By JEFF MORRIS//
A seemingly dormant proposal for a 23-lot subdivision between Harris Road and New Street in Katonah that would create 22 new single-family homes returned to the Bedford Planning Board on July 22 after a long absence.
The board held a workshop session to learn about the proposal. Chairwoman Deirdre Courtney-Batson noted that she is probably the only member who was on the board when the application last appeared before it in 2018.
Attorney Diana Kolev explained that the application had stalled in 2018 because of regulations applicable to the property due to its location in the New York City watershed. She said the city’s Department of Environmental Protection was requiring variances at the time of the original application, but project representatives had “worked things out” with the DEP and variances were no longer required. The 25.59-acre property was once home to the Bailey Hall School, a vocational school for boys. The school closed in 1987, and was destroyed by fire in 2000; none of its structures or buildings remain today. The property owners are Cosimo Tripi and James and Adelaide Murphy, whose existing home is located at the entrance to the site on Harris Road. The 1.84-acre Murphy property was subdivided from the larger Bailey Hall property, which had been 26.5 acres in total.
In 2006, a 19-lot conventional subdivision was proposed for the site. According to the application, following consultation with the planning board at that time, the plan was changed to a 23-lot subdivision that meets town code requirements for a “conservation subdivision,” with two of the proposed lots to be marketed as affordable, consistent with town code.
As a conservation subdivision, the development would contain 21 new single-family residences designed around a looped road with a single project entrance at New Street and a community septic system in the central portion of the development, inside the looped road. The conservation plan preserves the steep slopes on the site and concentrates the development on the flatter portion of the property, while preserving as undisturbed approximately 12.53 acres of the existing vegetation and land.
The application stated that the plan also includes the widening of New Street and installation of a sidewalk to provide pedestrian access to the nearby residential neighborhood. According to the applicant, the town recently repaved and widened New Street as part of overall area improvements, though sidewalks are not yet installed.
The property is located north of Harris Road and south of New Street, east of Westview Drive and west of Sunrise Avenue. There is approximately 900 feet of road frontage on Harris Road, and the south end of New Street ends at the northern property line of the site. The site has some steep slopes, but has no identified wetlands, watercourses or water bodies. It is located within the Katonah Fire District, the Katonah-Lewisboro School District, and within the Bedford Consolidated Water District. No connection to a public sewer district is available.
In 2006, the planning board declared its intent to act as lead agency under the State Environmental Quality Review Act, or SEQRA. A draft environmental impact statement was completed in 2011, and the applicant began preparing a final environmental impact statement.
At least two contentious public hearings were held by the planning board in 2011 regarding the draft environmental impact statement. According to press reports at the time, more than 50 residents of the area signed a letter criticizing the proposal, citing concerns about possible blasting, adequacy of the community septic and stormwater management systems, aesthetics, and the number of schoolchildren who might be added to the Katonah-Lewisboro district. They also spoke about traffic and safety concerns, and were unhappy with the prospect of staged construction that could mean it would take up to 15 years to complete all the houses.
Though a final environmental impact statement was first submitted to the planning board in 2012 and revised to include a modified stormwater pollution plan in 2016, it was still under review by the board in 2018 when the project stalled due to the issues with NYC DEP.
According to the current application, a new project engineer, Catizone Engineering, was retained in 2023, and worked with DEP to address comments and concerns and move forward with site design. On March 27, DEP confirmed that a variance is no longer required for the project.
Kolev stated that there have been no substantive changes to the project or the site since the proposal submitted to the planning board in 2017 was last discussed. She noted no wetlands have ever been identified on the site and potential impacts were fully studied as part of the SEQRA process, concluding that “certain minor updates” may be required to the final environmental impact statement. She pointed out that for the project to move forward after SEQRA is complete, numerous approvals and permits from various boards and departments will be required.
Courtney-Batson said the board needs to conduct a site visit so current members can familiarize themselves with the plan. She noted that while there had been a lot of public interest in the proposal in the past, the neighbors “may now be different people.” And while the area has not changed, she said, the planning board may want to have a traffic engineer revisit the project impact, though not necessarily conduct a new traffic study.
Concluding that “there is nothing else we can do tonight,” Courtney-Batson proposed the board aim to schedule a public hearing Monday, Sept. 23, and arrange a site visit after the hearing.