Residents Remain Divided on Underhill Farm Project

The Yorktown Planning Board held a four-hour public hearing June 8 where residents continued to debate a mixed-used project on Underhill Ave. known as Underhill Farm.

Underhill Farm is planned on a 13.8-acre site that once housed the Soundview Preparatory School and Beaver Conference Farm. Unicorn Contracting is proposing 148 residential units – 68 one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, 48 three- and four-bedroom townhouses and 32 one- and two-bedroom condominiums – 15,600 square feet of commercial space and the restoration of the property’s historic mansion.

A second access from Underhill Ave. is proposed, along with an estimated $1.2 million of road improvements at the intersection of Rt. 118 and Underhill. Unicorn is also making a $225,000 donation to the town’s Parks and Recreation Department and opening up a planned park on the property to the general public.

“The scenic gateway will be preserved,” said Unicorn President Paul Guillaro, who took issue with some claims contained in a printed advertisement that he maintained 90% of which was “false and misleading.”

“All the facts are in the EAF (Environmental Assessment Form) binder.”

Unicorn representatives said the $60 million project, which has been the subject of more than 20 meetings during the last 14 months, will generate $13 million in property taxes over 10 years and offer much-needed housing for individuals 55 and older.

Several residents who spoke in favor of the project mentioned the lure of the housing options.

“We want to be able to stay in the town we call home,” said Kelly O’Connor, a 23-year Yorktown resident. “We want and deserve a place that will allow us to stay.”

Former Yorktown Councilman Anthony Grasso, 96, and his wife, Jennie Menton, said Underhill Farm should be approved.

“There’s everything that people need,” Menton said. “It’s beautiful. It’s desperately needed.”

Brian Wilson, a 47-year resident, said the developer was being wrongly scrutinized.

“There’s a small group of people who are hellbent against everything,” he remarked. “Somebody is offering a proposal that will enhance and beautify (the property). It’s a crime that we are fighting this man’s mission to help us.”

However, some residents and town committee members argued the density was too much and would make existing problematic traffic conditions worse. Others questioned how seniors would be able to afford to live in the development.

“What is it going to cost to the people? That’s important,” said Dan Strauss, 83, a 57-year resident. “I’m not opposed to development, but this is Yorktown. This is the Heights. Traffic isn’t the issue here. It’s the property. It boils down to the property.”

Jennie Sunshine, a 20-year resident, stressed the board should not lose sight of the historical significance of the property.

“What makes this property so very special is it was undisturbed land for 200 years or me,” she said. “It’s a habitat that has been there from the beginning of time.”

Lynn Briggs, chairperson of the Yorktown Heritage Preservation Commission, said the Planning Board has “essentially ignored” any of the issues the Commission pointed out in 23 memos.

“The elephant in the room continues to be the intensity of land use,” Briggs said. “Do you want your legacy to be the destruction of the site of our founding fathers?”

Planning Board Chairman Richard Fon strongly dismissed a remark from a resident that the board was “rubber stamping” everything Unicorn was seeking.

“We’re not rubber stamping anything. We’re doing our diligence,” Fon said. “We’re going through a process.”

Planning Board member Aaron Bock said there were still many questions that needed to be discussed.

“My mind is certainly not made up on the entirety of this site,” he said. “I think we can come up with a successful project that will work for the developer and the neighborhood and the town.”

The board closed the public hearing but left the written comment period open for 20 days. Underhill Farm was scheduled to be on the agenda again Monday night (June 12).