|
Dover Knolls Reps Explain Plans For Psych Center
02.03.2005
By Scott Morris
Staff Reporter - Harlem Valley Times
Imagine yourself single and a few years out of college. You wake up in your Dover apartment, grab your briefcase, and walk downstairs for a café latte at the small coffee shop you live above. You take it to go, grab a copy of the New York Times on your way, and after a brisk 5-minute walk you board a train headed to your job in Manhattan.
You may keep a car on the street, but barely use it, since you can walk to the grocery store, the dry cleaners, and a few different restaurants.
That scenario would makes you but one of the different kinds of new residents the Dover Knolls Development Co. is seeking to attract for its massive project at the former Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center.
The company is seeking nothing short of creating a community, with small shops and walkable streets, that would be centered around the Metro-North station for a "transit-based community."
At a public informational meeting at Dover High School this week, Joel Russell, town planner, said the development would be "a new hamlet" in Dover.
Officials said they were supportive of the proposal. Supervisor Jill Way opened the Jan. 31 meeting by discussing the history of the former psychiatric center, which closed in 1994.
She said when the center closed, Dover "lost its major employer and its way of life. Now residents have to commute many miles, and there is no longer any job security or even an expectation that a job will be available."
She continued: "We now have a wonderful and unique opportunity to plan for and discuss the future, to breathe new life into an abandoned campus in the heart of our community."
In October 2003, the state sold the 850-acre campus to the Dover Knolls Development Co., which has been devising a plan to develop the property ever since.
John Saccardi of the White Plains-based law firm, Saccardi & Schiff, presented the application to the board and residents on Monday. His firm will be principal authors of the Dover Knolls Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), a required evaluation according to state law.
He said the company has been careful to protect the environmentally sensitive areas and stay within the confines of Dover's master plan.
Phase 1
The project will be divided into two phases, Saccardi explained. Phase 1 concentrates on the west side of Route 22.
The first buildings of the psychiatric center, driving north on Route 22, will be retained and converted to office space, he said.
The administration buildings will also be retained, and the former power plant and storehouse will be converted for commercial use.
There will be a parking lot next to the storehouse that will also serve as access to the Great Swamp River.
"A sprinkling of single-family homes will be interspersed into the western part" as well as in a new nine-hole golf course in that area, Saccardi said. These few houses are to be constructed and intended for families with children.
Phase 2
Saccardi explained that on the east side will be what Dover Knolls representatives called "the heart of the project." There will be a village center, along a main street with apartments, shops, offices and apartments.
Saccardi said the company was stressing traditional neighborhood design, not large retail.
The townhouses will have an emphasis on empty nesters, young professionals and senior citizens.
Dover Knolls representatives said they believe that this way, the number of children moving into the area will be limited, minimizing the burden on Dover's school district.
In order to place the emphasis on these demographics, the houses will be either "age-restricted" or "age-targeted." Saccardi explained that the two categories mean different things.
Age-restricted would include a clause in the deed that would limit the age of the buyer to a particular age, typically 55-62, he said.
Age-targeting involves targeting by design and architecture, such as building the master bedroom on the first floor to make the space more attractive to empty nesters, he said.
Of about 1,400 new dwellings, about 1,300 would be either age-restricted or age-targeted, said Saccardi.
To the east of Route 22 there is a concentration of existing buildings. Wheeler Road will be realigned there to be adjacent to the former church on the site. There will be a supermarket and shops on the road as well, with parking behind the buildings.
These townhouses, stores and apartments will all be within walking distance of the train station.
Overall, Saccardi said, "just under 60% will be open space. This includes the environmentally-sensitive areas and the golf course."
He said the plan is an opportunity to create thousands of jobs, and was enthusiastic about what he termed a "public-private partnership."
"This is a wonderful opportunity to do something very special for New York State and the Harlem Valley and we can't wait to get started on it," he said.
Officials' enthusiasm
Way said to assist in the development the town will provide tax incentives for businesses.
Russell said the application has come from a long process and he thought it complied with the "smart growth" concept: keeping the character, open space and integrity of the town's hamlet.
He said he believed the proposal to be compatible with the town's 1993 master plan, which encouraged development in the Wingdale area.
The economic impact of the psychiatric center closing hit the town hard, and Dover planners worked out flexible zoning for the Dover Knolls project.
"We wanted to make it as easy as possible to make something happen," Russell
He stressed the proposed community would be walkable, have broad commercial, retail and office uses, "a whole range of services that right now people have to go a long way for."
Russell also said a transit-centered community could be beneficial to the town.
"As many people as possible could walk to the train station," he said.
The next step of the process will be for the company to complete an Environmental Impact Statement.
Way said the environmental data was allowed to be collected on a voluntary basis, a unique process.
"I don't think we can underestimate the uniqueness of this collaborative effort," said Dr. Michael Klemens, town environmental consultant.
He said because the EIS is being developed concurrently with development of the application it has "knocked about a year off the total process."
Klemens said the EIS was far from complete, and priorities for conservation had yet to be established. However, he did say, "the Great Swamp is a critical environmental resource," adding, "We need to understand the smaller wetlands, know what's moving in between."
Roger Akeley, commissioner of the county Department of Planning and Development, also lent his support to the project.
"We have no reason to think anything but very optimistic things at this point," he said.
John Clarke, senior planner for county planning and development, also said he was optimistic.
He said the plan would create a high-value economic district with access for tourists and residents on foot, bike or public transportation, who would not need to depend on automobiles.
He said the age restrictions and targeting would attract residents with disposable income and fewer children.
He also said he hoped the company would follow through with its promise of maintaining the historic characteristics of psychiatric center.
"The quality of the structures on the site are unique to Dover," he said, noting his hopes that Dover Knolls can "retain the quality and contexts of the buildings, but make it better."
He said his department had "identified four areas in Dutchess County where there is an opportunity for transit-oriented development, and Dover is one of them."
Response
Councilman Richard Hawthorne asked the developers if they were considering expanding the parking lot at the Metro-North station.
"They're very interested in expanding commuter parking and we're trying to work cooperatively," Saccardi responded.
Dover resident Barbara Clay, who is trained as an environmental engineer and is a practicing attorney, said she hopes the project can be open to the public and suggested a Web site so the public can follow the progress of the development.
"It's a hard-to-understand process," she said.
She said she hopes the current momentum continues through phase 2, since that's the more involved part of the process.
» Back to Top | Back to List
|
