Artis Senior Living, a McLean, Va.-based owner and operator of centers that cater specifically to people with Alzheimer”™s disease and other forms of dementia, is proposing a two-story, 72-bed memory care facility in Hastings-on-Hudson after trimming the building”™s size from earlier plans due to residents”™ concerns.
The property was bought in February for $2.7 million, according to land records.
The development would convert what is now The Riverview restaurant”™s parking lot on the east side of 1 Warburton Ave. into the assisted living facility. In Artis”™ presentation to the Hastings Board of Trustees on June 7, the company said the west side of the property and the Riverview facility would be donated to the village for public use.
The proposed 38,000-square-foot structure would be 40 feet high at its roof peak, sit on roughly 2½ acres along the Yonkers border and provide 38 parking spaces. Artis said it would agree to no further development or expansion of the site following its completion.
The building would be constructed in a one-family residential zone. Artis has made a request to the village for zoning amendments to add assisted living facilities as a new use to its code, something Hastings Mayor Peter Swiderski said is “not radically at odds with the sort of special use designated under the current law.”
According to Artis, 5.4 million people in the U.S. have Alzheimer”™s, a number expected to triple by 2050. One in 9 people over the age of 65 have Alzheimer”™s, the sixth-leading cause of death in the country. New York is home to 390,000 people living with Alzheimer”™s or another form of dementia.
Artis brought the proposal to the board in mid-2015 after having “identified Westchester as a place where there was an unmet need for what we do,” said Jay Hicks, senior vice president of Artis. He added that Hastings was “identified as a submarket within Westchester we should take a look at.”
But Swiderski said potential demand is not relevant to the board”™s decision.
“It”™s not our role necessarily to judge whether a particular proposed business is something we need or not,” he said.
Plans for the building have already been modified from an original 96-bed, four-story proposal due to concerns surrounding the building”™s impact on the character of the village and views of the river. The 63-foot structure would have placed three stories of living space on top of one story of parking.
“We”™re open to working with the village and neighbors on the architecture,” Hicks said.
In an effort to maintain the view of the river, Artis proposed that it would move the building farther away from the shoreline, though doing so would necessitate blasting into the hillside and excavating the rock, a process that could last up to four months.
Swiderski said that “the sheer quantity of blasting that would have to be carried out to carve out enough of the hill” for the project as presented “is not inconsequential,” and he hopes “something can be done to bring it in a bit.”
Joel Sachs, an attorney representing the Riverpointe Homeowners Association, said at the meeting that the plans were still similar to those shown at earlier meetings, adding that Artis is a “money-making, for-profit entity that”™s coming to the village and is asking you to make a massive change in the land use and the character of a lovely residential neighborhood in south Hastings.”
Sachs said that there are “numerous facilities throughout Westchester County that deal with memory diseases,” and Artis is “not proposing a new and needed use.”
Sachs also called into question the donation of the property”™s west side to the village.
“In other words, has Artis made the village an offer that they can”™t refuse?” Sachs said. “I think it”™s unheard of.”
The board responded that while there has been an offer, no formal agreements have been made.
“The land use and the environmental impacts of this project, not just during the construction phase, but once this project is up and running, with the traffic, with the noise, with the odor, with a horrendous visual impact, would be an out and out unmitigated disaster for the village,” Sachs said.
Artis Senior Living has 11 residences operating or under construction, including developments in Branford, Conn., and Evesham, N.J., and an additional 20 planned locations nationwide. While a public approval process is typical of its other developments, Hicks said, “I would say it isn”™t typical for us to get this level of concern.”
The board took no action but will be open to hearing public comments regarding the project at its next meeting on June 21.
“We don”™t have yet a piece of legislation or anything that requires a formal public hearing, because we”™re not putting a change before the board yet,” Swiderski said. “They presented, and we”™re going to give the public an opportunity to ask questions and provide comments.”
“We”™re going to go back and sharpen our pencils as we”™ve done all along,” Hicks said, in an effort to maintain a “good balance” between preventing the obstruction of the view while minimizing site grading.
“Either the village leaders will see it as an opportunity, or they”™ll see it as something they”™re not interested in,” Hicks said. “We”™re just anxious.”
