P’ville Post-Moratorium: Officials Eye Zoning, Parking, Affordable Housing
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Pleasantville’s central business district moratorium has expired and village officials now must decide how best to move forward.
At the July 24 Village Board work session, trustees discussed what they saw as the most important and relevant issues and what actions might be taken to chart the best course for downtown going forward.
The moratorium was enacted in January after residents became alarmed over the appearance of two multi-unit developments: the four-story mixed-use building at 70 Memorial Plaza and the new apartment building at 52 Depew St. Many residents have also opposed the mixed-use proposal for the former Chase Bank building at 444 Bedford Rd.
Issues frequently discussed during the moratorium focused on creating more affordable housing, imposing stricter architectural design standards, parking and eliminating bonuses for developers. But amending the village’s zoning regulations can only go so far, Mayor Peter Scherer pointed out.
“The problem is none of us collectively get to decide when the moment arises for an individual property owner to sell or decide to redevelop,” Scherer said. “Clearly it’s not within the right of government to tell them when the right time would be to develop.”
During the moratorium the village hired BFJ Planning to study the impact of future downtown development and to propose potential revisions to the code. One suggestion was to restrict the size of buildings by eliminating the floor-area ratio (FAR) bonus.
Creating more affordable housing is also a priority for officials. Trustee David Vinjamuri suggested the village study other communities that have initiated projects to incentivize developers to build affordable units.
“There are towns and municipalities that are proactive in creating housing for working people,” Vinjamuri said. “How can we create housing for those making two times the minimum wage or living on Social Security so they can live here in the village?”
Trustee Nicole Asquith also supported the goal of increasing affordable housing and maintaining a diverse population. She questioned changing current zoning.
“My inclination is not to make changes to the current zoning bonus or the FAR structure,” she said. “My sense is that if you change the zoning it would make it harder to build apartment units resulting in fewer affordable units.”
The current proposal for the former Chase Bank, which was denied an exemption from the moratorium, would have four of the 36 proposed rental apartments be affordable. Trustee Paul Alvarez said he supports the project.
“They put capital and time into their proposal and right now they are the only players in the game actively trying to do something,” Alvarez said. “Whatever changes to the zoning that has to be done, it should be done quickly.”
The sole community member attending the meeting in person was former longtime village trustee Jonathan Cunningham.
“You can’t close the moratorium without doing anything,” he insisted. “For me, I don’t understand that. There are questions that are still out like the impact of the character of that building on Depew and what the quality of life in the village will be.”
Scherer said he met with the village’s Planning Commission in June, which gave him a list of recommendations for future development.
“The question is how much control do we have over how a new development looks,” Scherer remarked. “That’s more architectural issues than zoning issues.”
Scheduling community meetings about future development is possible.
“Come the fall we could have a series of smaller town hall events in different settings so we can have a real give and take. People are more comfortable speaking out in small groups,” Scherer said.
The discussion is expected to continue at the Village Board’s next meeting on Aug. 14. For Cunningham, officials have much to consider.
“I think there’s stuff that can be done to slow things down,” he said. “There’s a lot of room in the master plan to make corrections. The major issue everybody is concerned with is the impact of the character and the quality of life in the village. And those questions are still out.”
Abby is a local journalist who has reported on breaking news for more than 20 years. She currently covers community issues in The Examiner as a full-time reporter and has written for the paper since its inception in 2007. Read more from Abby’s editor-author bio here. Read Abbys’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/ab-lub2019/
