Peekskill, Homestyle Try to Reach Agreement

An architect friend of a Peekskill bakery owner has offered the Common Council an alternative proposal that tries to address the concerns of the business and the city over the planned visitor center at the Lincoln train station.

Edmond A. Gemmola suggested that, by moving the proposed visitor facility back from South Water Street, related concerns about parking and customer access to Homestyle Desserts Bakery could be more easily addressed.

Gemmola, of Croton-on-Hudson-based Gemmola & Associates, architects and planners, presented his plan to the council during a work session Monday, May 2, while Homestyle owner Rose Sanca continue to question the city’s response to her concerns about the impact of the new building on her business.

For decades Homestyle has utilized parking space on city-owned land on the north side of the bakery – where the two-story visitor center is scheduled to rise. The city has received necessary environmental and other state approvals for the streetside site and is poised to seek bids for the project. To offset the lost spaces the city has offered metered spaces for short-term parking and a discount on parking permits for the bakery’s 22 employees. Sanca suggested short-term free customer parking of 15 or 30 minutes.

Gemmola and Sanca contended that moving the visitor center back from the street would allow about eight spaces next to the bakery – a benefit for customers who otherwise would have to park on the east side of Water Street and cross the thoroughfare, sometimes with young children in tow. They said shifting the visitor center would not compromise the planned exhibits, paths, views and gazebo at the depot site. In April Sanca presented the council with a petition, signed by 2,650 people, urging the city to work out a satisfactory parking solution.

Council members and City Manager Richard Finn voiced concern that relocating the visitor center could encroach on a flood plain and the minimum setback from McGregory Brook and might require new reviews and approvals by the state, which could delay the project several months.

The customer entrance to the bakery will be relocated from the north side of the building to the south side. Initial aesthetic and health concerns about the closeness of garbage bins to the new entrance eased with a suggestion that the bins could be relocated farther away, which in turn would open up space for parking, including handicap spaces. Tractor-trailers delivering flour, paper and other goods to the bakery would be able to access the loading dock through a commuter parking lot after the morning rush hour.

Finn urged caution about providing free short-term parking at Homestead without considering similar needs elsewhere in the city but some council members suggested that the bakery’s situation was different from other locations.

Finn will summarize the latest discussion and present the proposals to the council and Sanca. “This looks doable,” he said.