Yorktown Sets Public Hearing On Overlay Zones For Development

YORKTOWN, NY — With their consultant's report in hand, Yorktown town board members have scheduled a public hearing for Dec. 14 on their overlay district zoning plan to encourage "creative redevelopment" in the Yorktown Heights and Lake Osceola business hamlets.

The overlay zones would allow a diversity of permitted uses with the goal of revitalizing those specific neighborhoods.

"The retail base that evolved over the decades and has underpinned our hamlets is undergoing major changes that are apparent to all,” Town Supervisor Matt Slater said in a statement. "That will only lead to a further decline in our commercial tax base and greater burdens on our residential taxpayers, to say nothing of the negative light it casts over our town as a whole."

The consultant, Buckhurst Fish & Jacquemart Planning, has a long history of planning work in Westchester County. Recent projects include updating the White Plains comprehensive plan and assisting the Ossining Village Board in the adoption of a comprehensive plan.

Town officials said the consultants, who made a presentation in mid-November, calculated that enacting overlay-zoning districts in the Yorktown Heights and Lake Osceola hamlets could lead to the development of 457 to 544 housing units over the next decade.

While that could bring 55-65 new school-age children to Yorktown’s two affected school districts, Lakeland and Yorktown, it would not be a problem because both districts have experienced student population declines in the past decade that exceed the potential number of students generated by projected new development, the consultants said.

“Yorktown Heights in particular, has seen its shopping centers suffer significant vacancies resulting from the dramatic changes in how and where people shop. Quite simply, to do nothing is not an option," Slater said.

The consultants also pointed out that traffic in Yorktown Heights is significantly lower than when the Yorktown Green shopping center was fully occupied. They said proposed residential-retail redevelopment of Yorktown Green would not create the same levels of traffic created by the former Kmart store.

In the Lake Osceola hamlet, they projected a 1 to 3 percent increase in traffic trips.

The town board “went slow with the process because we needed to, but now I am anxious to hear from the public," Councilwoman Alice Roker said in the announcement.

• WHAT: Public hearing on overlay district zoning
• WHERE: the Albert A. Capellini Community and Cultural Center Gym, 1941 Commerce Street, Yorktown Heights, New York (please enter from the Veterans Road entrance to the back of the building)
• WHEN: 7:30 p.m. Dec. 14

You can watch a video of the Town Board Nov. 23 meeting discussing the overlay district zoning environmental assessment here.