Village of Westbury Alterations to Westbury Arts Council Space Bid
Transit-oriented development can add 1,600 housing units
Westbury recently took some other stride toward transforming i of its core areas.
A few days past the third anniversary of Governor Andrew Cuomo's declaration that the village was the outset community on Long Island to receive a Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) grant, information technology presented for review its draft generic environmental bear upon statement (DGEIS) related to far-reaching amendments of its zoning code. Westbury will use portions of the DRI funding to make a meaning alter to its zoning.
Mayor Peter Cavallaro and the board of trustees presided over a total house at village hall concluding calendar month as consultants touched on the highlights of the DGEIS and what the zoning would mean for the village'due south future.
The chief component was the creation of the Maple Union Transit Oriented Development commune to transform the virtually 50 acres bound past Union Artery on the south, Schoolhouse Street on the west, Maple Avenue on the northward and Post Artery on the east.
Click here for more than information on the DRI project and the DGEIS.
The aim is to create a mixed-utilise area featuring a range of housing adjacent to ane of its greatest avails—the Long Island Rail Route station. The amended zoning would allow developers to erect housing that everybody agrees is in brusque supply on Long Island—for millennials just starting out and for seniors who want to downsize, but stay in the community. This influx would also have the event of helping the electric current downtown business concern district centered on Post Avenue.
The acreage is currently mainly zoned industrial and lite industrial, with a smattering of residences amidst a plethora of garages and trucking and construction firms. With apologies to the property owners from the target zone in the audience, Cavallaro said, "Not to denigrate those properties, but it really is the merely degraded or underutilized portion of the village."
Deep Analysis
Cavallaro said that later the village won the $10 meg DRI grant, information technology created a Local Planning Committee to study how to best utilise the funding to carry out Governor Cuomo's vision of "thriving downtowns that would transform villages, spur investments and create destination places."
The village's DRI Program formulated the following vision: "Westbury volition be Long Island's model transit-oriented, diverse, walkable, arts-centric downtown."
After months of meetings and analysis, the commission whittled downwardly literally dozens of ideas to 12 for which it sought funding. Albany decided to finance vii of these.
"The zoning project that we're hearing well-nigh this night is ane of the vii projects," Cavallaro said. "I believe, and I think the lath believes, that even though this rezoning project isn't the biggest dollar project that we're working on with the DRI process, information technology's the most of import as far equally the futurity of the village. And it is truly the near potentially transformative of the projects that nosotros accept identified."
Cavallaro said that even though Westbury has been and continues to be a village dominated by single-family unit homes, information technology had, in the past 10 or 15 years, seen a number of multistory, multifamily buildings erected that take added 800 units.
Many people did non realize this, he noted, mentioning the mix of condos, rentals and assisted living units within a few blocks of the railroad station and along the master routes.
"They've been seamlessly digested into the community and they aid brand some of the fabric of the customs what information technology is," the mayor said.
He mentioned the usual villages that have undergone a renaissance in the past decade, thanks to transforming their downtowns: Farmingdale, Rockville Centre, Patchogue and Mineola.
"And if yous look at those communities, y'all meet a lot of success," Cavallaro said. "They've attracted new residents, new businesses and their downtowns are vital and thriving. I remember we have all the elements that are necessary to replicate some of those [successes]. I retrieve we as well have a unique position here because of our location, considering some of the downtown revitalization has already been done in the terminal decade-and-a-half on and effectually Post Avenue."
The mayor reiterated that the proposed rezoning would not a new downtown create.
"The idea here is not to create competition for our merchants who practise business on Post Artery," Cavallaro observed. "Post Artery is in pretty good shape. If you lot wait at our primary street and compare it to others, we have very, very few vacancies. The thought [with rezoning] is to create a new center of free energy which will continue to feed and brand Post Artery healthy and keep it healthy and thereby go on the community salubrious. And that'southward what the idea of the whole project is."
He feels the potential development promised past rezoning is the best fashion to make Westbury sustainable for the hereafter and upcoming generations.
"We will receive the benefits if this project is implemented and if some of the developments are implemented because we are taxpayers and we do alive here," he said, "but it'south really for the long-term viability of this community and I'm excited well-nigh it."
Lawyerly Talk
Cavallaro introduced the hamlet'south special counsel for this project—Kevin Walsh, Matt White and Westbury'southward own Laura Schaefer, who represents the village in the county legislature. He noted that Walsh "in particular has a tremendous amount of feel in transit-oriented evolution bracket, working in Farmingdale and Mineola doing this type of work."
After briefly explaining the history and part of New York'due south State Ecology Quality Review Act (SEQRA), Walsh said the public hearing that evening covered both the zoning changes and the DGEIS.
The latter, he noted, is when the state tells a municipality, "You have to look at all the things that might be affected because it'south a zoning change and nosotros don't know exactly who's going to build what. You accept to written report this in the context of the worst case scenario that'southward why VHB Engineering, with the help of other consultants, put together a very thorough document. And if you look through it, you lot volition encounter that they discussed everything."
He added, "Our chore is to make certain that [the DGEIS is] washed properly and that the zoning code is considered by the board properly so that when it is enacted by the trustees, information technology will be legal and proper—and it's defensible."
Turning to the proposed zoning, he noted that the density rises every bit it gets closer to the railroad station, as that's where the bulk of the transit oriented housing will exist situated. Also, to protect the existing Mail Avenue commercial-retail district, no commercial establishments of any kind will be allowed in the vicinity of that main north-south thoroughfare.
As far every bit multifamily housing, the zoning would allow a limited number of commercial uses on the basis floor.
According to Walsh, "Those that have dealt with multiple habitation housing and transit-oriented development find that they're much more successful when buildings accept some life going on after hours—[things like] personal services, coffee shops, wearing apparel shops [and such]. There'southward a list of them that are going to be permitted there, subject to a special permit to the extent that they may be open late. If information technology's only the residential area and it is dark completely in the evening, they tend not to work as well."
Westbury, Walsh observed, "has meaning assets. You have a operation thriving downtown that a lot of places don't have. You as well accept a train station, which believe information technology or non, really brings people into the expanse. They want to live there. They want to jump on the train to New York City and be back [easily]. These are the kind of people we generally like to have because they don't drive around…they're walking to downtown on the weekend to do everything they desire to."
Walsh concluded, "Overall, the proposed zoning amendments will facilitate a mix of retail, commercial and residential uses that will proceed to bolster the economic vibrancy and enhance the quality of life for residents, workers and visitors. We really see these proposed [zoning] amendments every bit something that will provide non just consistent future evolution, but volition [create] an harmonious, organic, cohesive downtown area. It would also diversify the housing options that will be available inside the village and raise the community grapheme and aesthetics within the downtown."
Traffic Flows
Frank Pearson, manager of transportation prophylactic at Greenman Pedersen, Inc. in Babylon, performed the traffic study for the DGEIS.
His firm evaluated 7 intersections within the downtown area, three on Schoolhouse Street and another four on Postal service Avenue.
"The main goal was to determine how these streets operate today, and how will they operate in 2033, when the full build-out of the rezoning could be in place," Pearson said. "And nosotros looked at 2 conditions: ane is the no-build, traffic would operate in 2033 without the zoning changes and how traffic will operate with zoning changes. We analyzed these intersections [using the] software program that is the standard that is used for evaluating traffic capacity. It provides a letter grade based on the performance. Grade A would have the to the lowest degree amount of delay and the highest level of service. It goes down to level of service F, which equally you could imagine is a fail. It means that you are over capacity and your delays have gotten excessive."
He went on to say that the overall course level at the seven intersections is fairly adept, and ranges from A to C. In that location were, however, some troublesome private turn movements and approaches, especially during the morn and afternoon peak hours. I earning the F grade was the westbound left plow from Maple Avenue to Post Artery. The plow from Maple east onto Post earned a grade of Due east.
The traffic flows improved under the scenario of total build-out under the proposed zoning, mainly because transit-oriented housing resulted in fewer cars,
Pearson acknowledged that, in the future rezoning scenario, mitigation measures volition have to be taken to reduce congestion at certain times and sure intersections. Irresolute the traffic signal cycling time was i way to reach this, Pearson explained.
His firm too studied the parking situation under the rezoning scenario, and concluded that there would not exist a parking shortfall; in fact, the study envisioned a parking surplus of 350 spaces.
Scaling Back
Eric Alexander of Vision Long Isle, a consultant to this and many of the downtown transformations that have borne fruit, gave a presentation on how the initial zoning scenarios envisioned by the DRI—virtually crucially, number of stories and density per acre—had been scaled back after further review.
Originally, buildings could exist upwards to 7 stories in acme. Under the proposed rezoning, the base summit would be iii stories, but the lath of trustees could consider giving permission for upwards to five stories if the programmer agreed to provide amenities sought past the hamlet.
The density was reduced from 50 to 35 residents/acre while open space increased from 1.2 to 2 acres.
Alexander noted that private investment in the area was estimated at $351 million at full build-out, which calls for nearly 1,600 units of housing.
The planner praised the spirit of bipartisanship and cooperation that had characterized the whole process.
"The consensus was unanimous as far as the projects to motility forrard, but at that place were some comments made in the customs throughout near the aggressiveness of the density, the building superlative, and the pattern of the buildings every bit they were preliminarily put forward," Alexander observed. "Remember, the DRI is a state procedure with a grant that thinks big. You need to tailor information technology to the community—the architectural colloquial, the size, the calibration, what actually works for local folks."
In Vision's weekly newsletter days later, Alexander echoed some of what he had said at the meeting: "One of the reasons this project has fared and so well has been the hyperlocal focus and local groups that came out to support including: the Westbury Arts Quango, Westbury BID, and local religious institutions such as the Islamic Eye of LI and many local residents and business."
After noting that these and other groups had been involved throughout the planning procedure of the DRI and had helped provide input, Alexander added that "there was pregnant communications with local belongings owners and also…from the development customs about what's buildable and what's not. Because you don't want to create a zoning code that doesn't get the states to a place where something doesn't happen."
He had had lots of experiences wherein "there was a great plan and the [rendering] pictures were pretty," but zippo came of the projects.
Alexander also noted that some of the earlier plans with the DRI came out of a urban center-centric group of consultants (who were chosen by the state) "but now [we have] people who are hyper local in their thinking. There's a real local flavour in all this And that's helped with the unity."
School Population
Alexander too discussed the impact of the proposed new housing on school enrollment. The Westbury school district, he observed, has bucked the tendency on Long island by actually gaining student population.
"We had a special meeting with the school board members and staff and went over some of these preliminary numbers. We're waiting for their feedback," Alexander said. "Nosotros looked at this, not theories merely actuals. We know in that location are projects on Long Island and similar communities that have transit-oriented evolution and multi-family developments and they've had minimal school children."
The DGEIS noted that in the 1,800 total housing units erected in the villages that were studied, only 50 school-age children were living in them, resulting in a figure of .26 children per unit of measurement boilerplate in communities across Long Island.
Alexander emphasized that even though it is called multi-family housing, information technology'due south really not build for children the way single-family houses are. He had been within about 60 of these buildings, he added, and has seen very few children. He concluded that the bear upon on school enrollments been very very minimal.
Board Members Speak
Trustee Steven Corte said, "The i constant I find throughout all this, is that everything we see doing hither is a positive for our future. And that'southward very of import for us. We demand to know that this is sustainable going forwards, that nosotros got a good revenue enhancement base of operations, and so we're providing affordable housing for our residents, the downtown would be more than prosperous and our revenue enhancement base will be amend—all the ingredients nosotros need to sustain ourselves."
Corte praised the effort put into developing the program and praised the village's staff and the consultants, as well as the mayor. He was too glad to see the level of participation from residents.
"It's overnice as a trustee to see the community come together and stay together over this length of time, and I promise information technology continues that manner, and nosotros build something together going frontwards," Corte concluded.
Trustee Beaumont Jefferson praised the DRI and DGEIS teams, as well as the support from the community during the DRI process.
"This will exist probably i of the most important initiatives I'll be involved with as a village trustee," Jefferson stated. "Obviously, the customs has a lot of concerns they bring to yous."
He mentioned school enrollment, and was confident that fifty-fifty with the highest judge of school-historic period children, the transit-oriented area would not accept a significant affect on enrollment.
"This couldn't have happened at a better time considering we have the Third Track Project, which will eliminate the route crossing at Schoolhouse Street…and we have the train station beautification, which will aid to attract more people," Jefferson said, and also added that few people now alive in the affected expanse and the new zoning will create boosted affordable housing opportunities.
"All in all, I feel that it is a fantastic project moving forrad," Jefferson concluded, and looked forward to the job cosmos and economic development and additional holding taxes resulting from the rezoning.
"I'chiliad excited. This is great for the village," said Trustee Vincent Abbatiello, who recalled, as a young member of the Westbury Fire Department, how he feared the delivery of liquid nitrogen to a now-shuttered semi-conductor facility in the light industrial area under review. If one of the delivery trucks ever exploded, he observed, "it would have wiped out half of Westbury."
He said that the construction firms in the area are on lath with the rezoning and are approaching the village with ideas.
"You're bringing people into the customs and they're going to be spending money on Mail service Avenue," Abbatiello said. "They're going to be bringing tax revenue into the area. Let's make it happen. And the public input from the village residents from the showtime has been tremendous. That's why this room is the way it is this evening. It is packed. Everybody's excited."
The People Speak
The mayor then opened up the meeting to public comment.
Anthony Mastroianni, who has been practicing law in Westbury since 1978, chosen the rezoning, "The greatest milestone for the village since its incorporation in 1932. And why do I consider it the greatest milestone? Being a lawyer, totally familiar with the zoning lawmaking, I know that code was made to serve an agronomical customs when it was adopted in 1932. Nosotros accept inverse since 1932. Long Isle is no longer the potato fields and the duck farms that were here then."
He went to praise the governor and mayor for recognizing the ideas needed "in social club to enhance the ability of Long Island to get the economic force of the future and provide the amenities that are going to exist needed by the workforce. What does this practise for the Village of Westbury? It makes it a viable identify to be for the economic future on Long Island."
Virginia Shoureas wondered well-nigh the security in the rezoned area, and too the garbage removal, noting there is considerable litter there now.
"Those are good concerns," Cavallaro replied. "I would respond to your first business concern by saying that every proposal is going to take details as to how they're going to police force their own property, And then if they have garage parking for instance, they're going to accept to have their own security measures on site to police and make sure that it's prophylactic and secure."
He noted that the county is very encouraging of the project and is aware that future residents would need increased police patrols and protection.
As far as trash, Cavallaro affirmed that the zoning code would require the projection developers and property owners to supply their ain sanitation.
"That would allow us to enforce [the lawmaking] if they're not properly disposing of their trash," Cavallaro observed. "There will be no cost to the village residents [as far as boosted solid waste expenses] because the property owners will be responsible for taking care of their trash."
Shoureas said she'd been in Westbury since 1969 and, "I have never seen what I have seen this past year on Post Avenue. And it'south non positive. Twice this twelvemonth I had to call the law for drunken men sleeping on the sidewalk during the twenty-four hours, and I saw a mother with a child having to walk around them."
She had seen some of the renderings of what the rezoned area looked like, and was worried that the open infinite areas would describe people who drink.
Cavallaro responded, "We've had those issues in the past and nosotros take an ongoing dialogue with the [Nassau County Police force Department's] Third Precinct."
He added that police had to occasionally remove drunken people from the Piazza Ernesto Strada.
"Unfortunately, those type of things volition occur," he said. "Information technology is a matter for the village government to work with the police force section and our other elected officials to make sure it doesn't happen. The idea hither is to upgrade the entire area [and past doing so] we are hoping to stimulate more upgrade and vibrancy on Post Avenue. "I retrieve the all-time thing there is for having that type of action not to happen is a lot of activity by people who are in that location legitimately going to a restaurant or bear witness or whatsoever. And people who are wont to be boozer don't want to be in that environment. Information technology's upwardly to the village to work with the law department [to control] that kind of conduct."
"You shouldn't rely on someone walking downwardly the street like myself to call 911," Shoureas pointed out. "I recall the people coming in today—I don't care how fancy your restaurants are, if they have to walk effectually [drunks on the sidewalk], they are not going to come back [or enter the restaurant]."
Faroque Khan of the Islamic Middle said he had been in Westbury since 1984. and wanted to limited his happiness at seeing Post Artery thrive.
"As far as this project, I can clinch y'all the members of the Islamic Center are looking forrard to information technology," Khan stated. "At that place'due south a whole bunch of young millennials. In that location'southward a whole bunch of seniors who are retiring who desire to motility out of those large homes and into some some more manageable places and they will endorse this completely. All I can say in conclusion is expert luck and Godspeed."
Cavallaro thanked Khan for his comments and added, "We take seen a large [cohort] here in the village where we have people who want to age in place and one of the incentives we are offering is for senior or age-restricted units, equally well as units for millennials and veterans-preferred units. We know at that place'southward a market for that."
The mayor pointed out that these would be private transactions, not transactions the hamlet will be putting together.
"Simply there are people in this room that ain properties and they may exist looking for investors to aid them pull off a projection," he added.
Doug Omstrom, a erstwhile president of the Commercial Industrial Brokers Lodge of Long Isle, said that Long Island'south largest commercial brokers group supports the village's proposed rezoning.
Omstrom has been a resident of the hamlet for more than thirty years and noted that the rezoning would aid bolster businesses along Post Artery, expand the tax base and keep the community sustainable in the long run.
"Our members are in constant contact with many of Long Island's about dynamic employers, both large and minor. We hear their concerns, difficulties and needs" Omstrom said. "Ane area nosotros often hear about is the difficulty in keeping our younger generation and talented local employees on Long Isle. The obstacles that are faced are due to the lack of affordable, convenient and suitable rental housing, mass transportation options and walkable downtowns with civilities."
He connected: "Transit-oriented construction and smart mixed-use downtown development is the future of a successful and prosperous Long Island. Nosotros already see its overwhelmingly positive effects in communities such as Huntington Station, Farmingdale, Patchogue and Wyandanch. Many other communities take approved or are because transit-oriented, mixed-employ projects. Examines are Lindenhurst, Ronkonkoma, Hicksville and Oceanside. In our view, the proposed Westbury transit-oriented development fits in well with our mutual goals to create jobs, spur private investment, help ease the local taxation burden, amend our overall business climate and ad needed transit-oriented, smart mixed-use development in our community."
Margaret Cosenza asked near the bonuses that would enable developers to build higher than the bones three stories allowed past the proposed lawmaking.
"If the developer wants more density, [and wants to erect a] college building, he has to do what we want him to do," Cavallaro replied. "He has to provide some of the public benefits that are outlined in the presentation, and the law has a lot more extensive listing of amenities. It's not an sectional list. A developer that's very creative might come up with a different plan, he might want to exercise certain things that we haven't even idea of. Maybe he wants to donate $2 million to the hamlet to employ as a fund for other public benefits such as upgrading the Senior Center or the parks. The bespeak is, if a developer wants to build up to five stories and increase the number of units, he has to provide sure amenities to the village that's going to benefit the entire village."
Cavallaro talked about the certainty that developers will have nether the proposed zoning.
"A developer doesn't want to buy property and have to await eight years to figure out if he's going to be able to build what he wants to build," Cavallaro said. "He wants to know yes or no in a brusk period of time. But at times they don't care if the respond is no—they only don't desire to wait eight years to find out if it's going to be no."
Cosenza was skeptical of the traffic study. She thought that the millennials who would populate the area would have cars and therefore generate traffic.
Cavallaro pointed out that the traffic study took up the largest function of the DGEIS and reiterated its conclusions that the hamlet—with some traffic ameliorating measures—would be able to handle the influx of new residents.
Later, when another resident questioned the traffic study, Cavallaro replied, "We're not beingness pollyannish here. Nosotros know there'll exist impacts—there are impacts with anything we exercise. Only nosotros think they're manageable, they're moderate and they're mitigatable."
To a question well-nigh affordable housing, Cavallaro said the rezoning would try to recreate the diversity of the village'south population and housing stock.
"We take housing in the community at nigh every toll point and we want to make certain that this evolution will take the same characteristic as the rest of the community," Cavallaro emphasized.
Eric Alexander of Vision Long Island asked to speak and said many attempts at affordable housing failed because the design created rental units whose price points were out of attain for many. He said the proposed zoning in Westbury would encourage such desirable housing as microunits, smaller than standard studio apartments.
"You tin get the toll points downwardly for working folks without subsidies," Alexander said, and added that he talked with the 25 developers on Long Isle who are experts in transit-oriented development downtown housing.
"They were very interested," he said. "We met with iii of the five [developers] that about exclusively do affordable housing and they were very interested in Westbury. The expert news is at that place'southward a lot of interest here and the affordable housing is front and center."
Echoing Cavallaro and Jefferson, Alexander said that he does not want gentrification in the new expanse, but rather to mirror what already exists in Westbury.
Mark Deifik said that the crossing on Post Avenue going to the railroad station is a traffic nightmare, and he had been nearly struck a number of times.
"I was wondering if your impact studies are doing something to prepare that?" he asked.
Cavallaro replied, "That crossing has been a bane to the hamlet boards for a long, long fourth dimension. One of the other DRI projects is to exercise a streetscape improvement on Postal service Avenue, which includes redoing all the crosswalks. At that place's a dissever project, a streetscape at that intersection."
He said that the hamlet will be going out to bid on that project soon and is in conversation with the county, which owns Mail service Artery.
"The county is very anxious to work us with us on this project," Cavallaro said. "That whole [railroad] area is going to exist revamped, both past the DRI project and also by the Third Rail Projection, and I call up you'll be happy when that'southward done."
Former New York State Senator and Mineola Mayor Jack Martins attended the meeting and recalled his hamlet'south transformation in contempo years.
He congratulated the board and the mayor for looking forward, not looking dorsum, as then many communities are doing by, in his words, "hiding behind their zoning code equally supposed to taking on new challenges."
"You care about this village. Yous're doing the right thing," Martins added. "I know you're not going to approve something that isn't feasible and that hasn't been vetted. You've assembled a great team here and I capeesh the fact that you're looking forward because if Long Isle is going to address these bug every generation, it's incumbent upon our leaders to tackle them caput-on. And I wish to congratulate yous (applause)."
Cavallaro in turn praised Martins for his leadership in Mineola and noted that, "You can't put your head in the sand and wish that it was 1950 again. We're trying to expect frontward and we're trying to make our village sustainable and successful for l years from now."
He added, "We're very pleased that we're at this juncture. The consulting team has worked really difficult and put a lot of thought into doing something that is tailored for a hamlet.I call up we accomplished that and I hope our residents experience that mode. I too promise that the holding owners in the area feel that way."
DRI Objectives
• Encourage mixed-use and multi-family unit housing to concenter new residents seeking a transit oriented lifestyle and to support downtown businesses
• Maintain consistent street wall, comfortable pedestrian realm, and widening sidewalks
• Encourage contextual basis floor commercial
• Increase pedestrian and vehicle connectivity on major streets as well equally the LIRR Station through new roadways and pedestrian connections
• Increase open space opportunities, landscape and streetscape amenities, and customs identity
Source: https://thewestburytimes.com/2019/08/zoning-target-a-vision-to-transform-westbury/
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