Public to weigh in on revised Dobbs Ferry development

Development partners in Rivertowns Square, one of the largest mixed-use redevelopments planned in Westchester County since the recession, will present their final plans for a scaled-down project to Dobbs Ferry residents in late October.

Expecting a large turnout for a project that already has aroused vocal opposition, village trustees have scheduled an Oct. 30 public hearing at the Embassy Community Center after recently accepting a final environmental impact statement from the developers, Saber Dobbs Ferry L.L.C. and Lincoln Dobbs Ferry L.L.C. The project cost has been estimated at $150 million.

The developers propose to turn a 17-acre site that adjoins Chauncey Square Shopping Center off the Saw Mill River Parkway into a retail, entertainment, hospitality and residential center that incorporates some of the site”™s existing 200,000 square feet of office and laboratory buildings vacated by AkzoNobel Chemical Co. in 1996.

It would include an eight-screen, approximately 34,000-square-foot movie theater complex operated by Sundance Cinemas L.L.C., a Los Angeles-based company headed by actor and filmmaker Robert Redford that plans to open its first East Coast location in Dobbs Ferry.

Lincoln Property Co. of Boston plans to build a 202-unit luxury apartment community on the site. A planned four-story, 123-room hotel would make use of portions of an existing AkzoNobel research building on Livingstone Avenue.

Final plans presented by the developer also include an 18,000-square-foot grocery market, about 62,000 square feet of retail and restaurant space and decked parking for 1,222 vehicles that also makes use of the research building on Livingstone Avenue.

The developers have modified earlier site plans in response to public comments on the project this year. Among the changes, a previously proposed 55,000-square-foot market would be replaced by the smaller gourmet market. With traffic congestion a major concern of village residents, retail uses have been relocated to reduce traffic on village streets and off-site pedestrian safety improvements have been added. More open space and landscaped area also have been included in the design.