41-51 Maple Street (Katz Property) Extended Narrative
The parcel at 41-51 Maple Street (known colloquially as the Katz Property) was obtained by the Village in 2008 for the price of $900,000 as part of a settlement agreement with the former owner to resolve disputes regarding applications for commercial uses inconsistent with the property’s zoning classification. There had been a desire for the Village to obtain ownership of the parcel for a number of years. The 2003 Comprehensive Plan stated,
“Significant upgrading of this {Municipal Place} gateway area could create an opportunity to develop needed community facilities, and the Village could consider purchase of this 2.4 acre site. Developing a portion of the site as a community center, possibly coupled with office use, would help establish this area as a mixed-use center. In addition, the development of a landscaped park would result in a conveniently located meeting place for Village residents.”
The Village discussed a number of ideas for this parcel since its acquisition. In 2010, the Village Board issued an original request for proposals, which received four submissions. None were accepted and no project moved forward.
In 2019, the Village undertook a zoning study of the Municipal Place Gateway area, along with the North Riverside Avenue corridor, with its planning consultant at the time, BFJ Planning. The zoning study recommended the following changes to promote appropriately sized development in select locations, promote park/civic space and improve streetscape: 1) three stories within 35 feet instead of two stories within 35 feet and 2) residential uses, in addition to commercial uses already permitted in the existing C-1 zoning district, which generate less traffic than commercial uses on average. The foregoing would only be permitted if 10% of the property was used for park space at the corner of Municipal Place and Maple Street, a 50’ open space buffer from residential properties on Wells Avenue was included and any proposed building adhered to sidewalk, signage, landscaping and lighting guidelines.
Following discussion on these recommendations, the Village Board also decided to include a 50’ open space buffer from residential properties on Beekman Avenue as well. These recommendations were ultimately adopted as Local Law 4 of 2020. The zoning study was also adopted as an amendment to the Village’s Comprehensive Plan document. More information on the public process for the zoning study can be found on its project page.
In April 2020, the Village Board authorized Kevin Dwarka to draft a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the development of the parcel at 41-51 Maple Street. The RFP was delivered back to the Village for review and comment in the summer of 2020. An ad-hoc task force known as the Municipal Place Advisory Task Force, comprised of Village residents, was constituted to review the RFP document and provide their comments. The task force provided comments to the Board on August 3, 2020, and the comments were reviewed at a Board work session on August 24, 2020. Following this review, the RFP was published on September 21, 2020.
The Village received a total of six proposals from interested developers. One of the proposals was determined to not be compliant with the terms of the RFP and was immediately rejected. Besides the proposal from Regan Development (which is discussed in greater detail below), the other four compliant proposals were:
- Proposal #1: $2,000,000 for a 35-unit, three-story mixed-use building. This proposal noted that seven of the 35 units would be affordable.
- Proposal #2: $750,000 for a development of 26 townhomes. This proposal noted that four of the 26 townhomes would be affordable.
- Proposal #3: $720,000 for a 33-unit, three-story mixed-use building. This proposal noted that seven of the 33 units would be affordable.
- Proposal #4: $1,100,000 for a development of 28 townhomes or $800,000 for a 28-unit, three-story multifamily building. This proposal noted that six of the 28 units/townhomes would be affordable.
The above proposals were reviewed by the Village Board of Trustees and the Village Manager and three semi-finalists were selected to be reviewed by the Municipal Place Advisory Task Force. Following their review and report, the Village Board selected two finalists for consideration. The Village Board met with each of the finalists twice, reviewed the proposals, the qualifications submitted by the proposers and their experience developing similar projects and their financial qualifications. Based upon this deliberative process, Regan Development Corporation was selected as the proposed purchaser and developer in February 2021.
Regan’s proposal had a total of 33 residential units spread among two, two-story buildings. Building #1 contained 19 units, while Building #2 contained 14 units. All units would either be one-bedroom or two-bedroom units. Four of the apartments would be unrestricted rentals, while the remaining 29 would have rents between 50% and 80% of area median income (AMI) for Westchester County. The proposal also included the development of a public park at the intersection of Municipal Place and Maple Street, the required 50’ vegetative buffer on Beekman Avenue and Wells Avenue residential properties and a proposed building height of 28’, below the maximum permitted of 35’. Finally, the original proposal included an offer price of $1,000,000.
The addition of 33 affordable units marks significant progress on longstanding village affordable housing objectives identified across successive versions of the village comprehensive plan. The 2003 plan stated,
“The subdivisions completed in the last twenty years have provided needed additional housing units in the Village. However, with the exception of Half Moon Bay, these developments have provided only single-family homes best suited for families. At the same time, the demand for appropriately-sized, affordable housing for aging Croton-on-Hudson residents, young couples without children, and Village personnel is growing…The Village should examine ways to encourage lower cost, smaller-sized single or multi-family dwellings in order to maintain the demographic diversity of the Village.”
After Regan was selected as the developer, a special permit application was submitted, along with a Full Environmental Assessment Form to determine the project’s environmental impact under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and a Coastal Assessment Form to determine consistency with the Village’s Local Waterfront Revitalization Program (LWRP). The latter was required, even though the project is not adjacent to the waterfront, because the entire Village is included within our coastal zone under the LWRP guidelines.
The special permit application submitted by Regan Development Corp. in February 2021 included the conversion of 11 of the two-bedroom units originally proposed to 11 three-bedroom units. This amendment was made by the applicant in the expectation that doing so would increase the probability of receiving needed funding from the New York State Homes and Community Renewal (HCR) based on the program guidelines. ARKF, the planning consultant used by Regan on this project, provided a detailed analysis of the school district enrollment showing that there was a 10% decline (177 students) in children attending school in the district since the 2009-2010 school year. They also generated estimates, based on the Rutgers University Center for Urban Policy Research Residential Demographic Multipliers, showing that approximately 11 new school-aged children could be anticipated to enroll based on the proposed development.
Comments were received from the Westchester County Planning Board, Village Planning Board and Waterfront Advisory Committee, all of which were supportive of the project. Following these reviews, the Village Board issued a negative declaration under SEQRA and a statement of consistency with the Village’s LWRP on May 17, 2021. The Village Board also approved the requested conversion of the 11 two-bedroom units to 11 three-bedroom units on May 17, 2021, as part of its special permit approval. As part of the conversion of the agreement to convert 11 of the planned two-bedroom units to 11 three-bedroom units, Regan increased its purchase price to $2M, matching offer of the other top proposer.
After the Village Board authorized the sale of the property to Regan in June 2021, Regan applied for funding from HCR for a 9% Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) during summer 2021. As stated in the purchase contract with the Village, the project was contingent upon receiving this funding. Regan was notified in December 2021 that their application was not selected for funding. Following this rejection, Regan met with HCR to discuss the reasoning behind their decision and was informed that the market-rate units in the development were an impediment to financing the project. On February 7, 2022, the Village Board unanimously agreed to convert the four market-rate units to four affordable units (at 60% AMI) for the next round of funding. On July 6, 2022, Governor Kathy Hochul announced that Regan Development Corp. was awarded $3 million in funding for the 41-51 Maple project. Final Planning Board approval was granted in August 2022 and the building permit for the project was issued in December 2022. Completion is currently expected in May 2024.