Hearing on Jefferson complex expected to be well attended

A public hearing is being held tonight at the Greenburgh Town Board to air opinions and comments from residents over the draft scoping document for a proposed 272-unit apartment complex on Lawrence Street.

In light of the plan”™s early opposition from Town Supervisor Paul Feiner, the Ardsley School District and some residents, the meeting is expected to be well attended. As a result, rules have been developed to accelerate the public comment portion of the hearing, which is set to begin around 7:30 p.m.

Members of the community can volunteer to speak for less than a minute and they will talk first; the remaining speakers will be allowed a five-minute time slot.

Before the public comment portion of the meeting, the project applicant, Texas-based JPI Multifamily Partners LLC, and a consultant hired by the town to help review the project, Ferrandino & Associates Inc. of Elmsford, will speak first and take questions from members of the town board.

The project proposal, which is being called Jefferson at Saw Mill, is located at the former property of the Azko Nobel chemical plant that is now a brownfield cleanup site. The plans include an estimated multi-million-dollar clean-up of that property before building a four-story 239,000-square-foot complex with a combined 438-space parking garage and uncovered parking.

The biggest issues that are anticipated to be raised at the hearing include increased traffic ”“ particularly with the expected influx of people from the Rivertowns Square residential development going up across the Saw Mill River Parkway ”“ and an increase of children enrolled in the Ardsley school system.

JPI has proposed multiple traffic mitigation measures, including expanding parts of Lawrence Street and Route 9A, and does not expect the new residence to add more than 32 children to the school system.