The Northern Westchester Examiner

Neighbors Pondering Lawsuit over Multi-Family Rezoning

Rick Pezzullo
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Neighbors who opposed the rezoning of a property on Lexington Avenue that was unanimously approved by the Yorktown Town Board last week are considering taking legal action.

The board voted to rezone the site at 3574 Lexington Avenue, located near George Washington Elementary School and North Westchester Restorative Therapy and Nursing Center, from R1-20 (half-acre) to R-3 (multi-family) and allow the developer to seek as many as eight rental townhouses from the town’s Planning Board.

Supervisor Michael Grace said the rezoning was consistent with the town’s Comprehensive Plan and dismissed the notion that it was spot zoning.

“Compared to other properties around it this is a less intense use. Some neighbors are upset because it’s a change. It’s a stretch to say it’s really part of the neighborhood,” Grace said. “The benefit to the town is we have a property that is rundown and an eyesore and we get it rehabilitated and some type of diverse housing. There aren’t too many properties that can accommodate this type of housing without much impact.”

Councilman Gregory Bernard agreed, saying, “Every site has its own complexities. We’ve been over this many times. We came to what we think is a compromise.”

Councilman Vishnu Patel sided with his fellow board members after raising concerns about the action being spot zoning and questioning how affordable the rents for the townhouses will be.

“Today is affordable and tomorrow it’s unaffordable. That’s an issue I have,” Patel said. “I want to listen to the people.”

Several residents in the immediate Mohegan Lake area signed a petition against the rezoning and penned duplicate last-minute letters urging the board not to allow it, stating, “We believe that making 3574 Lexington Avenue a multiple-family zoning belies the spirit of the Yorktown Comprehensive Plan and changes for the worse the character of our single-family homes in our single-family zoning district.”

The residents also mentioned they have agreed to band together and “defray the legal costs to challenge any decision that results in a rezoning to multi-family R-3 zoning,” an action confirmed by 22-year Ellis Street resident Cathy Hertz.

“We are extremely disappointed. We have a huge problem with this and it scares us for the future of this town,” Hertz said. “This is a scary, slippery slope. We’re starting to think they have a vision and they’re not sharing what it is. As residents and taxpayers, we’d really like to know what that is. They obviously have a different vision of what the community is.”

Grace, an attorney, dismissed the legal threat, remarking, “Frankly, I don’t think it has much merit.”

 

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