Transforming Yonkers with smart growth

Smart growth is a fundamental building block of sustainable communities. Embracing smart growth principles has improved the lives of everyone who lives and works in Yonkers.

Soon after coming into office, Mayor Mike Spano signed into law a Green Building Ordinance, establishing a policy for the city to plan, design, construct, manage, renovate and maintain its facilities and buildings to be sustainable and to encourage certain commercial and residential developers to do the same. Yonkers has its own Green Development Workbook, including a checklist and standards including requirements for construction projects in downtown Yonkers. The workbook is intended to help decision-makers to improve the environmental performance of new construction and renovation projects. It addresses environmental impacts that are specific to Yonkers and it aligns with local, state and federal incentive programs and regulations. The goal of the policy is to conserve natural resources, increase energy and water efficiency and improve indoor air quality as a way to maintain long term value, reduce operating costs and ensure more comfortable and healthy buildings in Yonkers.

Yonkers is the largest city in Westchester County, and the fourth largest city in New York state ”“ and is just 25 minutes to midtown Manhattan”™s Grand Central Terminal. Yonkers is highly desirable because of its livability. It is easy to get to and from Yonkers from practically anywhere. Yonkers is served by 10 Metro-North Railroad stations that lead to the Bronx and Manhattan, and as far away as Dutchess County, and even Albany. Five major highways connect Yonkers with the rest of Westchester County, New York City and beyond. Whether somebody is traveling by train, car, bus, bike or on foot, getting around, to and from Yonkers has never been easier.

Due in part to the success of its Generation Yonkers campaign, Mayor Spano recently announced that Yonkers currently has more than $1 billion in commercial and residential projects under development. Yonkers”™ zoning laws are designed to encourage transit-oriented development. Much of this redevelopment and new development is concentrated around transit hubs.

Anyone who has visited downtown Yonkers has witnessed its growth and transformation. The heart of the city has become the home of world-class restaurants, modern apartment buildings, and a revitalized waterfront. By focusing development in the city”™s center and by redevelopment of existing sites and brownfields, the city has preserved open spaces and broken the past trend of sprawling development.

Yonkers”™ policies promote and encourage mixed-use development. The old Boyce Thompson Institute building and property in Yonkers sat unoccupied for many years. Recently, the Simone Development Cos. began redevelopment of the site to build a $35 million mixed-use complex of office, medical and retail space. The site neighbors the South Westchester Executive Park, hotels, a hospital and the Greystone station of the Metro-North Hudson Line.

Buried for nearly a century beneath the streets of downtown Yonkers, the Saw Mill River is now flowing in broad daylight through Larkin Plaza thanks to a $19 million public works project that’s nearly complete. Comparable projects are rare and none have been done in the United States. The resulting economic development and job creation anticipates that approximately 950 permanent jobs will be created within five to 10 years as a result of the project. The Daylighting Project in Yonkers connects city residents with nature, restores habitat, and promotes economic development.

Yonkers is 18 square miles where you would be hard pressed to find a corner where something positive isn”™t happening.

Heliana V. Higbie is the director of sustainability for the city of Yonkers. This is one in a series of reports on smart growth development in the region. The series will culminate in a March 24 panel discussion on smart growth trends hosted by Westfair Communications and Pace University Land Use Law Center at Pace Law School.