Ice complex plan gets cold shoulder
Hip check ”“ and a beauty.
Complaints about the Reckson Sports Amenity, a proposed four-rink ice complex at 1100 King St. in Rye Brook, gained traction Tuesday, May28, at a standing-room-only public hearing on the proposal.
The developer”™s attorney, William Null of White Plains-based Cuddy & Feder L.L.P., was instructed by the village board to heed what was said ”“ “Traffic, traffic, traffic” ”“ and to respond at the village board”™s June 25 meeting.
The public comment period remains open.
The majority in attendance, but not all, opposed the plan, which surfaced in November. It would transform an underused office park site into 140,000 square feet of ice-themed space. The developer, Reckson L.L.C., has a green light for 280,000 square feet of business park space on the site, but not for the arenas.
Indicative of emotions and of the clock at the two-hour hearing, village Mayor Paul Rosenberg reminded opponent Nathaniel Parish he had spoken for 20 minutes.
“Then another three won”™t kill you,” said Parish, who is also a planning and traffic consultant as president of White Plains-based Parish &Weiner Inc. An absence of projected tax revenues was among his concerns; the mayor said the assessor is looking into the issue and will report.
Null responded to Trustee Jeffrey Rednick”™s query about other activities, saying there were no plans for concerts or Disney On Ice. “Not now!” came the rebuttal from the audience. Reckson has floated the idea of covering one rink for lacrosse in the summer.
Twenty-year accountant, opponent and neighbor Jeff Penn said he crunched numbers taking into account village services the ice park would utilize ”“ fire, police, EMS ”“ and found an early estimate of $29.2 million total revenue for village coffers dwindles to $3.2 million. He foresaw little economic trickle-down to the village because, “There”™s nothing near it, no entertainment facilities, no movies and no mini-golf. Rye Ridge, our only shopping center, will not appeal to a family taking a child to a hockey game on King Street.
“Don”™t believe the hype,” he said.
“They could build it today for offices; 280,000 square feet with no approvals or mitigations,” said Michael Galante, executive vice president of Rye-based Frederick P. Clark Associates Inc. and the village of Rye Brook”™s traffic consultant.
Much of the meeting was devoted to traffic; its peaks depicted by neighbors as far more daunting than morning and evening clotting.
“We do add traffic to the system,” said John Collins, principal with Maser Consulting in Hawthorne and Reckson”™s traffic expert. “I disagree it”™s a significant impact.”
Much of the environmental review hinges on the word “significant,” and the two sides aligned themselves on the soft or hard interpretation of its definition. Three numbers may or may not be significant: 200 cars per hour if nothing is done at 1100 King St.; 656 cars per peak hour if the approved offices are built; and 751 cars per peak hour for the ice rink. From 200 to 751 might be significant, but 751 from 656 is less dramatic. Said Collins, “We”™re not sure the office park would ever happen, but that”™s what we”™re assuming.”
Trustee David Heiser called the approved office development “a stalking horse,” masking the true goal of ice arenas and sparking a debate with Null on what constitutes full occupancy in general for office parks, at least some of which are seeking to reinvent themselves as they age. But Heiser came back to traffic in closing, saying, “We need to see greater creativity on your part to ameliorate the traffic situation, should we approve this.”
Galante said he expected to find little difference in traffic patterns between the hypothetically built-out offices and the proposed ice arena. “But it evolved into a much more detailed study,” he said. Tripping through metrics of partial occupancy, full occupancy, ice event days and typical days, one number stood out, he said: 5,921, the daily Saturday increased vehicle volume on an event Saturday. “This is the number that caught the town”™s attention,” Galante said.
“It seems we”™re bringing Friday traffic to Saturday,” Mayor Rosenberg said.
Both Collins and Galante praised and even utilized each other”™s analyses. Collins said timing the two traffic lights on King Street at Anderson Hill Road and International Boulevard would help lessen the problem.
Neighbors, however, said they already live along a traffic-choked two-lane ”“ King Street ”“ and see more vehicles contributing to eternal waits. Opponent Carol Goodman said she could run to the Port Chester train station in 32 minutes, but could not drive there that fast.
Robert Weber lives in the neighboring Bellefair subdivision, with only a single in-out to King Street. “King Street is one lane each way,” he said. “It doesn”™t take much at all to clog it up.” He and several speakers cited scenarios of emergency vehicles locked bumper-to-bumper with cars, unable to respond to calls. “It”™s beyond school times and rush hours. It”™s busy all the time.”
The mayor, too, said he believed more than tweaking a pair of lights would be required for traffic to flow smoothly.
Nicholas Lyras, president of neighboring Doral Greens Homeowners Association, investigated other multiple-rink developments ”“ one in New Jersey and one in Massachusetts ”“ and found them to be off four-lanes. “It”™s not an apples-and-apples comparison,” he said. “The assistant mayor of Marlborough, Mass., where the Northeast Ice Center has six rinks, said they have no residential homes in the immediate area.”
Representatives of the town of Greenwich ”“ First Selectman Peter Tesei and planning director Diane Fox ”“ weighed in, also concerned with traffic. Tesei said one issue is the “intensification” of activity along King Street, which runs in both Connecticut and New York and cited concerns with emergencies. “Emergency response is our primary responsibility as representatives,” he said.
Adam Sahn is also a neighbor and the father of two girls. “They don”™t play hockey,” he said. But he sees a dearth of recreational activities in the area and said of the proposal. “One public skating session at a big rink has a lot more people than four rinks of hockey.
“The reality is the peak traffic periods need to be adjusted. I think there are a lot of opportunities to be creative. Maybe just two rinks open at certain times; maybe an escrow account for future mitigations. And maybe they are successful and we are successful.”