[Editor’s Note > This story has been updated as of 9:20 p.m. Wednesday, June 10, to correct an error made during the editing process that mis-stated the size of the land parcel sold by Buchanan to a townhome developer.]
The Village of Buchanan Board of Trustees agreed to sell a 3-acre parcel of land that the village owns on Albany Post Road and Bleakley Avenue to a developer planning to build townhouses.
At the June 2 board meeting, the Board of Trustees approved the sale of 3222 Albany Post Road to Steve Giordano Builders of Yorktown Heights for $400,000. He plans to build 11 upscale townhouses for home ownership.
The three-story townhomes have garages and on-site parking, with each unit allotted a minimum of two spaces. There will be four three-bedroom units, and the rest will be two-bedroom units. The larger units will be 1,600 square feet and the other units will measure 1,300 square feet.
The units are less than a mile from the Westchester Diner, Cortlandt Train Station, and Charles Point Park.
There were concerns from a previous workshop meeting on Tuesday, May 26, regarding the steep slopes in the back area of the townhomes. The slopes would be taken down for the project to be developed. There are 20,000 square feet of slopes disturbing more than 30% of the area and the planned amount to be removed is approximately 7,500 to 9,000 square feet, a little less than half of the steep slopes.
The property is located in Buchanan’s C1C2 overlay district, which is zoned for multifamily apartments or townhouses by special approval of the village board.
Aaron Warner, attorney with Zarin & Steinmetz, which represents Giordano, said he anticipates filing special-use permit applications in the next few weeks.
In addition to the commitment of sale to Giordano, the board authorized Mayor Thersea Knickerbocker to permit Warner to submit applications to the Zoning and Planning boards, and village departments, as needed, on behalf of his client.
The next steps for Giordano law firm Zarin & Steinmetz is to go before the planning board and zoning boards with their site plan to get approval from both boards for the project.
A few Buchanan residents expressed concern about overdevelopment in the village.
One example, cited by resident Lisa Mercora is Sylvan Woods Westchester, a five-story, 148-unit, 55-plus, one-to-two- bedroom apartment building at the corner of Craft Lane and Albany Post Road. It is owned by Buchanan Dev AMS LLC. While she acknowledged a large new residential development would generate tax revenue that would save taxpayers money on their own bill, the savings, which she calculated as in the low hundreds of dollars at most, would not, in her opinion, be worth the trade-off in a more densely populated quality of life.
Another property new to Buchanan is Village Square, consisting of 51 luxury-style apartments, at 3095 Albany Post Road and Lake Street.
“Townhouses are better than these huge conglomerates that are coming in here thinking they’re going to save the village,” said resident Darlene Garrett. “Fact is, this area is being developed like we’re Tarrytown, Pelham, or Harrison. People don’t move here for that.”
