Public Hearing on Nursery Code Update Opens in White Plains
The public hearing to change the White Plains zoning code to add Nursery Business as a Special Permit and add organic manufacturing as a permitted use was opened at the October Common Council meeting.
The new code is expected to define nursery business in a way that allows city staff and the Council, as well as nursery owners to more easily consider applications with specifically designated regulations.
Residents from the Hillair Circle neighborhood of White Plains were out in force for the public hearing, which was adjourned to the November meeting because of religious holidays. Residents who came out last week were allowed to speak and were advised that each resident is allotted one comment-period during the public hearing.
Most residents spoke about the operations at Amodio’s Garden Center and Nursery saying that an industrial business does not belong in a residential area. There was mention about the constant in and out flow of 18-wheelers on the property and that several businesses were operating out of the property under one name. Large photos were presented to the Council by several residents speaking.
Property values, which some residents say have suffered, were also mentioned. One resident recommended a tax break should be given to neighbors of the nursery with the remaining portion of the payment being passed on to the nursery owner.
One neighbor came forward and said Amodio’s is an old family business in White Plains and that the city and its residents should be protecting the Mom and Pop shops still in existence. “People should be more neighborly and try to work things out,” he said.
Paul Bergins a White Plains lawyer said the proposed ordinance would not work because the city’s own recycling yard was doing the same things as Amodio’s “smack-in” the same area.
He proposed that he could write an amendment to Section D-2 of the existing ordinance making sure that nurseries strictly comply with existing conditions that nurseries must operate at a distance of 300 feet from a residential district.
Referring to a former trial that ended in favor of Amodio’s against the city of White Plains, Ed Granger (representing the nursery) said the nursery wanted to work out any inadequacies, but that the trial had already determined that Amodio’s was operating within its legal rights.
