When Mayor William Hanauer moved to Ossining 17 years ago, he saw the potential for revitalization in a village filled with lots left vacant by shuttered  shopping centers, auto dealers and automotive-related businesses that outpaced small businesses in the community for the past 50 years.
Soon after, the vacant spaces became parking lots. The village faced the challenges of attracting small family-run businesses and making Ossining a desirable location to live for young professionals.
Last summer, The Business Council”™s Westchester Coalition for Business Development conducted a youth flight study focused on creative solutions to retain young professionals in Westchester County. In June, the study identified Ossining as an ideal place to start the revitalization process. With its expansive waterfront, spacious parks, empty lots and a supportive local government, all signs pointed to using Ossining as a pilot community.
“Our primary goal was to really look at how to keep our young people in Westchester County,” Marsha Gordon, president and CEO of the council, said. “We interviewed college students, people who live here and people who work here, and the feedback we got was that as long as there are opportunities for young people ”“ like parks, transit-oriented developments, affordable housing and jobs ”“ they will stay.”
In 2010, the number of residents in Ossining ages 20 to 44 shrank about 5 percent from a decade earlier, dipping from 10,922 to 10,231 according to the U.S. Census Bureau. Westchester County”™s young population similarly dropped 5 percent, from 280,500 in 2000 to 240,997 in 2010, despite a 3 percent increase in the county’s overall population over the decade.
Ossining village officials now aim to provide affordable housing for young professionals, commercial spaces for small businesses and public squares and restaurants for the community to revive the village”™s economy.
“We looked at a new comprehensive zoning plan with the idea of attracting new and current residents to the downtown,” Hanauer said. “We”™re deeply involved in redevelopment and encouraging transit-oriented development in the downtown area and encouraging (upper-story) housing over restaurants and commercial spaces”
For long-time Ossining residents like Hanauer, coming up with the blueprints for revitalizing the downtown was a lengthy process. The mayor said that once the redevelopment projects began, more businesses started coming to the village. He said a new Latin restaurant plans to open on Main Street near the Keenan House Kitchen & Tap Room, which opened in April at 199 Main St.
“As we see a critical mass of people living downtown, we”™ll see more businesses open,” Hanauer said. “These are businesses that cater not only to Ossining but to neighboring communities.”
The village hired the New York City-based Downtown Revitalization Group to identify sites in the community with development potential. Three commercial projects are under review on the village-owned sites of  two downtown parking lots and a Market Square property.
Work on one downtown redevelopment, a $2.1 million mixed-use complex of retail businesses and 31 residential units,  is expected to begin this month. Two market-rate apartment complexes, Avalon at Ossining  and Harbor Square, are expected to open within three years.
Ingrid Richards, the village’s manager of downtown and economic development.said the Downtown Revitalization Group will provide  “potential scenarios for developments” that village officials will use to prepare requests for proposals from developers.
Construction of Avalon at Ossining, Â a $14 million, 168-unit project of Avalon Bay Communities Inc. is under way at a former industrial site at 217 N. Highland Ave.
The village board is expected by August to approve site plans for Harbor Square, a 188-unit project of Ginsburg Development Cos. on the Ossining waterfront.
A total of 300 rental residences could become available in the next year, Richards said.
“It”™s only been a few weeks since the study came out, but we”™re doing a lot of mixed-use developments and creating opportunities for people who want to be young entrepreneurs,” Richards said. “We”™re providing young people with potential office and retail spaces, which give them opportunities to live and work and play.”
Village trustees will continue reviewing potential development sites in work sessions this summer.
