At a work session on the night of Oct. 27, the White Plains Common Council was shown renderings of what the proposed new garage for White Plains Hospital would look like along with a briefing on the project by William Null, chairman of the hospital’s Board of Directors and a partner with the White Plains-based law firm Cuddy & Feder.
In August, the Common Council had approved the sale of land for the garage to an entity controlled by the hospital. They were three parcels of land that had been acquired by the White Plains Urban Renewal Agency: 26-28 E. Post Road; 42 E. Post Road; and 60 E. Post Road. Also involved is a parcel known as Brookfield Street, a street that had been discontinued by the city as well as a property owned by the White Plains Housing Authority that the hospital is working to acquire.
“The East Post Road garage would be situated across from the current emergency department for the hospital and situated on approximately a 2.3-acre site,” Null said. “The hospital currently has about 5,700 employees and most of them are in White Plains. We currently have 2,400 parking spaces in both private and public locations throughout the city and his garage would provide approximately 1,950 parking spaces, 180 of which will be available for use by residents of White Plains Housing Authority and the balance will be available for staff of White Plains Hospital and visitors to White Plains Hospital.”
Null explained that a pedestrian bridge would be built across East Post Road between the garage and the fourth floor of the hospital. He said that the hospital has filed an application for site plan approval and one component of special permit. Null explained that the property that would be used for construction of the garage is in two zoning districts with different requirements.
Null said that while the garage would be eight stories, one zoning element limits structures to six stories so a special permit would be needed. The measured height would be 95 feet, which complies with zoning.
Null said that while a rendering of the garage shows a solar canopy above the roof level, “we haven’t yet committed to that but the hope is that we’re going to be able to work something out with a vendor that will enable us to put that on the roof and have solar energy available.”
Null explained that a section of the garage would be reserved for users of the hospital’s emergency department.
“People coming to the emergency department would bring their car into a drive turnoff of Post Road and valets would take the vehicles to that area to park,” Null said. “The ground tier and the second floor are going to have the spaces for White Plains Housing Authority, that’s the way we’ve coordinated. There would be a gate going up so we can restrict access to the balance of the parking for White Plains Hospital staff.”
The only council member who had questions or comments was Justin Brasch, who wanted to know how much residents of the Housing Authority’s Brookfield Commons development would be charged for monthly permits to use the garage. Null said that they would pay 80% of the rate the city charges for a monthly garage permit.
“It would be a discounted rate that the hospital would subsidize,” Null said.
