The Board of Trustees of the Village of Croton-on-Hudson has issued a special permit to WBP Development LLC of Chappaqua for a project that is designed to bring 100 condominiums to the village. Located in the vicinity of the train station, the redevelopment site consists of a parking lot owned by the village that WBP would buy for $2.3 million and a privately-owned parcel. The village determined that because of decreased commuting following the Covid pandemic its Parking Lot A near the train station has remained largely vacant.
With the issuance of the special permit the project now moves to the site plan review stage by the Croton-on-Hudson Planning Board. WBP would develop a five-story building with approximately 55 units on the parking lot site. The privately-owned parcel at 1 Croton Point Ave., would be merged with the parking lot to create the site that would have 100 apartments. The project also would feature a public pocket park. A substantial portion of what’s currently pavement at the parking lot would be turned into green space.
A minimum of 20% of the condos would be priced as affordable units. Additional condos could be made available as affordable housing if funding is obtained from the New York State Affordable Homeownership Opportunity Program.
A study prepared for the project’s environmental review forecast that the project would bring in up to an additional 25 students for the Croton-Harmon Union Free School District. The village said that the annual property tax revenues from the project for the county, town, village, library and school district would be about $400,000.
According to the village, Parking Lot A currently has 122 parking spaces but usage is approximately 30% lower than the levels seen in 2019. The village pointed out that the demolition of a former DPW garage in 2020 added an additional 180 parking spaces and those additional spaces will more than compensate for the spaces used for the housing project.
“I am also grateful to the many residents of Croton who shared their views with us on transit-oriented development and on this proposal during our lengthy period of deliberation,” said Village Mayor Brian Pugh. “I now look forward to the Planning Board beginning its work with WBP and the Croton community on the site plan for this project.”
William G. Balter, president of WBP Development, said, “We’re very excited to continue this public private partnership and look forward to collaborating with the Planning Board as we work towards creating a vibrant transit-oriented development on this underutilized site.”
