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WPCNR Downtown Dispatch. By John F. Bailey. June 5, 2005: The Comprehensive Plan Review Committee Draft Report is out.
The report reveals that the committee is endorsing development of mixed use residential in the CORE area in the vicinity of the TransCenter, as well as conversion of office-use only properties into residential or mixed use.
The Committee, in addition, calls for the expansion of White Plains Hospital Center along Post Road, construction of extensive low and mid-rise housing along South Lexington Avenue and up Post Road to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Boulevard.
The committee of fourteen citizens who have been reviewing the 1997 Comprehensive Plan, have issued the report for public comment, which according to city hall sources will be available to the public Monday.
Assigns Heights in the Core Area:
- The CPRC endorses converting properties zoned for office use in the Core Area to “residential and mixed use” for sites designated for office use in the 1997 plan. The draft report does not name specific sites, but by saying so, it paves the way for acquisition of office use properties and converting them to mixed residential use.
- One such site the Report names to be converted to mixed use is the Gateway II piece. If that property would be developed in such a way would be a step to expanding the residential ambience by the White Plains TransCenter.
- The CPRC recommends the city “identify site(s) in the Core Area where additional height in excess of the 280 feet might be considered, and develop a policy that either prevents or discourages tall buildings except on the lot(s) identified.”
- Conversely the CPRC advises that office buildings in the Core Area “be limited to a maximum of 230 feet (23 stories) in the Core Area, without name which ones.
Gentrification and White Plains Hospital Extension Down Post Road.
The CPRC’s recommendations give citizens ideas of what is in store for developing the Core Area of the city. Sweeping changes recommended by the Committee are:
1.. The CPC Committee endorses extensive redevelopment of West Post Road, advocating White Plains Hospital expansion along West Post Road for “medical related uses, and housing, and mixed use for this area.” No details of how much medical expansion by White Plains Hospital Center are spelled out. No visual plans of what and how much housing the city has in mind for those areas are provided in the report. The Report does envision transitional housing “along Post Road between Martin Luther King, Jr. Boulevard and Rathbun Avenue.”
2. Around the corner from Post Road on the West side of Lexington Avenue, across the street from Winbrook, the CPRC endorses the sketchy city (first reported afoot by WPCNR last fall) plan to makeover South Lexington Avenue with townhouses:
The Report says the CPRC recommends the city “Develop low to mid-rise (height specified) transitional housing along the west side of South Lexington Avenue.”
Affordable Housing Should be Expanded – be part of Buildings responsible for providing affordable units.
The CPRC Draft Report recommends making more “affordable housing” available to higher income levels, and advocate raising the percentage of affordable units any future developer would have to provide. From the Report:
1. “Affordable housing should be developed for a broader range of incomes, and the term “affordable” should be replaced with different terms that are tied to percentages of median income.”
2. “The goal should be to provide housing that is affordable to families at median income (approximately $80,000, ed. Note), and below. The City should make every effort to maximize the number of units to help the greatest number of families, and, to the maximum extent practicable, construct affordable housing in or in proximity to the buildings generating the requirement for the affordable units.”
Affordables in Core Area BUT could go elsewhere.
The CPRC advocates limiting this new stock of affordable housing to the Core Area but leaves the door open for locating elsewhere, as follows:
New affordable housing should be focused only in the Core Area and in the high density areas and corridors adjacent to the Core Area where allowable density will permit a greater number of units to be developed and not have negative impacts on the abutting neighborhoods.
Downtown should be madeover with boutiques.
The CPRC revives and endorses the boutique, specialty shop siren song of the past to augment the upscale businesses now existing in White Plains. They like specifically “boutiquing” Quorropas Street and Martine Avenue, “by providing a positive and entertaining shopping experience. In the case of White Plains this means a “walkable” urban environment. To this end, the City should focus on attracting smaller boutique shops within the Central Business District.
No Position on New York Presbyterian Hospital Redevelopment.
The Report does not comment on two big issues involving New York Presbyterian Hospital.
It ignores the medical use zoning request proposed by the hospital in exchange for rezoning. It simply does not comment on it.
The CPRC apparently does not have a position on whether they would agree with developing the New York Presbyterian Hospital property into high rise and retail towers, if it were to result in acquisition of hospital land for a park should it be sold by New York Presbyterian Hospital, as has been reported to the CitizeNetReporter. New York Presbyterian Hospital has chosen not to comment on whether or not they are seeking to sell the land, or when they plan to break ground on their proton accelerator facility: approved two and a half years ago, but still not begun.
The Report addresses relatively minor New York Presbyterian Hospital issues, in a general manner:
1. It recommends new development “be subject to a traffic management plan which will include considertation of traffic impacts on the adjoining streets and abutting neighborhoods.”
2. “In addition to the development process, the City acquire or obtain by easement, lease other means, additional open space on the property through the assistance of land trusts, the County, or other governmental or not-for-profit entities, or through other options for acquisition.”
The CPRC endorses setting aside land for a city owned park, but does not make any recommendation of how that park can be administrated or what uses the park would have.
St Agnes Hospital Development Recommended to be Limited in Height.
In another intriguing hospital related comment, the CPRC Draft Report notes specifically regarding the St. Agnes Hospital Property: “If any uses other than single family are developed, continued or expanded on the property, buildings should be sited or limited in height so that they do not alter the open space character of the North Street Corridor, and are not visually obtrusive to views from surrounding roadways or properties.”
Citizen Authors Should Be Proud.
These excerpts from the Comprehensive Plan Review Committee Draft Report on Land use in the Downtown and Neighborhoods show the “city’s thinking.” No sections are signed by any author. No names as to which of the fourteen citizen experts weighed in with these “recommendations.” However, the citizens of the committee who wrote these sections have done a massive job, though lacking in tightness and specificity.
The document is 55 pages long, covers a wealth policies, but the major issues of the report reference the CORE Area, which WPCNR has attempted to give readers a first glimpse. WPCNR suggests you contact City Hall’s Mayor’s Office at 422-1411, or the Planning Department for your personal copy.
