About a half dozen Clarkstown residents commented positively on a petition by Wolfe Landing, LLC for a zoning change at Tuesday night’s town board public hearing. Wolfe Landing requested a zoning change from laboratory office district to active adult residence, which the town board approved.
“There is a need for this type of housing,” said one West Nyack in support of the rezoning. Another said, “Now there is a place for us to go.”
Several of the speakers said they lived at the nearby Eden Rock complex, built by the same developer. It is a 34-unit active adult residence designed for 55 and older.
The approved rezoning applies to a parcel of 8.3 acres on the south side of West Nyack Road. The developer’s plans are for 43 two-bedroom units in two story duplex and triplex buildings. In the resolution approving the zoning change, the town stipulated that seven of the units have to be affordable units and the developer is required to “contract with a qualified agency to administer, maintain and oversee the sale of affordable units.
The resolution included a statement from Town Principal Planner Joe Simoes, which he had been made at a planning board meeting in September. He said the rezoning was appropriate for reasons including “vehicular access (West Nyack Road and Medical Park Drive) and pedestrian access (existing and newly built sidewalks to west Nyack Hamlet Center) and is near public transportation (Eden Park bus stop), medical care (Palisades Medical across the street) and recreation (JCC).” In addition to getting planning board approval, the project had a State Environmental Quality Review.
According to the resolution, the developer is required to pay $1,600 per unit to help defray the costs of the West Nyack Revitalization Program. The resolution notes the market rate units are projected to cost approximately $485,000. The affordable units must be priced for someone whose income is 80 percent of the 2011 Rockland County Media Income of $101,700. The affordable units would be sold for about $325,000 to people earning $81,360 annually.
Several years ago, the town board created the Active Adult Residence (AAR) zone, an unmapped floating zone. The purpose of the AAR is to provide housing for people 55 years old and older throughout Clarkstown.
The topic of senior housing will come up again in November. The board scheduled a public hearing for Thursday, November 10 at 8 p.m. on a proposed local law to amend chapter 290 of the zoning law “with respect to Hamlet Center senior housing.”
