Yorktown’s Town Board is considering a request for a zoning change for a 16.8-acre parcel at 3850 Foothill Road that would allow townhouses to be built. The property is located in the R1-40 zone, which is a residential zone requiring minimum one-acre lots.
The site is in the northwest part of the Town of Yorktown near the border with Putnam Valley. It is about one mile from the Cortlandt Town Center commercial district.
The applicant, Anthony Genovese of Mahopac, previously had planned a seven lot subdivision that would comply with current zoning and would involve the development of single-family houses. Now, an alternative is being proposed that is presented as resulting in less disturbance to the land and lower development cost while providing more housing units. It would require a rezoning to the R-3 Multi-Family Residence district.
There would be four townhouse buildings containing a total of 20 units with two bedrooms in each unit. The rental units would be 1,200 square feet or 1,500 square feet. Garages are not proposed in order to reduce the building footprints. Four units would be developed as affordable units reserved for Town of Yorktown residents. There would be 45 parking spaces provided.
Sarah Wilson, chair of the Yorktown Community Housing Board, has come out in favor of the multifamily proposal. She points out that the proposal would add to the diversity of housing opportunities in the area, that the four affordable units address an urgent need in the community, and that the 20-unit clustered proposal would connect to sewers and disturb less land than would single-family houses with septic systems.
Westchester County Planning Board Chairman Bernard Thombs in providing the board’s comments on the zoning change proposal said, “utilization of the property as a clustered, townhouse-style development would allow for increased housing in a manner that conserves more woodland and wetland open space than the seven single-family units that would be permitted under the existing zoning.”
Thombs pointed out that because the property contains steep slopes and wetlands the town should “carefully analyze the suitability of development in general being conducted on the site, in order to ensure the benefits of increased housing are not outweighed by negative environmental impacts.”
He also pointed out that the neighborhood is automobile-oriented and there is a lack of safe and direct pedestrian and bicycle connections to nearby stores, schools, and other amenities.
“We recommend that consideration be given to ensuring that safe pedestrian and bicycle pathways are established to connect residents to the hamlet center, including both street sidewalks and pathways,” Thombs said.
