HomeMy WebLinkAbout08.12.2021 J & S Sims Comments1
Alex Marshall
From:jonsims2@aol.com
Sent:Thursday, August 12, 2021 10:18 AM
To:Alex Marshall; Mayor Paul S. Rosenberg
Subject:900 King Street Proposal
Dear Board of Trustees --
Having viewed numerous Board of Trustee meetings, including the one held this past Tuesday, we wanted to take a step
back and ask:
How did the village get to the point where— after three-plus years of diligent review — the 900 King Street proposal is still
so tall and so dense?
It is certainly not because the Board of Trustees has neglected this project. On the contrary — the amount of time and
effort devoted to the 900 King Street proposal is admirable and noteworthy! And for that we are grateful.
But as of now, the fruit of the Board’s labor is quite bitter.
We’re not sure, but our sense is that perhaps the Board of Trustees never seemed to have a clearly articulated view as to
the limit of how large this development should be. Moreover, several statistics about the scope of this proposal have been
either misinterpreted, misunderstood or simply buried from public view.
Early on, for example, at the Village Board’s insistence, the community was informed that the developer reduced the
number of units by 15%. But that percentage was based solely on the independent living quarters. But given that this
project also includes an assisted-living & memory care building, as well as independent-living townhouses, the real
reduction was 10% for the entire development. **
Moreover, no one realized that the unit reduction was being made in the context of a structure that is nearly 20 feet
(~50%) taller than the current building. This affects every single person who drives or walks along Arbor Drive. And
remarkably, Rye Brook residents only learned about this fact in the past month (after 3+ years of review!) We are now --
all of a sudden -- staring at an independent-living building that would reach a height that is massive and out of character
with our village.
How did this happen? In essence, the Village relied exclusively upon a “weighted-average” height limit of ~45 feet, which
is an accounting metric that obscures just how high the main building really is! Indeed, we only learned about the absolute
height of 58 feet after one Village Trustee repeatedly pressed the developer for this metric.
So, where does this leave the community?
On the one hand, the Rye Brook Village Board undertook the vital and important step to encourage the re-development of
the former IBM site. On the other hand, it would appear that there were few – if any -- initial ground rules in place as to the
maximum height and density of this project. Add in murky and misleading statistics and we are left at this late date with a
900 King Street proposal that is way out of scale with the character of our village.
Jonathan & Shari Sims
231 Treetop Crescent
Rye Brook, NY
** Original Proposal: 160 ILs + 85 ALs + 24 Townhouses = 269 units
July 2020 Proposal: 136 ILs + 85 ALs + 20 Townhouses = 241 units