Trustees Consider Move to Limit Home Sizes in Scarsdale

Village Trustees took an initial step toward curbing the construction of oversized homes at a meeting of the Law and Land Use meeting on December 9, 2015. At a previous meeting the committee had asked Village Planner Liz Marrinan to assess the visual impact of proposed changed to the FAR regulations to reduce the bulk of new and renovated homes.

On December 9 Marrinan reported that 3D models of a variety of FAR requirements had been simulated when the trustees considered the FAR regulations several years ago. She proposed that the architect who did those simulations be invited to a meeting of the committee where he could do a live demonstration of the models and answer trustees questions on the visual impact of possible changes to the requirements. The trustees agreed to set up this meeting.

In addition, Village staff will undertake a study of the impact of treating driveways as impervious surfaces for purposes of calculating lot coverage, as is done for storm water purposes.

However, since it assumed that any possible change to the regulations would take a minimum of 6 to 9 months to put into effect Trustee Brodsky proposed a moratorium on building homes with gravel driveways for the next six months as a way of curbing the construction of homes with maximum lot coverage.– Since gravel is considered a pervious surface the area of gravel driveways does not count as lot coverage, and therefore allows for the construction of larger homes.

Village Attorney Wayne Essanason recommended against the moratorium stating that it would impact individual property rights and that he did not believe it would have a big impact on reducing the size of new homes.

However Brodsky disagreed, saying that it will take many months to study the FAR and pass any amendments to Village Code. Trustee Stern agreed, saying " Many have come before this board expressing dismay about the large houses going up. If we do this, we can at least prevent some large houses from being built. And once these homes go up, it's irreversible. If we can do a small thing to have new homes conform to FAR, we should do it."

Trustee David Lee proposed that the moratorium only apply to applications where the installation of a gravel driveway would permit the builder to construct a larger home than if an asphalt driveway was built. In other words, he proposed that the moratorium apply to applications where the use of a gravel driveways puts the house over the lot coverage limit. Brodsky concurred, saying, "We will capture those that are using the disparity as a development tool."

Mayor Steves agreed, saying, "I do not find this requirement to be onerous. There is a general sense of concern from the community about the construction of new houses. If we have misread the community they need to let us know. We are trying to balance individual property rights with community concerns."

Despite reservations from Liz Marrinan and Wayne Essanason, the trustees asked Village Staff to come up with wording for the proposed moratorium and bring it to the committee in January.

The committee then turned to revisions to the Preservation Laws which will be refined and considered in 2015.

At the Village Board meeting that followed, the trustees discussed the following:

• The trustees agreed to schedule a public hearing on changes to the zoning code regarding clarifications related to the dimension of lots and the requirements for construction on non-conforming lots on Tuesday January 13, 2015 at 8 pm.
• The trustees granted approval for Chabad Lubavitch of Westchester County to place a menorah in Chase Park from December 16, 2014 to January 6, 2015.
• They passed a resolution allowing up to 25 White Plains residents to purchase permits to use the five Scarsdale Village paddle courts for $90. The permits would allow these residents to use the courts from 10 am to 7 pm on Monday through Sunday – which the Recreation Department considered non-peak hours. The permits will be valid from December 10, 2014 to March 15, 2015.
• Trustee Stern reported that the Sustainability Committee is working with the Village on studying the feasibility of changing all Village streetlights to LED lights. They have installed LED lights on Heathcote Road near Kelwynne and on Kelwynne at Birchall Roads and Stern asked Village residents to look at these lights to see how they compare with regular lights and to send comments on the new LED lights to Village Hall.
• Deb Pekarek said that following the hearing on the proposed new leaf law, the Leaf Task Force was asked to put together a Q&A document about leaf mulching. They are in the process of doing so and it will be posted on the Village website and publicized in a mailing to Village residents. Mayor Steves said that the Village will continue to educate the community about mulching and looking into the leaf pick-up process.
• Pekarek also announced that the Westchester County Soil and Water Conservation District will honor Scarsdale Village and the Scarsdale Friends of the Park. The Village will get an award for the George Field, South Fox Meadow storm water management project that includes the Cooper Green rain garden. They will give a commendation to the Friends of the Parks for the wetland restoration at the library.