castle Councilman Jose Berra, speaking on behalf of the town, said he was “puzzled by the density.” While Greenwich Avenue has a larger downtown, Armonk’s downtown could get overwhelmed by the influx of new residents, Berra said.

Of note, access and egress to the site is through Armonk because the property is cut off from the rest of Greenwich by I-684.

“You’re talking about 200 units here, and experience shows us that a lot of those residents will be coming to our town, and they’re going to impact us in any number of ways,” Berra said. “We’re working on parking, but there’s a limit to what we can do and it’s expensive to do things at some point. We have effects on our streets being more crowded, even though we’d like to have, by our standards, a relatively lively town with restaurants, and again, no comparison to Greenwich, even though we have some fine restaurants.”

“When I see how crowded it is and congested, it’s troublesome to me, and those numbers translate,” Berra added.

When asked by commission members, whether the applicant would consider working with North Castle to help them with easing the strains on parking or traffic, Heagney said his client’s responsibility is only to Greenwich.

“We’ve met with North Castle a couple of times, and in all candor, they see a parking issue in their village, and they would like some assistance in addressing that, and frankly our response has been we are making a substantial addition to affordable housing in Greenwich,” Heagney said. “That’s where our obligation is.”

While Tishman Speyer is not required to build affordable housing units, it will be making about a $9 million contribution toward a fund to be used by the town to encourage the development of affordable housing.

Because of the parcel’s inaccessibility from Greenwich, North Castle has also had concerns about emergency responders. The Armonk Fire Department is the closest fire and ambulance service, but as an all-volunteer service it is already pressured.

Heagney has previously said that shopping would be dispersed between Greenwich, Armonk and Purchase, which should prevent Armonk from becoming overloaded.

The development would be about one mile from North Castle Town Hall.

Commission member Peter Loeb said he might feel more comfortable with the project if Tishman Speyer would agree to no additional development at the site.

“I think it would be good to provide this commission with the assurance that this is it, that there will be no more development, and I would encourage you to put that as part of this application as a condition,” Loeb said.

Heagney said that is an issue he would have to review with his client.

The attorney also referenced how North Castle recently approved 175 units of housing a the former MBIA property on its side of King Street.

The property was home to the American Can Company, which constructed its headquarters at the site in 1968 with a 586,000-square-foot office building. That building still stands.