Yorktown Officials Refer First Zoning Overlay Application to Planning Board
(February 23, 2022) – On Tuesday, the Town Board referred to the Planning Board the first site-plan application under the Town’s recently adopted zoning overlay districts.
Underhill Soundview LLC is proposing to transform the former Soundview Preparatory School campus at 370 Underhill Ave. into a mixed-use development with 148 residential units, 11,000 square feet of commercial space and an adaptive reuse of the property’s historic mansion.
“It’s a laudable project and I think it’s time to kick it up to planning,” said Councilman Tom Diana.
The Town Board’s referral is not an approval of the project.
“The root decision here is: Does it meet the criteria under the law? And it does,” said Councilman Ed Lachterman.
Underhill Soundview’s application will undergo a review by the Planning Board, which will include a public hearing about the proposal.
The Town Board’s pre-referral review included submitting the proposal to the Westchester County Department of Planning. That agency recommended that the Town Board refer the proposal to the Yorktown Planning Board.
“We did what we said we were going to do,” said Councilwoman Luciana Haughwout.
“I think it’s been thoroughly reviewed,” said Councilman Sergio Esposito.
The Yorktown Town Board voted in December to adopt overlay district zoning for two business hamlets. The creation of overlay districts in the Yorktown Heights and Lake Osceola business hamlets will encourage the creative redevelopment of functionally outdated properties, a greater flexibility of permitted land uses and visually harmonious streetscapes.
“I believe that the overlay district will be a great economic catalyst for our community,” said Supervisor Matt Slater. “This is the first application going through the overlay zoning process and I look forward to the Planning Board’s meticulous review.”
The new zoning is the most significant change since the 1970s and it will advance the redevelopment of underperforming properties like the Yorktown Green, which for years has suffered from significant retail vacancies.
In November, a consultant hired by the Yorktown Town Board to study proposed zoning overlay districts concluded that the proposed zoning would not overburden the town with traffic or school-aged children over the next decade. Representatives of Buckhurst Fish & Jacquemart, a well-known planning consultant, concluded that overlay-zoning districts in the Yorktown Heights and Lake Osceola hamlets could lead to the development of 457 to 544 housing units over the next decade.
Contact: Yorktown Supervisor Matt Slater, 914-962-5722 x201 or mslater@yorktownny.org
