A group seeking a special-use permit to build a 113-bed assisted living facility has presented a preliminary plan to the Greenburgh Town Board.
RAKS Corp. is seeking to build on a 5.3-acre wooded site it owns at the ends of North High Street and North Lawrence Avenue adjacent to the Sprain Brook Parkway. A special-use permit would be needed to build because the site is zoned for single-family homes.
Dan Simone, an engineer who presented the plan Feb. 10, said the 92,000-square-foot facility would include both studio and one-bedroom units ranging in size from 420 to 620 square feet. The building would also have a dining hall, kitchen, community room, offices, laundry and storage facilities.
The facility would be built into land that slopes steeply down to the Sprain Brook Parkway. In an email, Town Supervisor Paul Feiner noted the gradients on the property that would be disrupted by the building ranged from 15 percent to greater than 35 percent, and that because RAKS Corp. is seeking a special permit, it is not an “as of right” application, and could be rejected by the Town Board.
During the presentation by Simone, Feiner asked about the possibility of frequent ambulance calls to the facility being a disruption, which were among the concerns relayed to him by nearby residents.
“Typically”¦ you have the potential for an ambulance call, but not on a daily basis,” Simone told the board. He said a similar facility he had worked on averaged one ambulance call per week. “Generally, these are healthy individuals in assisted living, and when they get to a more ambulatory situation, they”™re transferred to a nursing (home).”
Simone told the board that the facility would get one or two deliveries trucked in each week, and that the majority of the 60 or so projected employees would likely drive to the facility.
RAKS Corp.”™s plan, according to Simone, is to bring in a separate operator for the facility.
“Most of the operators are waiting to see how the application is received before they make a commitment,” he said.
Despite the plan being presented to the Town Board as part of the application for a special permit, the plan for the facility is still in the preliminary stages.
“We intend to do community outreach and garner information and questions that may be out there,” Simone said.
Before construction could begin, a full proposal for a special permit would have to be approved by the zoning board of appeals, which has previously passed certain conditions, such as access to a major roadway, for assisted living facilities.
“Since this is on a dead end ”¦ my personal gut feeling is that it would be tough,” Feiner said during the Town Board work session. “You”™re talking about not a small facility, you”™re talking about a large facility with 113 beds at the end of the street.”
