As he glanced out his shop window and across the road at the Harrison Metro-North station, Patrick Butler, co-owner of Butler Brothers food mart on Halstead Avenue, chuckled when asked about the possibility of a new mixed-use development at the station.
“They were talking about that 50 years ago,” Butler said.
In Harrison, residents, shop owners and elected officials are largely in agreement that a modern transit-oriented development would represent a welcome change for the downtown area.
However, after decades of talk and nearly a year after the Metropolitan Transportation Authority first issued a call for proposals for the 3.4-acre property surrounding the Harrison station, the devil continues to be in the details.
“I wish it was started yesterday, but whatever we put down there has to be right for Harrison,” said town supervisor and village mayor Ron Belmont. “If it”™s not right it”™s not going to happen.”
The MTA last June issued a request for proposals, seeking a plan to replace the 3.4-acre surface parking lot surrounding the Harrison Metro-North station with a mixed-use development consisting of retail space and housing units wrapped around a 500-space parking structure.
To date, however, there has been no subsequent announcement by either the MTA or the town regarding the transit oriented development request, with no signs of construction in the near future.
Metro-North President Howard R. Permut said the transit authority is in the midst of meeting with those developers who submitted proposals.
While the property is owned solely by the MTA, any development would require significant zoning changes to be implemented by the town.
“We”™ve invested about two or three years so far in getting us up to the point where now we”™re reviewing the proposals,” Permut told the Business Journal. “We don”™t fully control the timeline. I”™d love to see us up in construction within 12 to 18 months, but we”™ll work with the town … those discussions will drive the timeline.”
Earlier this month, Harrison officials began the process of amending the town”™s comprehensive plan, in part to add a section pertaining to the downtown area and the possibility of a mixed-use transit-oriented development.
The town plans to hold a public meeting in June to discuss the changes and to generate input.
Frank Fish, principal of Buckhurst, Fish and Jacquemart Inc., a Manhattan-based consulting firm that is working with the town to update its comprehensive plan, said any development must jive with the existing infrastructure and setup of the downtown area.
“You don”™t want to urbanize Harrison ”“ you want to do something within the right context,” Fish said.
Much of the discussion in the case of Harrison and other towns contemplating similar transit-oriented developments surrounds the need for parking.
Both Fish and Permut said structured parking can range from $25,000 to $35,000 per space in Westchester, giving the proposed Harrison station parking garage a minimum $12.5 million price tag.
“The parking is the key,” Fish said. “That has proven to be, in Beacon for example, the Achilles heel.”
In Beacon, plans fizzled after more than six years of discussions between the MTA and town officials when a newly-elected mayor raised the issue of whether the proposed parking structure was too expensive and whether it would have significantly raised rents and taxes at the surrounding properties.
Permut called Beacon “the poster child of what our issues are.”
“In the case of Beacon we were well down a path, we had a change in mayors, the new mayor changed his mind and so today nothing”™s happened in Beacon,” Permut said. “We have limited resources to do this and so we go wherever we think we have the best opportunity for success.”
Belmont said the specifications must be right for the town.
“We”™re still negotiating with the MTA and the developers,” he said. “It”™s got to be the right number of apartments and condos. Hopefully there will be an anchor store or two. And there”™s got to be the right amount of parking as well.”
