Five Corners Coalition Poses Questions About Development
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Development at the Five Corners in Scarsdale continues to be a hot topic at Scarsdale Village Hall. On June 7, the Land Use Committee held a second open meeting in Rutherford Hall to review questions about the proposed condominium project to be built at 2-4 Weaver Street on land adjacent to the Heathcote Tavern.
Developers Frederick Fish and Stephen Oder have offered to buy a small strip of Village land that borders the parking lot to include in the project. The additional strip of land would allow them to set the project further back from the road, increase the distance between the new building and the Heathcote Tavern and move the curb cuts for the project further away from the intersection.
However there is still community concern about congestion in the area, the additional traffic that could be created by the project and pedestrian safety. Members of the Heathcote Five Corners Coalition attended the hearing and posed many questions about the size and height of the project, setbacks, variances and building and zoning requirements.
Stephen Oder did not attend this meeting, but asked Project architect Joe Plouffe to respond to the long list of questions that compared the buildable area, the building footprint and the project size in the case that the Village retained the land or opted to sell it to the developer. The Coalition also posed questions about lighting and ventilation in the Tavern building in the event that the new building was constructed and questioned the required setbacks from Wilmot Road and the Heathcote Bypass.
The architect responded that no variances would be needed for setbacks, however the developer would require a variance for the number of required parking spaces – which is currently three per unit. In response to questions about the number of units to be built with and without the village owned land, the architect said that 10 units could be built in the new building without the village strip and 12 units if it was included in the project. However, additional units can be added in the space in the current tavern building.
From the conversation, it appeared that the Trustees would have little reason to deny the developer the land. Land Use Committee Chair Jonathan Mark ended the session saying that the Trustees would go into executive session to discuss the potential land sale.
However it appears that the Heathcote Five Corners Coalition plans to continue to address area development. Last week they mailed out a fundraising letter to their members asking for $100 per household to pursue their work. Citing traffic congestion, pedestrian safety and new construction the Coaltion appealed to residents for funds. They said, “Volunteer members of the Coalition attend meetings of the Village Board of Trustees, the Planning Board, the BAR, and other meetings with local civic organizations. We seek the advice of urban planners, architects and legal counsel …to protect the interests of residents.”
Many of the decisions affecting the area have already been made. The new 11,000 square foot retail building at 1 Palmer Avenue has already been approved. The nine homes at Heathcote Manor further down Weaver Street are under construction and it looks as if the land sale and development at 2-4 Weaver Street will go forward. That leaves the discussion about a potential traffic roundabout at the Five Corners that was proposed to ease congestion. Any objections to that?
Brooke Shields Visits Chat
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Cameras, wires and a film crew spilled out to the sidewalk in front of Chat American Grill on Christie Place on Friday, June 2nd. Residents attempted to peer beyond the potted palms on the patio to find out what was in the works…. was it a movie or an episode of a TV series? It was neither according to Chat’s Mario Fava and Police Officer Boggi who were on the scene managing the curious onlookers.
Turns out the crews were filming a new commercial for La-Z-Boy furniture starring spokeswoman Brooke Shields. In the latest spot she was filmed extolling the benefits of La-Z-Boy seating while sitting on the patio at Chat. Due to legal restrictions we were not permitted to shoot Brooke Shields as she was shot by the cameras, but she emerged from her black SUV looking cheerful and svelte – and could have been mistaken for many of the
You can view an earlier La-Z-Boy spot starring Brooke here :
What's This?
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Local residents were surprised to see a huge new communications tower looming over the new police headquarters under construction at the corner of Fenimore and Post Roads.
If the new Safety Headquarters wasn’t imposing enough, the addition of a four to five story tower, capped with an American flag makes the new construction seem even more massive. The new building is taller than the former headquarters and extends closer to both Fenimore and Post Roads, giving an impression of increased bulk.
Members of the Greenacres Association were given a chance to review the building plans a few years back, but no one in the group remembers a communications tower in the renderings. From what we could learn, the tower was originally supposed to be on Fenimore Road rather than Post Road but may have been moved to improve the signal for radio transmission for both the police and fire 
departments.
So now Greenacres homeowners have two towers in their midst – the blue light from the Ritz Carlton in White Plains and the communications tower at Safety Headquarters. An inquiry to Village Hall about the tower received no response.
Update: June 1:
Paul Zaicek, Director of Captial Projects for the Village of Scarsdale sent in the following response:
"The new Public Safety Building radio tower replaces the old tower that was removed at the beginning of the project to make room for the expansion of the south side of the building. The old radio tower was 100 ft tall and the new tower is 110 ft. tall. The new tower is taller because the site drops approximately 10 ft. from the old location to the new location therefore to maintain the same top of tower elevation the new tower had to be 10 ft. taller. The elevation that the new radio antennas are to be mounted gives the Village Fire and Police radio systems the best coverage and are at the same elevation they were mounted previously."
"The new radio tower was always part of the project and was included in all the renderings. At the beginning of the planning phase the plans and renderings showed the new tower along the west side of the site (same side the old tower was located). The Village received feedback from residents at multiple municipal meetings that the proposed tower location was too obtrusive to the adjacent neighborhood and needed to be moved. After hearing the residents comments the Village and Village Architect took another look at it and decided to move the tower to the east side of the site so it would have less of a visual impact to the adjacent neighborhood. The renderings were modified to show the new tower location prior to receiving authorization from the Village Board of Trustees to advertise for the receipt of construction bids. The tower is a permanent structure."
Another notable sight: A spray painted sign that reads “New Beginnings 2011” was found leaning on a tree in front of the house at the Duck Pond. The home is soon to be demolished to make way for a new house on the property. The meaning of the sign is unknown. Is New Beginnings the name of the construction company that will handle the job or is this simply a philosophical statement of what’s to come at 1 Duck Pond Road?
A Memorable Memorial Day Parade
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All segments of the community turned out to participate in the Memorial Day Parade in Scarsdale on Monday May 30th. Among the participants were the Police, firefighters, Legion of Honor, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, the Mayor, Trustees and even the Marines! Scarsdale sophomore Lindsay LeBoyer sent it these beautiful photos to commemorate the day:
Scarsdale Village Hosts Two Art Shows in One Weekend
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Among the artists on display were Peter Diaferia who often paints local scenes, Ed Shiffer of Lee Road an architect and 47-year resident of Scarsdale and Barbara Fix, a self-taught painter who enjoys color, motion and movement and participated in the Learning to Look program in the Scarsdale schools.
Proctor reported that they had a fairly good turnout of viewers and buyers on Saturday but cancelled the show on Sunday due to the rain.
At the merchants lot on East Parkway the Westchester Festival of the Arts brought back the show for a second year in Scarsdale. Artists were housed in tents so they were prepared for Sunday’s deluge and managed to stay open despite the inclement weather. The artists we spoke to were pleased with the traffic and reported that people were buying. In fact we came back for a second look at a still life that we originally saw on Saturday and when we returned on Sunday we found that the painting was sold.
Here are photos of some of the work we admired at the shows.
Pictured at top: Work by Scarsdale's Ed Shiffer
