The entity BEB Capital LLC based in Port Washington is asking the Town of Cortlandt to approve plans for it to build 70 townhomes on a 15.6-acre site on E. Main Street at Regina Avenue and Lexington Avenue in the town. The property is composed of several lots currently owned by Skyview/Westview LLC and Eastview/Southview LLC.
BEB Capital describes itself as a real estate development and investment firm with a portfolio of industrial, office and multifamily properties across the Northeastern U.S., and a track record of successful residential developments throughout the New York Metropolitan Area.
The site currently has a mix of cottages that are described as small dilapidated structures. There are one-family, two-family and multifamily buildings that have a total of 58 dwelling units. The cottages would be demolished to make way for the new townhouses.
According to Attorney David Steinmetz of the White Plains-based law firm Zarin & Steinmetz, the new townhomes would be built in four-unit and five-unit clusters. Steinmetz said that 12 of the units would be priced to meet Westchester County’s definition of affordable housing units. He told the Cortlandt Planning Board that it had not yet been determined whether the townhouses would be marketed as rental units or for-sale units.
The developer is seeking a Residential Reuse Special Permit (RRUSP) from Cortlandt and also has filed a petition for a Zoning Text Amendment.
“By demolishing the existing bungalow-type dwellings and constructing new townhomes in a clustered format, the project satisfies each of the purposes of the RRUSP,” Steinmetz said. Those include: replacing nonconforming dilapidated housing; providing affordable housing within a multifamily development; enhancing the visual appearance of the town, and provide housing supply that meets the market’s demand.
The new townhomes would range in size from 2,400 square feet to 3,000 square feet and would have either two or three bedrooms. Because of the terrain, there would be two primary areas of development on the property separated by an undeveloped area. Forty-two of the units would be having access to and from East Main Street (U.S. Route 6) and Regina Avenue, and the remaining 28 units would have access to and from Lexington Avenue. A walking trail would connect the two portions of the project, providing outdoor recreational space.
In the Zoning Text Amendment Petition, BEB Capital says it is confident that the proposed units would provide much needed, modern residential housing, catering to a diverse population of individuals and small families.
The project would connect to public water supplied by Northern Westchester Joint Waterworks and to public sewer utilizing the Peekskill Wastewater Treatment Facility, as the property is located within the Peekskill Sewer District.
The proposed units would have three levels, clustered in groups of four and five, with some designed to have a garage for a single vehicle. Those units without a garage would have outdoor spaces clustered on the site and within close walking distance of the unit entry. The project includes 171 parking spaces.
In its petition, BEB Capital says that Cortlandt’s RRUSP regulations as they exist today no longer reflect current market demands and therefore cannot further the town’s goals of providing affordable housing. BEB Capital says that its proposed zoning text amendments will permit the type of development necessary to meet the market demand for housing in the town, increase housing supply and enhance housing affordability, which it says are key goals of the town’s Comprehensive Plan.
BEB Capital points out that its plan would result in the average number of bedrooms in the project being greater than the two bedrooms average currently permitted under the RRUSP regulation.
“Increasing the average number of bedrooms per unit from the current requirement of two bedrooms to the proposed requirement of three bedrooms is necessary to ensure marketability of the project,” BEB Capital says in the petition. “Increasing the average bedrooms per unit would also benefit the town by providing the requisite housing to allow growing families and skilled workers to continue to reside in the town.”
BEB references Cortlandt’s Comprehensive Plan as saying that while the town “continues to be dominated by single-family homes, the demand for multi-generational and more reasonably priced housing options is increasing.” BEB says that its proposed two- and three-bedroom townhouse units are an example of housing recommended by the Comprehensive Plan.
Cortlandt’s Planning Board voted to declare itself lead agency for the environmental review of the proposal.
