The entity RTB Washington LLC, located in Scarsdale, is asking the Village of Hastings-on-Hudson to approve plans to construct a mixed-use project at 9-17 Washington Ave., in the village. The property’s owner is Alexander Chang, who also is the managing member of the LLC. The project is known as Washington Mews. The village’s Planning Board expects to spend several months reviewing the project.
Dating from the 17th century in England, a mews was a row of stables and coach houses with living quarters above. In more modern times, e a pedestrian pathway with residences on either side often is designed a mews. In Hastings, the former Hastings movie theater was converted into rows of storefronts and renamed Moviehouse Mews.
The project would have 20 residential units for sale and one commercial space. There would be 21 underground parking spaces. The new construction would be arranged so that a mews is created in the middle of the townhouse-like units. The mews would be open to the public and would link Washington Avenue through the property to an access stair leading to the village’s Zinsser Commuter Parking Lot by the Metro-North train station.
The developer would need an easement from the village to have the public-access stair on village-owned property. It believes the mews layout and public-access stair would provide a public amenity for the neighborhood while enhancing the transit-oriented character of the proposed development.
The developer says that while the project normally would be required to provide 35 parking spaces, it believes a variance to allow 21 spaces is appropriate given the transit-oriented character of the proposed development and its proximity to Metro-North. The developer claims that a single assigned parking space per unit can satisfy the parking needs of residents of the development.
Three of the units would be priced as affordable housing. The developer said that an analysis found that purchasers of the 17 market rate units would have incomes above $100,000 a year.
The development would have one one-bedroom unit, 18 two-bedroom units, and one-three bedroom unit. Three of the two-bedroom units would be priced as affordable housing. The units are expected to sell for an average of $915,000.
The developer’s analysis found that the project could be expected to have seven school-age children living in it. It was projected that the development could generate $524,057 a year in taxes for the village and $371,325 a year for the school system. It said the cost to educate the additional seven children coming into the school system would be approximately $215,425 a year.
Architect Christina Griffin of the Hastings-on-Hudson-based firm CGA Studio told the village’s Planning Board, “The mews is the main theme of the project. This is based on a vision that Alexander Chang gave to us and we took that and developed it. We also have designed this to really fit the scale and character of the street. It has buildings that vary from one-story to five-stories probably because of the (terrain) slope so we have more or less a two-story facade and massing that breaks that.”
Griffin said that the developer hopes to attract a cafe to the commercial space in the proposed development. She said the mews walkway could have textured paving, plantings and perhaps a fountain and would be enjoyed by residents and the public. She said that some of the units would have rooftop decks.
