Valhalla Residents Blast Proposed Medical Building Rezone Plan

Residents living near the Valhalla site where two three-story medical buildings have been proposed lambasted the applicant’s rezoning request last week, urging Mount Pleasant officials to deny changing the zoning from residential to an office-business designation.

Neighbors of the 12-acre parcel at 140-160 Bradhurst Ave. told the Mount Pleasant Town Board and representatives for applicant Bradhurst Realty at the Aug. 13 public hearing that traffic in the area is already intolerable and that nearly 90,000 square feet of additional high-intensity use and more than 400 new parking spaces is too much for the area to handle.

With other major uses such as Westchester Medical Center, Blythedale Children’s Hospital, the medical building at 19 Bradhurst Ave., which has more than 700 parking spaces, and the proposed North 60 project that is under consideration, about a dozen residents spoke unanimously against the proposal.

“I’ve been looking at this (property) for 17 long years,” said Armand Place resident Eric Parker of the length of time he’s lived on his street. “It hasn’t gotten any better. Putting these two buildings and rezoning this is not going to make it better. It’s going to compound it and make it exponentially worse.”

Bradhurst Realty is looking to rezone more than 10 acres of the 12-acre property from half-acre residential to Office Business-6 (OB-6). Most of the site is zoned half-acre residential (R-20) except for the relatively small strip toward the back of the property farthest from Bradhurst Avenue. A 52,000-square-foot building would be accompanied by 245 parking spaces while the second building would measure 37,500 square feet with 170 parking spaces.

This spring the town’s Planning Board issued a positive recommendation for the rezone, contending residential development would be inconsistent with the area’s uses. The Town Board would have to approve the zoning change for the proposal to advance.

Several residents spoke of the dangerous Bradhurst Avenue-Lakeview Avenue intersection where there is a sharp curve and poor sightlines for motorists attempting to leave Lakeview. They said there would have to be major improvements made by the state to that stretch of road for the project to proceed.

“You can’t get out (of) there without taking your life into your hands,” said Lakeview Avenue resident Susan Duffy. “I almost got hit because you can’t see cars coming from around the bend until you’re in the middle of the road. If this project is approved that has to be the Number 1 priority, to fix that before they start this building. Otherwise, these people should be sued.”

Bradhurst Avenue resident Glenn Accocella, who said drunk drivers and motorists traveling too fast along the state thoroughfare have ended up in his front yard, was even more blunt.

“The traffic is terrible,” he said. “Somebody’s going to get killed.”

Resident James Johnson, co-president of the nearby Maywood-Knollwood Civic Association, said a traffic study is sorely needed, particularly if the North 60 advances.

“The biggest thing with the North 60 project, once you put this on top of that, it’s a nightmare already,” Johnson said. “I can’t imagine what it’s going to look like after that.”

Armand Place resident Paul Palazzo said the area will have difficulty withstanding the construction period with all of the extra vehicles.

“I hope the scale of this, the totality of this, is realized before final approval,” Palazzo said.

Near the end of the hearing, attorney Joel Sachs, representing Bradhurst Realty, said his client listened to the residents’ concerns, which includes numerous written correspondences to the town, and will take time to digest the information.

“What we would like to do really is to take all these issues into account and put everything on hold for a few months and try to come up with some plan that’s acceptable to the Town Board and the Planning Board and to the neighborhood,” Sachs said.

Supervisor Carl Fulgenzi said after the hearing that the residents’ comments were heard and that the board has a major decision to make.

“Where it’s going to go from here, I don’t know,” Fulgenzi said. “I’ve asked the developer to come up with something that makes a little more sense. I don’t believe what they’re proposing would really work in that area.”

He also reacted to several residents who voiced suspicions that the town may be looking to fast-track the application. A few residents argued the community has not been properly notified of developments related to the application, including the Planning Board recommendation.

“We need to give the public their due and time and we’re in no way trying to move anything forward without the support of the community,” Fulgenzi said.