Pleasantville Doesn’t Need Development to the Maximum Extent
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
In response to the May 30 article, “Pleasantville Moratorium Ends in Two Months: What’s Next?” I note that this question is posed after consultants indicated that Pleasantville can handle additional residential development of at least another 7 percent.
We as a village don’t need to run the community at capacity. That means we shouldn’t authorize building that would bring us up to the limit of traffic (e.g., emergency services ability to move around) and school capacity. There’s more than enough traffic already around town. While tax revenue can be maximized by developing to the limits of infrastructure, we don’t need to do that.
It seems that some on the Village Board are for more residential capacity so long there is any room for it, but that’s the wrong analysis. We see the (huge) Memorial Plaza development and it clearly changes the character of the village. We see the development on Depew Street as more apartments being shoehorned into a space the building doesn’t fit.
Where is housing attractive to seniors who want to remain in Pleasantville where they’ve lived for decades? I see no independent or assisted living with the last senior housing facility having been killed by the board a few years back. It’s not all about housing adjacent to the train station, although some still push it after it was defeated in the governor’s budget.
While some on the board complain that they haven’t heard from but a vocal few development opponents, I hope this letter might register as a voice from someone who hasn’t been part of the discussion to date but is not happy with village development.
I’m not anti-development, but the whole concept can be taken too far. And that’s what is in the offing for Pleasantville if the leaders think that the end of the moratorium means that development can proceed apace to the maximum extent possible.
Scott Dyer
Pleasantville
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