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Page 1 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 City of White Plains Planning Board Meeting 13 April 21, 2020 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 Veritext Legal Solutions 212-267-6868 www.veritext.com 516-608-2400 Page 2 1 CHAIRMAN JOHN IORIS: Good evening 2 everyone. I'd like to welcome you all to the 3 April 21st meeting of the City of White Plains 4 Planning Board and the first time we've done this 5 electronically. I hope everyone involved is 6 healthy and we will get to the substance of the 7 meeting. The first announcement this evening is 8 the main meeting of the Planning Board will be 9 May the 19th and at this point, we're not sure if 10 it will be electronic or in person, as usual. We 11 will communicate with everybody as the time gets 12 closer. 13 The first order of business for the 14 evening is the minutes from the March meeting. 15 Leonard requested a small revision, which I 16 believe has been made. Does anybody else have 17 any issue with the minutes as they have been 18 presented to us? 19 BOARD MEMBER SARINA RUSSELL: No. 20 BOARD MEMBER LEONARD GRUENFELD: No. 21 CHAIRMAN JOHN IORIS: Okay. I need a 22 motion to approve the minutes from the March 23 meeting with the minor correction suggested by 24 Leonard Gruenfeld. 25 BOARD MEMBER SARINA RUSSELL: So moved. Veritext Legal Solutions 212-267-6868 www.veritext.com 516-608-2400 Page 3 1 CHAIRMAN JOHN IORIS: I need a second. 2 BOARD MEMBER RICHARD PAYNE: Second. 3 CHAIRMAN JOHN IORIS: All in favor? 4 BOARD MEMBER SARINA RUSSELL: Aye. 5 BOARD MEMBER RICHARD PAYNE: Aye 6 BOARD MEMBER LEONARD GRUENFELD: Aye. 7 BOARD MEMBER ANNA CABRERA: And John, I 8 abstained because I wasn't there. 9 CHAIRMAN JOHN IORIS: Thank you. Okay. 10 Let me take a moment now to introduce the 11 participants in this evening's meeting. I am 12 going to do it in the order of the 13 (indiscernible). So, we have Katie Crawford from 14 the Planning Department. Myself, John Ioris from 15 the Planning Department. We have Anna Cabrera, 16 Planning Board member. We have Lou Saiz from the 17 Building Department. We have Judy Mezey from the 18 Planning Department. Sarina Russell, Planning 19 Board Member. We have Commissioner Chris Gomez 20 from the Planning Department. We have Planning 21 Board member, Lynn Oliva. We have Planning Board 22 member, Rich Payne. Planning Board Secretary, 23 Eileen McClain. Planning Board member, Leonard 24 Gruenfeld and Planning Board legal counsel, 25 Arthur Gutekunst. Welcome all. Veritext Legal Solutions 212-267-6868 www.veritext.com 516-608-2400 Page 4 1 STAFF MEMBER KATIE CRAWFORD: John, you 2 want to mention the next month's meeting as well. 3 CHAIRMAN JOHN IORIS: Yes. Next 4 month's meeting -- I thought I did this -- 5 LEGAL COUNSEL ARTHUR GUTEKUNST: He 6 already did that. 7 BOARD MEMBER LEONARD GRUENFELD: He 8 did. 9 CHAIRMAN JOHN IORIS: May the 19th and 10 it's either going to be electronic or in person. 11 We'll see (indiscernible) allows. 12 STAFF MEMBER KATIE CRAWFORD: Okay. 13 CHAIRMAN JOHN IORIS: Okay. So, the 14 first item on this evening's agenda is a proposal 15 for 52 North Broadway and this is a referral from 16 Common Council and we're being requested to write 17 a letter indicating what we feel about the 18 advisability of the development -- changes to the 19 zoning, excuse me. Is there anyone here 20 representing 52 North Broadway? 21 STAFF MEMBER KATIE CRAWFORD: Okay. I 22 just put Peter and Bill in and unmuted them. 23 Hello. 24 CHAIRMAN JOHN IORIS: I see Bill. 25 WILLIAM NULL: Hi. Good evening. I'm Veritext Legal Solutions 212-267-6868 www.veritext.com 516-608-2400 Page 5 1 glad to see you all healthy and hopefully safe. 2 I appreciate your meeting through his method so 3 that we could continue the process and the 4 application. I'm William Null. I'm a member of 5 the firm of Cuddy & Feder. I'm here on behalf of 6 52 North Broadway, the applicant for this 7 petition. This is actually the second Verified 8 Amended Petition that's been submitted to Common 9 Council. And with me tonight is Peter Feroe, who 10 is with AKRF and he and I are going to try and 11 share a screen with you and walk you through a 12 PowerPoint presentation. 13 You're familiar with the site, the 14 application, as it's been pending before the City 15 for a couple of years at this point. There was a 16 draft environmental impact statement and the 17 application affects the 17 acres of property to 18 create a district that enables development in 19 what was formerly the Good Counsel Campus site. 20 The application that we've -- the Petition that 21 we've submitted -- the Amended Petition we've 22 submitted reduces the mass and height and bulk of 23 the overall proposed development that would be 24 allowed under the new zoning (indiscernible) and 25 also reduces the number of the types of uses, Veritext Legal Solutions 212-267-6868 www.veritext.com 516-608-2400 Page 6 1 eliminating a few. It's primarily a senior 2 redistricted housing development including 3 workforce housing, townhouses and independent 4 living and assisted living together that share 5 on-site services. You had previously issued a 6 letter regarding the initial petition that 7 recognized the consistency of the site 8 development with the Comprehensive Plan and we 9 appreciate that and look forward to updating you 10 on this new Second Amended Verified Petition. 11 Peter, are you in as well so that you can roll 12 into the PowerPoint and then we can comment 13 together? 14 PETER FEROE: I am, indeed. You can 15 hear me, so here I go. I'm going to attempt to 16 share my screen and here we go. 17 BOARD MEMBER SARINA RUSSELL: Look at 18 that. Wow. 19 PETER FEROE: So, as Bill said, you 20 know, we're back before you with this. We made a 21 presentation, what feels like a really long time 22 ago at this point, but it was only, I believe, 23 two months ago when the petition was before -- 24 the Second Amended Petition was first before you 25 as to form and we're happy to be back. So, this Veritext Legal Solutions 212-267-6868 www.veritext.com 516-608-2400 Page 7 1 presentation, we're going to focus a little bit 2 more on just the zoning aspect, specifically, of 3 the referral and a little bit less on the 4 project, but we'll do a quick overview. 5 So, as Bill said, we were first before 6 you back in 2016 when we submitted the original 7 and the First Amended Petition. Your Board wrote 8 a letter to the Common Council on that referral 9 and then worked with the DEIS Process Scope in 10 2017. The DEIS in 2018 and comments accepted 11 through the middle of June 29th. In January 12 2020, we submitted the Second Amended Petition. 13 We were back before you in February. We were 14 before the Historic Preservation Commission in 15 March and now, obviously, we are back in front of 16 you at this point. 17 So, everyone's pretty familiar with the 18 site. This is a bird's eye aerial looking west 19 as if we were over 287, North Broadway on the 20 top, Ross Street on the left, the Pace Law School 21 on the right. So, just a quick overview and 22 orientation of the site. This is a figure we've 23 referenced many times, but we believe is very 24 important as to the topographical characteristics 25 of the site, which are pretty important. The Veritext Legal Solutions 212-267-6868 www.veritext.com 516-608-2400 Page 8 1 darker shades are higher, the lower shades are -- 2 the lighter shades, excuse me, are lower and each 3 color increment is about 10 feet so you can see 4 the highest point on the site is where the chapel 5 is and then it goes -- slopes down to the south 6 and the east pretty precipitously in some places, 7 which is a very important consideration to the 8 ultimate design of the site. 9 So, as you know, the site is currently 10 zoned RM-1.5. This is a hypothetical site plan 11 to try to show what is "zoning compliant" under 12 the existing zoning. We have 467 dwelling units 13 as 10-foot setbacks in the rear and on the side 14 and 25-foot setback along the front yard, along 15 the North Broadway frontage. It results in 65- 16 75% coverage and access from all three streets on 17 which the property abuts, North Broadway, Stewart 18 Place and Ross Street. And so, it's from this 19 site plan that we, kind of, start and say, "This 20 is not a good solution for this site under the 21 current zoning. Let's come up with something 22 that's better, that better takes care of the site 23 and, kind of, respects it a lot more, preserves 24 it -- preserves some of the open space 25 characteristics." Veritext Legal Solutions 212-267-6868 www.veritext.com 516-608-2400 Page 9 1 And so, the first Plan we had -- this 2 is the original zoning and I don't know if you 3 recall this, but what we had proposed is a zoning 4 paradigm that would step back the tallest 5 buildings from North Broadway.