1 1 STATE OF NEW YORK CITY OF YONKERS 2 ------X
3 MINUTES OF THE CITY OF YONKERS PLANNING BOARD 4 October 14, 2020 - 5:37 P.M. 5 at 6 VIRTUAL MEETING 7 PURSUANT TO GOVERNOR CUOMO'S EXECUTIVE ORDER 202.1 8 ------X 9
10 B E F O R E: 11 ROMAN KOZICKY, CHAIRMAN 12 MACKENZIE FORSBERG, MEMBER MICHAEL GILLAN, MEMBER 13 ADELIA LANDI, MEMBER JOHN LARKIN, MEMBER 14 P R E S E N T: 15 LEE ELLMAN, PLANNING DIRECTOR 16 CHRISTINE CARNEY, PLANNING DEPARTMENT ALAIN NATCHEV, ASSISTANT CORP. COUNSEL 17 GEORGE KUNTZ, CITY OF YONKERS
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DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 2 1 I N D E X 2 ITEM: PAGE: 3 3. James Veneruso - 1219 Yonkers Ave 6 4 4. Steve Accinelli - 70 Salisbury Rd (Held) 14 5 5. Steve Accinelli - 2167 Central Park Ave 15 6 6. Steve Accinelli - 56/69 Ravine, 76 Point St. 24 7 7. Stephen Veneruso - 470 Nepperhan Ave (Held) 37 8 8. Frank Bueno - 88 & 94-100 Saratoga Ave 37 9 9. James Gibbons - 1055/1061 Nepperhan Ave (Held) 46 10 10. James Gibbons - 87 Waverly St (Held) 46 11 11. Thomas Haynes - 759 Palmer Rd 47 12 12. Mark Weingarten - Buena Vista, Palisade, Overlook, 13 North Broadway, Baldwin 52
14 13. Leslie Snyder - 10 Executive Boulevard 84
15 14. Nicholas Faustini - 868 Midland Ave 98
16 15. Keith Brown - 155 South Broadway 148
17 16. Janet Giris - 808 Central Park Ave 103
18 17. Tom Abillama - 43 Garfield St 125
19 18. Steven Accinelli - 76 Locust Hill Ave 135
20 19. Correspondence 168
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DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 3 1 THE CHAIRMAN: Good evening, ladies and
2 gentlemen. This is the Planning Board for the City of
3 Yonkers pursuant to Governor Cuomo's Executive Order
4 202.1, the City of Yonkers Planning Board is
5 conducting this Wednesday, October 14, 2020 meeting.
6 It is now around 5:40 p.m. and this meeting
7 is being conducted as a distance virtual meeting.
8 There will be no in-person attendance at this meeting.
9 The meeting is also being televised and is on a
10 virtual meeting platform. For information on how to
11 attend this virtual meeting, you may check
12 www.yonkers.ny.gov.
13 Please note that any matter requiring a
14 public hearing will be heard after 7:00 p.m., and
15 items may be taken out of order in order to
16 accommodate public comment or as the Board may deem
17 necessary.
18 Before we start on the items, I just want to
19 take a roll call. When I call your name, please
20 indicate out loud that you are here.
21 Adelia Landi.
22 MS. LANDI: Adelia is here.
23 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you. Michael Gillan.
24 If we can unmute Michael Gillan.
25 MR. KUNTZ: I think he said present.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 4 1 THE CHAIRMAN: I see his microphone is
2 still muted.
3 MR. KUNTZ: All right, the problem is I
4 can't do it until I get back on, so Michael, if you
5 can just press the space bar, that will unmute you.
6 THE CHAIRMAN: Michael, can you hear us?
7 DR. GILLAN: Yes, I can.
8 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, Michael Gillan is
9 here. John Larkin.
10 MR. LARKIN: Here.
11 THE CHAIRMAN: And Mackenzie Forsberg.
12 MS. FORSBERG: Here.
13 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, we do have a forum
14 tonight.
15 THE CHAIRMAN: Item 1 are the minutes of
16 the regular Planning Board meeting that were held on
17 August 19, 2020, they were in our packages. Are there
18 any additions, modifications, corrections?
19 MS. LANDI: No.
20 THE CHAIRMAN: If not, I will entertain a
21 motion to accept the minutes as presented.
22 MS. LANDI: I make a motion to accept the
23 minutes.
24 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, so moved by Ms. Landi.
25 Seconded by --
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 5 1 DR. GILLAN: Second.
2 THE CHAIRMAN: -- seconded by Dr. Gillan.
3 All in favor, please indicate by saying aye.
4 (A chorus of ayes.)
5 THE CHAIRMAN: Oppose, nay.
6 That passes unanimously.
7 Item Number 2 are the minutes of the special
8 Planning Board meeting that were held on September 9th
9 of 2020. They were also in our package, if we
10 could -- Actually, was that a special meeting?
11 MS. LANDI: No.
12 MS. CARNEY: No, it was just the regular
13 meeting, if we can just omit that.
14 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, so except for the fact
15 that it says special, all right, any corrections,
16 modifications?
17 MS. LANDI: No.
18 THE CHAIRMAN: Then I'll entertain a motion
19 to accept the minutes of the Planning Board meeting of
20 September 9th.
21 MR. LARKIN: I make a motion to accept the
22 minutes of September 9th.
23 THE CHAIRMAN: So moved by Mr. Larkin.
24 Seconded by --
25 MS. LANDI: Second.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 6 1 THE CHAIRMAN: -- Ms. Landi.
2 All in favor, please indicate by saying aye.
3 (A chorus of ayes.)
4 THE CHAIRMAN: Oppose, nay.
5 That passes unanimously.
6 Moving directly to Item Number 3. Item
7 Number 3 is a site plan review for a proposed 266-unit
8 residential apartment building at Block 6383, Lot 6 on
9 the property known as 1219 Yonkers Avenue pursuant to
10 Article IX of the Yonkers Zoning Ordinance.
11 James Veneruso is representative for the
12 proposal.
13 Mr. Veneruso, if we could unmute Mr.
14 Veneruso.
15 MR. VENERUSO: Good evening, Mr. Chairman
16 and members of the Board.
17 The applicant has dealt with each of the
18 comments made by the Engineering Department, and I
19 respectfully request the Board to a resolution
20 approving this application.
21 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr. Veneruso.
22 Members of the Board, do we have any
23 additional questions for the applicant?
24 If not, then if we could -- Hold on. We
25 have the resolution coming up on the board. Is that
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 7 1 what you're doing, Lee?
2 MR. ELLMAN: Yes.
3 THE CHAIRMAN: Do we have a -- Hold on,
4 we're getting some feedback.
5 MS. LANDI: You're trying to get to the
6 resolution.
7 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, we did get it in
8 to our e-mails late this afternoon around 10 to 5:00,
9 so you might want to check your e-mails, as well,
10 that's when they were finalized.
11 MS. FORSBERG: I have it if we're ready.
12 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, Lee, correct me
13 if I'm wrong -- Actually, Lee, can Lee be unmuted
14 here?
15 Lee, do we need to go through any SEQRA, any
16 further SEQRA, or no?
17 MR. ELLMAN: Just as a belt and suspenders,
18 while we have reviewed this project, this iteration is
19 slightly different, so, yes, please do a SEQRA dec.
20 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. So, first I'll
21 entertain a motion for a negative declaration as to
22 SEQRA.
23 MS. LANDI: I make a motion for a negative
24 declaration.
25 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Ms. Landi. Do I
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 8 1 have a second on that?
2 MS. FORSBERG: Mackenzie.
3 THE CHAIRMAN: Seconded by Ms. Forsberg.
4 All in favor, please indicate by saying aye.
5 (A chorus of ayes.)
6 THE CHAIRMAN: Oppose, nay.
7 That passes unanimously.
8 Now a resolution on the item itself.
9 MS. LANDI: Okay, let me see. Okay, Mr.
10 Chairman, I can read it.
11 THE CHAIRMAN: Go ahead.
12 MS. LANDI: Okay, let's see if we're on the
13 right spot. Nope. Hold on, I'm getting it. All
14 right --
15 THE CHAIRMAN: Actually, Mackenzie, did you
16 say that you had it ready?
17 MS. FORSBERG: Yes.
18 THE CHAIRMAN: Adelia, if you don't have it
19 there --
20 MS. LANDI: No problem.
21 THE CHAIRMAN: -- it's okay.
22 MS. LANDI: Yes.
23 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, Ms. Forsberg,
24 please go ahead with the resolution.
25 MS. FORSBERG: Mr. Chairman, we have a
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 9 1 resolution to approve a site plan application at 1219
2 Yonkers Avenue, Block 6383, Lot 6, 8-10, 14, 15, 17
3 and 19 pursuant to Article IX of the Yonkers Zoning
4 Ordinance.
5 The Planning Board after review of the
6 proposed site plan application, having reviewed the
7 site and the plans submitted, makes the following
8 findings:
9 A. On February 27, 2013, the Planning Board
10 approved an application at this site for a 14-story,
11 220-unit residential building with retail uses on the
12 Yonkers Avenue first floor. The current application
13 before the Board is for a 14-story, 266-unit
14 residential building over 5 stories of parking, with a
15 1600 square foot retail space on the Yonkers Avenue
16 first floor.
17 B. On May 7, 2020, the Zoning Board of
18 Appeals granted three dimensional variances in
19 conjunction with this amended project.
20 C. In response to the Planning Board
21 concerns about the impact of the retaining walls
22 required to construct the proposed development, the
23 applicant has proposed a vegetation system for the
24 wall to lessen the aesthetic impacts upon the
25 neighboring homes and residents to the north of the
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 10 1 project.
2 Based upon the review of the plans and
3 visits to the site, the Planning Board approves the
4 plans as proposed with the following conditions:
5 1. All conditions and approvals imposed by
6 the Yonkers Zoning Board are incorporated into the
7 Planning Board's approval. No changes to these
8 incorporated conditions may be made without the
9 Planning Board's approval.
10 2. The two proposed stabilized, crushed
11 stone, construction entrances/exits shall be the only
12 access to the site during excavation and foundation
13 construction. The areas around the exits shall be
14 swept as often as required to control dust and debris
15 from the site, but not less than once a day. A tire
16 washing station shall be installed the the exits based
17 upon the determination of the building inspector that
18 additional mitigation from construction related
19 impacts is necessary.
20 3. Access along the Yonkers Avenue north
21 side sidewalk shall be maintained at all times during
22 construction. Pedestrians shall not be required to
23 walk in the bed of Yonkers Avenue or required to cross
24 Yonkers Avenue to find a safe walking path.
25 4. The applicant's landscape architects
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 11 1 shall work with the neighbors adjacent to the north
2 side retaining wall to establish a desirable and
3 thriving planting scheme for the mitigation of the
4 walls presence at the property line. The plantings
5 shall be established in the first growing season after
6 the wall is erected and shall be maintained by the
7 developer for the life of the project. The Planning
8 Board's intention is for the wall platings to be
9 installed as soon as is possible, based upon best
10 horticultural practice, and prior to other site
11 landscaping which is typically installed at the end of
12 a development project.
13 5. Additional street trees are to be
14 located on Yonkers Avenue to add interest to the
15 street frontage. The Planning Board allows that the
16 applicant may locate the street trees away from the
17 area of the retail stores, understanding the interest
18 of retailers in having an open frontage, but that
19 additional trees must be incorporated into the area
20 between the retail frontage and the Crescent Place
21 corner. Tree species selection to be approved by the
22 City of Yonkers Arborist.
23 6. The applicant shall work with the
24 Yonkers DPW to establish a containerized trash removal
25 scheme that will not require the placement of any
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 12 1 trash or recyclables at the exterior of the building.
2 No garbage from the residential or the retail tenants
3 will be permitted on the sidewalk or street awaiting
4 removal.
5 7. All sidewalks and curbs fronting the
6 private property of this development shall be replaced
7 with new sidewalks and curbs that meet the Yonkers
8 City Engineers specifications. Sidewalks and curbs
9 fronting the DOT/YPA parking lot shall be repaired or
10 replaced at the direction of the Yonkers City
11 Engineer.
12 8. The applicant shall make all
13 improvements to the Crescent Place lot within the
14 easement area as noted on sheet ST-101 and,
15 additionally, must repair any damage caused to lot as
16 a result of the construction of the building.
17 9. Upon completion of the building, the
18 applicant may not place any banners, pennants,
19 streamers or the like at the site advertising leasing
20 opportunities for either the retail space or the
21 apartments without prior obtaining City of Yonkers
22 permits as required.
23 10. Pursuant to Article XV of the Yonkers
24 City Code, this 266-unit development is considered a
25 "Large Multifamily Housing Development" and,
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 13 1 therefore, is required to maintain 10 percent of the
2 total number of units as affordable. This development
3 is required to provide 27 affordable units within the
4 building.
5 11. The applicant must submit four full
6 sized sets of both the Lawless and Mangione plans and
7 the JMC plans for stamping and circulation.
8 12. All improvements made to this site and
9 all conditions imposed; by the Planning Board shall
10 remain in full force and effect as long as the site
11 remains occupied.
12 The Planning Board renders its decision
13 based upon facts and findings available to it,
14 specifically:
15 1. Report by the Planning Bureau.
16 2. Reports by the City Engineer.
17 3. General knowledge of the area.
18 Mr. Chairman.
19 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Ms. Forsberg.
20 Do we have a second on the resolution?
21 You'll have to speak up and remember to unmute
22 yourself.
23 MS. LANDI: Okay, I second it, thank you.
24 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Ms. Landi.
25 Before we vote on it, to the applicant, Mr.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 14 1 Veneruso, on behalf of the applicant, you heard the
2 proposed resolution and the conditions. I assume the
3 conditions are all heard and understood and agreed
4 upon?
5 MR. VENERUSO: Yes, Mr. Chairman.
6 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you.
7 In that case, I'll move to a vote. All in
8 favor, please indicate by saying aye. Again, you will
9 you need to unmute yourself.
10 (A chorus of ayes.)
11 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, I guess more
12 importantly, any opposed? No.
13 That passes unanimously. Thank you very
14 much.
15 MR. VENERUSO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman,
16 thank you members of the Board.
17 MR. LARKIN: I'm sorry, Roman, I had to step
18 away for a minute so I don't know if you did a roll
19 call.
20 THE CHAIRMAN: No, we didn't do a roll call,
21 it was approved. Do we have your approval on that
22 item?
23 MR. LARKIN: Yes.
24 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you.
25 Item Number 4 has been held over at the
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 15 1 applicant's request. This is the property at 70
2 Salisubry Road. There will be no action, no
3 presentation on that this evening.
4 Item Number 5 is a site plan review for a
5 new entrance portal and wall sign at Block 4350, Lot
6 34 on the property known as 2167 Central Park Avenue,
7 Westchester Toyota, pursuant to Article IX of the
8 Yonkers Zoning Ordinance.
9 Steve Accinelli is here as representative
10 for the proposal. Mr. Accinelli.
11 MR. ACCINELLI: Good evening, Mr. Chairman.
12 Can you hear me?
13 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, go ahead.
14 MR. ACCINELLI: Good evening, Mr. Chairman,
15 members of the Board, Steven Accinelli from Veneruso,
16 Curto Schwartz and Curto on behalf of the applicant.
17 Following up on the September Planning Board
18 meeting, the applicant prepared revised drawings which
19 were responsive to the Planning Board and Planning
20 Director's comments, as well as having provided
21 additional information and documentation including day
22 and nighttime photographs of other locations,
23 photometric details, and a revised project description
24 explaining the project details.
25 In addition, the applicant also revised the
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 16 1 proposed signage so that it is now compliant with the
2 Yonkers Sign Code.
3 All of the forgoing was submitted to the
4 Board as part of our supplemental submission, and we
5 believe we have now at this time addressed all open
6 issues and questions and comments that have been
7 raised by the Board thus far.
8 With me here this evening is Tracy Boss,
9 she's the architect. And we have nothing further to
10 add on the application, and we would open it up to the
11 Board if there are any questions or comments at this
12 time.
13 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr. Accinelli. I
14 did notice the changes on the plan, and we appreciate
15 that they were made to be congruent with our
16 requirements.
17 Questions from the Board members on this
18 item? Once again, everyone, please unmute your
19 microphones.
20 MS. FORSBERG: No, nothing.
21 THE CHAIRMAN: I see Adelia is trying to
22 speak.
23 MS. LANDI: Yes, I also am happy with the
24 changes in the plans and the visuals that were sent,
25 also.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 17 1 MR. ACCINELLI: Thank you.
2 THE CHAIRMAN: And just for clarification
3 on my part, I notice on the revised plan, they're
4 eliminating the Toyota; is that correct?
5 MR. ACCINELLI: Correct, Mr. Chairman.
6 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, I just wanted to make
7 sure that wasn't a mistake. I guess the symbol is
8 iconic, so that does the trick.
9 All right, that being the case and there
10 being no -- Oh, staff members, any questions from the
11 staff?
12 MR. ELLMAN: No, we've gotten the issues
13 handled that we were concerned about.
14 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, thank you, Lee.
15 In that case, I'll accept a motion for a
16 negative declaration as to SEQRA on this.
17 MS. FORSBERG: I make a motion.
18 THE CHAIRMAN: So moved by Ms. Forsberg.
19 Seconded by --
20 MS. LANDI: Mrs. Landi.
21 THE CHAIRMAN: -- Mrs. Landi.
22 All in favor, please indicate by saying aye.
23 (A chorus of ayes.)
24 THE CHAIRMAN: Oppose, nay.
25 It passes unanimously.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 18 1 Now a resolution on the item itself.
2 MR. LARKIN: I'll take it, Mr. Chairman.
3 MS. LANDI: I'll take it.
4 MR. LARKIN: Go ahead, Adelia.
5 THE CHAIRMAN: Adelia.
6 MS. LANDI: Okay. Mr. Chairman, resolution
7 to approve a site plan for an entry portal at Block
8 4350, Lot 34 on the property known as 2167 Central
9 Park Avenue, Toyota, pursuant to Article IX of the
10 Yonkers Zoning Ordinance.
11 Findings:
12 1. Toyota of Westchester is seeking to
13 install a new LED illuminated entry portal at the main
14 entrance of their current location. This portal will
15 not encroach into any of the existing parking spaces
16 in front of it and is the equivalent of a new facade.
17 The applicant will also be upgrading the existing
18 facade to continue the red banding along the entirety
19 of the building face.
20 2. The Planning Board finds the signage
21 placed in the second floor windows to be an
22 overabundance of advertising space.
23 The site plan presented to the Planning
24 Board at its meeting of October 14, 2020 is approved
25 with the following conditions:
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 19 1 1. All previous conditions imposed by the
2 Planning Board from the November 12, 2003 approval
3 shall remain in full force and effect for the life of
4 the tenancy.
5 2. The portal lights shall be turned off at
6 the close of business. 3.
7 3. After the portal is constructed, the
8 second floor window advertising space must be reduced
9 to 25 percent of the visible glazed areas. The
10 windows blocked by the portal shall not be counted
11 towards the glazed area total.
12 4. No temporary signs on the sidewalk, no
13 banners, pennants, streamers, balloons, inflatables,
14 signs, or the like shall be flown from the sign, from
15 the building, or placed on site.
16 The Planning Board renders its decision
17 based upon facts and findings available to it,
18 specifically:
19 1. Report by the Planning Bureau.
20 2. Report by the City Engineer.
21 3. General knowledge of the area.
22 Mr. Chairman.
23 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mrs. Landi.
24 Do we have a second on the resolution?
25 MS. FORSBERG: Second.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 20 1 THE CHAIRMAN: Seconded by Ms. Forsberg.
2 To the applicant, you've heard the proposed
3 resolution, the conditions, I assume they're
4 understood, agreed upon and accepted?
5 MR. ACCINELLI: I'm sorry, just one follow-
6 up question. Typically, the portal light, I heard one
7 of the conditions was to be turned off when the
8 business is closed for the evening. Typically, those
9 portal lights do remain illuminated, it's on a timer,
10 but it does typically remain illuminated at least
11 initially after the closing. It goes off sometime
12 later on in the evening, if that was something that
13 the Board would be comfortable with as opposed to
14 immediately being turned off upon closing.
15 THE CHAIRMAN: Do you have an idea of what
16 the timeframe is after the last person leaves that the
17 lighting is automatically turned off?
18 MR. ACCINELLI: It usually stays on until a
19 little bit before sunrise typically at other
20 locations, so it's probably somewhere around 4:00 a.m.
21 typically at other locations.
22 THE CHAIRMAN: Lee, do you want to give some
23 indication because I believe this was a staff concern,
24 as well?
25 Lee, you're still muted. There you go.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 21 1 MR. ELLMAN: Sorry, then that was coming
2 from George.
3 The Zoning Ordinance already has a condition
4 in it that site lighting, so parking lot lighting, for
5 example, will be reduced by 50 percent at the close of
6 business.
7 We had something that is essentially a large
8 light, night-light, and an advertising sign when there
9 is no business going on there. And in an effort to
10 reduce light pollution and visual clutter on Central
11 Avenue, we were suggesting that it be turned off at
12 the close of business.
13 Now, I certainly have no issue with
14 something being on a timer and being turned off at,
15 you know, whatever the Board thinks of as a reasonable
16 hour.
17 Mr. Accinelli is suggesting that it is
18 essentially on all night. Frankly, if they're leaving
19 it on until 4:00 in the morning, I don't know why they
20 don't leave it on all night.
21 But I really would guess if the business is
22 closed and we're getting into the late evening, you
23 know, you would need to make a case to me as a planner
24 why the lighting needs to stay on certainly past 11:00
25 or midnight.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 22 1 MR. ACCINELLI: I think perhaps midnight
2 would be something that the client would be
3 comfortable with. You know, Central Avenue is such a
4 highly traffic area well past 8:00 or 9 o'clock p.m.,
5 and the applicant would certainly like to take
6 advantage of some of the additional exposure beyond
7 the closing time, so I think 12:00 or 1:00 a.m. is
8 something that the client would be comfortable with,
9 just to take advantage of the amount of volume of
10 traffic that goes up and down Central Avenue even
11 after 8:00, 9 o'clock, 10 o'clock.
12 THE CHAIRMAN: Well --
13 MR. ELLMAN: You're suggesting 11:00 or
14 12:00.
15 MR. ACCINELLI: 12:00.
16 MR. ELLMAN: 11:00. You tried for 1:00,
17 Steve, you got to give me that, I'll go down in the
18 other direction.
19 MR. ACCINELLI: I started at 4:00.
20 THE CHAIRMAN: The only cars that I know of
21 after 12:00 midnight going down Central Avenue are
22 doing around 80 miles an hour.
23 MR. ACCINELLI: You must be watching the
24 news.
25 THE CHAIRMAN: No, I can just hear it from
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 23 1 my house. But seriously, this is your resolution, do
2 you have an objection to amending it so it will
3 indicate that the lights will be turned off after the
4 close of business, but no later than 12:00 midnight?
5 Okay. And who was the -- Adelia, so you're
6 okay with that --
7 MS. LANDI: Yes.
8 THE CHAIRMAN: -- as proposing the
9 resolution?
10 MS. LANDI: Yes.
11 THE CHAIRMAN: And I believe it was
12 seconded by Ms. Forsberg.
13 MS. FORSBERG: Yes, second.
14 THE CHAIRMAN: So, you have no problem with
15 that change.
16 With that change, Mr. Accinelli, are we okay
17 to proceed?.
18 MR. ACCINELLI: Yes, thank you, Mr.
19 Chairman, members of the Board and Planning Director.
20 THE CHAIRMAN: Well, we haven't voted yet,
21 hold on.
22 All those in favor of the resolution as
23 amended, please indicate by saying aye.
24 (A chorus of ayes.)
25 THE CHAIRMAN: Any opposed?
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 24 1 Seems to have past unanimously. Thank you
2 very much, Mr. Accinelli, and good luck.
3 MR. ACCINELLI: Thank you.
4 THE CHAIRMAN: Item Number 6 is a site plan
5 review for a proposed 146-unit multifamily building at
6 Block 2115, Lot 5 and Block 2114, Lots 17 and 42 on
7 the properties known as 56 Ravine Avenue, 69 Ravine
8 Avenue, and 76 Point Street pursuant to Article IX of
9 the Yonkers Zoning Ordinance.
10 Steve Accinelli is here also for
11 representative of that proposal.
12 Mr. Accinelli.
13 MR. ACCINELLI: Good evening, Mr. Chairman,
14 members of the Board. Again, for the record, Steven
15 Accinelli from Veneruso Curto Schwartz and Curto on
16 behalf of the applicant.
17 Mr. Chairman and members of the Board,
18 following up on the September 9th Planning Board
19 meeting, the applicant received and reviewed the
20 September 4th Planning Bureau memorandum to the
21 Planning Board, as well as the September 4th
22 Department of Engineering report also addressed to the
23 Planning Board.
24 These reports collectively addressed water,
25 sewer concerns, as well as general and more specific
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 25 1 matters involving lighting, elevations, traffic and
2 parking, landscaping and fencing, trash and
3 construction.
4 In response, the applicant spoke with City
5 representatives, revised the plans and related
6 documents to respond to and address the matters raised
7 in the reports, as well as at the September Planning
8 Board meeting, and also held an in-person plan review
9 meeting with Director Ellman to review these proposed
10 revisions.
11 As a result of the foregoing, a supplemental
12 submission was submitted to the Planning Board for its
13 review, which also included a detailed letter from
14 PS&S as consultants.
15 As part of that submission, a dedicated plan
16 page at Director Ellman's request was prepared and
17 devoted to the layout and design of the 50 Point
18 Street parking lot, which is an accessory parking lot
19 to the project. And that was in response to comments
20 made also at the September meeting.
21 The Engineering Department issued a follow-
22 up report dated October 9th, and William Schneider
23 from PS&S has been communicating with Mr. John Speight
24 from the Engineering Department in response to same.
25 And these were concerns related to water and sewer.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 26 1 With the Board's permission, I would like to
2 turn it over to Mr. Schneider, who can briefly report
3 to the Board the most recent discussions he has had
4 with the Engineering Department on those specific
5 issues, with the Board's permission.
6 THE CHAIRMAN: Certainly.
7 MR. ACCINELLI: Thank you.
8 MR. SCHNEIDER: Hello, Mr. Chairman and
9 members of the Board.
10 Actually, I was speaking with John Speight,
11 and he's part of the Water Bureau, which is under the
12 Department of Public Works, just for clarity. I
13 actually spoke with him today, but my comments pertain
14 to the utilities for the most part, and we are
15 addressing those concerns with the Engineering
16 Department, such as the swift plan, the I and I
17 concern, 3 to 1 for I and I removal, which we will do,
18 televising the sanitary sewer and the storm sewer.
19 So, we're presently getting quotes on that.
20 But of concern is the water situation,
21 regarding my discussion with John Speight today is the
22 replacement of the 12-inch water main on Gold Street
23 to Point. That water main would then replace in its
24 entirety the six-inch main, which now serves the
25 public there. And that 6-inch main would then be
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 27 1 abandoned in place.
2 In my discussions with John, he indicated
3 that that is a solution to this problem. But, you
4 know, it might not be the only solution, you know,
5 we're going to continue to evaluate that to see if
6 there's any way that we can achieve the same goal and
7 still provide the necessary water, the fire flow, and,
8 of course, the public water for everyone on the
9 street. That might not require a 12-inch brand new
10 water main. We might wind up doing it and it's
11 likely, but we're just going to look into it a little
12 deeper to see if there's any alternative whatsoever.
13 There are probably several things to look at, and
14 we're going to take a look at that.
15 As far as relining the 12-inch that's on
16 Point Street, that has to be relined from Glenwood
17 Terrace all the way to Warburton Avenue, that will be
18 cleaned and cement lined. And we're presently looking
19 into that to see how best we can accomplish that.
20 Maybe if there's another technology that
21 serves the same purpose and it might be a little
22 easier, more affordable, maybe the line will be out of
23 service less time, again, but it will achieve the same
24 goal, which is cleaning and relining of that 12- inch.
25 And, of course, any new technology and anything that
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 28 1 we come up with would have to be reviewed and approved
2 by the Water Department and the Engineering Department
3 of the City of Yonkers.
4 So, that's where we are with the Engineering
5 Department comments at the moment, and they certainly
6 all will be addressed, and I just wanted to let you
7 know the status of where we were.
8 And that concludes my comment.
9 MR. ACCINELLI: Thank you, Mr. Schneider.
10 Mr. Chairman and members of the Board, one
11 other item relative to the public improvements. The
12 applicant also had prepared revised plan for the park
13 improvements, which is part of the public development
14 portion of the project, which was also reviewed by
15 Planning Director Ellman, so that's also been provided
16 to the City.
17 And, at this point, we have no further
18 comments to the Board and the project team is
19 available on the meeting tonight for any questions of
20 the Board. And in the event that the Board was
21 prepared to issue a resolution tonight, the only thing
22 that we would request respectfully following up on Mr.
23 Schneider's comments is the flexibility in terms of
24 any conditions that may be imposed relative to those
25 issues that are still being discussed regarding Mr.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 29 1 Schneider's comments such that that dialogue could
2 continue and the result would certainly be subject to
3 the approval of the City of Yonkers Engineering
4 Department.
5 Other than that, Mr. Chairman, we have no
6 other comments at this point.
7 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr. Accinelli.
8 Members of the Board, questions for the
9 applicant?
10 MS. LANDI: Yes, I have a question.
11 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, Ms. Landi.
12 MS. LANDI: I was looking at Z-01.00, and I
13 saw a couple of, I saw tenants' public parking lots
14 and I also saw some private parking lots. Now, I,
15 from what I saw, I believe there were enough spaces
16 for the tenants; is that correct, in your development?
17 MR. ACCINELLI: Correct.
18 MS. LANDI: Okay. So, if a tenant were to
19 use the public parking lot, that would not be gratis,
20 they would have to pay for it or get a permit or
21 something?
22 MR. ACCINELLI: That's correct, the public
23 parking lot is going to be presumably managed and
24 overseen by YPA, and that relationship between public
25 and non-public parking is not something that our
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 30 1 client would be involved with.
2 MS. LANDI: Okay, all right, but the
3 tenants would have ample parking in your design;
4 correct?
5 MR. SCHNEIDER: What is ample?
6 MS. LANDI: Whatever would be required.
7 MR. ELLMAN: Mr. Chairman, may I step in
8 for just a second?
9 THE CHAIRMAN: Certainly, go ahead.
10 MR. ELLMAN: Okay, so, Adelia, one of the
11 facets, well not facets, the way this project started,
12 the parking lot that used to serve BICC, the cable
13 company, was used by the, rented by the, YPA from the
14 owner for several years. Because of that, there was,
15 the neighborhood, which is generally short on parking
16 because the buildings are older and were built pre-
17 car, became accustomed to having a public parking lot
18 in that corner.
19 When the property went to contract with
20 Conifer, one of the things that we all looked at was
21 how does that public YPA parking lot get replaced.
22 The City had several small vacant lots in
23 the neighborhood, essentially everything within one
24 block of the corner of Point and Ravine. So, the deal
25 came down that Conifer, Mr. Accinelli's client, would
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 31 1 do their development, their development would have
2 conforming to zoning parking. Some of their -- The
3 Zoning Ordinance allows your parking to be within 300
4 feet of site, so there are several small parking lots
5 that serve the Conifer project that are private.
6 There also will be parking along View and
7 Bartholdi Streets, and there will also be two small
8 YPA parking lots. So, the intention was to make sure
9 that the neighborhood was, did not lose public parking
10 as we were creating a private development.
11 MS. LANDI: Thank you.
12 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Lee.
13 Yes, go ahead Mr. Accinelli.
14 MR. ACCINELLI: Mr. Chairman, if the Board
15 would like further clarification visually, again,
16 it's up to the Board, we can pull up a share screen,
17 and if the Board would like to look at it on the
18 screen, that's something we can certainly do. I'll
19 leave it up to the Board.
20 THE CHAIRMAN: Well, we have it in our
21 materials.
22 MS. LANDI: Yes.
23 THE CHAIRMAN: We're good, we're good with
24 that.
25 MR. ACCINELLI: Okay.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 32 1 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr. Accinelli.
2 Other members of the Board, questions?
3 Just a comment, Mr. Accinelli, and to your,
4 I forgot the gentleman's name for your engineering.
5 Technology always develops and technologies change,
6 and there are always better ways to do things. We're
7 going to proceed tonight with your proposal as it
8 stands and the conditions as they stand. Obviously,
9 in the future, if there's a better technology or some
10 way everyone can agree on there's a better way to do
11 something, you certainly would have the opportunity to
12 come back and ask for an amendment to the conditions,
13 or a change to the conditions.
14 And I think that's how we're going to
15 address that this evening.
16 MR. ACCINELLI: Understood.
17 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. That being the case,
18 staff, any other questions for the applicant?
19 MR. ELLMAN: No, I think we're in good
20 shape. We've gotten all of the information that we
21 requested from Mr. Accinelli's clients.
22 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, thank you. That
23 being the case, same question here, Lee, about the
24 SEQRA, do we need to go into a SEQRA dec?
25 MR. ELLMAN: This project was SEQRA-ed by
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 33 1 the Zoning Board of Appeals who took lead agency.
2 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. All right, so we're
3 good to go.
4 That being the case, I'll entertain a motion
5 for a resolution on this item.
6 MR. LARKIN: I make a motion --
7 THE CHAIRMAN: We need to mute somebody,
8 we're getting some feedback.
9 All right, Mr. Larkin, please go ahead.
10 MR. LARKIN: Yes, I entertain a motion for
11 this resolution.
12 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, do you have the
13 resolution?
14 MR. LARKIN: Yes, I do.
15 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, please go ahead.
16 MR. LARKIN: This is a resolution to approve
17 the site plan for the proposed Conifer-Ravine Avenue
18 sites at: 69 Ravine Avenue, Block 2114, Lots 42, 43,
19 45; 76 Point Street, Block 2114, Lots 17, 20.35, 36,
20 37, 38; 56 Ravine Avenue, Block 2115, Lots 5-8, 10-14,
21 16, 17, 24; 78 Ravine Avenue, Block 2115, Lots 16, 17;
22 and 50 Point Street, Block 2115, Lot 24 pursuant to
23 Article IX of the Yonkers Zoning Ordinance.
24 Findings:
25 1. The private development component of the
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 34 1 site plan consists of a proposed 146 units of
2 multifamily development across three buildings; two
3 low-rise and one mid-rise building with on-site and
4 off-site parking. All units will be provided at
5 affordable rents. The public improvement component of
6 the site plan consists of the development of three
7 municipal parking areas on several area parcels and
8 the rehabilitation of Irving Park.
9 2. The development project has received
10 dimensional variances as required from the Yonkers
11 Zoning Board of Appeals.
12 3. The Yonkers Water Bureau and the City
13 Engineer have noted issues with the area
14 infrastructure that will require further study and/or
15 remediation prior to construction of the housing
16 development.
17 The site plan presented to the Planning
18 Board at its meeting of October 14, 2020 is approved
19 with the following conditions:
20 1. The applicant shall make the following
21 improvements required by the Water Bureau and deemed
22 necessary to the water service to this development:
23 A. Clean and cement line the Point
24 Street twelve (12) inch water main from Warburton
25 Avenue to the dead end in the vicinity of Glenwood
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 35 1 Terrace.
2 B. A 12 inch water main is to be
3 installed in Ravine Avenue and connected to the
4 existing water mains in Point Street and Gold Street.
5 2. The applicant shall make the following
6 improvements required by the City Engineer:
7 A. The combination sewer on Ravine
8 Avenue should be tv'd to verify the condition and
9 studied to analyze if the capacity could handle the
10 additional flow.
11 B. The storm sewer main is to be tv'd to
12 verify condition crossing the MTA train tracks to the
13 outfall.
14 C. All storm sewer connections into the
15 combination sewer should have a drop less than 2 feet.
16 D. An easement will be required from the
17 City for sewer pipe running across the City park Block
18 2114, Lot 12.
19 3. The applicant shall be responsible for
20 the payment of an Inflow and Infiltration mitigation
21 fee based upon a ratio of 3:1 to mitigate impacts upon
22 the Westchester County Yonkers Joint Treatment Plant.
23 The "I and I" remediation fee will be calculated by
24 the City Engineer based upon total daily water demand.
25 4. The applicant has submitted a
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 36 1 preliminary Storm Water Pollution Prevention Plan,
2 SWPPP, to the City Engineer. The SWPPP will be
3 finalized and conform to current NYS DEC regulations
4 and local law.
5 5. The applicant shall complete the
6 rehabilitation of Irving Park as shown on submitted
7 plans, subject tot eh approval of the Planning
8 Director and the Parks Board.
9 The Planning Board renders its decision
10 based upon facts and findings available to it,
11 specifically:
12 1. Report by the City Engineer.
13 2. Report by the City Traffic Engineer.
14 3. Report by the Yonkers Fire Department.
15 4. Report by the Planning Bureau.
16 5. General knowledge of the area.
17 Mr. Chairman.
18 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr. Larkin.
19 Do we have a second on the resolution?
20 MS. FORSBERG: Second.
21 THE CHAIRMAN: Seconded by Ms. Forsberg.
22 Before we go to a vote, Mr. Accinelli, on
23 behalf of the applicant, you heard the proposed
24 resolution and the conditions. I assume the
25 conditions are understood and agreed upon.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 37 1 MR. ACCINELLI: Yes, Mr. Chairman.
2 THE CHAIRMAN: That being the case, I'll
3 move to a vote on the resolution itself. All in
4 favor, please indicate by saying aye.
5 (A chorus of ayes.)
6 THE CHAIRMAN: All oppose, nay.
7 It passes unanimously.
8 Thank you very much and good luck.
9 MR. ACCINELLI: Thank you.
10 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, Item Number 7 is being
11 is held over, that's the property known as 470
12 Nepperhan Avenue. There will be no presentation, no
13 action on Item Number 7 this evening.
14 Item Number 8 is a site plan review for a
15 proposed 26-unit residential building at Block 36,
16 Lots 27, 29, 30 and 31 on the property known as 88 &
17 94-100 Saratoga Avenue pursuant to Article IX of the
18 Yonkers Zoning Ordinance.
19 Julio Leder-Luis is representative for the
20 proposal.
21 Mr. Leder-Luis.
22 MR. BUENO: Good evening, Mr. Chairman and
23 Board members, Mr. Leder-Luis won't be presenting. We
24 represented Mr. Julio Leder-Luis at the September 9th
25 meeting. My name is Frank Bueno from Leder-Luis
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 38 1 Architectural Design.
2 THE CHAIRMAN: Go ahead, Mr. Bueno.
3 MR. BUENO: Thank you.
4 Good evening, Mr. Chairman and Board
5 members. As I said, my name is Frank Bueno on behalf
6 of Leder-Luis. I will be presenting on behalf of
7 Leder-Luis as I did in our September meeting.
8 Based on the meeting we had on September
9 9th, we provided a set of plans to answer prior issues
10 and concerns that the Board were questioning. We also
11 provided an itemized letter on how we answer each and
12 every one of those comments.
13 Our previous meeting, we were missing a
14 topographical survey, also the issue as part of the
15 Planning Board. So, we have included as part of our
16 package, a topographical survey for the Board members'
17 review.
18 And part of the package, we also included a
19 flow test report for the watershed, to protect the
20 watershed to make sure that we are in compliance and
21 that we are not disturbing the water system.
22 There's an issue, there was a question
23 raised about traffic on Saratoga Avenue. Our proposal
24 is that we will not be disturbing traffic flow and the
25 site is large enough to accommodate all trucks to be
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 39 1 able to go into the site, drop off the construction
2 material, and then drive off without having to stop
3 traffic flow.
4 There was also an issue regarding the
5 garbage at 88 and 94 Saratoga. So, the garbage is to
6 be collected and placed in bins on the south side of
7 the property on 94 Saratoga Avenue where it will then
8 be collected from the garbage trucks, the garbage
9 company who's responsible for it.
10 The site plan was revised to incorporate all
11 property within 100 feet of all direction of the
12 property, of 94 Saratoga.
13 The landscaping was conveyed the first time
14 and we had modified the plans to itemize plants,
15 locations, and species, this is specified on the
16 plans.
17 The final issue was the retaining wall
18 between 94 and 88 Saratoga. The retaining wall is
19 already approved, plans were approved for the
20 retaining wall. The owner is to provide a skid (ph)
21 plan, and it is responsible for the maintenance of the
22 retaining wall against if there is any vandalism, he
23 is responsible to maintain the retaining wall at all
24 time.
25 Thank you, Mr. Chairman and Board members.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 40 1 I am I'm happy to answer any questions that you may
2 have.
3 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mr. Bueno.
4 Members of the Board, questions?
5 MS. FORSBERG: I have some questions.
6 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, go ahead, Ms. Forsberg.
7 MS. FORSBERG: Is this market rate or
8 affordable housing, what's the demographic of the
9 tenancy?
10 MR. BUENO: Based on the size of the
11 project, we are proposing one affordable unit on the
12 first floor of 94 Saratoga.
13 MS. FORSBERG: And the rest are all market
14 rate?
15 MR. BUENO: The rest are all market rate,
16 yes.
17 MS. FORSBERG: What heating system are you
18 using for this project?
19 MR. BUENO: It's all electric that we
20 proposed, an electric heating system with one
21 exception, a unit for individual or baseboard heating
22 for each of the units --
23 MS. FORSBERG: So, hotel-style type units
24 for each apartment?
25 MR. BUENO: Yes.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 41 1 MS. FORSBERG: Okay. And the Fire
2 Department has taken a look at the driveway and deemed
3 it adequate?
4 MR. BUENO: I e-mailed Chief DeSantis, but
5 he did not, unfortunately, get back to me regarding
6 the fire escape. There is a fire hydrant directly in
7 front of the property.
8 MS. FORSBERG: Okay. So, we're just
9 waiting on his response and comments to this
10 application still?
11 MR. BUENO: Yes.
12 MS. FORSBERG: Okay. I don't have any
13 further questions at this time.
14 THE CHAIRMAN: Yeah, actually, along the
15 same lines, Lee, have we gotten anything from
16 Engineering? I think we were looking for some response
17 regarding retaining walls.
18 MR. ELLMAN: We just got the plans on late
19 Friday, late Thursday evening or Friday morning. So,
20 with the rush to get current stuff out, I honestly
21 don't recall if we had sent those out for other
22 departmental review yet. Now that we're past the
23 meeting, we'll circle back and catch up. They sent
24 their material in very late.
25 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, but we do have what we
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 42 1 need to give to the engineers at least?
2 MR. ELLMAN: Yes, yes. Well, we have what
3 they gave us. Again, they brought their material in
4 so late that we just had to put it aside and deal with
5 the material that needed to come up for this meeting.
6 THE CHAIRMAN: I understand, Lee. I'm not
7 making a comment on it, I just wanted to make sure
8 that I didn't miss anything out of my materials. And
9 I do notice, yeah, they stamped it October 8th, for
10 the receipt on these items.
11 Yes, Adelia, you have a question?
12 MS. LANDI: Yes. When Mr. Bueno was
13 speaking, he was talking about having ample space in
14 the back where he would be able to leave the
15 construction material, et cetera, but on one of the
16 letters that I read, it is requesting that the parking
17 along the front of the proposed new building, the east
18 side of the street only, be suspended during
19 construction operations so that vehicles performing
20 material deliveries can park and not block the traffic
21 on Saratoga.
22 How long a span of time are we talking about
23 for that area to be deemed no parking?
24 MR. BUENO: It would be, honestly, I don't
25 have an answer on the set timing. I will assume it
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 43 1 will be in the morning hours when most of the material
2 will be delivered. Unfortunately, I can't give you a
3 set timing.
4 MS. LANDI: So, we're not talking no
5 parking for the duration of the construction?
6 MR. BUENO: No, we're not. It will be only
7 within a certain amount of time in the morning hours.
8 MS. LANDI: For the deliveries only.
9 MR. BUENO: Only for deliveries.
10 MS. LANDI: Thank you.
11 MS. FORSBERG: Has an MPT plan been
12 submitted for the construction process? I know you
13 said it wouldn't have any affects on parking in the
14 back, but has an MPT plan been submitted? It seems
15 like a tough topography for construction.
16 MR. BUENO: No, no plan has been submitted.
17 There is a front yard, it's not a property line to
18 property line building, we do have space all around
19 the buildings that we will be able to just drop off
20 the construction materials and just bring it onto the
21 property.
22 MS. FORSBERG: So, all the staging is
23 within the property line?
24 MR. BUENO: Right, all the staging is within
25 the property line.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 44 1 MR. ELLMAN: Mr. Chairman, may I?
2 MS. FORSBERG: Roman seems to be having a
3 little difficulty. He's coming in green.
4 MR. ELLMAN: I'm now looking for that, I'm
5 curious.
6 MR. KUNTZ: Roman, you're not coming in, as
7 well, although you are unmuted. Roman, you had a
8 problem I think last time and you went to your phone.
9 It sounds like maybe you're having a computer problem.
10 We can see your lips moving, but at least I can't hear
11 you speak. Can anybody else hear him speak?
12 MS. LANDI: No.
13 MR. ELLMAN: No.
14 MR. KUNTZ: Roman, you might have to go to
15 your phone, unless you accidentally turned off the
16 mic.
17 THE CHAIRMAN: How about now?
18 MR. ELLMAN: Yes.
19 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. I heard you guys, it
20 sounded like a Pink Floyd song, you can see my lips
21 moving, but you can't hear what I say. I guess my
22 head phones were dying and I had it plugged in on one
23 plug, but the other one is working better. I'm sorry.
24 Yes, Lee, go ahead.
25 MR. ELLMAN: I was just going to ask Mr.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 45 1 Bueno if he is saying that there's no need for the
2 parking lane, if he's confident enough about that,
3 that he is willing to accept a condition that there be
4 no construction parking on Saratoga. I just think
5 before he says something like that, he should be very
6 much more certain that he's not going to need the
7 parking lane as most construction projects do. It's a
8 tight enough neighborhood that the neighborhood would
9 appreciate not losing its parking to a crane or to
10 material stored on the sidewalk or street side. I'm
11 just suggesting that he double check before he make
12 that as an affirmative statement.
13 THE CHAIRMAN: Mr. Bueno, did you hear Mr.
14 Ellman's comments?
15 MR. BUENO: Yes, I did. I will follow his
16 suggestion and double check.
17 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, George, where are
18 we getting this echo from?
19 (Whereupon there was a brief pause in the
20 proceedings.)
21 THE CHAIRMAN: All right.
22 MR. ELLMAN: You're fault, Mr. Chairman,
23 you're the one who said Pink Floyd, and all of a
24 sudden, the meeting started sounding like Pink Floyd.
25 THE CHAIRMAN: All right. So, since we're
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 46 1 waiting for some review from the Engineering
2 Department as it is, Mr. Bueno, if you can just double
3 check and make sure that if there is going to be any
4 change in what you're requirements will be, make sure
5 you don't wait too late and let the Bureau know
6 exactly what you're staging process is going to be and
7 the construction phase, what it's going to require.
8 Is that understood by everyone, is that all
9 right?
10 MR. BUENO: Yes, sir.
11 THE CHAIRMAN: All right. In that case, if
12 no other questions from the Board members or from
13 staff?
14 Okay, then we thank you very much, Mr.
15 Bueno, and we'll see you at our next month's meeting.
16 MR. BUENO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
17 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you.
18 All right, moving to Item Number 9. Item
19 Number 9 is being held over at the applicant's
20 request. That is the property at 1055, also known as,
21 1060 Nepperhan Avenue. There will be no presentation,
22 no action, on that item this evening.
23 Also being held over is Item Number 10,
24 which is property at 87 Waverly Street. There will be
25 no action, no presentation, on that item either.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 47 1 We then move to new business. Item Number
2 11 is a site plan review for a proposed driveway ramp
3 and retaining wall at Block 5638, Lot 48 on the
4 property known as 759 Palmer Road pursuant to Article
5 IX of the Yonkers Zoning Ordinance.
6 Thomas Haynes is here as representative for
7 the proposal.
8 Mr. Haynes. Mr. Haynes, please unmute your
9 microphone. There you go.
10 MR. HAYNES: Can you hear me?
11 (Whereupon there was a brief pause in the
12 proceedings.)
13 MR. KUNTZ: Tom, can you hear us?
14 MR. HAYNES: Yes.
15 THE CHAIRMAN: There we go.
16 MR. KUNTZ: Sounds good.
17 MR. HAYNES: I don't want to touch anything
18 and fool around with it again.
19 Okay, some of the members, I'm sure are very
20 familiar with this project. It's been kicking around
21 forever. We're in a position now and I reconfirmed
22 this today, you know, this is a 35-unit project that's
23 been going on for the longest time.
24 There's a new owner in there, it went to
25 bankruptcy, they bought it. What this owner is
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 48 1 looking to do is take out the trailer, take off the
2 temporary fence, and secure the property.
3 We need to come back with a whole new site
4 plan application, but first we need to go to the
5 Zoning Board to reestablish. All of the approvals are
6 over, they can't just be resurrected, we need to
7 re-file for those. So, what this was, this was not an
8 amendment to the original site plan, this was a new
9 one just to get in there and clean it up and secure
10 the building.
11 One of the problems is, obviously, there's a
12 big hole where the garage door is going to be. So,
13 this application was just to put some paving in, put
14 some drainage in so the water doesn't flow into the
15 building, get the garage door in, and then put a wall
16 there, you know, for the driveway. That's the extent
17 of it.
18 You know, if we have to wait until we go
19 through all of this, it's going to be seven or eight
20 months before we're probably going to be back to the
21 Planning Board with a whole new site plan application.
22 THE CHAIRMAN: I hear you. I'm looking at
23 my notes, because I guess the idea would have been to
24 see how this is being integrated into the existing
25 plan, but what you're saying is the existing plan is
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 49 1 no longer going to be the plan that's going to be
2 followed, so it's going to be difficult for you to
3 integrate this particular part of something that's not
4 going to take place.
5 MR. HAYNES: Well, I mean, we need to re-
6 file again the application. The original application
7 was from 2015.
8 THE CHAIRMAN: No, no, I understand.
9 MR. HAYNES: So, I'd have to come back with
10 a whole new site plan application, but we were just
11 looking to just take care of this so we can clean up
12 the site, take out that unsightly fence, they can do
13 some grass cutting there, get the trailer out of
14 there, close the hole where the overhead door is going
15 to go, and just leave it that way until we go through
16 the zoning and then the site plan review.
17 THE CHAIRMAN: Lee, is there a way where a
18 new owner can secure a property without, under some
19 emergency basis that doesn't require full site plan
20 review?
21 MR. ELLMAN: Yes, there is nothing that
22 would stop them from cleaning up the property, from
23 changing the construction fence and getting rid of the
24 trailer. The thing that we thought was being filed
25 for, because that's what the plans seem to indicate,
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 50 1 it looked like there was a new driveway. We were
2 looking to see what the issue was with the, how it was
3 going to go into the interior of the building.
4 I mean, it was simply not clear to us and it
5 wasn't explained in the narrative, so, you know,
6 that's why we sent the Board the conditions, the
7 conditions, I'm sorry, the comments that we did.
8 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. So, we all understand
9 what happened, but now what would be the best way for
10 the applicant to proceed at this time?
11 MR. ELLMAN: To immediately speak with the
12 Building Department, certainly on the construction
13 cleanup, and then if we can get our questions
14 answered, we'll be able to get the Board a report and
15 resolution at next month's meeting.
16 In the meantime, the cleanup, the cleanup is
17 not a site plan issue, construction cleanup, et cetera
18 is not a site plan issue.
19 MR. HAYNES: No. No, but what it does do is
20 we don't want to do that while there's an opening into
21 the building. I don't want to do that, there's no
22 security. So, I mean, that will wait, obviously,
23 until we get your approvals.
24 MR. ELLMAN: Tom, we looked at your plans.
25 They're, they were not clear as to what you wanted to
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 51 1 be done, you know, Christine was reviewing it and was
2 trying to get answers and was not able to. So, that's
3 why we are where we are.
4 MR. HAYNES: Yeah, well, I thought it was
5 pretty clear, it shows a driveway and a wall, that's
6 pretty much it, with a drywell. The notes I think
7 indicate what we were proposing.
8 THE CHAIRMAN: Now that we're almost on the
9 same page, can we just go ahead? I don't know if
10 there's anything for the Planning Board at this point
11 to review. Is that something that we can work out
12 within the next 30 days?
13 MR. ELLMAN: Absolutely.
14 THE CHAIRMAN: All right. Then why don't
15 we leave it at that. I know that there was, if any
16 work was going to proceed at the location, I think one
17 of the requirements of the Zoning Board, there was a
18 requirement that a speed checker would be used on the
19 curb there along Palmer Road. And I noticed that it's
20 there, but it's not functional. I'm pretty sure that
21 anything that we're going to be approving is going to
22 require for safety purposes that that be reinstated
23 and be functional. So, you might, Mr. Haynes, let the
24 applicant know that that's going to be part of our
25 requirements.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 52 1 MR. HAYNES: Sure, absolutely. I don't see
2 that as an issue.
3 THE CHAIRMAN: It's minor, but it could be a
4 point. There's been some tragic accidents on that
5 curb and I think it's important that safety be
6 followed first.
7 MR. HAYNES: Okay.
8 THE CHAIRMAN: So, why don't we leave this
9 for today, get what we need in the meantime to get you
10 guys in a position to at least shore up the building
11 and get you ready for the next stage of the plans
12 process.
13 MR. HAYNES: Okay, very good.
14 THE CHAIRMAN: Excellent. Lee, are we good
15 with that, nothing else on this?
16 MR. ELLMAN: Sure, that's fine.
17 THE CHAIRMAN: Excellent. Thank you very
18 much.
19 Members of the Board, no other questions,
20 right?
21 MS. FORSBERG: No.
22 THE CHAIRMAN: Great. Okay, thank you, Mr.
23 Haynes.
24 Item number 12 is a referral from the
25 Yonkers City Council for amendments to the Zoning map
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 53 1 and zoning ordinance affecting the real properties
2 commonly known as the Teutonia Hall site, the Chicken
3 Island site and the North Broadway site as designated
4 on tax map City of Yonkers as a whole slue of Block
5 and Lots, I'm not going to name them all, properties
6 on Buena Vista, Palisade, Overlook Terrace, North
7 Braodway and Baldwin Place.
8 And Mr. Mark Weingarten is here as
9 representative for the proposal.
10 Mr. Weingarten.
11 MR. WEINGARTEN: Good evening, Mr. Chairman.
12 Can you hear me?
13 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, I can.
14 MR. WEINGARTEN: Okay, great.
15 Good evening, Mr. Chairman, members of the
16 Board. My name is Mark Weingarten, I'm a partner with
17 the law firm of DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Wise and
18 Wiederkehr, and it is indeed my pleasure to be here
19 this evening representing AMS Acquisitions LLC, and
20 its affiliated companies as the owners and contract
21 vendees for parcels of land underlying three project
22 sites in downtown Yonkers. The project sites are
23 referred to as the Teutonia Hall site, Chicken Island
24 site, and the North Broadway site.
25 On August 25th, we filed a petition on
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 54 1 behalf of AMS which requests certain modifications to
2 the Yonkers Zoning Ordinance Zoning Map to facilitate
3 three proposed projects which consists of the
4 following:
5 The Teutonia Hall site proposal consists of
6 two 40-story residential towers with 906 luxury multi-
7 family units, 15,000 square feet of street-level
8 retail with 956 parking spaces.
9 The Chicken Island site proposal consists of
10 six buildings varying in height from 25 feet to 400
11 feet with approximately 2,000 luxury
12 multifamily apartments, approximately 70,000 square
13 feet of retail and 2,200 parking spaces.
14 Finally, the North Broadway site proposal
15 consists of 650 luxury multifamily and townhouse
16 residential units, approximately 17,000 square feet of
17 retail, and approximately 750 parking spaces.
18 These projects all within a half-mile walk
19 from the Metro North train station continue the
20 remarkable renaissance of downtown Yonkers.
21 AMS seeks to follow the footsteps of the
22 City's achievements at the waterfront, the Saw
23 Mill River Daylighting, the RXR project, and so much
24 more. We believe that our proposed mixed used transit
25 oriented developments which reflect the unprecedented
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 55 1 level of investment in Yonkers validates the City's
2 vision for its downtown. The plan is working and it
3 is now time to achieve the goals.
4 AMS believes in downtown Yonkers and if
5 given permission will bring forward the vision for the
6 downtown which you and your predecessors have been
7 working towards, frankly, for decades.
8 I am joined tonight by a full team, I'll
9 only introduce a few of those who will be speaking.
10 First, I'm joined by Michael Mitnick of AMS. AMS is a
11 real estate investment firm focused on the acquisition
12 and development of prime real estate locations in the
13 tri-state area. It was founded in 2012 by Michael
14 Mitnick and Abraham Abadie. AMS has built a portfolio
15 of development projects with all asset classes
16 throughout New York City and has also acquired
17 approximately 750,000 square feet of class A office
18 space in Connecticut.
19 Recently AMS shifted its focus to
20 Westchester and New Jersey. They invested for the
21 first time in Yonkers when they purchased the Trolley
22 line site at 92 Main Street, a 78,000 square foot
23 mixed used loft building and, thereafter, purchased 86
24 Main Street across the street, a 70,000 square foot
25 office building. In sum, AMS has grown exponentially
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 56 1 with more than a billion dollars of transactions
2 aggregating more than a million square feet prior to
3 this project.
4 We're also joined, and you will hear shortly
5 from John Clifford who is the founding principle of S9
6 Architecture, a well-known, frankly, regional and
7 national company, and you will see some of their work.
8 And then you will hear briefly from Nina
9 Peek, our planner at AKRF. And the only other person
10 I'm going to mention, and we have more with us, is my
11 partner Janet Giris, who is well known to all of you.
12 In short, the petition seeks certain zoning
13 modifications and zoning map amendments to accommodate
14 the proposals. These include changes which will
15 permit AMS to achieve the proposed project densities,
16 heights, design, and create additional much needed
17 affordable housing. The specifics of these requests
18 will be delved into in much greater detail during our
19 work with you moving forward.
20 As required by the Yonkers Zoning Ordinance
21 and the New York State Environmental Quality Review
22 Act, your Board will play many roles in the review of
23 this proposal. Your Board is required to review and
24 report its information back to the City Council
25 regarding the requested relief under the Zoning Code
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 57 1 and map. Your Planning Board will be required to
2 conduct a site plan review. And you will also play a
3 major role in the environmental review as either the
4 lead agency or as an involved agency under SEQRA.
5 Either way, we will work with you to create
6 the required environmental impact statement which will
7 truly test our hypothesis and make sure that the
8 projects are appropriate for your city.
9 With that said, and with much more process
10 ahead, we seek to commence the process this evening by
11 having our architect John Clifford from S9 give you
12 a general overview of the proposals which will be
13 followed by a brief discussion of the environmental
14 review process by our planner Nina Peek from AKRF.
15 Okay, John, go ahead.
16 MR. CLIFFORD: Good evening, Mr. Chairman,
17 members of the Board. If there's a way we could
18 screen share and my colleague Ryan Sutherland is on
19 here, so I would like him to be able to share his
20 screen.
21 THE CHAIRMAN: I believe we have that
22 ability, George.
23 MR. KUNTZ: Yes, you just have to go to the
24 share button.
25 MR. CLIFFORD: There we go.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 58 1 MR. KUNTZ: There you go.
2 MR. CLIFFORD: Okay, everyone can see the
3 screen?
4 THE CHAIRMAN: I'm good.
5 MR. CLIFFORD: Okay, great.
6 We're really excited to bring forth this
7 proposal for the three sites around downtown Yonkers
8 and we're going to go through how we came about this a
9 little bit more holistically looking at this in a more
10 urban planning point of view and how it could greatly
11 affect for the betterment of Yonkers.
12 So, a little bit about a us, I mean, Mark
13 gave us a little bit of an intro. We are a 70-person
14 firm based in New York, but we do work all over North
15 America. And our specialty is really master planning
16 and architecture that really relates to the local
17 neighborhoods that we're working in. So, we don't
18 like buildings that can be transported from one city
19 to another. We really try to extract the DNA of
20 specific neighborhoods and their history and study
21 that, and integrate that into our urban plans, as well
22 as our architecture.
23 So, the next slide is just a couple of our
24 portfolio works. So, these are different buildings,
25 and if you start looking, you can see the different
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 59 1 places. One is in Dumbo in Brooklyn. Then in
2 Raleigh, there was a whole master plan for what they
3 call the warehouse district and the architecture that
4 goes with it.
5 Next. And then some in East Village, which
6 is a smaller more townhouse scale. Manhattan Avenue
7 is actually in Green Point where there are a lot of
8 warehouses, these are new buildings that we built
9 there.
10 And even in high-rise, this is in Soho
11 Hudson Square, so it's a modern interpretation of the
12 loft buildings and the printing press buildings that
13 were there. This is a building that's just being
14 completed now.
15 And then in terms of master plans, we worked
16 all over North American and we're very proud that our
17 master plans actually get built. So, from Ottawa to
18 St. Paul, these are complete or in construction.
19 Next slide. Then we did a big project in
20 Atlanta that re-justified a whole neighborhood.
21 All right, so, back to Yonkers. What we
22 started with is really looking at how Yonkers was laid
23 out, it's history, and where the strong investments
24 were made and how we could leverage and reinforce
25 those.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 60 1 Next slide. So first we looked at all the
2 investment that's been happening in Yonkers, the
3 successful investment, and that's both private and
4 public sector. Most of the private sector has been
5 along the waterfront with the exception of RXR, that's
6 a little more inland, the recent development. And
7 City and government have really invested wisely
8 especially in Van Der Donck Park and the daylighting
9 of the Saw Mill River, and the daylighting even up to
10 Mill Street and farther up at Chicken Island at
11 Nepperhan and New Main Street. So, we wanted to think
12 how we could take all of this investment and make this
13 better.
14 Next slide. So, the three areas that we're
15 looking at for the rezoning are what we're calling the
16 Teutonia site, the former area of Teutonia Hall and
17 Buena Vista.
18 The North Broadway site, which you'll see
19 later, even though we will call it the North Broadway
20 site, it's really up North Broadway on Overlook
21 Terrace and Baldwin Place.
22 And then the Chicken Island site, that's the
23 parking lot at Nepperhan and New Main Street and
24 Palisade Avenue.
25 And we looked at how Yonkers was
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 61 1 historically laid out, where it came from, how it
2 became this way. And it's a series of smaller blocks,
3 thinking about how that would play into our rezoning
4 especially on Chicken Island, which right now is a big
5 piece of land, and looking at how we can integrate
6 into the surrounding neighborhoods. That these would
7 not be redevelopment projects, these would be additive
8 contextual neighborhoods to the existing neighborhood
9 and reinforcing what's already there.
10 Again, just some of the public investment
11 that's done so well that's so impressive; the
12 daylighting by the train station at Van Der Donck
13 Park; what's happened at Mill Street and the
14 courtyards, and how European that feels and
15 interesting; and then the daylighting off at Nepperhan
16 and New Main at the Chicken Island site.
17 So, those all form the series of impressive
18 public ground places that follow loosely the path of
19 the Saw Mill River. And it goes right through Getty
20 Square and downtown Yonkers, the heart and sole of
21 downtown Yonkers.
22 And our three zoning areas all kind of ring
23 this, and what we want to do is make this additive to
24 that spine and to that development and think
25 about productivity and how economic development from
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 62 1 our three rezoning parcels will add to the investments
2 that's already been made to make this a more cohesive
3 connected city for downtown.
4 Next slide. And really focusing on Getty
5 Square as being the heart and sole of downtown. Most
6 of the development has been at the riverfront but,
7 historically, the City met and mingled around Getty
8 Square and North Broadway.
9 So, again, just looking at how we're going
10 to insert our three neighborhoods into this. We're
11 going to talk about each of those and see how they fit
12 into these puzzle pieces.
13 Next slide. So, our design proposals, we're
14 going to go through each of them independently and
15 look at it holistically at the same time, how this is
16 going to affect Yonkers.
17 So, here's an aerial view, obviously from
18 the west, you can see RXR's development in the middle.
19 And this shows all of the rezoning, a full build-out
20 of what it would be.
21 So, the Teutonia site is in the foreground,
22 there are two buildings right there on Buena Vista
23 above the MTA railroad right-of-way.
24 What we call the North Broadway site, so the
25 two buildings up on top of the hill, that's at the end
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 63 1 of Overlook Terrace and Baldwin Place.
2 And then the Chicken Island site up at the
3 upper end of the photograph here across from City Hall
4 where the daylighting is.
5 So, first we'll look at Chicken Island and
6 North Broadway. So, just in context again, this is an
7 aerial with City Hall at the bottom left there and
8 Getty Square in the middle, and North Broadway. So,
9 as I said, the North Broadway parcels barely touch
10 North Broadway. We're going to show how we connected
11 that, they're separated topographically from North
12 Broadway by a steep embankment.
13 And Chicken Island is surrounded by
14 Palisade, New School, James and Ann Street, New Main
15 and the daylighting.
16 Next slide. This is a blocked out massing
17 and we're going to look at architectural language and
18 more detailed massing a little bit later. So, this
19 just shows the blocked out massing of the proposed
20 buildings and their use. So, these are all
21 residential buildings for the Armory Park with ground
22 floor active retail on all of the active retail
23 streets.
24 And you can see that we're breaking up,
25 especially on Chicken Island, that large parcel into
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 64 1 smaller blocks that are more in character with Yonkers
2 street system and connecting out to Palisade, New
3 School, and New Main Street, and we'll get the detail
4 of that.
5 Next slide. So, again, here we're just
6 going to zoom in on these two areas. So, this is the
7 existing condition. And you can see the proposed, you
8 see Chicken Island in the upper right and the North
9 Broadway buildings in the middle upper.
10 So, now just going into the details of what
11 we call the Chicken Island parcel. Again, there's the
12 massing program. You can see that we're setting
13 up our massing for the zoning so that all of the
14 height steps down to the daylighting and the park,
15 really making that kind of a centerpiece of this
16 neighborhood, and that we have connections still to
17 New Main Street to New School Street and to Palisade
18 to reinforce that, as well so that we're not turning
19 inward, but we're addressing the existing street
20 scape, which we'll show you further on and how that
21 might look on those perimeter streets.
22 This is a view, obviously, Nepperhan is in
23 the foreground, City Hall.
24 Next slide. And then massed in, again, you
25 can see that the massing of the buildings and their
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 65 1 height is stepping away from the park and the
2 daylighting, you can see a new street that's cut
3 through that comes out to Palisade from that
4 daylighting. The existing public streets are all
5 maintained that are on the site, so it's still porous
6 to New School Street and New Main Street.
7 And then really most people recognize
8 neighborhoods and cities by what they see on the
9 ground. I've been showing you all these kind of
10 birds-eye, or drone view, really just to explain the
11 whole context of the neighborhood, but we wanted to
12 see how this would reinforce different street
13 conditions.
14 So, this is Palisade looking up the hill
15 from Getty Square. The new fire station will be
16 beyond this, that's James Street right on there. And
17 Palisade is a strong chopping street that ties into
18 the whole downtown commercial district, and we wanted
19 to make sure that we reinforce that. It's a smaller
20 street with smaller context, so we wanted to also
21 respect that on street level.
22 Next slide. So, this is proposed, we
23 shifted the camera so we could see farther up the
24 street just because the street curves and you wouldn't
25 be able to see much.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 66 1 What we're proposing at this edge of the
2 Chicken Island rezoning district is a very contextual
3 podium with heights that match the context on
4 Palisade. The tower is set way back, and thinking
5 about it as being rising out on the contextual base.
6 It's hard to see here but the first street here is
7 James Street that goes into the Chicken Island
8 neighborhood, and then there's another second street
9 midway up the block on Palisade that also connects
10 into the Chicken Island neighborhood. So, this would
11 kind of dumbbell the end of the Palisade
12 Avenue shopping street and give that energy with Getty
13 Square at the other end to kind of reinforce that as
14 well, thinking about human scale activity on the
15 smaller scale that's on Palisade Avenue and Getty
16 Square.
17 Next slide. And then a view from the corner
18 of New Main Street and Nepperhan for the Daylighting
19 Park and now, fortunately, it's activated only by the
20 parking lot in the back.
21 Next slide. Putting in the full build where
22 you can see that the street that connects out to
23 Palisade Avenue kind of terminates right at the park.
24 The massing of the buildings is lower height as it
25 comes up to the park, active retail restaurant use on
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 67 1 all of the streets facing in, so it's as extension of
2 the Getty Square downtown neighborhood and not an
3 insular neighborhood.
4 This is a view -- So, the other perimeter
5 condition is along New School Street. Right now we
6 have the parking lot on the left, the former fire
7 house station on the right. You can see the new fire
8 house being constructed at the end of New School
9 Street. And we own the parcel that's, parcels on both
10 sides of the street so we think of this as a very
11 important street to make a two-sided street.
12 Next slide. So, this shows the full build-
13 out again. So, you can see that the reinforced street
14 wall with a podium and then the towers are set back on
15 both sides of the street, active retail restaurants
16 that wrap and bring you into the neighborhood, but
17 also reinforce New School Street until it comes up to
18 the fire station corner at Palisade.
19 Then another aerial view, so you'll see it
20 filled in. So, you can see that this context kind of
21 ties back into New School, New Main, and Palisade, and
22 provides more energy, more pedestrian activity, that
23 would be walking through downtown to get to the train
24 station, they would use downtown and Getty Square as
25 their service and commercial area.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 68 1 Now we're going to go to the North Broadway
2 sites. So, the North Broadway sites, what we're
3 proposing are residential buildings that are at the
4 end of Overlook Terrance and Baldwin Place with a
5 contextual connection down to the North Broadway Getty
6 Square neighborhood. There is a significant slope and
7 grade change there, and we're going to show you how
8 we're doing that by contextual buildings on North
9 Broadway, but also a new public realm staircase
10 connection that brings you to the upper part of the
11 neighborhood.
12 This is a scenario that shows where exactly
13 this site is because it might look confusing in these
14 aerial renderings that we're doing, but you
15 have Locust Hill Avenue that's going up a hill from
16 Palisade Avenue, and then Baldwin Place and Overlook
17 continue up to the top of this kind of escarpment that
18 is on the back of North Broadway. So, the bulk of the
19 area is up at the top of that kind of plateau. We
20 have a couple of penetrations on North Broadway on
21 what I'm calling the lower part of the lot that we're
22 using for the connection for this neighborhood.
23 Next slide shows the aerial view showing
24 existing, so you can see where Baldwin Place
25 and Overlook Terrace is and Locust Hill in the
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 69 1 background, just to give you context. You can see how
2 much farther below the hill is North Broadway.
3 And then this is North Broadway massed in
4 with Chicken Island to the upper right. And we're
5 going to zoom in a little bit to look at what this
6 feels like on North Broadway, a pretty historic
7 street, an essential part of downtown Yonkers.
8 Next slide. This is a view from Van Der
9 Donck Park looking up the hill, North Broadway is
10 right at the foot of the hill. And then the Baldwin
11 Place tower is on the left, and the Overlook Terrace
12 tower is on the right.
13 So, how are we making this connection
14 between what I'm calling the upper part of the city
15 and the lower part of the city? You can see that
16 we're stepping the buildings down dramatically to
17 contextual kind of tie-ins on North Broadway, on both
18 building lots, both the Baldwin Place and Overlook
19 Terrace have that.
20 But at Overlook Terrace, what we're trying
21 to do is extended Overlook Terrace to a public
22 staircase, and we'll show you how we're doing that.
23 It has active uses on it that connects this upper part
24 of Yonkers to the commercial core of Getty Square,
25 North Broadway and ties into the Mill Street
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 70 1 daylighting project that's already been done by the
2 City.
3 Next slide. So, this is the existing
4 condition, you can see that escarpment. And the next
5 one shows up close how that public staircase, that
6 public realm staircase, is coming from the top of
7 Overlook and coming down. And our building is kind of
8 stepping up with outdoor dining on some of those roofs
9 and tying in to activate that public realm and the
10 lower contextual building on North Broadway that ties
11 into the historic character of Getty Square.
12 Next slide. This is the existing view, this
13 is the building that we would be demolishing to make
14 this connection. So, this is right from the Mill
15 Street courtyard that opens up onto North Broadway.
16 So, the proposal is to tear down that
17 smaller one-story building, build a staircase
18 that goes in there. We provide ADA access through our
19 building in our lobby. And then stair-stepping this
20 building up with active uses that brings you up to
21 Overlook Terrace.
22 Okay, the final, last but not least, parcel
23 is the Teutonia site on Buena Vista. So, the parcel
24 is on the west side of Buena Vista on kind of a bluff
25 above the MTA right-of-way. It's a long rectangular
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 71 1 lot, and we're proposing two towers over a contextual
2 podium, former Teutonia Hall site.
3 This shows it massed in at full build along
4 Buena Vista. And then looking at this view, what this
5 means to the street view. So, this is looking down
6 the hill toward the train station. So, the river is
7 on the left, and our site is the chain-link fence area
8 on the left.
9 So, really thinking about making this podium
10 feel like a series of smaller buildings and not one
11 large building, breaking that down even further with
12 human scale storefronts. And then we are bringing in
13 the Teutonia Hall facade and incorporating that into
14 our facade, you can see it about three-quarters of the
15 way down, within this podium building to kind of
16 preserve that history and remind everyone what was
17 here, this part of Yonkers history.
18 You can see the towers are set very far back
19 from the top of the podium, as well, the contextual
20 podium.
21 Next. So how does this all come together
22 for Yonkers again? We talked about we have this
23 investment that's been done along the waterfront for
24 the most part, and then we've had a lot of government
25 investment on this public realm improvements that kind
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 72 1 of form this string along the Saw Mill River up to
2 Nepperhan and New Main. And downtown Getty Square is
3 kind of in like this basin, if you will, around there
4 with the upper city on North Broadway, Chicken Island
5 at the end at Nepperhan, and then the topography
6 changes again. And then if go from Van Der Donck Park
7 up Buena Vista, it's going up a hill, so kind of
8 surrounding downtown with these energy-driver
9 residential neighborhoods to feed downtown and
10 strengthen the investments that have already been
11 made.
12 This is an existing shot, and then massed
13 in, so you can see that kind of Nepperhan actually
14 kind of forms this logical ring for the downtown core
15 on that side, and then Van Der Donck Park, more or
16 less, does on the other. And then the hill at North
17 Broadway kind of completes that. So, the whole
18 section of downtown now starts getting completed up to
19 its kind of logical geographical parameters.
20 Just kind of a different view in the day
21 from over the river. So, massed into the county and
22 the foreground, Chicken Island in the upper right and
23 North Broadway with the RXR site in the middle, and
24 Getty Square and downtown right at the middle of all
25 that, and the string of the public spaces connecting
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 73 1 all the way from Chicken Island down to the river
2 front and the train station.
3 Another view looking toward the river. And
4 then built-in, again, you're seeing that downtown is
5 preserved with its walkable landscaping and then it's
6 tied in.
7 Finally, then, this is just a summary of all
8 the program that I think you have in your package for
9 each of the individual parcels. The zoning of that
10 program would be realized.
11 Now Nina is going to talk a little bit about
12 the environmental.
13 MS. PEEK: Hi. Thanks so much, John, thank
14 you, Mark. Can you hear me okay?
15 MR. WEINGARTEN: Yes.
16 MS. PEEK: Yeah, okay, thank you.
17 Good evening, Mr. Chairman and members of
18 the Planning Board. My name is Nina Peek, I'm a Vice
19 President and Director of AKRF Hudson Valley office
20 located in White Plains.
21 As many of you may know from AKRF's prior
22 work in the City of Yonkers, we are an
23 approximately 350-person environmental consulting firm
24 with offices throughout the northeast and mid-Atlantic
25 states, and some of the most important work we do is
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 74 1 on behalf of communities and private developers
2 shepherding projects through the State Environmental
3 Quality Review Act process.
4 As Mark mentioned, we've been working with
5 the AMS project team and City staff for the past
6 several months. In August, we prepared and submitted
7 the formal application package to kick off the
8 SEQRA process for this project which brings us here
9 tonight.
10 Based on our discussions with City staff, we
11 understand key issues of particular interests and
12 importance for the DEIS will include socioeconomic and
13 fiscal impacts, the community facilities impact for
14 school, police, emergency services providers, visual
15 impact, and issues of community character, and, of
16 course, traffic and transportation, which is always a
17 major concern for projects of any size.
18 Given the unusual circumstances driven by
19 the COVID pandemic, we've been working with the City
20 and agencies to develop alternative methodologies to
21 establish baseline analysis where, when conditions are
22 everything but normal, and will continue to do that.
23 So, over the next year or so, you'll see quite a bit
24 of us as we work through addressing the key
25 environmental issues for the project.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 75 1 As you know, there will be many
2 opportunities for community engagement and input
3 throughout the process. We look forward to working
4 with the community, the City, and the local
5 and regional agencies towards gaining approvals for
6 this important transformative project.
7 With that, thank you for your time and your
8 consideration. I'm sure that the Planning Board has
9 lots of questions about the presentation and I'll turn
10 it over to Mark.
11 MR. WEINGARTEN: Thank you, Nina.
12 So, Mr. Chairman that concludes the formal
13 part of our presentation. As Nina mentioned, and as
14 John mentioned, there's been a tremendous amount of
15 work to just get to this part, which is the beginning,
16 with you, and we hope you are excited about this as we
17 are, as this really is a transformative project. We
18 use that term all the time but, truthfully, that is
19 appropriate here.
20 And we'll turn it back to you for any
21 questions you may have or any other form of
22 discussion. Thank you.
23 THE CHAIRMAN: Can everyone hear me?
24 MR. KUNTZ: Yes, we can.
25 MR. ELLMAN: Yes.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 76 1 THE CHAIRMAN: Good, because I'm having a
2 little problem with my microphone here.
3 Yeah, it looks like an exciting project. I
4 was just looking for the ball field on top of one of
5 your buildings, and noticed that might be missing, but
6 I think we can live without it. All kidding aside,
7 though, it does look like an exciting project.
8 Lee, I know we need to start the entire
9 process but, before we do that, members of the Board,
10 do we have questions for the applicants at this time?
11 I know there's going to be plenty of time but, at
12 least initially, your reaction or questions?
13 MS. FORSBERG: It's most certainly
14 transformative. I don't have any questions at this
15 time. It's exciting. I mean, so much environmental
16 work to do, I mean, I'm excited to embark on this with
17 the team. There's a lot of work to be done, but no
18 questions at this time.
19 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you, Mackenzie.
20 Anyone else from our team?
21 MR. LARKIN: Yes, Mr. Chairman.
22 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes.
23 MR. LARKIN: I'm glad to see that we're
24 finally doing something with Teutonia. I remember
25 being on the council at the time when they actually
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 77 1 took it down, and I'm glad to hear that you're using
2 some of the facade again in front of the building as
3 was originally proposed. And it is an exciting
4 development to see all three areas coming together.
5 So, we've seen proposals for the Chicken Island area
6 before and we're crossing our fingers and hopefully
7 this will finally come to fruition. I'm glad to see
8 you guys are on the right track.
9 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. Anyone else from the
10 Board?
11 All right. My understanding, Lee, is that
12 originally the City Council had requested lead agency
13 and we're going to work with them in actually taking
14 that over tonight; is that correct?
15 MR. ELLMAN: Yes, the City Council has
16 started the process, they sent out lead agency
17 coordinated review notice. There has been significant
18 discussion amongst the parties; the administration,
19 the City Council, the applicant, about whether the
20 Planning Board would be the more appropriate body to
21 take over lead agency.
22 You know, the interesting thing is the way
23 the lead agency notices are sent out, they seem very
24 draconian, very harsh, they always say if you don't
25 respond in 30 days, we're taking lead agency and fine
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 78 1 on you. But, realistically, it's actually meant to be
2 more of a process.
3 So, Mr. Weingarten, myself, the attorneys
4 representing the City Council caucuses have been
5 speaking about how we can best run this process in a
6 way that we would be able to run something smoothly,
7 run it in a way that would have a lot of public
8 access, and in a way that the City Council remains
9 very involved while not necessarily needing to make
10 the day-in-day-out decisions about when to hold a
11 meeting and how to respond to an applicant.
12 So, before the Board is a resolution
13 following through on the typical SEQRA lead agency
14 process saying that the Planning Board would fix that
15 as an involved agency, and only involved agencies can
16 seek lead agency, that as an involved agency, that it
17 would be the more appropriate body to take on this
18 work.
19 And I think Mackenzie had it right, it is
20 going to be quite a bit of work, it will undoubtedly
21 be quite the document because there is, there are a
22 lot of topics that really need to be looked at.
23 One of the things the Board should know is
24 that we will be able to bring on a consulting group
25 that will represent the City and the Planning Board so
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 79 1 that we will have some additional horsepower. We've
2 decided upon BFJ, Frank Fish and his firm. Frank has
3 really very long experience in Yonkers, he was the
4 City's consultant on the very first downtown water
5 front redevelopment project in the early '80s, has
6 worked consistently on Yonkers' projects since then,
7 but, maybe more to the point, BFJ was the City's EIS
8 consultant when we rewrote the downtown zoning, and he
9 was part of the team that actually got us to the point
10 where we are today.
11 Frankly, in 2010, when we adopted the new
12 zoning and the new master plan, we thought that we
13 would have a reasonably good chance of seeing some
14 changes and, you know, we couldn't be happier that
15 we've seen all the blooming development that we have
16 right up until the world temporarily stopped for the
17 pandemic.
18 So, if the Board would consider the lead
19 agency notice, we will then pass that on to the City
20 Council and expect that it will be favorably and
21 collegially accepted. And then the next steps would
22 be for the Planning Board to make a determination of
23 significance, simply saying that yes, this is a very
24 large project, one that requires an EIS, and then we
25 will move on to scoping, creating the, essentially,
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 80 1 the table of contents for the EIS, and AKRF and the
2 applicant's team will begin to do the study of the
3 downtown and the enviros and produce the environmental
4 impact statement.
5 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. Thank you, Lee.
6 That being the case, why don't we get the
7 ball rolling, as is customary on these items. I make
8 a resolution and the resolution is to seek lead agency
9 designation for the proposed amendments to the
10 Yonkers Zoning Ordinance and map relating to sites
11 commonly known as the Teutonia Hall, Chicken Island,
12 and North Broadway sites in downtown Yonkers pursuant
13 to 6 NYCRR Part 617, the statewide regulations
14 pertaining to the State Environmental Quality Review
15 Act.
16 Findings:
17 1. By notice dated September 17,2020, the
18 City Council of Yonkers Circulated a Lead Agency
19 Determination/Coordinated Review notice for the above
20 cited zoning actions to all interested and involved
21 agencies.
22 2. The Planning Board of the City of
23 Yonkers is an involved agency having approval in the
24 site plan review of these actions and is thus
25 qualified by state regulation to seek lead agency.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 81 1 3. The Planning Board is further qualified
2 to be lead agency in light of the experience it has
3 had in the review of zoning and site plan actions and
4 its familiarity with the planning and environmental
5 regulations of New York
6 State and of the City of Yonkers. Further, the
7 Planning Board has available to it staff urban
8 planners with expertise in these areas as well as
9 having access to other experts within the executive
10 branch of city government.
11 4. The Planning Board will make every
12 effort to keep the City of Yonkers informed of the
13 proceedings of the SEQRA process and to involve the
14 council as a whole and the individual council members
15 in the process.
16 For the reasons stated above, the Planning
17 Board finds that it is a qualified and appropriate
18 agency to assume lead agency in this matter and to
19 conduct the environmental review on behalf of the City
20 of Yonkers for the above cited zoning and planning
21 actions. By passage of this resolution, the Planning
22 Board asks the Yonkers City Council to set aside its
23 resolution seeking lead agency and to cede lead agency
24 status to the Yonkers Planning Board.
25 Do I have a second on that resolution?
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 82 1 MS. FORSBERG: Second.
2 THE CHAIRMAN: Second by Ms. Forsberg.
3 All in favor, please indicate by saying aye.
4 (A chorus of ayes.)
5 THE CHAIRMAN: Oppose, nay.
6 That passes unanimously.
7 Thank you very much.
8 MR. WEINGARTEN: Thank you, Mr. Chairman, we
9 look forward to working with you all.
10 THE CHAIRMAN: Just one last question. Are
11 we really going ahead with the project somewhere in
12 the future and it being known as Chicken Island? I
13 noticed the chicken mural on one of the buildings and
14 the large sign. Hopefully that's for identification
15 purposes only at this point.
16 MR. WEINGARTEN: Well, that is certainly
17 something we will be working with you, and I'm sure,
18 we hope to be at that point soon, where we'll be
19 making decisions like that.
20 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay.
21 MR. WEINGARTEN: But we're certain that
22 would certainly be something we'd be open to
23 discussing with the Board.
24 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. I only say that half
25 jokingly.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 83 1 MR. ELLMAN: Mr. Chairman, better Chicken
2 Island than gratuitous ease at the end of every
3 development.
4 THE CHAIRMAN: Well, all right.
5 MR. ELLMAN: The shopees at --
6 THE CHAIRMAN: I know.
7 MR. WEINGARTEN: There's history there.
8 THE CHAIRMAN: We all know the history.
9 MR. ELLMAN: Truly, it's funny, we have
10 discussed this so often in City Hall when we have put
11 out all our peas in the past, the whole idea of do we
12 use the term Chicken Island or not was something that
13 we would discuss at the Mayoral level before sending
14 things out. And we actually got to the point, at
15 least when sending RFPs out, that if we said parking
16 lot in downtown Yonkers and Chicken Island, which one
17 would the developers pick up first? And we just
18 always said at least they'll lift up the RFP request
19 when it says Chicken Island just so see what's inside.
20 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, I'll defer to the
21 people above my pay grade.
22 MR. ELLMAN: No, no, it's just funny how
23 much of a topic it has been over the years.
24 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. Well, thank you very
25 much everyone, and I'm looking forward to working on
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 84 1 the project, as well.
2 MR. WEINGARTEN: Same here, Mr. Chairman,
3 good night. Thank you.
4 THE CHAIRMAN: Moving to Item Number 13,
5 which is a site plan review for amendment to the
6 previously approved application to construct an
7 addition to Verizon Wireless's existing telephone
8 utility station/communications switching facility at
9 Block 3455, Lot 20 and part of Lot 1 on the property
10 known as 10 Executive Boulevard pursuant to Article IX
11 of the Yonkers Zoning Ordinance.
12 Leslie Snyder is here as a representative
13 for the proposal.
14 Ms. Snyder.
15 MS. SNYDER: Good evening, Honorable
16 Chairman and members of the Board. My name is Leslie
17 Snyder, I'm a partner in the law firm of Snyder and
18 Snyder. And I'm here tonight on behalf of New York
19 SMSA Limited Partnership doing business as Verizon
20 Wireless.
21 Verizon Wireless is seeking to amend the
22 2005 site plan approval it obtained in order to
23 construct an addition to its existing telephone
24 utility station communications facility at 10
25 Executive Boulevard.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 85 1 The property is located in the planned
2 Executive Park zoning district where telephone
3 switching facilities are permitted as of right. The
4 addition will simply house equipment for the
5 processing of wireless communication services, which
6 is a permitted use in the district.
7 As set forth in the Building Inspector's
8 review, this placement of addition will just require
9 an amendment to our 2005 site plan approval from the
10 Planning Board. We have the detailed site plan
11 drawing, and I have with me tonight Ed Iamiceli from
12 Tectonic Engineering to answer any questions you may
13 have.
14 Just a few factors about the installation:
15 The addition will be a one-story building and it will
16 be designed to match the existing facility. There
17 will be no additional employees brought to the site,
18 so there will be no easements as in traffic brought to
19 the site, but we are showing, as well, a private
20 access drive so that we can access our facility, and
21 that drive should be sufficient for fire and police
22 and safety.
23 We are requesting a deferral of the parking
24 spaces as permitted under your Ordinance under Section
25 43-136 of the Zoning Ordinance. We are not proposing
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 86 1 any employees for the addition, so we are asking for
2 the 130 deferral, although we do show those parking
3 spaces on the plan, so if they ever become necessary,
4 we will have them.
5 We also have placed the addition on the
6 property so that it minimizes any impact to the
7 slopes. It's been placed on the property to make it
8 continuous with our existing facility, but also place
9 in a manner so it won't have any adverse impact to the
10 the area.
11 We're happy to answer any questions you may
12 have, and we are just requesting an amendment to that
13 site plan approval.
14 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, just one question off
15 the bat. I visited the site. I see there's, are
16 there external generators at the current time
17 servicing the facility?
18 MS. SNYDER: I don't know. Is Ed, Ed
19 Iamiceli there?
20 MR. IAMICELI: Yes. Hi, how are you doing?
21 The generators are currently within the
22 existing building.
23 THE CHAIRMAN: They're inside the existing
24 building?
25 MR. IAMICELI: Correct.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 87 1 THE CHAIRMAN: Because I saw four generator
2 structures to the back end of the building where we're
3 talking about. I don't know what the function of
4 those structures are. Are you aware of what they are?
5 MR. LOMBARDI: Currently in the back of the
6 building are portable cell site generators that might
7 be just stored there currently.
8 MS. SNYDER: That's Ed Lombardi from Verizon
9 Wireless speaking.
10 MR. LOMBARDI: Sorry, I should have
11 introduced myself.
12 MS. SNYDER: Those are not generators that
13 are operating, they just may be placed there in the
14 parking area in the event that they need to be
15 mobilized if we were to have a power outage where we
16 have to make sure that the cell sites are continuously
17 operating.
18 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, but they're parked
19 right now in an area where this extension is proposed;
20 is that correct?
21 MS. SNYDER: Ed, do you know where those are
22 parked?
23 MR. LOMBARDI:: No, those are currently
24 parked before the right side of the building. That is
25 not where the extension is being proposed, that is
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 88 1 currently just in a parking area.
2 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, thank you.
3 Now, you mentioned the facade, is it
4 possible for us to get a rendering and/or material
5 samples?
6 MS. SNYDER: Sure, if you would like, Ed
7 Iamiceli could show the building site so you can see
8 it's going to match the current. Would you like him
9 to share his screen and just show you what that's
10 going to look like?
11 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, if they have a
12 rendering, that would be nice.
13 MR. IAMICELLI: So, right now this is just a
14 current photo of the site. This is the front
15 elevation of the switching facility. So, currently,
16 the facade is a base color and it has a concrete
17 architectural detailing in between just to break up
18 the brick. And, then, above it, you will see two
19 screen walls that are also painted beige to match the
20 building.
21 And, then, what I'll do, is, we did do a
22 rendering of the building which I'll also share. So,
23 I believe you can see the screen.
24 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes.
25 MR. IAMICELI: So, the south elevation is
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 89 1 the existing side that's currently there. So, we just
2 represented the color scheme that we have, all the
3 doors, railings are a rust red currently, and then you
4 have the beige brick with the beige screen walls on
5 top.
6 The east elevation does represent, if you're
7 looking at the screen, to the left is the existing
8 building, and to the right is the proposed building.
9 Same thing, we're basically keeping the exact same
10 elevation of the roof and the first floor. So, we're
11 going to have a continuous line with the brick and the
12 concrete architectural future coming through.
13 And then the doors, you'll see are matching
14 the red color. And then all the screen-in will be
15 matching the beige color, you know, as close as we can
16 to the building. So, this is just a rendering of what
17 you would see just from a color scheme perspective.
18 Again, this is the north elevation of the
19 proposed building, which is the back of the building.
20 Very similar, you'll have the screen walls on the roof
21 top, the beige band, and even the scupper leaders from
22 the drains will be beige to match the beige brick, as
23 well.
24 And we do have the generators in the back
25 parking lot. We can also paint those to match the
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 90 1 building a beige and red color just to have the same
2 look as the building.
3 This is just the west elevation, very
4 similar to the east, again, looking the other way.
5 So, on the right side is the existing building and on
6 the left side is the proposed expansion, very similar
7 to the east elevation. All the elevations of the roof
8 top and floor remain the same and then the walls to
9 match exist.
10 So, that's basically what we're trying to
11 represent, it's going to just look like a continuation
12 with of currently what you see.
13 THE CHAIRMAN: All right. I'm looking at
14 my plans here for a second.
15 Members of the Board, questions at this
16 time?
17 MR. LARKIN: Mr. Chairman, I would like to
18 ask just one or two questions.
19 THE CHAIRMAN: Sure, go ahead John.
20 MR. LARKIN: Regarding water runoff, you
21 know for --
22 MS. FORSBERG: That would be my question,
23 John, you stole it.
24 MR. LARKIN: Yeah. Unfortunately, this area
25 I know very well because I live in the area. I
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 91 1 represented the area as part of a neighborhood. We've
2 had extreme difficulty with water runoff and flooding
3 within the area. Right below where you are are homes.
4 I'd like to know what plans you have in
5 place for water runoff. Are you tying into existing
6 retention ponds?
7 MR. IAMICELI: Sure. So, currently, the
8 proposed design is to have an infiltration basin at
9 the north end of the proposed addition. That
10 infiltration basin will be designed to accommodate,
11 you know, all the sheet flow coming from the building,
12 the parking lot, our drive, so it will take all that
13 runoff separately from what's currently there.
14 Currently, there is a retention pond for the
15 existing building. That is not intended to be used,
16 it's only designed to handle the existing facility, so
17 we are creating our own infiltration basin at the
18 north end, which is the low side of the property.
19 You know, once, that infiltration basin will
20 be able to handle all the sheet flow coming off the
21 impervious surfaces. We do have an overflow to that,
22 so on a hundred year flood storm, if there is over-
23 flow, that will then go to the secondary containment,
24 basically, from a weir. And then we will tie in to
25 catch anything beyond that, which will tap into our
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 92 1 existing piping system, which will then go to
2 Executive Boulevard.
3 So, we are actually grabbing pretty much
4 the whole hillside there that you may be seeing issues
5 now. We will actually collect most of that runoff
6 that you see in a controlled manner in our
7 infiltration basin that we're designing.
8 MR. LARKIN: Okay.
9 MS. SNYDER: We'll also be giving a storm
10 water SWPPP as required.
11 MR. LARKIN: Okay. All right, thank you.
12 MS. FORSBERG: Yeah, I think I had that
13 exact same question because it's not so much the
14 project, I think that it's a simple project, no real
15 issues there. It's just that the landscape of the
16 area has changed so so much since the original
17 approval, so we do have to take these things into
18 consideration.
19 The basin, you know, attached that you're
20 proposing, is it ample to collect any runoff from
21 other sites, not just what you foresee to be from your
22 property?
23 MR IAMICELI: Well, we did take into
24 consideration the topography of the land, so if there
25 is natural grade coming towards our infiltration
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 93 1 basin, we did take that into account to collect it.
2 So, anything coming back off on our side, or anything
3 going toward the proper natural grade is part of the
4 design.
5 MS. FORSBERG: Okay. And the only other
6 question I have is I see your grade development work.
7 Was that required or voluntary that you guys completed
8 this?
9 MS. SNYDER: That's, I guess, voluntary,
10 such as you would see for every project, even though
11 it's not applicable to this one.
12 MS. FORSBERG: Got it. Thank you.
13 THE CHAIRMAN: I had a question regarding
14 generator noise. Obviously, there are a large number
15 of generators at the site. Are these emergency
16 generators or are they used for any other purpose?
17 MS. SNYDER: Yes, they're emergency
18 generators that would only be used in the event of an
19 emergency such as a power outage. The only other
20 times that the generators will run would be for normal
21 maintenance, which is about 30 minutes once a week
22 just to make sure that the generators will be able to
23 function.
24 And the generators, we have looked at the
25 generators, they're in sound attenuated enclosures,
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 94 1 and at the property line, even though we're not
2 required because generators are exempt from your noise
3 ordinance, at the property line, it will meet the 65
4 decibel levels that you require for a commercial area.
5 MS. FORSBERG: Was there any additional gas
6 flow required from Con Edison to have these
7 generators, or what you have on site is already
8 sufficient?
9 MS. SNYDER: Well, the reason why we're
10 doing the generators is that in this building,
11 there's wireless communication processing going on, so
12 we have to be assured that the site is operating at
13 all times 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so we
14 cannot take any chances. So, that's why we have the
15 generators, because we have to make sure that --
16 MS. FORSBERG: Did you have to get any
17 additional load for the site, or what Verizon already
18 had on site was sufficient?
19 MS. SNYDER: Well, these generators are for
20 the additional equipment that we're adding.
21 MS. FORSBERG: Do you have to get more gas
22 flow from Con Edison or --
23 MR. IAMICELI: These are diesel generators,
24 so it's natural gas.
25 MS. FORSBERG: Got it, got it, got it.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 95 1 THE CHAIRMAN: One final issue I know is a
2 notation in our report is I think there may be a
3 requirement that we reapportion the lots so that the
4 buildings and grounds sit on one lot, one taxable lot.
5 That's not a question, I'm just preparing you for
6 that.
7 MS. SNYDEER: Yes, actually, I discussed
8 that with Lee Ellman, the Planner. We're going to be
9 requesting that the additional portion of the lot that
10 we're buying merge into the lot that we have because
11 it's a continuous building. It's not going to
12 function as a separate lot. So, we're not going to
13 ask for reapportion, we're going to ask for merger for
14 when the piece is taken, to combine the piece of Lot
15 1, and then that will be in to lot 20.
16 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. Now, you mention,
17 there's a statement that fire access is sufficient.
18 Lee, did we get a report from the Fire Department
19 indicating that, as well?
20 MR. ELLMAN: We're still waiting on that.
21 The Fire Department has begun to look at it and we're
22 assured that we'll be able to nail this down by the
23 next meeting.
24 THE CHAIRMAN: All right.
25 MS. SNYDER: There was also one comment from
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 96 1 Engineering about where we placed our deferred
2 parking. So, we're going to modify our site plan to
3 place it in an slightly different location so we
4 wouldn't be interfering with any potential parking or
5 loading areas as they requested.
6 THE CHAIRMAN: Lee, did, I don't know, I
7 guess would it be our arborist, who would make a
8 determination that screening, or proposed screening,
9 would be adequate with the type of trees that are
10 being proposed?
11 MR. ELLMAN: Well, typically we don't ask
12 the arborist, although we could, to comment on
13 landscaping on private property. Typically, we ask
14 him when we're talking about city street, someone
15 putting up street trees in the right-of-way, but I
16 would certainly be happy to ask him about that.
17 You know, this, Ms. Snyder, you'll remember
18 that I think the Verizon team when this building was
19 first built oversold its invisibility, and that was a
20 cause select for one of our former Board members who
21 every time he motorcycled by it, would call either
22 Roman or I to tell us how, in fact, he could see the
23 building.
24 THE CHAIRMAN: Lee, I still have lunch with
25 him every once in awhile.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 97 1 MR. ELLMAN: So do I, so do I.
2 THE CHAIRMAN: It's still an issue.
3 MR. ELLMAN: It's an issue for him. So, I
4 mean, I think that's something that we can work with.
5 And I think we can ask the City Arborist to opine
6 about that.
7 There is one topic that I would like to
8 swing back to and ask the Verizon team to double check
9 for us. As Mr. Larkin was saying earlier, the area
10 immediately to the west and downhill from the site is
11 an area that we've always had problems, not so much
12 with flooding, but with weepage coming out of the
13 hillside, even before the Verizon building was built
14 there.
15 The first thing that I thought when I saw
16 the new building with the infiltration area at the
17 very west of the parking lot was a fear that that
18 might increase any kind of weepage through the
19 hillside down and over the sidewalk and then
20 contribute to the icing problem that we've seen on
21 Executive Boulevard.
22 So, I would ask that the engineers, first of
23 all, take a second look at that knowing that that has
24 been a problem, and also talk to the Robert Martin
25 team, who I believe worked with the City to put in
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 98 1 additional drainage on the uphill side of the sidewalk
2 on Executive Boulevard, and just see that that is all
3 balanced so that we don't have that weepage and icing
4 problem that we've had.
5 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, yep, that's good.
6 Okay, then I guess we'll be working on these
7 items and hopefully have something for next month's
8 meeting; is that correct?
9 MR. ELLMAN: Yes.
10 MS. SNYDER: That would be terrific. We'll
11 look at the landscaping, as well.
12 THE CHAIRMAN: Great. Okay, there being no
13 other questions from the Board, then we'll look
14 forward to seeing you at next month's meeting.
15 MS. SNYDER: Thank you very much.
16 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, Item Number 14 is
17 a site plan review for a proposed rear yard parking
18 area at Block 5066, Lot 8 on the property known as 868
19 Midland Avenue pursuant to Article IX of the Yonkers
20 Zoning Ordinance.
21 Nicholas Faustini is representative for the
22 proposal.
23 Mr. Faustini.
24 MR. FAUSTINI: Good evening, how are you?
25 My name is Nick Faustini, I'm an architect seeking the
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 99 1 application for 868 Midland Avenue.
2 This application includes a small parking
3 area at the rear yard of this building. We filed a
4 separate application earlier this year to convert the
5 vacant bagel store to a construction office. That
6 application resulted in a reduced parking requirement,
7 so that change of use was permitted and that work is
8 currently in process to convert the store to a
9 construction office.
10 Separately, we filed an application to
11 create a rear yard parking area for three parking
12 spaces, and those parking spaces would be accessed on
13 the Gardner Avenue side. This is a corner property
14 that fronts on Midland and Gardner Terrace.
15 The parking area would be, as I mentioned,
16 three parking spaces, one would be an ADA
17 accessible space. As part of the application, well, I
18 should mention that also the hours of operation for
19 the construction office would be 8:00 to 5:00 Monday
20 through Saturday. The business employees are two
21 full-time employees and one part-time employee.
22 The intent would be during the day for
23 customers to use the parking area to frequent the
24 business, and one space for a staff member. The
25 construction office has two vans that would leave
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 100 1 during the day to go to their construction sites and
2 then would return at night after business hours, leave
3 the vans there overnight, and then come back the next
4 day, take the construction vans to job sites and,
5 again, leave the spaces available for patron parking.
6 We did apply for zoning variances earlier
7 this year. They will be receiving variance approval
8 for three variances; one being parking within 5 feet
9 of the property line, parking within 10 feet of the
10 City right-of-away, as well as parking across the
11 sidewalk for ingress and egress for vehicles.
12 (Whereupon there was a brief pause in the
13 proceedings.)
14 THE CHAIRMAN: Someone needs to mute their
15 microphone with the child.
16 MR. KUNTZ: I actually think it's Nick
17 Faustini with the background noise.
18 THE CHAIRMAN: Nick, do you have background
19 noise there?
20 MR. FAUSTINI: They're upstairs, can you
21 hear them?
22 THE CHAIRMAN: Now it's quiet.
23 MR. FAUSTINI: In any event, I was just
24 mentioning that we do have privacy fencing, an
25 existing privacy fencing, along two sides of the
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 101 1 property that abut the neighbors. That privacy
2 fencing is PVC, 6 feet tall, and that would remain.
3 And, then, the parking area would front on
4 Gardner Terrace, so it would be visible from Gardner
5 Terrace.
6 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, that's it, Mr.
7 Faustini?
8 MR. FAUSTINI: Just one other item to add.
9 We did receive comments from Engineering, and there
10 was some concern about backing across the sidewalk
11 creating a hazard for pedestrians. I just wanted to
12 add that the sidewalk actually ends at this property,
13 there is no other sidewalk that continues on Gardner
14 Terrace. Actually, even on the street beyond College
15 Place, there's no sidewalk along Gardner Terrace.
16 So, I just wanted to add that, you know,
17 pedestrians probably will not be walking along this
18 street here because there's no sidewalk there anyway
19 beyond this point.
20 THE CHAIRMAN: The sidewalk, though, it
21 doesn't stop where you're proposing for the parking to
22 go, it actually stops at the end of your lot; is that
23 correct?
24 MR. FAUSTINI: Yes, and we're proposing to
25 replace all of the deteriorated sidewalk area as part
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 102 1 of this application along Midland and Gardner Terrace.
2 THE CHAIRMAN: Even so, I'm wondering if
3 something could be done to make it as safe as possible
4 to delineate the end of a sidewalk and the beginning
5 of a driveway. I don't know, Lee, any ideas, or Mr.
6 Faustini, what could be done to, you know, to at least
7 have someone walking in that direction realize that
8 the sidewalk is going to terminate and a driveway
9 begin?
10 MR. ELLMAN: I'll talk with Traffic
11 Engineering about that, but it was their comment,
12 actually, that said that it was, you know, not a great
13 idea to put in backing-in parking where you end up
14 losing as much on-street parking as you gain off-
15 street. Perhaps if there was a sidewalk that extended
16 and a drop curb, but left me check.
17 THE CHAIRMAN: Right, I think that's what I
18 think we should do. That was the part that the
19 variance was approved to allow, but let's see if we
20 can make the best of that situation.
21 MR. FAUSTINI: We do have a dropped curb
22 proposed here in front of the parking space.
23 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, fine.
24 Members of the Board, any other questions?
25 I don't think we're ready with a resolution today,
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 103 1 let's work out that final part of the equation and
2 then if there's no questions, staff, any questions at
3 this point, Lee, we're good?
4 MR. ELLMAN: Yes, we're fine.
5 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, Mr. Faustini,
6 we'll just work that last bit through. We'll talk
7 with Engineering and Traffic and we'll get back to you
8 before next month's meeting if there is something
9 that's proposed. Otherwise, we'll take this up at
10 next month's meeting.
11 Thank you.
12 MR. FAUSTINI: Thank you very much.
13 THE CHAIRMAN: Item Number, actually, Item
14 Number 15 asked to be placed at the end of the
15 meeting, so we'll come back to that.
16 Item Number 16 is a site plan review for
17 modifications to the approved site plan for the Cross
18 County Shopping Center to accommodate a new tenant at
19 Block 5170, Lot 40 on the property known as 808
20 Central Park Avenue, former Sears Building, pursuant
21 to Article IX of the Yonkers Zoning Ordinance.
22 Janet Giris is here as representative for
23 the proposal.
24 Janet.
25 MS. GIRIS: Thank you, Mr. Chairman,
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 104 1 members of the Board, nice to see you all this
2 evening, thank you for having us. I am, as you know,
3 a partner with DelBello Donnellan Weingarten Wise and
4 Wiederkehr here this evening on behalf of Shopping
5 Centers, LLC, they are the owner of the Cross County
6 Shopping Center.
7 I know that you're all very familiar with
8 the property, we've been before you many times over a
9 number of years in connection with the new master plan
10 and the improvements that have been constructed there
11 over the last 10 or so years. And those improvements
12 are ongoing. Cross County has seen an investment of
13 probably in the area of 300 million dollars over the
14 last, as I mentioned, 10 years or so.
15 As you know, Sears has been having problems,
16 not just in Yonkers, and it has left the Center, but
17 nationwide, as well, and recently vacated the building
18 which we refer to at the Cross County Shopping Center
19 as Building 11.
20 Great news, you've got Target coming to the
21 City of Yonkers, this is the first Target store in the
22 City of Yonkers, so we're very excited about that.
23 And in order to accommodate them at the property, we
24 are seeking some minor modifications, permission from
25 this Board, for some minor modifications to the site
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 105 1 to accommodate Target.
2 Joining me this evening is Anthony from JMC,
3 Phil Fruchter, our project architect. We also have
4 Marx Realty who manages the shopping center.
5 So, I'll just give you a brief overview of
6 what the modifications are and then Anthony can talk
7 to you a little bit about them in more detail, and
8 then Doug can show you what the modifications that
9 we're proposing to the facade are.
10 So again, very minor modifications to
11 accommodate Target; facade improvements to improve the
12 appearance of the building. I don't know if anybody
13 really pays attention to something until it's vacant,
14 but it does need a little bit of a facelift and, so,
15 we've designed some very nice modifications to do
16 that.
17 There are some other modifications to the
18 parking area to increase pedestrian safety and to
19 improve some of the vehicular circulation, and Anthony
20 will talk to you about those in a moment. And as a
21 result of those modifications, there's some
22 realignment of the parking area, the addition of some
23 cart corals, the addition of some curbside pickup
24 spaces which requires the conversion of some existing
25 parking spaces.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 106 1 We are adding a loading space and a
2 compactor area at the southeast corner of the building
3 and that will result in four loading spaces and two
4 compactor spaces there. So, three of the loading
5 spaces and one compactor will serve Target. And the
6 one loading space and compactor for a future upper-
7 level tenant in the building.
8 So, Target is going to occupy floors one and
9 two of this building and, again, there will be future
10 tenant in the upper level of the building.
11 Some of the additional modifications,
12 bollards are being added. Anthony will show you where
13 those are.
14 And one of the things we wanted to call to
15 your attention, as well, is that there is going to be
16 the removal of a mezzanine area in the building, which
17 actually results in a reduction in the required number
18 of parking spaces on the property. We still have at
19 the site far in excess of what is required and, so,
20 when we do these modifications, we are going to be
21 removing some parking spaces to accommodate the
22 pedestrian and vehicular circulation improvements, but
23 we will still, you know, still result in a net surplus
24 of 12 parking spaces. So, we still have a net 487
25 parking spaces surplus on the property, and the
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 107 1 required number of spaces, and that is not including
2 the spaces that are land benched.
3 So, I don't want to take up too much more of
4 your time, I know Anthony will present the details of
5 the site changes and then Bill can present the details
6 of the facade changes. If it were not for the
7 modifications that we're making to the site, those
8 facade changes to the building would not require the
9 approval from this Board, but because we're
10 incorporating some of those changes to the site, we
11 did need to come to this Board.
12 And before I, I'll just keep talking, before
13 I turn it over to Anthony, I did want to mention that
14 we did receive comments from City Professional Staff,
15 we also received comments from Westchester County
16 Department of Planning. And one of the things that
17 they raised, Westchester County Department Planning,
18 had to do with pedestrian access to the property. And
19 I just wanted to make a correction for the record,
20 because they mention that there was not pedestrian
21 access, and that is actually incorrect. All three
22 entrances into the property from Kimball Avenue, you
23 have sidewalks into the property and they are
24 pedestrian friendly, so there are pedestrian entrances
25 in there.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 108 1 One of the other comments that the County
2 made was that they were hoping to see some bike racks,
3 and Anthony, I think, can talk to you a little bit
4 about that. The shopping center would be happy
5 to incorporate a couple of bike racks into the
6 property, and that would address the comments of the
7 County.
8 So, rather than take up more of your time,
9 Anthony, please share the screen and show the Board
10 the plans that we're proposing.
11 MR. GUCCIONE: Good evening. My name is
12 Anthony Guccione, I'm and Associate Principle with the
13 firm JMC.
14 And here we've got a plan of the
15 overall shopping center. I know Janet went through a
16 lot of the improvements, but if it's okay with the
17 Board, I'd like to walk you through where these things
18 are happening at the site.
19 This is the Cross County Shopping Center,
20 I'm sure everybody is familiar with it. It's a
21 71-acre site, it's bounded by the Cross County Parkway
22 at the top of the sheet to the north. To the left is
23 Central Park Avenue and the Thruway. At the bottom is
24 Greenburgh.(ph.) And to the east is Kimball Avenue.
25 The subject of this application is the
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 109 1 former Sears building which is, are you seeing my
2 pointer? Mark, can you point to that? It has a
3 Target bull's-eye in the building and that is the
4 subject of the proposal where the owners are intending
5 to have Target occupy the first two levels of that
6 building.
7 I'd like to take you to a blowup of that
8 area, that eastern portion of the site, where the
9 existing Sears is and the proposed Target. You can
10 see that, but now it is on a larger scale. Again, the
11 proposal will be for Target to occupy the lower two
12 levels of that Sears building. It's three stories now
13 with a partial fourth floor penthouse. And access to
14 that Target space would be from the west. You can see
15 the pedestrian corridor that comes through from the
16 rest of the shopping center and connects into the
17 existing boards on the west side of the former Sears
18 building, right there. And then on the north, on the
19 second level, there's an entrance that will be reused
20 by Target to enter the building at that second level
21 entrance.
22 Some of the improvements that Janet had
23 mentioned are on the west side of the building
24 adjacent to the Target building, we're proposing to
25 widen the sidewalk.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 110 1 Mark, can you just zoom in a little bit on
2 that and scroll down a little bit.
3 So, the existing sidewalk on the west face
4 of the building is quite narrow, it's about four feet
5 in width. And to better facilitate pedestrians going
6 from the north portion of the site down to the door
7 across from this pedestrian corridor, they're
8 proposing to widen the sidewalk from 4 feet to 6 feet.
9 And they're proposing to increase the access isle
10 there from 24 feet to 26 feet.
11 To do that, it's necessary to realign the
12 bays of the parking to the west about 4 feet further
13 to the west so that you can accommodate those
14 improvements at the face of the building. Widening of
15 the sidewalk and the access isle results in a loss of
16 eight parking spaces on that west side of the
17 building.
18 Mark, if you can zoom out just a little bit.
19 In addition, Target is requesting some cart
20 corals be installed throughout the parking lot.
21 That's the place for the shopping carts to be
22 collected. You can see those grey rectangles
23 throughout the site.
24 If you can zoom out a little more to see the
25 ones to the north, too. North of the building, Mark
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 111 1 point to that. Yes, there's the cart coral, and then
2 there are three locations on the west side of the
3 building, and then there's a couple on the south side
4 of the building, the lower parking lot, down there,
5 yes.
6 And that also results in a 14 space
7 reduction because they're putting in seven new cart
8 corals that take two spaces each, so that would be
9 another 14 space reduction.
10 And, then, on the north side of the
11 building, you see that larger grey spot there. That's
12 a proposed curbside pickup area. What they're
13 proposing to do is turn 12 existing spaces into eight
14 curbside pickup spaces. And that's kind of the trend
15 today, you can order things online, and then you can
16 pull up in there, they will bring your merchandise out
17 to your car and, kind of with this pandemic going on,
18 that's become a much more popular occurrence for a
19 retailer, so that accommodates that trend in the
20 retail market today to provide those spaces.
21 And, then, on the south side of the
22 building, Janet had mentioned the loading area
23 modifications. There are currently three loading
24 spaces, you can see the lighter grey area. Maybe you
25 can zoom in just a little more, Mark. There are three
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 112 1 existing loading spaces, and there's one compactor on
2 the right, or the east, side, of the building there.
3 The proposal is to take that hatched area and add one
4 more loading space as well as an additional compactor
5 and a sidewalk adjacent to that to access a new
6 trucker's door, that would be located near the loading
7 area.
8 So, the result here would be the three west
9 most loading spaces would be for the use by Target, as
10 well as that new compactor on the left side would be
11 for Target's use. And then the eastern most, or
12 right, loading space would be for the future upper-
13 level tenant as well as that existing compactor would
14 serve the future upper-level tenant. None of that has
15 been decided yet, but they will eventually work to
16 lease that upper level of the store, as well.
17 Janet had mentioned the bottle redemption.
18 Let's go to the north side of the building now. You
19 see a box there in the upper right-hand corner of the
20 building right there, there's a square. That's for a
21 bottle redemption station where people can bring back
22 their bottles and get their deposits back. You see
23 them in a lot of shopping centers where they have
24 machines there.
25 And then the signature round red bollards
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 113 1 that Target tends to put in front of their stores, you
2 see five of them. And then out on the sidewalk where
3 Mark is pointing there, you see four of them that just
4 signifies Target and provides protection for those
5 doors from traffic.
6 And then the final kind of surface
7 improvement is on the east side of the building, on
8 the Kimball side. If you can zoom in on the
9 sidewalks. There's a minor sidewalk improvement shown
10 here, there's an existing door that accesses the third
11 level there. This is not a Target access, but there
12 are some additional doors being proposed here for
13 egress and for future tenant use. So, we need to
14 extend a few of those sidewalks. You can see there's
15 some hatched sidewalks are the extensions to access
16 those doors.
17 That is kind of the surface improvements, as
18 were mentioned. These improvements result in a total
19 reduction of 26 parking spaces on the site, but with
20 the mezzanine removal in Target, that yields a 38
21 space credit, as well as the other parking spaces
22 throughout the site. The site will maintain a 487
23 space surplus in parking even after these
24 improvements. So, it is zoning compliant.
25 Maybe quickly we can show you the sidewalks
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 114 1 that Janet had mentioned. The three driveways, we can
2 zoom into one at a time. There's full connectivity
3 from Kimball Avenue into the site and you can see the
4 yellow is the sidewalks, and they're all connected
5 with crosswalks. We've got them on both sides, and
6 there are crosswalks and sidewalks up to the front of
7 the building there.
8 If you go to the next driveway here, there's
9 a sidewalk that comes from Kimball, comes right into
10 the site for a cross-hatched area, and you can access
11 the building there. There is a staircase between the
12 former Sears and the Bank of America that accesses
13 that second level, so you can go directly from
14 Kimball down that staircase and access that second
15 level entry there.
16 And then the northern most driveway also has
17 a sidewalk along it that accesses into the site and
18 they're all interconnected, the sidewalks, that you
19 can see building to building, so there is a lot of
20 interconnectivity.
21 And the last thing I will mention is we
22 talked about the bike racks that were brought up in
23 the County letter. And I think what we're proposing
24 at this time is to add a bike rack at that third level
25 entrance on the east side of the building where I just
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 115 1 showed you those sidewalks getting added, as well as
2 the west side of the building where the pedestrian
3 corridor enters into the building there, we can put a
4 bike rack. It looks like a narrow sidewalk where the
5 door is, that portion across the access drive from the
6 pedestrian connection indents in quite a bit, probably
7 15 feet or so, and there's a plaza underneath there,
8 and those doors are recessed. So, there is a place
9 for a bike rack there, as well.
10 So, if the Board has any questions now or we
11 can just turn it over to Phil to take you through the
12 improvements of the building.
13 THE CHAIRMAN: Members of the Board,
14 questions?
15 MS. FORSBERG: No.
16 THE CHAIRMAN: Then why don't you proceed at
17 this time.
18 MR. FRUCHTER: Good evening, Mr. Chairman,
19 members of the Planning Board. I'm Phillip Fruchter,
20 I'm a partner at Papp Architects.
21 And, for those of you who are not familiar,
22 this is the existing building with Sears being the
23 most recent tenant. As you can see, it's a fairly
24 dated brown building. On the photo on the lower right
25 is the existing three-bay loading dock that we're
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 116 1 expanding to the fourth bay, as Anthony had mentioned.
2 And the building has three entrances on
3 three separate levels. So, we're planning to divide
4 the building into multiple tenants with Target taking
5 the first two floors, and possibly as many as three
6 tenants taking the third and the fourth floor. And
7 we're creating new entrances and interior circulation
8 to accommodate those different tenancies, and that has
9 resulted in our removal of approximately 10,000 square
10 feet of interior floor area and creation of 2,000 feet
11 on the fourth floor, which is a smaller floor to
12 accommodate the new elevator and stairs.
13 If we can go back to the slide show, these
14 are floor plans of the entire building, the red areas
15 represent the spaces that Target will be occupying.
16 Lower left is the third floor, which has a long grade
17 entrance on the east side, pretty much the same
18 elevation as Kimball Avenue. And we are providing
19 reconfiguring the entrances on that side of the
20 building, really just storefront work to accommodate
21 the new tenant spaces. And we're putting in new
22 stairs and elevators to gain access to the fourth
23 floor, which is lower right in purple because there is
24 not adequate access to that level at present.
25 If we go to the Next slide, we are
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 117 1 completely renovating the existing facade, modernizing
2 it with contemporary color scheme in greys, whites,
3 and then Target's signature red.
4 Next slide. We're also adding windows into
5 the existing third floor space, which is presently a
6 solid monolithic wall. So, that will improve, it will
7 help animate the facade. And you can see the lower
8 elevation and the lower right side, that is the fourth
9 loading bay seen in elevation with the compactor for
10 Target under the Target bull's-eye.
11 Then Next slide, and this is a rendering
12 looking toward the southeast. So, the shape of the
13 building pretty much is the same and just a
14 modernization of the facade.
15 I'm happy to answer any questions.
16 MS. FORSBERG: I think that this project is
17 pretty straight forward. The use is very similar to
18 what it was previously. One of the major things that
19 I think Target offers that Sears didn't is an entire
20 grocery section. Are there any concerns or
21 consideration that the Planning Board has to be aware
22 of or take into consideration having to do with
23 refrigeration or anything having to do with produce or
24 food or dairy storage?
25 MS. GIRIS: No, everything that's interior
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 118 1 is not within this Board's jurisdiction.
2 MS. FORSBERG: Got it.
3 MS. GIRIS: And I don't mean that
4 disrespectfully at all.
5 MS. FORSBERG: No, I completely understand.
6 THE CHAIRMAN: I have a question. I see
7 all over the place these, it says sign. Do we have a
8 proposal for whatever signage is going onto the
9 property including off the building, as well?
10 MS. GIRIS: So, what you see now are the
11 proposed Target signage and, you know, again, those
12 are signs that are on the building and not subject to
13 review by the Planning Board, but with regard to the
14 other placeholders that you see there, those are
15 simply placeholders for proposed future tenants that
16 we're not sure who they're going to be yet, but we did
17 have to reserve some space along the facades for those
18 tenants.
19 THE CHAIRMAN: What about any signage,
20 directional signage, in the parking area?
21 MS. GIRIS: Anthony.
22 MR. GUCCIONE: No, nothing is proposed at
23 this time in terms of directional signage.
24 MS. GIRIS: Yeah, I mean, there will be the
25 curb with the curbside pickup spaces. There will be
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 119 1 signs for that curbside pickup spaces, but those,
2 that's really the only signage that's necessary right
3 now.
4 MR. GUCCIONE: Yeah, the Target building is
5 pretty identifiable by their logo.
6 THE CHAIRMAN: Yeah, going to that
7 curbside, which isn't really curbside, is there a
8 dedicated door for the curbside, how does the curbside
9 pickup work.
10 MR. GUCCIONE: If you look, yeah, there is a
11 door on that corner of the building.
12 THE CHAIRMAN: Is it dedicated for
13 curbside?
14 MR. GUCCIONE: No. Phil, maybe you can
15 chime in on that, but I believe it's for customers, as
16 well, right?
17 MR. FRUCHTER: Yes, it's customers and for
18 the runners who go out and make the curbside
19 deliveries.
20 MR. GUCCIONE: If you can see up in
21 the upper left-hand corner where the magenta is is
22 that jagged kind of sawtooth, those are doors.
23 They've always been there for Sears and they'll be
24 reused for Target on the lower level. That's on the
25 first ground level, so it's very convenient to those
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 120 1 curbside spaces.
2 MS. GIRIS: Which are the spaces that are
3 in that grey block.
4 MR. GUCCIONE: Correct.
5 THE CHAIRMAN: Which is actually a good
6 term, the runners will be running into the traffic
7 that might be going past the building to get to those
8 cars; is that correct?
9 MS. GIRIS: They'll be looking both ways
10 before they cross the parking area.
11 THE CHAIRMAN: I forgot that part.
12 MR. GUCCIONE: It's not a high-speed area,
13 it's kind of a dead-end parking area there at the end,
14 and they would just have to be careful when they cross
15 there.
16 MS. GIRIS: Yeah, this is something that's
17 part of their operations in many of their stores,
18 particularly now during the whole COVID thing, so they
19 know how to run that operation.
20 MR. ELLMAN: It's a reasonable question. I
21 mean, I look at this area and I wonder if the natural
22 inclination of a shopper would be to actually want to
23 come curbside, and would it work to Target's benefit
24 to actually use that curbside area immediately
25 adjacent to the building that way you would, in fact,
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 121 1 have curbside pickup. You know, as you're showing it,
2 you have cars that need to pull into a sort of a
3 standard parking bay, and then, as you said, runners
4 coming out into the parking lot across traffic.
5 MR. GUCCIONE: Right. That's something we
6 can look at.
7 MR. ELLMAN: I mean, you have the room. I
8 mean, I think it's worth looking at. I don't think
9 we're talking about, you know, having somebody run
10 across Central Avenue certainly, it's not that bad,
11 but you have sort of all the room in the world, you
12 have a ton of parking. It would be interesting to see
13 if using that kind of dead sidewalk there might not be
14 a good way to go.
15 MR. GUCCIONE: Right. To be honest with
16 you, this request for that location came from Target,
17 so we can certainly circle back with them and see if
18 they'll entertain moving it to the sidewalk and get
19 back to you on that.
20 MR. ELLMAN: Sure.
21 MR. FRUCHTER: How does the Board feel about
22 if that pickup parking is to the right of the area
23 against that landscaped island so that anybody walking
24 doesn't have to cross a traffic isle?
25 THE CHAIRMAN: I'm for anything that's
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 122 1 safe, you know, the safest possible alternative.
2 MR. GIRIS: Okay, so, we can take a look at
3 those two alternatives, and we can follow up with the
4 Board at next month's meeting.
5 THE CHAIRMAN: Yeah, that sounds good. And
6 before we go, just, again, I wanted to make, it wasn't
7 clear to me when I was going through the plans, the
8 third floor, the entrance from the Kimball Avenue
9 side, that actually will be a multiple use end
10 entrance; is that correct, for at least two or three
11 other retailers plus people going into the Target; is
12 that correct?
13 MR. FRUCHTER: No, it is not for Target at
14 all. It is only for the third and fourth floor
15 tenants, so it would be a maximum of three tenants,
16 but not Target.
17 THE CHAIRMAN: I see. But a section of the
18 third floor, you would have for deliveries; is that
19 correct?
20 MR. FRUCHTER: That's correct. Target
21 occupies a portion, the bulk, of the loading dock that
22 presently exists, so that is their space, that grey
23 area. The rest of the third floor is not Target, it's
24 one or two other tenants.
25 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. So, there will be no
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 123 1 stairs or anything, or escalators going done?
2 MR. FRUCHTER: Correct. There is no
3 connection between the third and the second entrance
4 floor.
5 MR. GUCCIONE: That's back of house for
6 Target, freight elevators, right?
7 MR. FRUCHTER: Correct.
8 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, that's clear to me now.
9 Thank you very much.
10 All right, members of the Board, any other
11 questions at this time, or staff?
12 MS. FORSBERG: No.
13 MR. ELLMAN: Just to speak about the signs,
14 the Yonkers Sign Code permits fairly generous four
15 foot signs as a regular, the regular, the maximum
16 regular, size sign is four feet tall, which we've
17 proven to retailers you can see across quite a
18 distance. We also have, you know, we also grant
19 administrative sign variances that while the Sign Code
20 is administered by the Building Department, the
21 Planning Department does the administration of the
22 sign variances.
23 And we've had a really excellent
24 relationship with Cross County over the years since
25 the rehab started. We have granted some larger signs
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 124 1 and also have had an agreement with Cross County that
2 we would be very very flexible with signage that was
3 internally phasing. So, there are a lot of signs in
4 the main, the two main, walkways of the Center that
5 don't meet the Sign Code, but are great signs
6 nonetheless, and really it adds to the area.
7 So, from a signage perspective, the Planning
8 Board doesn't administer the Sign Code, but the
9 Planning Board does have a level of aesthetic and
10 facade review from precedent perspective for large
11 buildings like the Sears building, the Target building
12 now, and Macy's. We have granted variances for
13 significantly larger signs, and would probably do the
14 same for the larger Target logo. The other
15 placeholder signs would be something that we would
16 have to look at as they came up.
17 So, it is, I think ultimately, reasonable
18 for the Board to, and we will be careful how we write
19 this for the Board, have a finding about the Board not
20 necessarily approving or disapproving signs as shown
21 on this site plan. You know, again, just realizing
22 sotto voce that they are placeholders at this point.
23 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. That being the case,
24 we are ready to move on, and I guess keep working with
25 the bureau on we look forward to seeing you at next
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 125 1 month's meeting.
2 MS. GIRIS: Thank you very much.
3 MR. GUCCIONE: Thank you.
4 MR. FRUCHTER: Thank you.
5 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you.
6 Moving to Item Number 17, which is a site
7 plan review for a proposed 13-unit addition to the
8 existing 7-unit structure expansion of existing
9 parking area and new underground parking at Block 447,
10 Lots 36 and 37 on the property known as 43 Garfield
11 Street pursuant to Article IX of the Yonkers Zoning
12 Ordinance.
13 Tom Abillama is here as representative for
14 the proposal.
15 Mr. Abillama.
16 MR. ABILLAMA: Good evening, Mr. Chairman,
17 members of the Board. My name is Tom Abillama, I'm
18 the architect for the applicant.
19 Before us, we have an application for a
20 total of 20-unit development, multifamily development,
21 located on Garfield and William Street. There's an
22 existing structure, a three-story structure, right now
23 with a basement, which contains seven apartments, and
24 we're trying to add a four-story 13-unit apartment
25 building.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 126 1 Our application complies with all Zoning and
2 intends to comply with all Building Codes. And I'm
3 going to run through, I'm going to share the drawings.
4 The existing structure is what I'm pointing
5 at on the bottom left side. It's a three-story
6 structure with a half-a-story facing the parking lot.
7 The units have a single egress in the front which is
8 an interior stair. And then on this side under here,
9 they have a fire escape where windows from the
10 kitchens are egressing into it. So, the addition
11 would be towards the rear of that, of the existing
12 building.
13 And these diagrams, we will illustrate how
14 we're going to be attaching the new structure to the
15 existing structure. These are sections that circle
16 the four-story addition, the basement attached to the
17 existing structure. All levels, with the exception to
18 the grade level, will communicate with the existing
19 levels.
20 And there will be a common, we're proposing
21 to have a common corridor where the kitchen, the
22 existing kitchen, windows will turn into another
23 egress door, or entry door, so to speak. And we'll
24 have two stairs which serve as means of egress with an
25 elevator and a shoot, a garbage shoot, in the common
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 127 1 area in the hallways, and we will be providing four
2 units on each level.
3 So, this is the site plan showing at the
4 grade level on William Street. There's an existing
5 curb cut that we're reutilizing. The existing parking
6 lot we're expanding to the point where as permitted by
7 Zoning to have the parking within the setbacks that
8 are required. Due to the elevation difference, we're
9 providing sometimes a duct tier retaining wall. And
10 then as we go to Garfield Street, which slopes down,
11 we're providing an access to the basement from that
12 point with a new curb cut.
13 We are proposing to have the required sub-
14 surface drainage, storage, so we will have a series of
15 rechargers on the grade level off of William Street,
16 as well as in the basement level, which we are
17 proposing three contacts on there.
18 And we will provide some landscaping all
19 around, we have landscaping. We're proposing some
20 trees along the sidewalk, which I'll expand on a
21 little bit later.
22 And just the soil erosion drawings showing
23 the soil stockpiling and materials for stockpiling
24 would be with the erosion strip that we're providing
25 as silk fence.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 128 1 And these here, I know the Board doesn't
2 have this sheet, but the Planning Department has
3 requested to have some lighting plan, which we will
4 provide at a later date for the next meeting.
5 And this is the basement here with the
6 access off of Garfield coming in with seven parking
7 spaces including one handicap onto a small lobby that
8 leads to the elevator and an exit stair. And, at this
9 level, we're not connecting to the existing basement
10 except for through the stair, the fire stair, that we
11 have and to a common area in the existing laundry
12 room.
13 We also have some utility space in the
14 basement, and we have the compactor room which allows
15 us to provide some of the refuse to go into refuse/
16 recycle area connecting to the basement. This is new
17 detail that was requested from the Planning
18 Department, and I'm providing it as such.
19 On the grade level, when it shows up, we
20 provide the rest of the parking. We have a lobby that
21 leads to an elevator and a stair that exits through
22 the lobby. Then off of Garfield, we have a few steps
23 going up to the stair, the exit stair, that leads to
24 the rest of the floors.
25 There's also a space that we thought we
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 129 1 could dedicate for another apartment, although the
2 windows, they open up into a driveway, not the best
3 solution in the world, but it's feasible, possible,
4 with the Building Code requirements.
5 Then I take you over to the second, third
6 floor. We have the four apartments which have mainly
7 closets, laundry closets, and, you know, the two-
8 bedrooms, some with two bedrooms, some with one
9 bedroom.
10 And then this is where I stated that we have
11 the kitchen door leading to the hallways, the common
12 hallway, from the existing kitchens.
13 Then on the fourth floor, we show the other
14 four bedrooms, the four apartments, with an access to
15 the roof of the existing structure with a pergola that
16 we believe doesn't violate the height regulations or
17 the setback regulations, nor did the Building
18 Department believe so.
19 I personally sat down with Mr. Longobardi
20 from the Building Department and indicated what we're
21 planning on doing on this roof specifically, and he
22 had some objections on certain items that I have
23 corrected and finally he agreed with the scheme.
24 On the roof of the proposed structure, we're
25 providing for the heat pumps on the roof, which will
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 130 1 be screened in for noise and visual aspect of it.
2 And, as far as the elevations, this is the
3 elevations on Garfield where we tried to introduce
4 some elements to the existing structure to make it
5 less plain as it is right now and married with the
6 proposed structure.
7 This is the parking level which will end up
8 being on grade in relation to William Street. And
9 this is the entrance to the basement level, the
10 entrance to the basement level.
11 This is the left side elevations, so to
12 speak, with the parking being at this level with
13 double-tiered retaining walls.
14 And this is the existing structure here. In
15 the background, we have the proposed one. And, as you
16 see, the other elements which we added to it to make
17 it less simple.
18 And this is the elevation off of the parking
19 lot off of William Street.
20 These are the dramatic sections. The height
21 limitation is 65 feet. There was some concerns from
22 the Planning Department about the heat pumps being up
23 to the height, as well as some of the bulk heads.
24 Bulk heads are always permitted to go beyond the
25 maximum height, but we have our height here as 53 feet
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 131 1 if we take it in relationship to the average between
2 the centerline of the street's elevations. So, we
3 have 53 feet and, so, we still have 12 feet to deal
4 with, which we are, we believe we are okay with
5 zoning-wise.
6 The pergola itself, let me go back to the
7 roof plan. The pergola itself, we believe it doesn't
8 intrude into the front yard. But if that's the case,
9 that can, by code, anything can project three feet
10 from the front yard, and we are at 12 feet. Here
11 we'll adjust it just so that it can comply with the
12 code, but I believe it's a decorative element that can
13 be an exception to the rejection requirements.
14 So, those are the items that were of concern
15 to the Planning Department.
16 The flow test is required. We were planning
17 on providing the flow test to the Building Department
18 when we go to the building, the construction,
19 documents, but if that's what's required by the
20 Planning Board, we'll comply, we'll get a flow test
21 done. The sprinklers, the existing building is not
22 sprinklers, but the proposed building addition will be
23 sprinklers as per code. And, therefore, we need the
24 flow test to be done prior to getting the hydraulic
25 design done for the sprinklers.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 132 1 And the garbage area, the refuse area, we
2 provided it in the basement.
3 The lighting plan, as I showed you, it was
4 different, but if the Board would like to take a good
5 look at it, we'll provide it for the next Board
6 meeting if necessary.
7 We'll provide drag sections, also. And we
8 believe rooftop coverage and height will comply with
9 it. We can clarify that on the drawings further.
10 Now, as far as the existing apartments, we
11 know we blocked two windows, two windows in each
12 apartment, but the existing living room, we can, we'll
13 have one window, we can add maybe the window if that's
14 the case, but the code permits to have mechanical
15 ventilation for spaces of that kind if necessary.
16 And, also, for the existing bathrooms, we're providing
17 mechanical exhaust, as well as the kitchens, providing
18 mechanical exhaust. That's all part of the Building
19 Code requirements, and we will comply with the code.
20 Some parking spaces need to be dimensioned,
21 we'll provide that. And we need to sit down with the
22 arborist to see how we can comply with the proposed
23 trees on the sidewalk.
24 And, with that, I'm ready for any questions.
25 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, thank you. Actually,
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 133 1 also, my questions and notes, you just addressed, or
2 they're being addressed.
3 Members of the Board, questions at this
4 time?
5 DR. GILLAN: I think it's very pleasing
6 overall.
7 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, thank you, Dr. Gillan.
8 DR. GILLAN: Thank you.
9 THE CHAIRMAN: Other members, questions or
10 comments, staff, questions?
11 MR. ELLMAN: Mr. Abillama picked up our
12 questions, which were in the report to the Planning
13 Board. The one thing that was a little difficult to
14 pick up in the plans was what happens to the windows
15 on the west facade. So, if you look at the pictures
16 that are attached to Mr. Abillama's submission, you'll
17 see that there are bathroom and kitchen windows on the
18 parking lot side of the William Street elevation.
19 I was able to tell that they disappear in
20 the floor plans, but I don't think I found the next
21 level of what exactly was happening in those
22 apartments.
23 MR. ABILLAMA: So, let's see if I can find
24 you the explanation. So, we have two windows in each
25 kitchen that's adjoining to the living room. Those
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 134 1 two windows will be blocked by the virtue of having
2 this addition in front of that western wall. And,
3 therefore, any, you know, we're going to comply with
4 the light and ventilation requirements as far as the
5 exhaust from the bathrooms, we'll provide them, as
6 well as any changes required for the kitchen.
7 Overall, once we look at the whole overall
8 picture, mainly kitchens in apartment buildings are
9 not, they don't have to have lighting. It would be
10 nice to have actual light and ventilation, but they're
11 always included on the interior side of the apartments
12 because we'll give priority to living rooms and
13 bedrooms. So, in essence, we are, this is a not a bad
14 design. We would have liked to see the kitchens don't
15 lose these windows but, on the other hand, we are, you
16 know, we're able to accomplish the addition of the 13
17 units.
18 And there's more safety in this situation.
19 The existing kitchens right now, they go onto a fire
20 escape, and what we're doing is providing an exit onto
21 common corridor which leads to two series of, two
22 stairs, fire stairs. And there's access to an
23 elevator, and they have an access to the refuse shoot.
24 And, overall, we think it's a better situation than
25 before.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 135 1 MR. ELLMAN: I just needed to understand
2 what was happening, it just wasn't clear to me as I
3 was doing my review.
4 Thank you.
5 MR. ABILLAMA: You're welcome.
6 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. If no more questions,
7 then, yeah, if you can address the concerns in the
8 report that you were provided, we'll look forward to
9 seeing you at next month's meeting, Mr. Abillama.
10 MR. ABILLAMA: Thank you, Mr. Chairman,
11 thank you.
12 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you.
13 We're going to move to item number 17, which
14 is a site plan review for proposed -- nope, that was
15 it.
16 MR. ELLMAN: We mis-numbered, we skipped
17 18.
18 THE CHAIRMAN: Yeah, I was looking at that.
19 MR. ELLMAN: Look at that, we're moving
20 fast, Mr. Chairman.
21 THE CHAIRMAN: I knew the meeting wasn't as
22 long as it should have been. And I say that, take
23 that with a huge grain of salt.
24 Number 18 is a preliminary site plan review
25 for a proposed 113-unit, 6-story residential building
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 136 1 and related parking at Block 5066, Lot 8 on the
2 property known as 76 Locust Hill Avenue pursuant to
3 Article IX of the Yonkers Zoning Ordinance.
4 Steve Accinelli is representative for the
5 proposal.
6 Mr. Accinelli.
7 MR. ACCINELLI: Good evening, Mr. Chairman,
8 members of the Board. Steve Accinelli from Veneruso,
9 Curto, Schwartz and Curto on behalf of the applicant
10 West Hab. We want to thank you the Board for the
11 opportunity to present this item for preliminary site
12 plan review.
13 We are currently before the Zoning Board of
14 Appeals and we are hopeful to get a favorable decision
15 at the upcoming October meeting. In the event that we
16 do so, the applicant would like to be in a position to
17 proceed with formal site plan approval as soon as
18 possible.
19 I did submit a more detailed project
20 description and I won't go through that particular one
21 tonight. I will just quickly say that the project
22 referred to as Hudson Hills is located at 76 Locust
23 Hill Avenue between Lafayette Place and Palisade
24 Avenue, and currently consists of a vacant three-story
25 dilapidated church that was abandoned in 2004.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 137 1 The property is situated on just under an
2 acre, a point 96, lot and will consist of a six-story
3 residential building containing 113 housing rental
4 units atop a parking garage with 84 spaces.
5 Hudson Hill was designed and intended to be
6 an approachable state-of-the-art building. Included
7 in the street scape is in keeping with the context of
8 the neighborhood and is highly energy efficient and
9 sustainable.
10 Building amenities will include a laundry
11 room, covered parking, electric vehicle charging
12 spaces, a bike storage room, security office, and a
13 property management rental office.
14 With the Board's permission, I would like to
15 turn it over to Anthony Guccione from JMC to review
16 and discuss the site plan particulars with the Board.
17 THE CHAIRMAN: Certainly, go ahead.
18 MR. ACCINELLI: Thank you.
19 MR. GUCCIONE: Good evening. Again, for the
20 record, my name is Anthony Guccione, Associate
21 Principal with the firm JMC. And I would just like to
22 take you briefly through the site plan, if it's okay
23 with the Board, we'd like to bring up some plans.
24 THE CHAIRMAN: Certainly, go ahead.
25 MR. GUCCIONE: Alex, you have control of
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 138 1 them, if you could. If you can zoom in on them, Alex.
2 Thank you.
3 Okay. So, you can see the site is outlined
4 here in red, as Mr. Accinelli had said. It's just
5 under an acre in size, point 96 acres. Locust Hill
6 Avenue is to the left. You can see the magenta
7 outline there, the magenta is where the first floor of
8 the building touches down to the ground.
9 And then you can see a magenta dashed
10 outlined kind of an L-shape next to that, that is the
11 other five levels of the building just above the
12 parking area. So, six levels total with that small
13 portion touching down on the ground, and the rest of
14 it is on columns above the parking area.
15 You can see in grey is the upper level
16 parking area. And centrally located in the site is a
17 garden area, it would be for congregation, a patio
18 area, garden area, for the residents to congregate.
19 Access is via two driveways on the bottom of
20 the page, it's an entrance only driveway that comes in
21 off Locust Hill Avenue. Once you get past the
22 building, you can make a left into the upper level
23 parking lot, or you can continue straight down a ramp
24 and down to the lower level parking lot where there's
25 a loop access road configured for parking spaces. And
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 139 1 you'd use the same ramp to come back up and exit
2 the lower level, and you can make a right into the
3 upper level parking lot.
4 You can see the flow arrows. The pump
5 garage is designed to be one-way circulation, and then
6 it travels up the through the parking lot, it weaves
7 through, and then past a trash enclosure toward the
8 end of the site, and then you ease your way one-way
9 exit only driveway at the north end of the site, or at
10 the top of the page.
11 The upper level has 35 parking spaces and
12 the lower level has 49 parking spaces for a total of
13 84 spaces to support the 113 units that are proposed
14 in the building, the apartment units. That is also a
15 parking ratio of 0.7 spaces per unit.
16 Our office prepared a parking study that did
17 analyze four other similar facilities in the City of
18 Yonkers, and it confirmed that this would be more than
19 adequate enough parking for this type of facility to
20 support the number of cars that would be anticipated
21 here.
22 The other four facilities had ratios of 0.26
23 occupied spaces per unit varying up to 0.62 occupied
24 spaces per unit. And, as we said, we're providing
25 here a 0.74 spaces per unit, so that should serve to
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 140 1 be more than adequate.
2 We did review this parking supply and the
3 parking circulation, and the vehicular circulation to
4 the site with your Traffic Bureau, as well as the Fire
5 Department, and they both were in support of the
6 proposal as proposed.
7 Just real quickly, the site does have some
8 terracing and sloping to the back, it was about 20
9 feet higher than the back side of the site. Up by
10 there, it felt very nicely to step the lower level
11 parking at the rear of the site down to kind of
12 match the existing site and work well with the
13 contours.
14 There are retaining walls, they're on the
15 perimeter of the site that help to accomplish that
16 grade change, and there are some annuals and planters
17 in the front of the site off Locust Hill Avenue as far
18 as a grand staircase that leads up to the front door.
19 You know, basically, it is nicely
20 landscaped, you can see there are buffer plantings
21 around the rear and the sides of the facility, as well
22 as nice plantings in the front and will add a nice
23 aesthetic amenity for the residents.
24 With that, if it pleases the Board, I'd like
25 to turn it over to Ms. Amie Gross, the architect on
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 141 1 the project to go over the building a bit.
2 THE CHAIRMAN: Sure, go ahead.
3 MR. GUCCIONE: Thank you.
4 MS. GROSS: Hello, I'm Amie Gross, President
5 of Aimie Gross Architects, and as Mr. Guccione was
6 saying, we are the architects of this building.
7 We're very exited about this opportunity to
8 have this site to design in that, as you all know,
9 Locust, this street itself, used to granger about it
10 which over time has changed, but we think that this
11 building will help to bring back that granger in that,
12 as we're saying, it's a storage structure.
13 It will be clad and brick, and also be clad
14 in Yonkers granite. Our office has done a lot of
15 research and, as many of you may know, Yonkers was one
16 of the epicenters in New York State of granite
17 quarrying, but Yonkers granite still is quarried in
18 upstate New York. So, we will be using this granite
19 cladding which is still all over Westchester,
20 apparently, it is also clad, the Yonkers City Hall is
21 clad in this granite, as well as the buildings that go
22 over the Sprain Parkway.
23 Is there some background noise? I just hope
24 you guys can hear me.
25 THE CHAIRMAN: We hear you loud and clear.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 142 1 There was some noise, but we hear good.
2 MS. GROSS: Wonderful, thank you.
3 The building has a very strong base, which
4 will be, as Anthony was saying, backed up by very
5 extensive landscaping. Some of you you know the
6 current site. We will be keeping its location above
7 the sidewalk which is about three or four feet. And,
8 as you can see in the rendering, there will be a broad
9 staircase that leads up from the crosswalk as the
10 building is set back about 15 feet.
11 The building can also be accessed through a
12 very shallow-sloped ramp, which will be next to the
13 building itself, so the building is 100 percent
14 handicap accessible.
15 At the ground floor of the building will be
16 a lobby leading out to the garden space, which I will
17 talk to you about shortly. And the top of the
18 building where you see the large windows, will be a
19 community room which we're calling the Hudson Room,
20 which will have a lovely view of the Hudson River and
21 the Palisades, and it will be a real amenity for the
22 tenants that are lucky enough to live there.
23 In the Next slide, we have a diagram that
24 was developed for an application that we made to the
25 State of New York for a building to be a building of
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 143 1 excellence in that, as Mr. Accinelli was saying, the
2 building is quite sustainable and we think it really
3 will be of the cutting edge of sustainability, and
4 that it will include a significant number of solar
5 collectors. It will have a generator to allow the
6 building to operate in the unfortunate circumstance
7 where we are without power.
8 The exterior wall will have very very
9 sustainable components to it allowing the building to
10 almost reach half of HUD standards without having to
11 have the extra money required to get that certificate.
12 What this actually shows you is that the
13 building is U-shaped. And what we're particularly
14 happy with is that from the front of the building, you
15 really don't get a sense of its size or its mass, and
16 that the U configurations is really hidden behind the
17 front facade. What the U does is create lovely views
18 from those courtyard-related apartments down to the
19 garden, and it allows us to keep the building compact
20 and not overwhelm the neighborhood.
21 And, as Mr. Guccione was talking about, at
22 the last leg of the U on the Palisade facing side, is
23 where we will have the parking tucked underneath the
24 building.
25 The garden will be accessible from the lobby
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 144 1 itself and will also have a wonderful vista to it in
2 that as you enter the building, you will be able to
3 look through the lobby out into the garden space
4 itself.
5 And just to expand on the landscaping that
6 Mr. Guccione was talking about, there are actually
7 some lovely street trees that we will set on the
8 sidewalk that will be retained, and then a series of
9 retaining walls and planters. We will have both
10 flowering trees and both evergreen and annual
11 plantings that will be at the front of the building in
12 the garden. And then there will be further
13 landscaping around the perimeter of the building so,
14 for the neighbors themselves, it will be a lovely
15 picture of the building.
16 So, I think in summary, we, with the
17 wonderful prompting from West Hab, hope that we're
18 really bringing a building that will significantly
19 improve the look of the neighborhood and clearly bring
20 in wonderful new families into Yonkers.
21 And, clearly, if there are any questions
22 that you have, we're happy to answer them.
23 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you.
24 Members of the Board, questions to any of
25 the presenters any at this point?
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 145 1 Okay, staff, anything at this point?
2 MS. GROSS: Alex, do you want to put the
3 rendering back?
4 THE CHAIRMAN: Lee, anything, staff? I know
5 it's late.
6 MR. ELLMAN: It is late.
7 THE CHAIRMAN: Unfortunately, you got us
8 nearly at the end of a long evening.
9 It looks fantastic, it looks like a very
10 nice project. The green nature of it is also
11 impressive.
12 MS. GROSS: Wonderful, thank you.
13 MR. GUCCIONE: Thank you.
14 MR. LAFERLA: You looked like you really
15 wanted to decrease the carbon footprint with the solar
16 panel and all those trees.
17 MS. GROSS: Absolutely. I think this will
18 really be a demonstration project of how we can
19 affordably create a sustainable building.
20 If you have a moment, Alex, did you want to
21 talk to them some more about the sustainable
22 properties in the building?
23 Alex is the project manager in our office,
24 he's running this job.
25 MR. LAFERLA: Good evening, Chairman and
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 146 1 members of the Board. I'm Alex --
2 MR. ELLMAN: I'm sorry, it's a prelim -- I'm
3 sorry.
4 MR. LAFERLA: I know it's late.
5 THE CHAIRMAN: Actually, you're not, you're
6 next to last, and then we have some other --
7 MS. GROSS: Never mind, we'll do it another
8 time.
9 MR. LAFERLA: Another time.
10 MS. LANDI: I have a question.
11 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, go ahead, Adelia.
12 MS. LANDI: My question is, you have
13 studios, one-bedrooms, two-bedrooms, and five three-
14 bedrooms, so I'm assuming there are going to be
15 children in this building. And I would love to see in
16 your garden area something suitable for children to
17 play.
18 MS. GROSS: Thank you, we will definitely
19 look into that.
20 MS. LANDI: Thank you.
21 THE CHAIRMAN: Yeah, I think we'll move on
22 at this point.
23 I'm sorry, members of the Board, any other
24 questions?
25 MR. ELLMAN: Yes, just very quick so they
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 147 1 come back with information the Board needs. One of
2 the things that was not very well detailed was what
3 happens between the rear yard of this property and the
4 rear yard of the smaller homes that face on Palisade
5 Avenue. So, that's something that we need to see, the
6 off-site impacts.
7 The other thing that is important to come
8 back with on the non-prelim is a shadow study, and the
9 third part of the Affordable Housing Ordinance
10 requires additional investigation of what happens when
11 there's a re-concentration of affordable housing so
12 that we don't end up spending another 20 years with
13 the Justice Department.
14 Then, finally, just for the Board, this, all
15 of a sudden Locust Hill is becoming very hot because
16 this is also the back of the AMS project. So, AMS is
17 coming up from North Broadway and going up to
18 Overlook, which is, essentially, a block-and-a-half
19 away on Locust Hill from this site.
20 So, those are just things for the Board to
21 take into consideration in their review of this
22 project.
23 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, thank you, Lee.
24 All right, thank you, Steve. We'll look
25 forward to seeing you at next month's meeting, and
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 148 1 good luck with Joe over at Zoning.
2 MR. ACCINELLI: Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
3 Also, we did receive comments from
4 Engineering and the Water Department, and we're
5 thankful for those at this early stage. So, we'll be
6 working on those, as well.
7 Thank you everyone.
8 THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you. Good night.
9 MR. GUCCIONE: Thank you, good night.
10 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, moving back to Item
11 15, site plan review for a proposed side-by-side
12 drive-thru at the existing McDonalds Restaurant and
13 associated site improvements at Block 188, Lot 11 on
14 the property known as 155 South Broadway pursuant to
15 Article IX of the Yonkers Zoning Ordinance.
16 Keith Brown, representative for the
17 proposal.
18 Mr. Brown, if you can unmute yourself and go
19 ahead.
20 MR. BROWN: Thank you. Can you hear me now?
21 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, I can hear you.
22 MR. BROWN: Let me move back over, I'm using
23 my phone so bear with me. Okay, there we go.
24 All right, good evening, everyone, Mr.
25 Chairman Kozicky and all of the members of the City
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 149 1 Planning Board, Keith Brown, Brown and Altman, LLP,
2 538 Broad Hollow Road, Suite 301, Melville, New York
3 11747.
4 I'm here tonight with respect to McDonald's
5 site plan application to renovate the existing
6 McDonalds Restaurant and convert the tandem drive-thru
7 into what we call a side-by-side drive-thru at the
8 property located at 155 South Broadway.
9 As a matter of housekeeping, prior to
10 today's hearing, the hearing was posted on the
11 property in compliance with City Code, and we
12 submitted an affidavit of posting and copies of all
13 the documents we're relying upon in connection with
14 our hearing by e-mail earlier today. Let me just find
15 my e-mail. And that was submitted to the Planning
16 Bureau at almost 3 o'clock today, 2:44.
17 As you are aware, the property is zoned
18 within the South Broadway section zoning district and
19 is presently approved with the existing McDonald's
20 Restaurant. The existing 5,332 square-foot building
21 will have a 124 square-foot reduction on the south
22 side of the building, as well as a bump out in the
23 rear totaling 135 square feet plus 40-foot square-
24 foot addition in the south for a total of 5,450 square
25 feet in total. Therefore, the overall addition to the
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 150 1 building is just a mere 117 square feet.
2 The subject property is bounded on the east
3 side by South Broadway and to the North by Vark
4 Street. North of the property opposite Vark Street is
5 St. Joseph's Medical Center.
6 The uses and the neighboring parcels are in
7 harmony with the continuation of the historic use of
8 the property as a fast food restaurant together with a
9 modified drive-thru and expanded footprint.
10 By way of background, on March 10th of this
11 year, McDonald's obtained approval from the City
12 Zoning Board of Appeals for area variances to expand
13 and maintain the restaurant, to install the side-by-
14 side drive-thru and for parking variances.
15 With respect to the side-by-side, McDonald's
16 has found through the years of research that the choke
17 point in the drive-thru operation is in taking
18 customers' orders. As a result, McDonald's has been
19 improving drive-thru with more modern equipment.
20 By taking two menu orders at once,
21 McDonald's better serves its existing customer base
22 and can conserve complicated orders more efficiently.
23 The side-by-side drive-thru consisting of two menu
24 boards, two boards, a pay window, and pickup window is
25 more efficient than its traditional drive-thru and
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 151 1 tandem drive-thrus. This results in reduced wait
2 times for customers in periods of peak demand and
3 reduced drive-thru cues.
4 We should also note that speaker systems to
5 be installed with the new order boards will employ
6 automatic volume control. The automatic volume
7 control will adjust the outbound volume based on
8 outdoor --
9 THE CHAIRMAN: It's probably his connection.
10 MR. BROWN: Sorry. As will be explained by
11 Mr. Paul Going, our Traffic Engineer, the tandem
12 drive-thru will improve on-site circulation and will
13 reduce the potential of any overflow from the drive-
14 thru onto South Broadway.
15 In addition, as part of our overall
16 redevelopment, McDonald's will be updating the
17 existing restaurant with improved architectural
18 design.
19 Prior to this evening's hearing, we
20 submitted by e-mail a copy of the elevations for the
21 Board's review. We also have Patrick Bliss, our
22 architect, available to answer any questions the Board
23 may have regarding the new design of the restaurant.
24 As to be seen from the street-view
25 photograph we submitted, the existing restaurant has a
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 152 1 dated design with a hip roof, a red and yellow
2 exterior, as well as the outdated acrylic lights on
3 the hip roof.
4 The new exterior design will be more in
5 character with the surrounding area, as it will be
6 primarily dark grey in color. In addition, the
7 majority of the exterior will be built with brick,
8 metal panel, and aluminum.
9 With us tonight, we have in support of the
10 application, Mr. Jared Jones, the Project Engineer,
11 who will explain the site layout and design and,
12 essentially, what the project will look like once it's
13 built, and will be on hand to answer any site design
14 questions that the Board may have.
15 Next we have Paul Going, our traffic
16 expert who's also on hand to answer any traffic-
17 related questions that the Board may have.
18 And, finally, Mr. Patrick Bliss, Project
19 Architect, who will answer any questions the Board may
20 have regarding the new design of the restaurant.
21 So, that's our overview. I'd like to call
22 Mr. Jared Jones to go through the site plan with you.
23 THE CHAIRMAN: Sure, go ahead.
24 MR. JONES: Good afternoon, Board members.
25 I know it's late, I won't bore you guys too much.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 153 1 Essentially this is an expansion of the
2 building. And with the traffic flow on site, the
3 basic traffic flow patterns of the site were modified
4 with the parking and installing the side-by-side
5 behind the building to increase the drive-thru flow
6 and alleviate some of the parking on site.
7 Other than that, it's virtually the same
8 layout that exists currently. I don't want to go
9 through too much detail, I know it's late, most of the
10 Board members don't want to continue to be here, so if
11 there are any questions, I'm here to answer anything.
12 THE CHAIRMAN: All right. Thank you.
13 MR. BROWN: Next we have Mr. Paul Going.
14 MR. GOING: Good evening. My name is Paul
15 Going, my office prepared a traffic letter report
16 dated October 7th, 2020 that was submitted in
17 connection with the project.
18 And in that report we looked at the trip
19 generation of the McDonald's, which is expected only
20 to increase by approximately seven peak hour trips due
21 to the proposed expansion by 117 square feet. That's
22 only approximately a two percent increase in square
23 footage and, really, it's additional area needed to
24 make the side-by-side drive-thru work.
25 The side-by-side drive-thru is proposed
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 154 1 which results in less cueing and, also, cues the
2 traffic up in a smaller space. And in the case of
3 this project, will cue the traffic up further away
4 from the public roadways.
5 So, there's multiple benefits to the
6 side-by-side drive-thru. It's not really a detriment,
7 but in order to put in the side-by-side drive-thru, we
8 need to remove seven parking stalls. So, there's a 17
9 percent decrease in parking stalls, but we're also
10 reducing the number of seats inside the restaurant.
11 That's part and parcel of updating the interior of the
12 restaurant for ADA.
13 And the interior seats will be reduced from
14 89 to 77. So, a 22 percent seat reduction along with
15 a 17 percent parking reduction, we're actually
16 increasing the parking ratio and the variance for the
17 proposed parking which was previously granted.
18 If you're not familiar with the side-by-side
19 drive-thru, the closest one I'm aware of is in Nyack,
20 but this is the type of operation that McDonald's is
21 constructing nationwide. They have found, as Keith
22 previously mentioned, that the chokepoint in the
23 drive-thru process is at the menu board.
24 McDonald's has a bigger menu than it used
25 to, there's a lot more choices, and these days, people
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 155 1 are using drive-thru, I'd say, more than ever due to
2 COVID and, you know, being able to get your meal
3 without necessarily having to expose yourself to
4 somebody or have them exposed to you.
5 If there are any questions I'm happy to
6 answer them, but that's a pre-forward view of the
7 side-by-side.
8 THE CHAIRMAN: All right. Before we go on,
9 before I forget the questions, just quickly, how does
10 the side-by-side work? I understand the concept of
11 getting the orders in quicker, but then they both come
12 back together again. Is there just one pickup window?
13 MR. GOING: Yeah. So, the way it works,
14 what McDonald's specifically found is that it takes
15 about a minute to order, 30 seconds to pay, and 30
16 seconds to pick up your food. So, you can see easily
17 how the side-by-side drive-thru works in that by
18 taking two orders at once, you reduce the average time
19 to 30 seconds.
20 So, the two orders are taken separately.
21 The cars that merge, the layout of the drive-thru is
22 very carefully laid out so that the drivers have a
23 clear line of site to one another, so there's no
24 problem with them merging together.
25 When you're making your order, a photo is
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 156 1 taken of the right front, it's probably the left
2 front, quarter panel of your vehicle. So, when you
3 pull up to pay, and when you pull up to pick up your
4 order, the McDonald's employees inside is actually
5 seeing that photo of your car and they can make sure
6 that the right order gets to the right car.
7 So, it actually works very well, I patronize
8 them all the time and, you know, we haven't really
9 seen any significant problems with them. They just
10 operate better, they can cue up more cars and,
11 therefore, have less impact, or potential impact, on
12 neighboring streets, so they do contribute to safety.
13 THE CHAIRMAN: All right. Unless you have
14 identical cars pulling up at the same time.
15 MR. GOING: Yeah.
16 THE CHAIRMAN: Do they get an order number,
17 as well?
18 MR. GOING: Yeah, I mean, well, as part of
19 the side-by-side drive-thru, you get an updated menu
20 board, an updated ordering point, and latest
21 technological equipment. So, as you're making your
22 order, you can see right there on the video display
23 what you're ordering, how much it costs, what your
24 order number is.
25 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. So, we will get an
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 157 1 improvement on the backup that has occurred onto South
2 Broadway then with this situation?
3 MR. GOING: Correct, the existing menu board
4 is pretty close to that driveway. The proposed menu
5 board will be much further away.
6 THE CHAIRMAN: And what will be the affect
7 on walk-in service? I heard that it's becoming a lot
8 more difficult to get a timely, or fast food, meal
9 when walking into the McDonald's, they're putting a
10 lot more emphasis on the drive-thru.
11 MR. GOING: Well, I think the counter mans
12 as needed, the employees are put on shift to serve all
13 the customers. I think right now in the midst, or
14 perhaps, you know, towards the, maybe it's towards the
15 end, of the COVID pandemic, I think you probably do
16 get people having to wait a little bit longer to do a
17 walk-up order, just because so many people are
18 choosing to use the drive-thru instead of the inside.
19 And, you know, for some time period, you were unable
20 to go inside, you could only use the drive-thru, so I
21 think that will shift back a little bit.
22 THE CHAIRMAN: All right. Well, I guess
23 that's part of your business decision.
24 Question regarding pedestrian access to the
25 building.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 158 1 MR. GOING: Yes.
2 THE CHAIRMAN: I don't know if it's for you
3 or someone else to answer. Traffic and Engineering
4 brought up the question of the safe passage of
5 pedestrians from the southern parking area into the
6 building.
7 MR. BROWN: Yes. If you want to look at
8 site plan C-003, you can see that there's a pedestrian
9 access depicted on the drawing. There's a sidewalk
10 with hand mounts on both sides, and it's actually an
11 enlargement that's included in the upper left-hand
12 corner that you can see. So, that's already on the
13 site plan. I don't know if you're able to pull that
14 up.
15 Am I unmuted?
16 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, you're unmuted.
17 So, someone would park in the southern area,
18 walk towards, directly towards, South Broadway until
19 they get to the front of the property and then cross
20 across the driveway into the area that you're talking
21 about giving them safe passage with the rails to the
22 building; is that correct?
23 MR. BROWN: That's correct.
24 THE CHAIRMAN: It's a lot of walking before
25 you get to safe passage.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 159 1 MR. BROWN: Well, that's the drive-thru side
2 of the restaurant, that's why.
3 THE CHAIRMAN: Yeah. I'm just going to
4 take a closer look at that because that's also the
5 place where the person leaving the drive-thru is
6 checking to see if he got his fries.
7 MR. BROWN: There's ample space for that
8 person, that vehicle, and that's the whole point of
9 this, that there's ample space for the cars to pull
10 up, there's a stop bar so that anyone coming around
11 the restaurant who wants to leave, they have the
12 right-of-way.
13 THE CHAIRMAN: I also see it's a turn and
14 then, a 90-degree turn, that the car needs to make.
15 MR. BROWN: Right.
16 THE CHAIRMAN: So, the awareness should be
17 raised, as opposed to going directly onto the street.
18 MR. BROWN: But to the point about checking
19 the orders, there's definitely ample space there that
20 someone who just left the pickup window could go up to
21 the stop bar, check their order, make sure it's okay,
22 and then they can proceed out onto South Broadway.
23 THE CHAIRMAN: All right. And then on a
24 site plan issue matter, you indicate that there are
25 two proposed pile-on signs, one on South Broadway and
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 160 1 the other is at the exit of Vark Street.
2 MR. BROWN: That's correct.
3 THE CHAIRMAN: But we don't have details on
4 those. Will the existing pile-on on South Broadway
5 be removed or replaced, or it stays?
6 MR. BROWN: No, it's going to be removed.
7 And the reason why, we had actually reached out to the
8 Sign Inspector back in October of last year, our sign
9 vendor Folding Signs met with her and submitted sign
10 permit applications and she reviewed them. We were
11 told at that time that no ZBA approval would be
12 needed, and that we only need to submit the site plan
13 approval. We confirmed that again back on November
14 12th of last year through the sign vendor in a
15 telephone conversation with the Sign Inspector.
16 So, the site plan does show the two pile-on
17 signs. There's one indicated as PY that's located
18 close to the entrance off South Broadway, and you can
19 see it there. And then there's a second one indicated
20 on the left-hand side of the exit onto Vark Street in
21 the upper left-hand corner.
22 THE CHAIRMAN: All right. Do we have the
23 dimensions listed on the plan, as well?
24 MR. BROWN: We submitted the sign details,
25 but it's my understanding that they were not needed.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 161 1 We did submit them today after the request from the
2 Planning Bureau, but it was my understanding that they
3 would not be needed because we were only going for
4 site plan approval.
5 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, I have that
6 listed as still being necessary.
7 Staff, could you help us out on that, are we
8 still looking for that? Lee, you need to unmute
9 yourself.
10 MR. ELLMAN: Thank you. Yes, yes, we are.
11 And I think there may be some misunderstanding at the
12 Building Department and the Sign Inspector. Any new
13 sign is looked at as a new structure. So, that
14 structure comes up for site plan review. There would
15 be currently no need to go to the Zoning Board for it,
16 but the need for a pile-on sign on South Broadway with
17 its limited ability to see a distance is what we're
18 questioning.
19 MR. BROWN: Okay, I can appreciate that, Mr.
20 Ellman, but there is no site lining distance issue, as
21 Mr. Jones can attest to. You can see there's ample
22 room on the Vark Street one.
23 MR. ELLMAN: I think we're talking about
24 different things. I'm suggesting that unlike a
25 highway location where you may need to know where the
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 162 1 McDonald's is from half-a-mile away, that once you're
2 close enough to see anything, you are going to see a
3 McDonald's building with a McDonald's sign and a
4 McDonald's pile-on sign which leads me to question the
5 need for additional visual clutter and another pile-on
6 sign. That's my pitch.
7 MR. BROWN: Why the need for the secondary
8 sign on Vark Street, is that it?
9 MR. ELLMAN: Yes.
10 MR. BROWN: Jared, do you want to cover
11 that?
12 MR. ELLMAN: Well, you have a sign on Vark
13 Street now, on the corner of Vark and South Broadway.
14 MR. JONES: Correct. So, the thought was to
15 move the sign at the corner and put one closer to the,
16 we'll call it the left side of the entrance, or the
17 exit, of Vark Street so that pedestrians coming down
18 Vark Street would now allow to have a vision there.
19 And then there's an additional one on South Broadway
20 that's located to the south on South Broadway that
21 obviously identifies the restaurant.
22 And, just for the Board's knowledge, the
23 proposed pile-on signs are 20 feet tall and they have
24 a total square footage of 42.08 square feet. So,
25 they're each additional smaller than the existing
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 163 1 proposed pile-on sign, just for everyone's
2 information.
3 MR. ELLMAN: So, let's get a detail on both
4 of them for the Board's review.
5 MR. BROWN: We submitted them this
6 afternoon, Lee, they were put in the drop box.
7 MR. ELLMAN: Right, and you're going to get
8 us plans that we can circulate to the other
9 departments and to the Board, paper copies, please. I
10 mean, you got us stuff essentially at the last minute
11 and we were not able to, that's why we're having this
12 discussion now and we're talking about sizes of signs
13 rather area than having them on a set of plans.
14 MR. BROWN: Right, but I guess, so, as far
15 as the size is concerned, the height is concerned, and
16 the setbacks are concerned, that was found to be all
17 compliant with the City Code.
18 MR. ELLMAN: And site plan review, as you
19 well know, seeing if you can do better than absolute
20 minimums. That's why we look at things, otherwise we
21 would go by straight code, and straight code is one of
22 the reasons that Yonkers looks the way it does.
23 MR. BROWN: Okay. I guess I'd like to hear
24 from the rest of the Board members if they have any
25 issue with the location on the site plan. We did
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 164 1 provide -- we didn't this was going to be an issue, so
2 we didn't know to provide them upon applying,
3 otherwise we would have, but we did submit them
4 electronically. Do you need additional hard copies,
5 Mr. Ellman?
6 MR. ELLMAN: Please, because I need to be
7 able to send them outside the department, some of our
8 Board members. Certainly we would rather review
9 things on paper, it's just easier for us, yes, please.
10 MR. BROWN: Okay.
11 MR. ELLMAN: We'll talk off line about what
12 we need to be able to send out.
13 MR. BROWN: That's fine, but I did hear Mr.
14 Jones say that what is being proposed is smaller than
15 what's there now. And what's there now, although it's
16 a short sign, it's very, it's larger in surface area.
17 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, we'll wait for
18 your submission and move on from there.
19 MR. BROWN: Okay.
20 THE CHAIRMAN: Members of the Board, were
21 there any other questions or comments for the
22 applicant at this time?
23 MS. LANDI: One question only.
24 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, Ms. Landi.
25 MS. LANDI: My question is, when you are
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 165 1 exiting your McDonald's, could we have a no left turn
2 because you would be crossing South Broadway which is
3 a pretty busy street right there.
4 MR. BROWN: Paul, do you want to tackle that
5 question? You had the discussions with the various
6 agencies.
7 MR. GOING: I believe that --
8 MR. JONES: Paul, I'll take it. So, the
9 plans already call for a right turn only sign. If you
10 want, we can switch that to a no left turn sign.
11 MS. LANDI: No, that's fine. If it says
12 right turn only, that's suffice.
13 Thank you.
14 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, other members of the
15 Board, questions, comments?
16 MR. BROWN: Mr. Chairman, there was one
17 other thing that was raised in the staff memo and I
18 would just like to explain. There was a question
19 relative to whether we reconfigured the two proposed
20 perpendicular spaces on the southeast corner.
21 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, go ahead.
22 MR. BROWN: So, the reasons for those two
23 spaces, why they're perpendicular and not angled is
24 because those are what are termed pull-forward stalls.
25 If you can see, they call that, it says proposed large
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 166 1 order signs. So, what happens there, and I'll let Mr.
2 Going elaborate further, but let's say, you know, you
3 have two people ordering, one is a large mini van with
4 many kids, which will be a large order, and then you
5 have someone in a subcompact who's by themselves.
6 That large order sometimes takes a long time
7 to prepare and fulfill especially with the offerings
8 that McDonald's has these days. So, after they make
9 it, they pay at the window, go to the pickup window,
10 and let's say the order is not ready at that point in
11 time, they're able to make their way to the stop bar
12 and proceed straight forward where an employee of the
13 restaurant will come outside with their order and
14 they'll hand deliver it, this way it doesn't build up
15 the cue in the drive-thru and it prevents the backup
16 on South Broadway that we're trying to achieve.
17 Paul, anything you want to add to that?
18 MR. GOING: I would just add to the
19 Chairman's point, if somebody after they come through
20 the drive-thru, they check and see if their fries or
21 ketchup is there, if it's not, we want to have stalls
22 that are accessible so you can pull out of the
23 drive-thru, stay on the site, and do whatever it needs
24 to fulfill the order, as opposed to drive out onto the
25 street, circulate, and come back in the site.
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 167 1 So, with the one-way circulation we'll have
2 on site, which is necessary with the drive-thru, we
3 can have somebody exiting the drive-thru to be able to
4 get into a parking stall.
5 THE CHAIRMAN: Right. I understand the
6 purpose behind it, I guess the only thing we'll need
7 to do is present that to our Traffic Engineer and see
8 if he finds that as an acceptable answer. We'll get
9 back to you on that.
10 MR. BROWN: And there was one last thing on
11 the memo that I saw which I addressed with Mr. Jones
12 today, but I would like him to talk to, it has to do
13 with the factual devices. Jared, do you want to speak
14 about that?
15 MR. JONES: Yes, because the site is an
16 existing restaurant, we'll take a look at what's
17 existing and file whatever we have to with the Water
18 Bureau. If there are devices we need, if we have to
19 file to legalize them, we'll coordinate that with
20 Yonkers, but we're well aware of the comment and we'll
21 address it as necessary.
22 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay. All right, thank you,
23 Mr. Jones. Thank you, Mr. Brown.
24 Members of the Board, any other questions,
25 comments?
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 168 1 MS. FORSBERG: No.
2 THE CHAIRMAN: No. All right, we'll look
3 forward then to seeing you at next month's meeting.
4 MR. BROWN: I'll follow up with Mr. Ellman
5 tomorrow.
6 THE CHAIRMAN: Yes, perfect, thank you.
7 MR. BROWN: Thank you, have a good night
8 everyone.
9 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, good night.
10 All right, Board members, we do have one
11 item on the correspondence list. Lee, at my peril,
12 I'll ask you to comment on that.
13 MR. ELLMAN: Extension for the Long Fellow
14 School site, the year that --
15 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, that was a perfect
16 explanation for it.
17 I will make a resolution to extend a site
18 plan approval from its original expiration date of
19 October 16, 2020 for one year to expire October 16,
20 2021, or the October 2021 Planning Board meeting,
21 whichever occurs first, for an application at
22 Block 2062, Lot 25 on the property known as 23
23 Mulberry street pursuant to Article IX, Section 43-102
24 and Section 43-112 of the Yonkers Zoning Ordinance.
25 Do I have a second on that resolution?
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 169 1 MR. LARKIN: Second.
2 THE CHAIRMAN: Okay, seconded, I believe
3 Mr. Larkin.
4 MR. LARKIN: Yes.
5 THE CHAIRMAN: All in favor of the
6 resolution, please indicate by saying aye.
7 (A chorus of ayes.)
8 THE CHAIRMAN: Oppose, nay.
9 That passes unanimously.
10 Thank you very much.
11 One last item, not on the agenda, but a
12 question for next month's meeting. I think the date
13 is for next month's meeting, November --
14 MR. ELLMAN: November 11th.
15 THE CHAIRMAN: It would be the 11th, we put
16 it on the calendar that we approved, seems like an eon
17 ago at the beginning of the year as the 12th. Is that
18 date still -- you should have that down as the date,
19 but is everyone still good with that date, or would we
20 look to possibly move it to a Wednesday on the 18th?
21 MS. FORSBERG: I'm down for Wednesday the
22 18th.
23 THE CHAIRMAN: You would have a preference
24 for the 18th?
25 MS. FORSBERG: Yeah, but it doesn't matter,
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 170 1 I can make both.
2 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, Adelia. Is
3 Adelia still with us?
4 MR. LARKIN: Chairman, I can't make the
5 12th.
6 THE CHAIRMAN: You can't make the 12th.
7 MR. LARKIN: I cannot.
8 THE CHAIRMAN: Then that might force our
9 hand.
10 Dr. Gillan.
11 DR. GILLAN: I'll check my book.
12 THE CHAIRMAN: Adelia, are you still there?
13 MS. LANDI: Yes, I am, I'm checking. So,
14 the date is going to be on the --
15 THE CHAIRMAN: We originally had it for
16 Thursday the 12th, but in keeping with keeping it on
17 Wednesdays, we're looking to move it to the 18th. So,
18 far it's good with Mackenzie, it's good with John,
19 it's good with me.
20 MS. LANDI: All right.
21 DR. GILLAN: November 18th?
22 THE CHAIRMAN: November 18th.
23 MS. LANDI: Okay, I can do it.
24 THE CHAIRMAN: It looks like everyone here
25 is good with the 18th. Christine, if you want to
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 171 1 possibly just check with the last two members, and if
2 it's good with them, whatever we need to do to put it
3 on notice.
4 MS. CARNEY: Okay, absolutely.
5 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, I think that's
6 it. Lee, any final comments?
7 MR. ELLMAN: Was I that bad today?
8 THE CHAIRMAN: All right, hold on. Motion
9 to adjourn.
10 DR. GILLAN: Motion to adjourn.
11 MS. LANDI: I make a motion to adjourn.
12 THE CHAIRMAN: Motion by Dr. Gillan.
13 Seconded by --
14 MS. LANDI: Second.
15 THE CHAIRMAN: -- Adelia. All in favor,
16 indicate by saying aye.
17 (A chorus of ayes.)
18 THE CHAIRMAN: Oppose, nay.
19 That passes unanimously.
20 10 to 10:00, okay, the meeting is closed.
21 (Proceedings concluded at 9:51 p.m.)
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DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200 Proceedings 172
STATE OF NEW YORK COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER
I, CATHERINE ARMENTANO, Notary Public within and for the State of New York, do hereby certify that the within is a true and accurate transcript of the virtual proceedings taken on October 14, 2020
.
I further certify that I am not related to any of the parties to this action by blood or marriage and that I am in no way interested in the outcome of this matter.
Dated, New York,
______CATHERINE ARMENTANO
DIAMOND REPORTING 718-624-7200