Harrison can decide if affordable housing part of MTA plan
The Metropolitan Transportation Authority is leaving it up to the town of Harrison to decide if a proposed mixed-use development at the Harrison Metro-North station will include affordable housing units.
The MTA has fielded criticisms from local housing advocates who say 20 percent affordable housing should be a condition in the authority”™s plan to sell a 3.3-acre property in Harrison to a developer, which will then build 143 rental units and 27,000 square feet of retail space.
But a statement from MTA spokesman Aaron Donovan seemed to indicate that any affordable housing allotments would have to come from a town zoning change rather than as a condition of sale. The MTA did require that the developer, AvalonBay Communities Inc., construct new Metro-North parking, and the company plans to build a tiered parking garage with at least 475 spaces for rail commuters.
“The MTA”™s request-for-proposal process for the commuter parking facility and real estate project at Harrison Station required the selected developer to maximize the transportation-related benefits to MTA riders in the form of dedicated commuter parking spaces,” Donovan said. “The developer will be required to comply with all applicable federal, state and local laws, any local zoning, land use and affordable housing requirements as determined by the town and village of Harrison.”
Not one affordable housing unit has been constructed in the town since at least the presidency of George H.W. Bush. Harrison has been resistant to adopting changes to its zoning ordinances that would promote demographic integration in the town by requiring that any multifamily construction include at least 10 percent affordable housing units.
The town is one of 31 communities in Westchester County named in a 2009 legal settlement with the federal government, in which the county agreed to build 750 units of affordable housing, mostly in its richest and statistically whitest communities.
A September report by a monitor appointed to oversee implementation of the settlement named Harrison as one of six municipalities that with zoning practices that contribute to a lack of integration of their black and Hispanic populations. The report, by James E. Johnson of the firm Debevoise & Plimpton LLP, cited the six communities for either clustering and limiting multifamily housing to neighborhoods with comparatively high minority populations or prohibiting development of housing types “most often used by minority residents.” Harrison was the only municipality of the six cited for both.
A joint development deal with the MTA has been a talking point in Harrison dating back to the 1980s, with elected officials promoting development at the site as a spark that could revitalize the downtown area, which has had some empty storefronts and light foot traffic in recent years. An agreement to develop the parcel got legs in the last decade, with a formal bidding process opening in 2011.
Arlington, Va.-based AvalonBay was one of two developers that submitted a proposal, the other being Rochester-based real estate development and management company Conifer Realty LLC, which filed a proposal contingent on access to public subsidies. AvalonBay has developed luxury apartments in Bronxville, Elmsford, Mamaroneck, New Rochelle, Ossining and White Plains and operates a regional suburban office in Fairfield, Conn.
AvalonBay entered into an exclusivity agreement with the MTA in December 2012 and the project was publicly announced in a joint statement this fall.
Harrison Mayor Ron Belmont, a Republican, had no comment on the calls for affordable units at the site but said he continued the view the project as a positive for the town. In a September interview after the proposal was formally announced, he said, “I look forward to seeing Harrison become an even better place to live.”