Honda Vs. Homeowners

If you call Tarrytown Honda, their automated message proudly proclaims that they are the, "Fastest growing Honda dealer in Westchester County."

While their growth has been good for business, it hasn't been good for neighborly relations.

The popularity of Tarrytown Honda has clashed with residents nearby who claim the dealership is spilling over into the streets, creating potential traffic dangers and impacting on the neighborhood's character.

"Our quality of life has been ruined by their success," said Michael Krieger, of Sheldon Avenue.

Krieger was speaking at the last work session of the Tarrytown Board of Trustees. He was invited to make a presentation on the issue of parking, and Tarrytown Honda, along with his neighbor Audrey Capra.

Krieger said that Tarrytown Honda often conducts business on the street, whether that be loading and unloading cars, conducting test drives through the neighborhood, or allowing employees to park on the street. 

"There are cars with inventory stickers parked on the street, and they offload shipments on the road," said Krieger, who provided many of the pictures attached in this article. "This is only when I am home, who knows what happens when I'm not home."

He said the excess traffic, over-flow parking and loading periods have created many "near misses" with cars traveling near the Y-intersection of Walter Street and Sheldon Avenue. 

In late October, the board of trustees agreed that the situation was hazardous and voted to make some amendments to parking rules on Walter Street and Sheldon Avenue. A new, partial no-parking zone on Sheldon Avenue and Walter Street now extends 600 feet east from the intersection with South Broadway. Parking is prohibited on the south side of the street on all days except Sunday.

Trustees noted that allowing parking on both sides of the road had posed access problems for emergency vehicles such as fire engines and ambulances.

For neighbors, the new regulations have caused some relief, but they say that many of the core problems remain.

"They put up the signs and they are abiding by that," Capra said last week. "That's solved the concern of emergency vehicles getting in and out, but not the business in the street."

Tarrytown Honda, for its part, believes it has been unfairly victimized and was improperly left out of the process with the village. 

"I think this whole things should have been handled differently," said Tarrytown Honda owner Dwight Dachnowicz. "No one had given me any indication this was happening until it was passed."

Dachnowicz has been the owner of the dealership for four years; this month, they are celebrating their anniversary. He believes that putting the blame on the dealership for the parking problems was partially misguided. 

"We definitely need to coexist, but it can't be one-sided," he said. "I think the people that are lobbying for these changes have a bit of an ulterior motive."

Dachnowicz said that the dispute goes beyond the issues of parking, safety and quality-of-life.

"I am in agreement with what the neighbors have proposed, but it goes a little deeper than what you may view at the surface," he said

Dachnowicz said that both the Capras and the Kriegers were at one time in negotiations with Tarrytown Honda to sell off their homes to the business. He said they had each asked for $400,000 above market value, a price that Dachnowicz scoffed at. 

"Effectively, they wanted almost a million dollars of good will, on top of the market value," Dachnowicz said. "You have to ask, is this really about safety or is it a dig at the dealership?"

Capra admitted there were discussions about selling their properties to the dealership to settle ongoing issues between the two sides. 

"The proposition came up that it would be best for him if he bought our properties. It would relive him of most of his problems there," Capra said.

She noted that Tarrytown Honda could ask for a zoning variance and use the properties for parking and extra storage space.

"But he offered us an amount of money wasn't livable," she said. "I said I can't even get a moving van for that!"

Capra has been living in the neighborhood for a number of years, and has seen the dealership under its previous owners. She said she never really had a problem until Tarrytown Honda made the dealership a county-wide business working with new and used cars.

"When I moved in it was only brand new cars in there, they weren't allowed to sell used cars," she said. "It's only been recently. Now they have to have at least 75 employees and at least five droppings of tractor trailers a day too."

Capra said that the off-site work also violated a Zoning Board agreement that allowed for the business to expand in the early 80s. The original zoning agreement, finalized in December 1981, states that the dealership must insure that employees "park on the premises or spaces contracted for that purpose, and to specifically not park in front of residential properties."

It also outlined that all unloading of cars must be "on the site" and that the dealership was supposed to include signage, striping and a one-way road through the business expressly for the purpose of dropping off car shipments. 

Dachnowicz noted that the provisions of the Zoning Board's decision were based on a layout of the dealership that would have had underground parking, something that never came to fruition. He also said that deal was made before he bought the business and before the state claimed, through eminent domain, a portion of the property for the New York State Thruway. 

By being left out of the process regarding parking regulations, Dachnowicz said his own safety concerns weren't addressed.

"If the issue is really about safety, then why are they letting the provision slide on Sunday? It doesn't make sense," he said. "Do emergencies not happen on Sunday?"

In the new rules regulating parking on the street, trustees allowed for parking in the area on Sundays so that congregants at the nearby Korean Church would have a place to park. Trustees noted at the time that the regulations passed may have to be revisited.

Dachnowicz also wanted an end to what he described as the persistent use of his driveway for U-turns. He claimed that large trucks coming from Kraft Foods that have to make U-turns, or tractor trailers that miss the exit for the thruway or Route 119, often use the dealership to about-turn.

"They use my dealership as a U-turn and have backed into neighbors' cars and then they come yelling at me," he said. "We really need a no U-turn provision there."

The village has been looking back at past agreements and zoning board guidelines that were placed on the property to see if there is any further action that needs to be taken in the matter. Dachnowicz said that he hopes the next meeting on the issues on Walter Street and Sheldon Avenue will include the dealership.

"They can call me up any day, we can even have the meeting right here in the dealership," he said.