Residents Question Maple Avenue Traffic Flow
At the Dec. 5 meeting of the White Plains Common Council several development projects in the Car Hart neighborhood off of Maple Avenue and near DeKalb Avenue had residents concerned about increased traffic flow in the area.
The public hearing to change the B-1 Zoning District to include laboratories used as accessories to office space was closed and the Council voted to accept the change.
While the wording of the zoning change was written to the specifics of medical laboratories and for all B-1 zones in White Plains, the proposal was put forward by Dannon, which is moving its headquarters from Greenburgh to White Plains in the former Fortunoff’s space. The company plans to make small batches of yogurt in its first-floor lab for tasting and testing purposes. The public hearing discussion focused on the one location.
Dannon also plans to move about 400 employees to the White Plains location, which gave rise to questions about increasing traffic on Maple Avenue.
Mayor Tom Roach noted several times that the building space was currently empty and that the project was a renovation and not a new development project.
Also on the meeting agenda were two public hearings related to a residential project at One DeKalb Avenue. These were adjourned to the January meeting after some discussion.
The first hearing was concerned with a proposed de-mapping and sale of a 4,522 square foot parcel owned by the City of White Plains to be used as public open space by the One DeKalb development project.
The second hearing related to a Special Permit for the construction of a six-story building (65 feet) by the same developer.
Again, residents of the Car Hart neighborhood expressed their concerns about increased traffic flow on Maple Avenue and their fear of being blocked in as neighborhood roads emptying out onto Mamaroneck Avenue were already heavily trafficked.
Concerns about plans for demolition of existing buildings to allow for the new construction were also expressed.
