VS Construction Corporation and Lennar Homes are moving ahead with plans to develop 96 townhomes on land at 2003 Crompond Road in the Town of Cortlandt. After a presentation on an application seeking approval to create a 99-lot subdivision on the site, the Cortlandt Planning Board voted to refer the matter for review by the town’s planning staff.
The development would include 10% affordable units and would be built on a portion of the Evergreen Manor project site. The proposal involves creating three more lots than the number of townhomes. They would be a common lot, a commercial lot, and an open space lot with wetlands.
Lennar Homes is the contract vendee for the property. The town requires that the units be sold through fee simple ownership rather than as condominiums. The way the subdivision would be set up allows for each owner of a unit to also own the associated driveway, patio and green space, which under condominium ownership typically would not be individually owned. When the town adopted the Medical Oriented District (MOD) in which the property is located it mandated that developments in the MOD use fee simple lots.
Attorney David Steinmetz of the White Plains-based law firm Zarin & Steinmetz, representing applicant VS Construction, told the Planning Board, “Lennar Homes, a division of U.S. Homes, is one of the nation’s largest homebuilders. We are extremely pleased that they are the contract vendee to implement and develop the 96 proposed residential townhouses and they are here and have been coordinating with our team as we’re now ready to advance this.”
Steinmetz said that there would be a homeowners’ association at the development that would be responsible for the exterior and open space maintenance along with snowplowing and other items that are specified.
“This is not Lennar’s first rodeo,” Steinmetz said. “If you’re not aware and you look into it you’ll see that Lennar is building residences throughout the nation, throughout the region. They have some rather large projects not far away and they’re very excited to be coming into New York, and coming into Westchester in particular, coming into the Town of Cortlandt.”
Steinmetz said that the main road for Evergreen Manor would be a public road feeding into a cul-de-sac. Off the cul-de-sac would be two private roads that service different units. He said that the townhouses would be developed in different groupings with four, five and six units in a building.
He said that the exact locations of the 10% affordable units had not yet been determined but it was likely that they would be distributed along the main artery along the eastern side of the property.
Steinmetz said there is sufficient driveway space at each unit to take care of guest parking. Some units would have two-car garages while others would have one-car garages. He said that the units vary in size from 2,000 square feet to 2,700 square feet.
“There are no amenities; there is no clubhouse or pool,” Steinmetz said. “There has been a fair amount of discussion about that. Lennar’s position is a development of this size is really not large enough to warrant some larger public amenity or community amenities.”
Steinmetz explained that Lennar has determined that if a developer has “a community that is a little bit on the smaller side it saddles residents with a rather sizable common area maintenance charge for something that they may not actually make sufficient use of. There would be recreation fees paid to the town in connection with this development.”
