Business & Tech
BMW Dealer Proposal Draws Controversy
Planning Board members criticize proposal to building two walls in a slope near the building.
The first Mount Kisco Planning Board meeting of 2010 was intense as opinions varied on the restructuring of the BMW dealership on Kisco Avenue.
Partners of the dealership hoped to build two walls in the steep slope at the bottom of the hill in which the building is located. The plan is to display eight new cars near the walls so that people are aware the building is an actual dealership rather than a service center. In order for this to happen five trees would have to be taken out and the slopes reconstructed.
Members of the board, however, said they are not having it. They claimed that the area is an "urban forest" that should not be disturbed.
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"I will not allow the slopes to be disturbed, " Member Ralph Vigliotti said. "I find it absurd to put eight cars there. We have been trying to preserve this area for years."
Member Stanley Bernstein agreed.
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"It is not absurd, it is obscene," he said. "They are proposing to destroy a piece of environment and this is going on all over the world."
Chairman Joseph Cosentino had a difference of opinion.
"I think they are dressing up the area," he said. "I don't believe that they are destroying it."
Richard Stavridis, one of the partners of the dealership on 250 Kisco Ave., came before the board in December and was told to reduce his initial plan of 12 cars in the slope. In order to complete the reconstruction he would need permits and to take part in a public hearing.
Even though Cosentino said he does not believe the plan will cause harm to the green space, he told contractors to alter the plan so there would be less construction.
"It is a little disappointing," Stavridis said. "We are trying to make something nice not just for us but the neighborhood. The walls would be rock walls and match the building."
Vigliotti did not buy it.
"We have an obligation to protect this village and to give future planners the opportunity to protect the green space," he said.
Stavridis was still hopeful.
"I am coming back next month," he said
