2026-01-06 · Planning Board
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TOWN OF CORTLANDT
PLANNING AND ZONING BOARDS
PLANNING BOARD MEETING
Town Hall
1 Heady Street
Cortlandt Manor, New York 10567
January 6, 2026
6:30 p.m. - 8:45 p.m.
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January 6, 2026
MEMBERS PRESENT:
Steven Kessler, Chairman
Thomas A. Bianchi, Vice Chairman
Peter McKinley, Member
Kevin Kobasa, Member
Katen Timko, Alternate
MEMBERS ABSENT:
Jeffrey Rothfeder, Member
Nora Hildinger, Member
Kellan Cantrell, Alternate
ALSO PRESENT:
Chris Kehoe, AICP, Director of Planning
Michael Cunningham, Esq., Deputy Town Attorney
Heather LaVarnway, CNU-A, Planner
Chris Lapine, P.E., Engineer
Catherine Brosnan, P.E., Assistant Civil Engineer.
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2 (The board meeting commenced at 6:30 p.m.)
3 MR. STEVEN KESSLER: Everybody, welcome
4 to the planning board meeting for January 6th. If
5 you’re able, please rise for the pledge.
6 MULTIPLE: I pledge allegiance to the
7 flag of the United States of America and to the
8 republic for which it stands, one nation under
9 God, indivisible with liberty and justice for
10 all.
11 MR. KESSLER: All right, thank you. Roll
12 please, Chris.
13 MR. CHRISTOPHER KEHOE: Mr. Kobasa?
14 MR. KEVIN KOBASA: Here.
15 MR. KEHOE: Ms. Timko?
16 MS. KAREN TIMKO: Here.
17 MR. KEHOE: Mr. Kessler?
18 MR. KESSLER: Here.
19 MR. KEHOE: Mr. Bianchi?
20 MR. THOMAS BIANCHI: Here.
21 MR. KEHOE: Mr. McKinley?
22 MR. PETER MCKINLEY: Here.
23 MR. KEHOE: Mr. Rothfeder, Mr. Cantrell
24 and Ms. Hildinger noted as absent.
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2 MR. KESSLER: Thank you. We have no
3 changes to the agenda this evening. Can I please
4 have a motion to adopt the minutes from our
5 meeting of December 2nd?
6 MR. BIANCHI: So moved.
7 MR. KESSLER: Thank you. Second, please?
8 MR. MCKINLEY: Second.
9 MR. KESSLER: And on the question, all
10 in favor?
11 MULTIPLE: Aye.
12 MR. KESSLER: Opposed? Okay. First item
13 tonight is under correspondence, it’s a letter
14 dated December 23, 2025 from David Steinmetz,
15 requesting the eighth 90-day time extension of
16 final plat approval for the Evergreen
17 Subdivision, located at 2003 Crompond Road.
18 Kevin?
19 MR. KOBASA: I’d like to make a motion
20 to adopt Resolution 1-26 for the 90-day time
21 extension of the final plat approval.
22 MR. KESSLER: Thank you. Second, please?
23 MR. BIANCHI: Second.
24 MR. KESSLER: On the question, all in
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2 favor?
3 MULTIPLE: Aye.
4 MR. KESSLER: Opposed?
5 MR. DAVID STEINMETZ: Thank you.
6 MR. KESSLER: Thank you. Next item is a
7 resolution. It is the application of Teatown Lake
8 Reservation, Incorporated. For the record, Ms.
9 Timko is recusing herself from this application.
10 It’s the application of the Teatown Lake
11 Reservation for renewal and medication of a
12 special permit for a private nature preserve to
13 conduct summer camp programs and weekday public
14 programs and for a tree removal permit to
15 implement a meadow management plant at Cliffdale
16 Farm for property located on the north side of
17 Teatown Road, approximately 3,000 feet east of
18 Quaker Ridge Road. Good evening, I think we have
19 a resolution for you. Peter?
20 MR. MCKINLEY: Yes, thank you, Mr.
21 Chairman. I’d like to adopt Resolution 2-26, for
22 the Teatown Lake Reservation special permit to
23 conduct summer programs, camp programs.
24 MR. KESSLER: Second, please.
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2 MR. BIANCHI: Second.
3 MR. KESSLER: And on the question, all
4 in favor?
5 MULTIPLE: Aye.
6 MR. KESSLER: Opposed? Okay, good luck.
7 MR. ALAN SORKIN: Thank you.
8 MR. KESSLER: Thank you. Next item, also
9 a resolution, it’s the application of 77 Montrose
10 Station, LLC for preliminary plat approval and
11 for tree removal and steep slope permits for a
12 proposed three-lot major subdivision of
13 approximately 9.7-acre parcel of property located
14 at 77 Montrose Station Road, latest drawings
15 dated November 20, 2025. Good evening, David. We
16 have a resolution, we discussed this at the work
17 session. There were a number of changes that we
18 made during that. I don’t know if you’ve had a
19 chance to see it?
20 MR. STEINMETZ: I did the resolution and
21 I did hear Katie’s suggestion regarding the bond
22 requirement.
23 MR. KESSLER: Yes, so just for the
24 record, Katie, do you want read that into the
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2 record? We’re going to add this to condition
3 number eight.
4 MS. CATHERINE BROSNAN: Sure. So, is
5 this on?
6 MR. STEINMETZ: You’re on.
7 MS. BROSNAN: The landscape security
8 shall be two times the cost of plant material and
9 labor. Trees and shrubs shall grow for two
10 growing seasons and they, if any die, they should
11 replaced at a ratio of one to one.
12 MR. KESSLER: Okay, thank you.
13 MR. KEHOE: And then also, I didn’t send
14 David the resolution again. There were some
15 whereas clauses that were changed, but no
16 conditions, some additional information at the
17 request of the board.
18 MR. STEINMETZ: Appreciate the
19 correction or the acknowledgement and I
20 appreciate the courtesy of seeing the resolution
21 before you voted on it.
22 MR. KESSLER: Okay, so we have a
23 resolution in front of us. Tom?
24 MR. BIANCHI: Mr. Chairman, I’ll move
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2 that we adopt Resolution number 3-26 --
3 MR. KESSLER: Can I have a second?
4 MR. BIANCHI: -- with changes that we
5 discussed in the draft resolution.
6 MR. KEHOE: I’ll, sorry, go ahead. On
7 the question, I’ll say something.
8 MR. BIANCHI: Okay. I was just going to
9 say to approve the three-lot major subdivision.
10 MR. KESSLER: Second, please.
11 MR. MCKINLEY: Second.
12 MR. KESSLER: And on the question?
13 MR. KEHOE: So, David, at the last
14 minute, Chris Lapine did send over two additional
15 conditions that he wanted. They’re not
16 substantial, but I just want to read them.
17 MR. STEINMETZ: Would you read those,
18 yes?
19 MR. KEHOE: Yeah, the applicant is to
20 provide a comprehensive tree planting plan for
21 lot one, which incorporates the required
22 plantings as part of ZBA case 25-5 and permit A-
23 24-739 for review and acceptance by the planning
24 department. And I don’t know if you were involved
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2 in the ZBA case associated with the garage.
3 MR. STEINMETZ: I was not, but I’m
4 familiar with and Jim Annicchiarico --
5 MR. KEHOE: But there’s some additional
6 plantings --
7 MR. STEINMETZ: -- our project engineer
8 is here.
9 MR. KEHOE: Yeah, and then a general
10 comment that, to address all the comments to the
11 town planning board engineer, consulting engineer
12 dated December 22, 2025. Is that what --
13 MR. STEINMETZ: I assume all of this is
14 before the chair would sign the final plat map?
15 MR. KEHOE: Yes.
16 MR. STEINMETZ: Understood.
17 MR. KESSLER: Okay. We’re on the
18 question, all in favor?
19 MULTIPLE: Aye.
20 MR. KESSLER: Opposed? Okay. Thank you.
21 MR. STEINMETZ: Thank you.
22 MR. KESSLER: All right, we’re on to, oh
23 no, one more resolution, I’m sorry. It’s the
24 application of Richard Williams on behalf of JAM
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2 Storage, LLC for the property of Francisco
3 Portillo, for site plan approval and for wetland,
4 steep slope and tree removal permits for the
5 construction of an approximately 60,000 square
6 foot self-storage facility and related site
7 improvements for property located at 2059 Albany
8 Post Road, drawings latest revised October 23,
9 2025. Okay, we do also have a resolution for
10 that. So with that, Kevin?
11 MR. KOBASA: Yeah, I’d like to make a
12 motion to adopt Resolution 4-26, with a change
13 added to advise that final fire department
14 signoff will be needed for site plan approval.
15 MR. KESSLER: Second, please.
16 MR. BIANCHI: Second.
17 MR. KESSLER: And on the question? All
18 in favor?
19 MULTIPLE: Aye.
20 MR. KESSLER: Opposed?
21 MR. STEINMETZ: Thank you.
22 MR. KESSLER: One second. Okay. On to
23 the public hearing portion of the agenda, our
24 first public hearing is an adjourned public
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2 hearing. It is the application of Yeshiv Ohr
3 Hameir for site plan approval and amended special
4 permit for a university, college or seminary and
5 a wetland permit for a proposed 51,730 square
6 foot dormitory building, the repurposing of other
7 buildings on site, and site improvements,
8 including stormwater, landscaping and building
9 façade renovations located at the existing
10 Yashiva Ohr Hameir campus at 141 Furnace Woods
11 Road, latest drawings dated December 17, 2025.
12 Mr. Steinmetz, good evening again.
13 MR. STEINMETZ: Good evening, Mr.
14 Chairman, members of the board, David Steinmetz
15 from the law firm of Zarin and Steinmetz, pleased
16 to be here for the continuation of the public
17 hearing on behalf of Yeshiva Ohr Hameir. I’m
18 joined by our entire development team. My client,
19 Rabbi Yaakov Rothberg, the executive director of
20 the yeshiva, my colleague Vincent Pedone, our
21 project engineer, Dan Ciarcia, our project
22 architect Chana Weisz and our project
23 environmental and wetlands consultant, Steve
24 Marino.
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2 We conducted the initial session of the
3 public hearing, we received comments from your
4 board, we received comments from the public. We
5 received comments from staff. We made submissions
6 to your board for the record. Number one, we
7 submitted a legal response largely for purposes
8 of answering things that had been raised for
9 purposes of addressing it in the record. I’m not
10 here tonight to go into that in any detail unless
11 you wish. I did feel compelled in light of the
12 petition your board received to correct the
13 record, to make sure that the adequate case law
14 and statutory references were cited and that we
15 responded to some of those issues. We felt
16 largely they were not relevant to the ultimate
17 disposition of the matter and the issues before
18 you, but they were raised. And they ought to be
19 addressed and closed out in the record.
20 More importantly, we did make a rather
21 extensive submission on some site plan
22 improvements, a pedestrian pathway or walkway on
23 the property was shown, a parking table was
24 illustrated. We updated the occupancy chart to
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2 address questions that your board raised at the
3 meeting, and staff raised in a technical
4 discussion.
5 I know you discussed in your work
6 session the question of fire access and fire
7 turnaround. Dan Ciarcia did utilize standard
8 truck, fire truck templates and placed those on
9 his site plan. That information is on the plan.
10 It has been submitted to DOTS. I understand from
11 the work session that that is still going to be
12 reviewed by the fire department and the fire
13 district. You should know we have reached out,
14 where is Dan sitting, why am I like, there he is.
15 We have reached out several times to the fire
16 department trying to get some input. I guess
17 somebody was out. I appreciate Katie you sharing
18 that during the work session. We were wondering
19 why we were not hearing back. We’re perfectly
20 fine and we’d like the fire department to review
21 and sign off on that material.
22 We also updated our environmental
23 assessment form. I heard some questions from
24 Chris Lapine this evening about some narrative or
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2 some further explanation that he wants in the
3 EAF. And one of you responded, it might have been
4 Chris, that we did submit all of the updates for
5 the entire campus on the plans. But if there
6 needs to be something somehow built into the EAF,
7 we can do that. I don’t see that as a problem.
8 And lastly as the result of some
9 discussions with your professional staff, we
10 realized that we needed to identify a maintenance
11 or storage building on the property. That has
12 been shown on the site plan as well as an
13 architectural illustration of that.
14 So as far as we’re concerned, Mr.
15 Chairman and members of the board, you now do
16 have everything from us. We believe you have a
17 complete submission in terms of engineering,
18 architectural, Steve Marino in wetlands. We think
19 you’ve got it all. Whether your staff has
20 completed its review, that’s obviously between
21 you and staff. We’re hoping that you have gotten
22 some meaningful input from staff. But we are here
23 tonight, Mr. Chairman, to progress with the
24 application and to address any issues your board
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2 may have that you wish to discuss.
3 MR. KESSLER: Okay. Well let’s open it
4 up to the public. Okay. So again, it’s a
5 continuation of the last public hearing, is there
6 anybody that wishes to comment on this
7 application? Please come on up to the microphone.
8 Yes, your name and address for the record please.
9 MR. GREGORY GALE: Gregory Gale, 80
10 Furnace Woods Road. Good evening. I was here,
11 excuse me, a little frog in my throat. I was here
12 at the last meeting that we discussed this. And I
13 remember there was a discussion about how many
14 students there was going to be there. And that
15 they want, the applicant wants to open it up to
16 more than is currently there. And I think, it
17 seemed like they had the hardware, or the space,
18 to put up to 450 kids in there, you know. I don’t
19 remember the exact number, but it seemed like it
20 was over 400. And they currently have, I think
21 it’s around 250.
22 And I think the question is, you know,
23 do we want to give them basically carte blanche
24 pretty much whatever they want. Or do we want to
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2 keep the restriction? I would say, from my
3 perspective, I’m comfortable with it the way it
4 is.
5 I mean I can tell you that recently
6 there hasn’t been much pedestrian traffic. But in
7 the past, there’s been plenty of it. And, you
8 know, and when I say recently, I mean within the
9 last couple weeks, maybe a month, when the
10 weather gets cold. But when the weather gets
11 warm, those kids are walking up and down the
12 road, three or four abreast, you know, and
13 there’s no street lights. And I really think it
14 would be a hazard to have a whole lot more
15 students walking up and down around there.
16 I mean if they want to build what they
17 want to build, I would say have them come back
18 and we can revisit it. But to just do it now, I
19 think that we need to wait and see what happens.
20 And secondly, I know that the fire
21 department or somebody does inspections there. I
22 think it’s the town does inspections. And I guess
23 my question is how often are they done and is
24 there notice that the inspections are being done?
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2 I would say there shouldn’t be notice. They
3 should just, you know, arrive on site whenever
4 they feel that it’s warranted. I don’t see --
5 because if we give them notice and they are
6 violating it, they’ve got plenty of time to hide
7 whatever they want to hide.
8 So I would say if we’re going to go
9 forward with this, keep the cap as it is, we can
10 revisit it in due time. And as far as the
11 inspections go, there should be no notice. The
12 town shows up when the town wants to show up.
13 That’s pretty much it for now.
14 MR. KESSLER: Thank you. And just so
15 we’re all on the same page here in terms of the
16 numbers. Let’s just be clear. So currently the
17 population of the yeshiva is 217 students. The
18 proposal for the dormitory right now, with their
19 96 -- I’m sorry, your 64 rooms with four people
20 in a room would be 256 people. So 217, 256, all
21 right, two key numbers. They are also proposing
22 that they have the ability to put five beds into
23 those 64 rooms, which would then make a
24 population of 320. So what we’re discussion here
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2 are the merits of 217, 256 and 320.
3 MR. GALE: Wasn’t there a question of
4 another building?
5 MR. KESSLER: Yes. That --
6 MR. GALE: That is currently empty and
7 that they had the ability to put other students
8 in that?
9 MR. KESSLER: You know, this would be a
10 good time to go over that chart. Do you have that
11 chart, David, to show?
12 MR. STEINMETZ: So maybe you want to let
13 the public finish their comments and then we can
14 go over it?
15 MR. KESSLER: Well, but there’ll be
16 other --
17 MR. STEINMETZ: Whichever way you wish.
18 MR. KESSLER: I think we should, this is
19 an important issue here. I think if you have that
20 chart, I think it would be instructive for
21 everybody to see that charge, and understand what
22 you’re proposing in terms of both the student
23 population and the staff and support staff
24 population.
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2 MR. STEINMETZ: When Mr. Gale is
3 finished, I’m happy to do that.
4 MR. GALE: Go ahead.
5 MR. CHRIS LAPINE: David, we brought
6 that up, the chart for you.
7 MR. STEINMETZ: Got it.
8 MR. KESSLER: That’s easy to see.
9 MR. STEINMETZ: I can’t see it, so if I
10 can --
11 MR. KESSLER: Cover your right eye and
12 read it.
13 MR. STEINMETZ: You should definitely
14 come up here in case I need you. So, Mr.
15 Chairman, you’re correct. We are proposing a
16 dormitory building, as the board well knows, and
17 as the chair indicated both in the work session
18 and now, just now, 64 rooms, all of which meet
19 New York State building, fire and dormitory
20 regulatory codes for five beds and a maximum of
21 320 students inside that dormitory building. That
22 is, that is what we are seeking, is to build a
23 building that would accommodate 320 students in
24 that building.
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2 MR. KESSLER: You want to talk about
3 their other buildings, please?
4 MR. STEINMETZ: Sure.
5 MR. KESSLER: Just so that everybody is
6 on the same page here.
7 MR. STEINMETZ: I kind of definitely
8 would love some participation here. Got it. So we
9 have the pool building, which is, which has in
10 the past been used as a dormitory and we have
11 talked about it throughout this application as
12 being the building that would accommodate three
13 staff members who would reside full-time on the
14 property with families. That’s indicated in the
15 chart. You can see it would be approximately
16 three, three staff members and roughly 22 family
17 members.
18 MR. KEHOE: And currently, that building
19 has 101 students in it?
20 MR. STEINMETZ: Correct.
21 MR. KEHOE: Yeah.
22 MR. STEINMETZ: The sanctuary is also
23 known as the chalet, that building does have
24 historically some sleeping rooms in it. It is
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2 really primarily utilized as the primary
3 sanctuary or place of education and prayer. It is
4 proposed to now be exclusively the sanctuary.
5 Chana explained at prior meetings, how we were
6 moving the, how we were improving that building,
7 making it more functional, taking some of the
8 office space and moving it into the dormitory
9 building. So the sanctuary now would have no
10 residential space, sleeping quarters inside that
11 building.
12 The Dallas building is presently a
13 dormitory. It has 16 rooms, currently
14 accommodating 80 students. We have talked about
15 that being essentially a staff and guest
16 building. It would be a building that would be
17 allowed for many of the staff come on occasion.
18 Why do they come on occasion? They attend Sabbath
19 throughout the year on occasion and they attend
20 the high holidays. When they come, they will come
21 with family members and they would have a place
22 to reside.
23 I would note, and we can go into the
24 weeds if we need to. My understanding from our
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2 architect, and this has been discussed at a
3 technical meeting with staff, that constitutes an
4 R-2 classification under the New York State
5 building code. That is the same classification as
6 the dormitory building. That too is being built
7 to an R-2 standard. That building, we are not
8 proposing any students to be in that building.
9 And as the chair indicated in the work
10 session, I will start by saying I stand by my
11 proposition that I put in writing and that I made
12 before your board, that I don’t believe you have
13 the legal authority to impose a cap on students
14 under New York State law unless you can
15 demonstrate by empirical evidence that there is a
16 life safety issue.
17 Having said that, as the chair
18 indicated, there have been a series of
19 discussions that I’ve conducted over the last
20 several weeks with the town’s attorney’s office
21 and the yeshiva is prepared to accept
22 voluntarily, as it did 15 years ago, a voluntary
23 cap on student residential occupancy of 320
24 students. Why, 320 students are precisely the
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2 number that would fit inside the dormitory
3 building. Do we want to max, do we want to
4 indicate that students would only be in the
5 dormitory building? We believe they will be. But
6 whether they, whether 280 are in the dormitory
7 building and 40 end up in the Dallas building, it
8 is the same use classification.
9 So as I said to you two months ago, we
10 don’t believe that we would need a change of use.
11 I’m not, Mr. Chairman, I don’t want to argue the
12 point, because I want to get an amended special
13 permit that you know we have discussed and you
14 apparently have discussed with the town attorney,
15 an amended special permit with a cap of 320. That
16 is a rational and fair number that we are
17 voluntarily willing to accept despite the fact
18 that Summit School v. Nugent and a host of cases
19 that are not related that are not RLUIPA cases,
20 they are New York State law cases that go beyond
21 RLUIPA and that tell us quite clearly that you,
22 as a planning board, can’t impose the cap.
23 The building department may be able to.
24 They may even be able to look at things that you
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2 can’t in terms of life safety, etc., but from a
3 special permits standpoint, I actually don’t
4 think you have the authority to do it. I told you
5 that 15 years ago. But 15 years ago, as you put
6 in your negative declaration 15 years ago,
7 whereas in conjunction with and in consultation
8 with the town, the yeshiva has voluntarily capped
9 its student population at 225.
10 Once again, with the cooperation of the
11 executive director of the yeshiva, in light of
12 the fact that it’s a new building, fully
13 sprinklered, designed by an architect to have
14 adequate ingress, egress, doors, windows, and a
15 sewer system that now allows them to have
16 effluent that is not capped at 225. We are
17 prepared to have an understanding of a student
18 cap at 320. So I hope that’s clear. I hope, Mr.
19 Chairman that is what you heard from the town
20 attorney, because that is the discussion that has
21 been taking place.
22 MR. KESSLER: Just to follow along with
23 that, David. If you’re suggesting we have no
24 authority on the cap and you could have come in
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2 here with a 10-story building? That’s what you’re
3 saying?
4 MR. STEINMETZ: No. I couldn’t come in
5 with a 10-story building because Chris Kehoe told
6 me when we first met with him what my maximum
7 height was, so and it’s not 10 stories.
8 MR. KESSLER: Okay. So there are
9 limitations then.
10 MR. STEINMETZ: That has nothing to do,
11 that has nothing to do with Summit School v.
12 Nugent and student cap. That has to do with
13 zoning parameters.
14 MR. KESSLER: I thought, I thought
15 RLUIPA sort of eliminated all zoning issues.
16 MR. STEINMETZ: So, no. And it’s --
17 MR. KESSLER: It does.
18 MR. STEINMETZ: Let me, let me, I don’t
19 want to have a debate with you, but I will if you
20 wish. I’m not standing here, Mr. Chairman and
21 members of the board and town attorney’s office
22 arguing RLUIPA. I don’t need to argue RLUIPA. The
23 Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons
24 Act was codified in the ‘90s. New York State law,
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2 Cornell v. Bagnardi and a legion of cases that
3 your town attorney’s office is familiar with go
4 back well before RLUIPA.
5 So it’s New York State law that tells us
6 that religious and educational institutions are
7 entitled to a degree of leniency. They are
8 favored under the law. They’re allowed to be in
9 residential areas. We’re not discussing that
10 right now because right now, what we’re
11 discussing is whether or not we can have a cap of
12 320. I don’t think you have the authority to
13 mandate it. You absolutely can ask for it. And
14 more importantly, my client can voluntarily offer
15 it. We are prepared, Mr. Chairman to do that.
16 And I understand your concept of the
17 256. Let’s talk about that. I heard from the town
18 attorney’s office that you had raised that issue.
19 And you talked about that in the work session.
20 Yes, the current occupancy of -- the current
21 student enrollment is 217. It’s not, even if the
22 building was built today, it’s not jumping to 320
23 any time soon. It may never jump to 320. It may
24 not jump beyond 250, 260, 280. It will, if it
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2 happens, like any school, it will happen and
3 absorb gradually, intelligently.
4 So what are prepared to acknowledge, I
5 know you made, someone made the request, 256
6 occupants once the building is completed. And
7 there would be a subsequent administrative review
8 in the future, if at any point in time the
9 yeshiva said, you know, we actually would like to
10 put the fifth bed in there. Chana, can you speak
11 just very briefly to the dormitory regulation and
12 the building cod as to why we can put five beds
13 in each of those rooms?
14 MS. CHANA WEISZ: Good evening. The
15 building code requires us to classify every
16 building by its use and occupancy. The use of the
17 space determines how many students we have to --
18 how many people we would have to account for in
19 every space. Once we have that occupancy number,
20 the rest of the building elements, such as path
21 to egress, distance to egress, parameters for
22 whether or not a sprinkler system would be
23 required, what then capacity of means of egress
24 to stairs, all of these items, even plumbing
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2 fixtures, is based on the determined occupant
3 count of a building.
4 So if we wanted to submit a building
5 just say for eight students per room, and say
6 that these were bunk beds, right, and not change
7 the building footprint, and not change the
8 building height, but say we can provide adequate
9 exit doors, adequate corridor widths, not exceed
10 maximum required travel distances, meet
11 thresholds for whether or not sprinklers are
12 required or not required, which sometimes is
13 related to occupant number, all of those code
14 requirements, which are determined by occupant
15 count, if we could meet those for pretty much any
16 occupant number and demonstrate compliance with
17 safety, that’s what caps a building.
18 So there’s no limit in the code other
19 than saying that I believe you need to have a
20 minimum of seven square foot per person, just for
21 not having like overcrowding which would become a
22 safety issue. But other than that, if you have a
23 building and you can accommodate a number of
24 occupants with your egress components, with your
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2 other code required components, again, it
3 requires us to do certain things and upgrade
4 certain systems. For example, you may need an
5 extra staircase for 300 that you didn’t need when
6 you had 150 students. But assuming that we are
7 providing all of those accommodations which the
8 code now requires because you’re at a higher
9 occupant level, there’s nothing in the code that
10 says you cannot take a room and put more students
11 into it, provided all of those new occupancy
12 requirements are then met.
13 MR. STEINMETZ: Does the building, as
14 you’ve designed it, safely and lawfully
15 accommodate five students per room if there were
16 five students per room?
17 MS. WEISZ: Yes, yes. And just for
18 argument’s sake, even if you had a number of 256,
19 and you had say a certain number of ninth graders
20 or tenth graders and you didn’t want to mix, one
21 room has four beds in it and the next room has
22 four, but you wanted to say you have an odd
23 number of ninth grade students, you could put a
24 fifth bed into a ninth grade class dorm room and
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2 keep four beds or three beds even in the tenth
3 grade. So saying that 256 number still doesn’t
4 limit you to four beds in a room. So if you were
5 to say we’re going to volunteer to a cap of 256,
6 that still doesn’t give us a code requirement
7 that says you now cannot have five beds in this
8 room. If the room can safely accommodate more
9 occupants --
10 MR. STEINMETZ: And that’s the question
11 before the board.
12 MS. WEISZ: Which it can, which is the
13 way that it’s designed.
14 MR. BIANCHI: I think that statement has
15 to be backed up by our fire department inspection
16 when they do it.
17 MR. STEINMETZ: That’s fine.
18 MS. WEISZ: It’s going to be backed up
19 by the building department when --
20 MR. BIANCHI: You can go on about what’s
21 safe, but I don’t listen to it unless I hear it
22 from the fire department.
23 MS. WEISZ: Yeah, well we would never be
24 able to get building permits for a set of
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2 drawings that did not -- we put an occupant chart
3 on a drawing set and then we have to be governed
4 by the parameters which we set.
5 MR. STEINMETZ: Tom, we agree with you.
6 We welcome the fire department inspection. You
7 may not realize, but there was a rather extensive
8 that was meeting by the technical folks, no
9 lawyers, just technical people analyzing DOTS,
10 your outside engineering firm, your in-house
11 planners, we all there. We’re all well aware that
12 the yeshiva does not want to operate, and this
13 building will not be designed by a professional
14 architect, that doesn’t meet code. So please help
15 us, help Katie to get somebody to return the
16 phone call that you heard in the work session
17 we’re all waiting to get so that these various
18 fire inspections can take place on these
19 projects. I totally agree, we are together on
20 that. It’s going to be a safe, lawful and
21 extremely attractive building. It’s going to be
22 designed to accommodate up to 320 students.
23 If the town is asking for us to
24 acknowledge 256 when it’s completed and have some
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2 administrative review process that would be
3 undertaken by DOTS to confirm lawful occupancy,
4 everything in the plans that was designed by the
5 architect was actually fully completed to the
6 satisfaction of the building department, we’re
7 fine with all of that. At which time, once you
8 complete, once DOTS completes that administrative
9 review, the building would be allowed to be used
10 as its been designed, for up to 320, because Mr.
11 Chairman, we are prepared to acknowledge a cap of
12 320. Your hypothetical about the 10-story
13 building is sort of off track, because I can’t
14 build a 10-story building. I could build higher
15 than we’re proposing. But more importantly, we’re
16 not seeking to put 400, 500 students in the
17 building, even if she tells me we possibly could.
18 MS. WEISZ: Even if our rooms could
19 potentially accommodate more students and we had
20 enough egress and stairs and we met all the
21 requirements for, just for argument’s sake, eight
22 students in a room, that’s not the intention,
23 that’s not what the yeshiva wants, and that’s not
24 what we’re going to design the building to,
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2 because that’s not how they want to set this up.
3 That’s why they’re offering a voluntary cap.
4 MR. STEINMETZ: And maybe one of the
5 more important issues that we made at the last
6 meeting and I hope it didn’t fall on deaf ears.
7 Programmatically, it’s a school. It’s an
8 intensive school. It’s a school. It doesn’t have
9 the other space for hundreds of people to come
10 there and be educated. The cafeteria is only so
11 large. The administrative is only so large. The
12 on campus supervision in terms of professors or
13 teachers is only so large. So the number of
14 classrooms that are being designed that you know
15 exist on the property and will be in the building
16 are only so large. It can only accommodate a
17 certain number.
18 And there was, someone made a comment
19 about, and Tom I think it was you during the work
20 session, about periodic inspections. I just want
21 to remind you and make the record clear,
22 especially for the public. This, in the 15 years
23 since I received the original approval from your
24 board, there are annual inspections. Holly Haight
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2 goes out there and she’s no long with the DOTS.
3 MR. BIANCHI: Fire inspections.
4 MR. STEINMETZ: Fire inspections take
5 place every single year. Every year, I have to
6 come before this board and get renewals. Every
7 three years, I have come before this board and
8 got, received special permit extensions. Because
9 we come before this board, you get a report from
10 your staff and you determine and you learn that
11 there have been no violations, there are no life
12 safety concerns. And somebody has actually gone
13 through and counted the beds on the campus. So,
14 having said all of that, and I don’t want to
15 belabor the point, there would be no other
16 students in other buildings on the property.
17 There would be a maintenance building, the
18 rabbis’ building, Texas would remain as is. We’ve
19 already talked about the staff housing.
20 So in terms, and I should say and I
21 think you all saw this in our submission, state
22 law, I was surprised to see this when I did the
23 research and response to some comments that were
24 made, state law, actually court cases say
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2 universities, campuses, seminaries, churches,
3 convents, are expected to have guests, they’re
4 allowed to have guests. It’s actually, the word
5 guest is in the case law, because having this
6 accommodation is contemplated under New York
7 State law.
8 So we’re not asking for anything
9 improper, we’re not asking for anything that
10 violates state code in terms of building, fire,
11 etc. And whether you all want to agree with my
12 characterization, we are, the yeshiva is
13 voluntarily agreeing to cap its student
14 residential occupancy number at 320.
15 MR. KESSLER: Mm-hmm.
16 MR. STEINMETZ: It can absolutely be
17 accommodated safely. Who knows if they’ll ever
18 get there. I hope they do. I hope they’re
19 successful. I hope the town feels the same way.
20 MR. KESSLER: Okay. Can we go back to
21 the chart please, David?
22 MR. STEINMETZ: Yes.
23 MR. KESSLER: So, it looks though, in
24 looking at this, you have three staff members
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2 today and no change. But it also says you have no
3 staff family members there today on the chart in
4 the existing. And you have 22 proposed in the --
5 are you suggesting --
6 MR. STEINMETZ: Yep, correct.
7 MR. KESSLER: So you’re saying there’s
8 no family staff members there today?
9 MR. STEINMETZ: Correct, because if I
10 understand it correctly, it’s because they’ve
11 largely aged out of the family. So, in the 15
12 years, those staff members have had children who
13 have grown up and they have left, they are no
14 longer residing with their parents. There are
15 younger staff members who actually now can reside
16 on campus rather than commuting to campus and
17 they can actually reside there with their
18 families. It’s not a static world. And some of
19 the rabbis, Mr. Chairman were probably a little
20 younger than we are now when we got these
21 approvals 15 years ago, and they are now older
22 than we are now, and they don’t have any family
23 living with them.
24 MR. KESSLER: Okay. And just clarify
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2 again, for the public hearing please, the
3 weekend, holiday staff housing. So you expect
4 people to come up on weekends --
5 MR. STEINMETZ: Yeah.
6 MR. KESSLER: -- and certain religious
7 holidays?
8 MR. STEINMETZ: Correct. And that is
9 again, that is a number that it fluctuates.
10 There’s the capability of having these people
11 remain and stay as guests on campus. They don’t
12 come every weekend, they don’t want to come every
13 weekend. As you all either know or should know, a
14 staff member who arrives Friday late in the day
15 and remains for the Sabbath cannot, for religious
16 purposes, leave and drive off the campus from
17 Friday at sundown until Saturday at sundown. So
18 having a safe accommodation is what this is for.
19 And some of the older staff members, who
20 now will reside elsewhere and want to visit the
21 campus and see the students that they have been
22 training for some time and know, will want to be
23 able to come and experience the Sabbath on
24 campus. That’s been happening for decades at the
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2 yeshiva. So none of that’s changed.
3 MR. KESSLER: Yeah, and just to put a
4 fine point on it, you’re comfortable designating
5 the usage of each of the building as you’ve
6 designated them here?
7 MR. STEINMETZ: Yeah. I think that, the
8 answer to that is yes, we’re comfortable
9 designating the use. I want to say something that
10 I raised about ten minutes ago, and maybe saw
11 some eyebrows raised. We’re agreeing to a 320
12 cap. I can tell you that -- student cap, Rabbi
13 Rothberg would like the flexibility, if we can
14 get that flexibility in the R-2 Dallas building
15 to, if he decided that the older students, 40 of
16 them should be in that building, and 280 of them,
17 if we had maximum student occupancy, should be in
18 the new dormitory, that he as the executive
19 director should have the ability to do that.
20 Note, if he does that, he’s essentially
21 eliminating rooms that would otherwise be
22 available to visiting staff and guests.
23 But the 320 student cap I think is what
24 you all have been focused on, have signaled to us
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2 that you’re focused on, and you have a right to
3 do it and to ask. That should be the governing
4 issue, not whether we call Dallas the guest
5 building and we call Dodge City the primary 320
6 dormitory.
7 So you heard me saw that at a prior
8 meeting. It has been explained to me more
9 clearly. And again, Chana explained to me, both
10 buildings, I did this on the fly two months ago,
11 and I apparently was right. Both buildings are
12 constructed to the same R-2 classification. As
13 such, there is no use change. It’s sleeping
14 accommodations that are allowed. So, and that’s
15 different from the pool building which is going
16 to have families and firewalls dividing that
17 building. That is a different building with a
18 different use category.
19 MS. WEISZ: That is not a different use
20 category. It’s constructed in a way that it
21 doesn’t have fire separation between every
22 bedroom, it would be between every unit.
23 MR. STEINMETZ: Every unit.
24 MR. KESSLER: Do you file a report with
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2 the state on the student population periodically.
3 MR. STEINMETZ: Yes, beds and a FISP
4 report if I recall correctly, rabbi? No
5 [unintelligible] [00:37:39] we file annually with
6 the state in terms of students’ enrollment?
7 MR. YAKOV ROTHBERG: Yes.
8 MR. STEINMETZ: BEDS and FISP.
9 MR. ROTHBERG: BEDS and FISP.
10 MR. KESSLER: It’s an annual report?
11 MR. STEINMETZ: Yes. And that’s
12 something that you may remember from 15 years
13 ago. That’s when I learned it. But you had asked
14 that, that question was asked by the town 15
15 years ago, and every year, we have submitted BEDS
16 and FISP reports.
17 MR. KESSLER: Really, I’ve never seen
18 that. Have we seen those?
19 MR. STEINMETZ: No?
20 MR. KEHOE: No.
21 MR. KESSLER: Well, we should.
22 MR. STEINMETZ: We submit it to the
23 state.
24 MR. KESSLER: To the state?
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2 MR. STEINMETZ: Yes.
3 MR. KESSLER: I thought we asked, I
4 thought we were going to get a copy of those
5 also?
6 MR. KEHOE: You might have gotten BEDS
7 reports earlier.
8 MR. ROTHBERG: Okay, so last time
9 around, the problem with the BEDS and the FISP is
10 it becomes quite confusing. The BEDS report is
11 the high school. FISP is the, is the seminary and
12 they, they’re filed at two different times of the
13 year. The 12th grade of the high school, for
14 example, halfway through the year, they become
15 part of the seminary. So they get -- if you’re
16 looking at a calendar year, they end up getting
17 counted twice, which happened last time and
18 they’re saying they have X amount, but if you
19 look at the BEDS and you look at the FISP,
20 there’s another 35 boys here, what’s going on.
21 And it gets to be confusing. Those are things
22 that we have to file, for regulatory reasons,
23 with the state and with the federal government.
24 It’s not our registration, you know, that doesn’t
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2 accurately depict the exact registration, if
3 that’s what you’re asking.
4 MR. KESSLER: Is there an actual
5 registration report that’s issued, that you issue
6 to any governing body?
7 MR. ROTHBERG: No.
8 MR. KESSLER: State body, nothing?
9 MR. ROTHBERG: It’s BEDS and FISP.
10 MR. KESSLER: Well we’re still, let’s, I
11 don’t want to shortchange the public here. Is
12 there anybody else from the public that wishes to
13 comment? Yeah, please come on up.
14 MR. BIANCHI: Before we leave the
15 subject, could I --
16 MR. KESSLER: Tom, yeah, sure.
17 MR. BIANCHI: -- just to continue on
18 this one subject.
19 MR. KESSLER: You can come on up,
20 please.
21 MR. BIANCHI: There seems --
22 MR. KESSLER: One second, please. Tom,
23 go ahead.
24 MR. BIANCHI: Just to continue on this
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2 subject, there seems to be two sizes of dorm
3 rooms. 298 square feet and a few that are 391 I
4 guess square feet. Could we get, include it maybe
5 on sheet D3, or D4, a typical layout --
6 MS. WEISZ: There’s a few -- there are a
7 few rooms --
8 MR. BIANCHI: -- of the room with four
9 and with five beds?
10 MS. WEISZ: I believe we’ve had a blowup
11 submitted at one point showing both
12 configurations. Some of the rooms are bigger
13 because they’re in the corners.
14 MR. BIANCHI: Right.
15 MS. WEISZ: So just to access the door
16 to the room. But we’ve submitted a layout for the
17 room with four and five beds I believe.
18 MR. BIANCHI: Are they in, in this
19 drawing packet?
20 MS. WEISZ: If they’re not in this one,
21 they’re in previous ones. We could resubmit
22 those.
23 MR. BIANCHI: Okay. Yeah, I’d like to
24 see that.
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2 MS. WEISZ: Just practically, five was
3 the maximum number that made any sense for the
4 students to still have storage space.
5 MR. BIANCHI: You have show beds, desks,
6 chairs?
7 MS. WEISZ: Yes, exactly. We have a full
8 furniture closet.
9 MR. BIANCHI: And this may help the fire
10 department too, for that matter.
11 MS. WEISZ: Yes, furniture, closet,
12 desk, whatever it is for the students to store
13 their belongings.
14 MR. STEINMETZ: But you have those,
15 correct? They were, we did a whole architectural
16 layout submission.
17 MR. KEHOE: Previous?
18 MS. WEISZ: Yes, previously.
19 MR. KEHOE: Yeah, because the one that I
20 have currently have I don’t think has that.
21 MS. WEISZ: Yes, it may have been on a
22 previous -- it got so confusing when we were
23 showing four beds and we were talking about five,
24 that we removed it, but we can certainly --
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2 MR. STEINMETZ: It would be the October
3 submission.
4 MR. KEHOE: Okay. I’ll track that down,
5 and if I sent it to you all, I’ll let you know
6 that I sent it.
7 MS. WEISZ: Because we were showing the
8 layout with four not intending to be misleading
9 about the --
10 MR. BIANCHI: It should be part of this
11 drawing set.
12 MS. WEISZ: -- potential for five, it
13 caused so much confusion that we --
14 MR. STEINMETZ: Tom, I’m happy to make
15 sure that it’s part of the record.
16 MR. BIANCHI: It should be part of this
17 drawing set that was just sent out to us.
18 MR. STEINMETZ: Got it, no problem.
19 MR. BIANCHI: Okay, thank you. We can
20 continue with the -- I’m sorry, the public
21 hearing.
22 MR. KESSLER: Yes, please.
23 MS. LINDA MCMANN: Linda McMann, 14
24 Lakeview Avenue West. Good evening, chairperson
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2 and members of the board. Thank you for the
3 opportunity to speak this evening. I’ve been a
4 resident of this community for over 25 years and
5 live in close proximity to the subject property.
6 I am here to respectfully oppose this
7 application. My opposition is based entirely on
8 land use, environmental, fiscal and neighborhood
9 impact concerns, not the identity or mission of
10 the institution.
11 This property is located in an area that
12 is overwhelmingly single family residents in
13 character. Residents purchased homes here with
14 the reasonable expectation that future
15 development would reflect that character. The
16 proposed expansion, particularly a large multi-
17 story dormitory constructed in a brick and mortar
18 style is fundamentally inconsistent with the
19 surrounding neighborhood.
20 The existing buildings, dating back to
21 the property’s use as a dude ranch blend into the
22 area due to their scale, architecture and setback
23 from the road. An institutional structure that’s
24 proposed does not fit that character. Approving
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2 this amendment would permanently alter the visual
3 and functional character of the neighborhood in a
4 way that cannot be done.
5 The proposal requires a wetlands permit,
6 which raises serious concerns. Historically, this
7 property has experienced septic system failures,
8 including leaching that impacted Lake Rose and
9 the fields in front of the middle school. It took
10 years to remediate this problem, polluting these
11 areas the entire time.
12 These impacts demonstrate the site
13 conditions and sensitive and vulnerable.
14 Construction, especially in our near wetlands
15 creates a risk of contaminating Lake Rose and
16 middle school fields again. Any construction
17 errors or problems put public property and
18 children at risk.
19 Separately, it is important to note that
20 there are mature trees along the roadway. These
21 serve as a critical visual and environmental
22 buffer that helps soften the impact of the
23 existing buildings. If trees are removed, the
24 character of the street is permanently changed.
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2 I’m not sure if the application adequately
3 addresses what trees on the property will be
4 removed, how long replacement landscaping would
5 take to mature, whether the neighborhood would be
6 exposed to direct views of large building
7 structures.
8 There’s also concerns regarding family
9 housing and the potential of school aged
10 children. If families reside on site and children
11 attend private schools, taxpayers are required to
12 fund the transportation of these students to the
13 private schools. This represents a direct cost to
14 the Hen-Hud taxpayers without any offsetting
15 community benefit. Speaking of community
16 benefits, this expansion provides no clear
17 benefit to the surrounding community. It does not
18 improve public infrastructure, aside from a few
19 who may tap into the new sewer line. It does not
20 expand public access and it does not contribute
21 meaningfully to the tax base. Instead, it risks
22 lowering surrounding property values, increasing
23 municipal service costs, setting a precedent for
24 continual expansion.
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2 History suggests that approvals of this
3 nature are rarely the final request. Once
4 expanded, they will inevitably be pressured to
5 expand again until all available land is built
6 upon. Residents who currently live here accepted
7 living near the dude ranch buildings. They did
8 not agree to live next to large institutional
9 dormitories.
10 While I understand the desire of any
11 institution to grow, growth must occur in the
12 appropriate location. A one family residential
13 neighborhood with wetlands and small, narrow
14 roads is not that location. I ask the board to
15 consider this question. If this expansion were
16 proposed next to your home, or a block away from
17 your neighborhood, would you support it?
18 Respectfully, this proposal is not
19 suitable for this area and approving it would
20 have lasting negative impacts on environmental
21 safety, neighborhood character, municipal costs
22 and quality of life. Thank you for your time and
23 consideration.
24 MR. KESSLER: Thank you. [applause]
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2 MS. SHERI ANN COOK: Good evening ladies
3 and gentlemen of the town of Cortlandt planning
4 board. My name is Sheri Ann Cook, I live in the
5 town of Cortlandt, as you are all aware. I was
6 glad and hopeful with some of the discussions I
7 heard with the working session. I wanted to have
8 a couple of -- I have a couple of questions. One
9 is I am still waiting for my FOIL request from
10 the Department of Health, Westchester County, and
11 the Department of Homeland Security for the
12 grants that were applied. I would like to reserve
13 my rights to submit any documents that I receive
14 in response to those. Homeland Security isn’t
15 responding to me until January 28th, allegedly.
16 I’m still waiting for the Department of Health.
17 So I would like the, to reserve my right to
18 submit for the paperwork.
19 But I’m glad to see that some questions
20 that were raised have been addressed or discussed
21 and it seems that some things are still up for
22 debate. So I was pleased with hearing that.
23 My daughter went to Binghamton
24 University. Her first year was in dorms. Okay.
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2 Five students in the room, two bedrooms. It was
3 insanity. While we can talk about maximum
4 capacity per room per building code, you have to
5 understand that these kids are going to be coming
6 in with all of the things that they have to live
7 their lives with. And while the building code
8 might be there, I don’t believe it might be
9 functional. It certainly wasn’t in my daughter’s
10 situation. There were two bedrooms, five
11 students, two students in two bedrooms, one
12 person had the pull out couch, which was the
13 community living space. It ended up being a
14 horror. So are there going to be separate
15 bedrooms with certain amount of students per
16 bedroom and a community living space? I mean is
17 that even been addressed or requested or
18 articulated?
19 MR. KESSLER: Well, they can respond if
20 they want. Why don’t you put all your questions
21 out there and --
22 MS. COOK: With regard to their plans,
23 what I’m still hearing is they’re going to be
24 looking for eventual 320 students. But with the
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2 other buildings still being operational, what is
3 the total number of human beings to be on the
4 property at all times? Because maximum occupancy
5 about my understanding was 250 total was, was the
6 standard before this current petition. So I’m
7 unsure if that has been taken off the table. And
8 I’d like to know. And those were my questions,
9 but thank you for your time.
10 MR. KESSLER: Thank you.
11 MS. COOK: And thank you for your
12 consideration of everything.
13 MR. KESSLER: Okay.
14 MS. COOK: Good day.
15 MR. KESSLER: Anybody else wish to
16 speak? Yes. Well, it’s up to the applicant if
17 they wish to answer, but yeah. But please, come
18 on up.
19 MR. JOEL BENEDICT: Joel Benedict, 11
20 Lakeview West. I have some questions. Oh, there’s
21 Chris. Can someone tell me the difference between
22 the lot’s zoning designation and what a property
23 site class and a site class listed on the
24 property card is? What’s the difference between
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2 those? It’s in an R-40 class. If you look at the
3 property class --
4 MR. MICHAEL CUNNINGHAM: R-40 is the
5 zoning district.
6 MR. BENEDICT: Is the zoning. But the
7 property site class is religious and property
8 class states religious. What’s the difference and
9 what are the implications to that?
10 MR. CUNNINGHAM: On the property card?
11 MR. BENEDICT: Yes.
12 MR. CUNNINGHAM: We can take a look at
13 that for next. I don’t know on the fly right now,
14 but we could take a look at that before the next
15 meeting.
16 MR. BENEDICT: All right. So it’s still
17 R-40.
18 MR. CUNNINGHAM: Mm-hmm.
19 MR. BENEDICT: That’s never changed. I
20 imagine there would be hearings if they were
21 going to try and change the zoning on the
22 property?
23 MR. KESSLER: That would be a town board
24 issue.
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2 MR. CUNNINGHAM: That would be the town
3 board.
4 MR. KESSLER: The town board changes
5 zoning. We do not.
6 MR. BENEDICT: Okay. Is this board still
7 lead agency on this matter?
8 MR. KESSLER: What’s that?
9 MR. BENEDICT: Are you still the --
10 MR. KESSLER: Yes, we are the lead
11 agency, yes, yes.
12 MR. BENEDICT: You’re still the lead
13 agency. I previously inquired in writing about
14 the anticipated power requirements for these
15 buildings. I don’t know if we’re going to have
16 electric heat, electric hot water, oil heat, oil
17 water. How much of a drain is this going to be on
18 the infrastructure and what would be the cost of
19 improvements to satisfy that? How much power is
20 this place going to suck up from the
21 neighborhood? We don’t have the best utility
22 lines in the area, we’re subject to frequent
23 blackouts. Is there any solar component to the
24 plan? I don’t see any obviously solar panels and
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2 I’m wondering if there’s any battery storage
3 that’s going to be on, or if they do plan to do
4 solar.
5 The sewers, for years we’ve been talking
6 about putting in a four-inch sewer main. Now I
7 see it’s a six-inch main. When was that changed?
8 Who made that change and why was that change
9 made?
10 MR. KESSLER: It’s a town board issue,
11 not -- we don’t approve sewers.
12 MR. BENEDICT: So there’s no explanation
13 as to why this is there? How many sewer districts
14 in this town have four-inch mains and how many
15 have six-inch mains?
16 MR. CHRIS LAPINE: I think the main
17 you’re referring to is a force main.
18 MR. BENEDICT: Yeah, force main.
19 MR. LAPINE: Not the gravity main.
20 MR. BENEDICT: Yeah, how many, how many
21 districts have four-inch force mains and how many
22 have six-inch force mains?
23 MR. LAPINE: I couldn’t tell you.
24 MR. BENEDICT: And then how many people
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2 are serviced by each of those?
3 MR. LAPINE: I think in terms of a six-
4 inch force main, it’s based upon what an
5 anticipated flow is, based upon a sewer district
6 that would flow to it, and that’s probably how it
7 was sized accordingly.
8 MR. BENEDICT: So then they’re
9 anticipating a lot larger of a sewage flow than
10 what was originally called for?
11 MR. LAPINE: No, what I’m saying is if
12 it’s a six-inch force main --
13 MR. BENEDICT: Yeah.
14 MR. LAPINE: -- based upon a certain
15 size of the sewer district. So if you, your sewer
16 district is not only this project area, it would
17 include a number of other parcels in the area
18 that may contribute to it.
19 MR. BENEDICT: That’s if anyone is going
20 to hook up to this, which is to me, to pay two to
21 three times as much to hook up to this sewer line
22 as opposed to getting a new sewage field and then
23 have the privilege of paying yearly taxes, I
24 really wonder how many people are going to be
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2 hooking up to this sewer line.
3 MR. LAPINE: I can only tell you from a
4 technical perspective why the line was sized. I
5 can’t speak to the cost implications of
6 connecting to it versus your sewer. That was a
7 town board action. But, you know, obviously, to
8 go from four to six is typically proper planning
9 for future use, if people do decide they want to
10 connect to it.
11 MR. BENEDICT: Well let’s say like Red
12 Oak sewer district.
13 MR. LAPINE: I’m sorry, if you could
14 repeat.
15 MR. BENEDICT: The Red Oak sewer
16 district.
17 MR. LAPINE: Okay.
18 MR. BENEDICT: Does that got a four-inch
19 force main?
20 MR. LAPINE: I could not tell you off
21 the top of my head. I’m a consultant engineer.
22 I’m not in the sanitary department.
23 MR. BENEDICT: Can someone tell me how a
24 sewer district is financed?
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2 MR. KESSLER: We’re here --
3 MR. CUNNINGHAM: By the users, but I
4 mean that’s not an issue before the planning
5 board right now.
6 MR. KESSLER: The issue here is not the
7 sewer district, obviously.
8 MR. BENEDICT: The issue here is the
9 expansion and the cost that’s going to be borne
10 by the residents of the town of Cortlandt.
11 MR. KESSLER: My understanding, and
12 again, this was a town board decision to create
13 the sewer district and build the sewer, which was
14 done, I’m understanding without town funds. Is
15 that correct?
16 MR. CUNNINGHAM: There was one, the town
17 board only attributed 500,000 so others on the
18 route could connect, because that led to some
19 design differences then if it was just the
20 yeshiva being able to connect into the county
21 infrastructure.
22 MR. KESSLER: They, you know, I can make
23 a joke here.
24 MR. CUNNINGHAM: Besides that, I mean
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2 the only user right now on the sewer improvement
3 area is the yeshiva, so they’re bearing all
4 costs.
5 MR. BENEDICT: So if there’s only one
6 user in that sewer district, they’ve got to pay
7 the whole cost.
8 MR. CUNNINGHAM: They pay all the costs.
9 MR. BENEDICT: Pay the whole cost for --
10 MR. CUNNINGHAM: They’re paying the
11 whole cost and --
12 MR. BENEDICT: -- the pump house.
13 MR. KESSLER: Right.
14 MR. BENEDICT: They pay labor.
15 MR. CUNNINGHAM: They’re paying the
16 whole cost.
17 MR. BENEDICT: Everything like that.
18 MR. CUNNINGHAM: They put up escrow
19 payments, they put up almost a million dollars to
20 start, plus they have to pay all the financing
21 costs.
22 MR. LAPINE: And the ONM.
23 MR. BENEDICT: I have heard several
24 times, it’s 19 years we’ve been doing this.
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2 Steven and Tom, you’ve been here the whole time.
3 MR. KESSLER: Yep.
4 MR. BENEDICT: I’m constantly hearing, I
5 know the student cap isn’t going to be
6 [unintelligible] [00:55:53]. But I’m constantly
7 hearing that that student cap was based upon
8 sewage requirements. That was never based on
9 sewage requirements. That was an accepted number
10 based upon FISP and there was BEDS reports.
11 That’s how that number came up. It had nothing to
12 do with we were limited to this many students
13 because of a sewage cap. That’s totally false.
14 There’s been no pushback on that at all.
15 It’s always been about a density issue. Has any
16 other proposal for this site been given to the
17 board? Have we seen plans for a smaller building?
18 No.
19 MR. KESSLER: They, we are evaluating
20 what they proposed. That’s what they proposed.
21 MR. BENEDICT: I think the building
22 needs to be smaller than it’s proposed as now.
23 There would be one legal way to limit the number
24 of students that could be in this building. It’s
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2 by reducing the number of rooms. I also see
3 there’s a big push to get the wetlands re-
4 designated. Is that merely because we’re inching
5 into the buffer zone, or is it for some
6 alternative future plans?
7 MR. KESSLER: The plans are the plans.
8 Future plans would come back to this board. If
9 there was any change to what they’re proposing --
10 suppose we’d approve this tonight, which we’re
11 not. But if we were, if there were any changes to
12 that plan, they would have to come back and
13 reapply to this board for an amended site plan.
14 So what we’re evaluating tonight is exactly what
15 they proposed, with the changes that have taken
16 place over these many months based upon
17 discussions with the planning staff and the
18 technical staff, you know, which led to a number
19 of changes that Dave outlined tonight and there
20 are other changes that were made in previous
21 meetings in terms of encroachment on the wetlands
22 and other things, reducing the scale of some
23 buildings, like the sanctuary. So there were
24 other changes that were made based upon
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2 discussions with staff and the applicant. And now
3 we have the latest revised plans and that’s what
4 we’re discussing together with of course the
5 student cap, which is obviously a key issue.
6 MR. LAPINE: And the wetlands that
7 you’re referring to, I think what you’re
8 referencing is that they’re DEC wetlands?
9 MR. BENEDICT: Yes.
10 MR. LAPINE: Yes. And that was due to
11 the DEC site visit and flagging of the wetlands.
12 MR. BENEDICT: And they want to reduce
13 the size of the wetlands?
14 MR. LAPINE: What you’re seeing on the
15 plans is based upon the DEC’s field visit and
16 flagging of the wetlands.
17 MR. BENEDICT: But there’s a push to
18 reduce the wetlands.
19 MR. KESSLER: To remove encroachment
20 into the wetlands.
21 MR. LAPINE: That’s what the applicant
22 said at the last meeting.
23 MR. BENEDICT: I know what they said at
24 the last meeting.
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2 MR. LAPINE: The DEC, and it’s reflected
3 on their plans, that they were asked to remove
4 some of the encroachments within the buffer.
5 MR. BENEDICT: All right. There’s no
6 plans to close this hearing tonight?
7 MR. KESSLER: No.
8 MR. BENEDICT: Okay. So the loophole,
9 you don’t want to get into that? We’re not. I’ll
10 save it for another day.
11 MR. KESSLER: No.
12 MR. BENEDICT: I will save that for
13 another time then. Thank you.
14 MR. KESSLER: Okay. Thank you. Anybody
15 else wish to comment? Come on up.
16 MR. JOHN DEBENEDICTUS: Good evening,
17 John Debenedictus. I am still unclear as to who
18 is going to live in this thing? In other words,
19 the instructor ratio of instructor to students
20 and family living situations and how many, and
21 how does that change as the number of students
22 increases, which, I mean the way I’m
23 understanding it and I could be wrong on this
24 one, you’re not going to have much to do with the
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2 capping of this. So as, if it increases in
3 student population what is the ratio? I mean is
4 it, you know, is there ten students to an
5 instructor?
6 And I know, I think I heard this right,
7 but, you know, sometimes I may not have. It
8 happens once in a while. But it seems like Mr.
9 Steinmetz said they would be younger instructors,
10 so of the impression I got, you know, that they
11 wouldn’t have a family. Well, that works for a
12 while, but young instructors get married, okay.
13 And are they going to live there? And what
14 happens to their families? And as you go down the
15 road, and I asked the question last meeting, what
16 happens to the children in this family situation?
17 And I’m not clear as to how many people or
18 families, units, are going to live there? And
19 what happens with the increase in students as it
20 goes along?
21 Because I don’t know, again, I’m not a
22 legal eagle or nothing. But we talk, I’ve, you
23 know, there’s a lot of talk about what New York
24 State says you’ve got to have, you’ve got to
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2 have. I also think New York State says you’ve got
3 to educate children, okay. And if there was young
4 children there, or middle school children, I
5 don’t know what age they are, I would think that
6 the state would say you have to educate these
7 people.
8 And it runs back to what I said last
9 time at the meeting. Those of us who are
10 strapped, living in the Hendrick Hudson school
11 district, which is completely out of control, it
12 doesn’t take a lot of students to go in there and
13 have it, the budget go sky high, okay. All you’ve
14 got to do is have one kid walk in there, it hits
15 the cap, and now you’ve got another teacher that
16 has to be hired. And if you have two or three, I
17 mean we, you know, it just snowballs.
18 So like I say, I don’t seem to have a
19 good handle as to how many families, quote, are
20 going to live there and the size of those
21 families and what happens to the children? And
22 like I said, if you’re strapped living in the
23 Hendrick Hudson school district, this is
24 something you want to know, because they’re out
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2 of control as it is and I don’t think that’s been
3 addressed here, tonight.
4 MR. KESSLER: Okay. Thank you.
5 MR. DEBENEDICTUS: Okay. I mean that’s
6 it. I don’t, I haven’t heard is there going to be
7 for every 250 students, are there 15 instructors,
8 are there 20 instructors?
9 MR. KESSLER: Okay.
10 MR. DEBENEDICTUS: And are they going to
11 live there? I mean, I’ve had to put three kids
12 through college. And I’ve yet to have, you know,
13 any one of those schools house the instructors,
14 okay. And, you know, so this here now is you’re
15 setting up to have instructors live there, and
16 again, I repeat and I don’t want to keep
17 repeating it, but that means families. And
18 families mean children and children mean schools
19 and that means a district like Hendrick Hudson
20 will just want to build another school district
21 for that. I mean they’re crazy over there. So,
22 again, that hasn’t, in my opinion, it hasn’t been
23 addressed and you haven’t, you haven’t gotten a
24 real answer on that.
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2 MR. KESSLER: Okay, thank you.
3 MR. DEBENEDICTUS: I’d like to know.
4 MR. KESSLER: Okay. I mean --
5 MR. DEBENEDICTUS: Thank you.
6 MR. KESSLER: -- in a second, I will
7 rephrase your question and ask it.
8 MR. DEBENEDICTUS: I’m sorry?
9 MR. KESSLER: I’ll rephrase your
10 question and ask it in a minute once we hear from
11 everybody else.
12 MR. DEBENEDICTUS: Thank you.
13 MR. ROBERT McMANN: Yes, good evening.
14 My name is Robert McMann. I live at 14 Lakeview
15 Avenue West and I’m objecting to the proposed
16 expansion of the Yeshiva Ohr Hameir and
17 requesting that the planning board deny the
18 application based on a documented history of
19 inconsistent representations, unresolved
20 infrastructure impacts and clear public safety
21 concerns.
22 Over the course of many years, the
23 applicant has made varying and inconsistent
24 representations to the town regarding the number
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2 of students housed at the property and the
3 intensity of its use. A review of prior planning
4 board minutes and application materials reflects
5 ongoing disagreement and the lack of clarity
6 concerning actual onsite residency levels. These
7 discrepancies raise serious concerns about
8 whether prior approvals were granted based on
9 complete and accurate information and whether
10 current representations can be relied upon.
11 Despite these unresolved issues, the
12 applicant is now seeking approval for additional
13 residential housing as part of a proposed
14 expansion. Allowing new dormitory or residential
15 facilities before the town has conclusively
16 determined existing compliance would effectively
17 reward past ambiguity and eliminate meaningful
18 oversight of occupancy levels. Residential
19 housing is not an incidental issue. It directly
20 drives population density, traffic,
21 infrastructure demand and neighborhood impact in
22 a district zoned primarily for single family
23 residential use.
24 In addition, the board must address the
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2 ongoing public safety impacts that already exist
3 under the current operations. On Saturdays, large
4 numbers of students regularly walk along local
5 residential roads outside the yeshiva grounds.
6 These roads are narrow, curving and lack
7 sidewalks. The volume of pedestrian traffic under
8 these conditions creates a foreseeable and
9 ongoing safety hazard for both pedestrians and
10 motorists. Any expansion that increases onsite
11 residency will necessarily intensify this risk,
12 yet no adequate mitigation has been demonstrated.
13 Compounding these concerns is the
14 current sewer installation project associated
15 with the yeshiva. Public roads have been
16 excavated and to date, have been inadequately
17 repaved. The condition of the roadways reflect
18 substandard restoration and raises additional
19 safety concerns. It’s inappropriate to consider
20 expansion while the infrastructure work tied
21 directly to the applicant’s use remains
22 incomplete, poorly executed and unacceptable.
23 The planning board is obligated to
24 ensure that the special use approvals are based
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2 on accurate information, the conditions are
3 enforceable and that public safety is protected.
4 The record here demonstrates unresolved
5 compliance, questions ongoing adverse impacts and
6 a pattern of expanding intensity before prior
7 obligations are fully satisfied.
8 So for these reasons, I respectfully
9 request that the planning board deny the proposed
10 expansion application, decline to approve
11 additional residential or dormitory housing,
12 required a fully accounting and verification of
13 existing onsite residency levels and require
14 complete, permanent and town-approved restoration
15 of all impacted roadways before entertaining any
16 future expansion proposals, and to fully evaluate
17 pedestrian and traffic safety impacts under both
18 the current conditions before considering any
19 increase in use. So thank you for your
20 consideration and for ensuring that zoning
21 standards and public safety protections are
22 meaningfully enforced. Thank you.
23 MR. KESSLER: Thank you. [applause] Any
24 other comments from the public?
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2 MS. VALERIE FRISCIA: Good evening. My
3 name is Valerie Friscia. I reside at 19 Shaw
4 Highway and I oppose the expansion of -- the
5 removal of the special cap. I know that you’re
6 discussing that they’re voluntarily going to keep
7 256. The lack of their adhering to the cap has
8 caused the problems that exist today. Their
9 septic system failed. Their septic system failed
10 due to the lack of adhering to the number of
11 students that resided there. And this septic
12 system is being replaced by their sewer. And this
13 sewer has been a terrible disruption to the
14 community, and we are now left with uneven roads
15 and potholes that we have to get through, through
16 the winter until they complete this project in
17 the spring.
18 I think that the biggest thing is that
19 the lack of communication that this sewer project
20 was going to be done, that we were told four
21 months after the fact that the sewer was being,
22 was happening. We already knew that because we
23 see the construction. On Lafayette is a parking
24 lot of huge machinery that we have to drive past
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2 and look at. I just thank God I don’t live next
3 door to them.
4 I don’t oppose the yeshiva being in
5 existence. I think it’s wonderful that they are
6 religious and that they want to instruct young
7 men to have a strong foundation in religion. I
8 really believe everyone should have some kind of
9 religious basis.
10 What I do oppose is the impact on the
11 community. The traffic studies, we need traffic
12 studies, the septic has ruined our wetlands, and
13 I want a guarantee, you know, that they’re not
14 going to build something else on this property
15 later on.
16 The other thing is that I think the
17 building is way out of sorts for the area. I
18 think it’s way too big. The middle school, it’s
19 almost the size of the middle school, which is
20 right next door. I want to know what the traffic
21 studies are going to be. I’d like to know if
22 anybody visited the site as it is right now and
23 gone into the dormitories and guaranteed that
24 these young men are safe as it is right now, you
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2 know, that there’s no fire hazard and I mean I’ve
3 met them on the street. They’re lovely young men.
4 I haven’t, I’m not opposed to them. You know,
5 they chit-chat, they’re very friendly. They’re
6 very nice, you know. I’m concerned about their
7 safety, you know. Are they safe in where they’re
8 living right now?
9 The other thing is that their septic
10 failed in 2006. So while we’re waiting for this
11 sewer to be installed and their septic has
12 failed, where is their waste products going? So,
13 I’m trying to keep this brief, because I know
14 everyone has, everyone that has spoken already,
15 you know, I firmly support, you know, that the
16 town stays on top of this.
17 I recently received a fine for $100
18 because I put in a driveway without getting a
19 permit. I had no idea I needed one. My neighbor
20 also got a fine. So we as residents do what we
21 have to do. I was wrong. I came, I paid my fine.
22 And I expected the same thing to be upheld
23 throughout the community. And their institution
24 is the only institution that has people living
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2 there. There’s other churches in the area. They
3 do not have residents. So, with that being said,
4 I really hope that you’re going to give this
5 serious thought and really look into this. Thank
6 you.
7 MR. KESSLER: Thank you. [applause]
8 Anybody else wish to speak? So David, a question.
9 Again, going back to the population table and to
10 what Mr. Benedict has said, currently you have
11 nine staff members there for 217 students. You’re
12 proposing, if you take out the weekend and
13 holiday staff, which I presume are not part of
14 the staffing, you still have nine people for 320
15 people. So you’re saying that you’re existing
16 staff, well, not you, but the rabbi, you’re
17 saying the existing staff of nine people for 217
18 people is sufficient to teach, instruct 320
19 people?
20 MR. STEINMETZ: I’ll let the rabbi
21 respond to that.
22 MR. ROTHBERG: Good evening once again.
23 No, we have traveling staff members as well, that
24 come every day. So we have currently three that
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2 live on site, three staff members with their
3 spouses that live on site. There are instructors,
4 rabbis. We’re proposing for three more on site.
5 And then there will be, there’s also continuous -
6 - there’s about I think roughly 28 or 29, I
7 forget the exact number, it should be on this
8 table, 28 or 29 staff members that commute daily
9 at different times of the day, some in the
10 morning, some in the afternoon, some in the
11 evening. They’re not all there at the same time,
12 but those would be the rest of instructing staff.
13 MR. STEINMETZ: Approximately how many
14 additional staff, if any, as a result of the
15 increase in student cap?
16 MR. ROTHBERG: I don’t think any, as of
17 now, no.
18 MR. STEINMETZ: I think that was really
19 the question.
20 MR. ROTHBERG: No, there’s no.
21 MR. KESSLER: Okay. So now again, we’re
22 back to not having complete information here I’m
23 sorry to say. So you have three, you have three
24 instructors that come in traveling every day? Is
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2 that what I’m hearing?
3 MR. ROTHBERG: We have, right now, what
4 we -- okay. Currently, we have three instructors
5 living on campus. We are proposing for another
6 three instructors to move on campus.
7 MR. KESSLER: Okay.
8 MR. ROTHBERG: But in addition to that,
9 we have roughly 28 staff members that commute
10 daily, some in the morning, some in the afternoon
11 and some of them in the evening. Some of that is,
12 you know, cleaning staff, but for the most part
13 it’s instructors that teach at different times of
14 the day. This is a very long day, some in the
15 morning, some in the afternoon, some at night. So
16 with the new three homes that we’re proposing for
17 three of the instructors, that would bring down
18 the traveling staff by three.
19 MR. KESSLER: The three existing staff
20 members are in Dakota, that live there?
21 MR. ROTHBERG: Two live in Texas, and
22 one lives in Dakota.
23 MR. KESSLER: Two live in, Texas is
24 listed as your residence?
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2 MR. STEINMETZ: That’s, no, that’s Rabbi
3 Kanarek.
4 MR. ROTHBERG: That’s Rabbi Kanarek.
5 MR. KESSLER: Okay.
6 MR. STEINMETZ: There’s one there,
7 there’s two in the other, and now there would be
8 three in the new pool -- in the revised pool
9 building.
10 MR. KESSLER: In the revised pool
11 building.
12 MR. ROTHBERG: The Dakota has two.
13 MR. STEINMETZ: Correct.
14 MR. ROTHBERG: No, Texas has two. Dakota
15 has one, I’m sorry.
16 MR. KESSLER: Texas has two, Dakota has
17 one, three are going in there. But you also said
18 you are going to have three new ones.
19 MR. ROTHBERG: In the pool building.
20 MR. STEINMETZ: When you just said three
21 going in there, that’s the, that’s the pool
22 building.
23 MR. KESSLER: And the others stay where
24 they are in Dakota and Texas?
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2 MR. STEINMETZ: Correct.
3 MR. ROTHBERG: Correct.
4 MR. KESSLER: Got it. Okay.
5 MR. KOBASA: And then you have
6 approximately --
7 MR. KESSLER: And then you have 28 staff
8 commuting currently?
9 MR. ROTHBERG: At different times,
10 correct.
11 MR. KESSLER: Which is not shown
12 anywhere here, correct?
13 MR. STEINMETZ: Because they don’t
14 reside there.
15 MR. ROTHBERG: Right. They don’t reside
16 on campus. It was shown on a chart, I think
17 Heather asked for how much traveling staff we
18 have at the last technical meeting.
19 MR. KESSLER: And then there’s parking
20 shown on the plans for those 28 staff
21 sufficiently I would think.
22 MR. STEINMETZ: Yes, because they’re not
23 all there at the same time, and we’ve never had a
24 parking, anyone who has ever visited the campus
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2 knows there’s never a parking issue.
3 MR. KESSLER: Okay.
4 MR. STEINMETZ: None of the students
5 have cars.
6 MR. KESSLER: So the 28 staff, what is
7 that two shifts, three shifts?
8 MR. ROTHBERG: I would characterize it
9 as three shifts.
10 MR. KESSLER: Three shifts, okay. Okay.
11 That was my question. Any --
12 MR. STEINMETZ: Mr. Chairman, I want to
13 just respond. You had asked some of the public to
14 finish their comments. I just wanted to respond
15 to some of them.
16 MR. KESSLER: Oh, I’m sorry, thank you
17 for reminding me.
18 MR. STEINMETZ: I think it would be
19 useful for the record. In no particular, probably
20 in reverse order, the last speaker, and I didn’t
21 get Valerie’s last name, I apologize. There was a
22 reference to not adhering to the cap. I want to
23 just state categorically for the record, in the
24 15 years that I’ve been involved in this matter,
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2 never once, never once has there been an
3 allegation or an assertion by the town that there
4 was a failure to adhere to the cap. So I don’t
5 know where that information comes from, but I
6 don’t want the record to contain false
7 information.
8 MS. FASCIA: No, but that was --
9 MR. STEINMETZ: In terms of traffic
10 studies, we submitted information to the town
11 about the number of commuters and the number of
12 vehicles and there are no students that drive. In
13 terms of Mr. McMann’s comments, and hers as well,
14 I think the record needs to be clear, that the
15 sewer work --
16 MR. KESSLER: Please.
17 MR. STEINMETZ: Thank you. That the
18 sewer work is all being done not by the yeshiva,
19 it’s being done by the town and the town’s
20 contractor. It is a public process and a public
21 bid project. And it is being supervised by the
22 town and its professionals. The infrastructure
23 work may be incomplete, but it’s underway at a
24 substantial expense to the yeshiva. And whoever
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2 said it, I think it might have been maybe one of
3 the staff people, it might have been Mr.
4 Cunningham, at the moment, the entire cost of
5 that, servicing that bond by that sewer district
6 falls solely on the yeshiva until such time as
7 anyone else joins that district.
8 My understanding and I would defer to
9 Chris Lapine and others, and Katie, my
10 understanding from my involvement in this is that
11 the town, its professionals and the county health
12 department required the sizing of that pipe. So
13 the six-inch pipe was not something that the
14 yeshiva said hey, let’s spend even more money and
15 have a six-inch pipe. It was foist upon this
16 project by a series of professionals.
17 And in terms of public safety, we keep
18 hearing this issue about students walking and
19 obviously public safety is as important to the
20 yeshiva as it is to the town and the community.
21 We appreciate the fact that the town has finally
22 and recently installed signage on Furnace Woods
23 Road indicating that there’s a school zone in
24 that area. And that’s something that probably was
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2 a long time coming and we all probably should
3 have dealt with that. The town has now
4 implemented that.
5 And my understanding is that the yeshiva
6 is prepared, Mr. Chairman and members of the
7 board, and this is the first time you’re hearing
8 this, because I don’t think I put this in my
9 written submission, we are, the yeshiva is
10 prepared to fund the installation of one of those
11 speed signs on Furnace Woods Road that would be
12 solar powered and indicate when folks in the
13 community might be driving along those winding
14 roads a little quicker than maybe they should be,
15 so happy to deal with that.
16 In terms of Mr. Debenedictis’ question,
17 I think we got an answer to the ratio to the
18 ratio of students to instructors. But the only
19 thing I would mention is in terms of school
20 children, if this property were developed in
21 accordance with the R-40 within which it is
22 located and houses were built and students were
23 residing in those houses, I think there would be
24 a far, far, far greater impact to the Hen-Hud
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2 school district than the zero number of students
3 who will matriculate in the Hen-Hud school
4 district as a result of --
5 MR. KEHOE: David, I think that was
6 mentioned last meeting as well. I just want to
7 clear that up. I think what the question is would
8 staff members at the yeshiva have children that
9 would attend the public school system.
10 MR. ROTHBERG: No. And the three staff
11 members that are currently residing on campus all
12 had large families years ago, 40 years ago when
13 we moved on to the -- when we moved into
14 Cortlandt. None of their children attended the
15 school system. They have gone to Monsey, Mt.
16 Kisco, wherever they’ve gone and our, we took
17 care of that. Nothing on the town, no busing,
18 none of that, none of that, and none of that is
19 proposed right now either.
20 MR. STEINMETZ: When you say you took
21 care of that, no busing, you mean it was all --
22 MR. ROTHBERG: It was all the yeshiva
23 that took care of it. We pay for our own
24 transportation, yes. There’s nothing on the town.
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2 MR. STEINMETZ: And I was going to ask
3 that and I appreciate getting that cleared up.
4 So, the school issue is sort of a bit of a red
5 herring. On the issue of the reduction of the
6 wetlands, Steve will correct me if I’m wrong,
7 that came from the town’s wetland consultant.
8 That was the town’s wetland consultant who came
9 out and said I actually think the wetlands have
10 gotten smaller in the last 15 years. That
11 differed from what the DEC said. The DEC was more
12 conservative. But the notion of the reduction in
13 the wetland line, and we talked about that
14 probably three meetings ago, four or five months
15 ago, that was Paul Jaehnig’s re-designation of
16 the line. And I just wanted the record to be
17 clear about that.
18 Another comment that was made by Ms.
19 Cook was about a total number of 250 people. The
20 existing special permit that we have today is for
21 225 students and 75 staff and family members, for
22 a total of 300. And the other thing that I
23 probably should have stated at the outset,
24 especially for folks who spoke tonight who may
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2 not have been here at prior meetings, this is an
3 application for an amended site plan approval. We
4 have, and have had for 15 years, approval to
5 build the dormitory building. I see the chair
6 nodding. The chair obviously knows. He voted in
7 favor of that 15 years ago. We went through the
8 SEQR process 15 years ago. We went through the
9 site plan review process 15 years ago. We went
10 through the special permit review 15 years ago.
11 So why are we back? We’re back as I
12 said, and you’ve heard it, but I’ve got to say it
13 again for people who may not have heard it,
14 because the night I got my approval, the vice
15 chairman of the planning board said don’t build
16 the onsite sewage treatment plant, please try to
17 build a sewer line. And we have spent ten years
18 working with the county, the town, the state,
19 trying to effectuate the improvement in this
20 section of Cortlandt with a sewer line that may
21 well service 135 other properties that are
22 currently on the same aged and aging septic
23 systems that the yeshiva is on. So we’re really
24 pleased that the town chose to do it. And we are
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2 unfortunately saddled with all of the expense for
3 the time being. So that having been said, Mr.
4 Chairman, we are happy to answer any further
5 questions. I know the public hearing is going to
6 be held over.
7 MR. KESSLER: Yes.
8 MR. STEINMETZ: I understand Mr. Bianchi
9 asked for some information from the architect.
10 You’ve all provided us with some questions. I
11 believe we’ve answered the fire issue, but we
12 need to confirm that with the fire chief, and I
13 will look forward to working with Katie to try to
14 effectuate that as soon as possible and certainly
15 before the February meeting. And I did hear
16 Chris’ lamentation earlier about they’re going to
17 get us a memo and we’re going to have to respond
18 to the memo and it’ll come in right about at the
19 same time as the meeting. As soon as you can
20 possibly, all of you, provide us with any more
21 technical information and comments, our team will
22 be charged by the yeshiva to deal with that as
23 soon as possible and get that back to all of you.
24 And I hope at the February meeting, we’re able to
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2 answer your questions and you all have enough
3 time to study that. We appreciate your time, we
4 appreciate your patience. And Mr. Chairman, I
5 look forward to working with staff and with the
6 town attorney’s office to see if we can tease out
7 the details of the student cap issue, which I
8 understand is important to your board.
9 MR. KESSLER: Yeah.
10 MR. LAPINE: David, there was one
11 comment.
12 MR. KESSLER: It’s important to the
13 residents as well.
14 MR. STEINMETZ: Understood.
15 MR. KESSLER: Not just this board. And
16 this board is reflecting the concerns of the
17 residents, so let’s be clear.
18 MR. STEINMETZ: I see the reflection.
19 MR. KESSLER: Good.
20 MR. LAPINE: There was one comment from
21 the public, if you were considering solar for
22 this project.
23 MR. STEINMETZ: Chana, or anyone? Any
24 solar installation?
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2 MR. ROTHBERG: We’re willing to look
3 into it.
4 MR. STEINMETZ: We’ll respond in writing
5 in our next submission. I think we are looking
6 into it, we do have flat room capability. I will,
7 I hear the question.
8 MR. LAPINE: I know there’s a study that
9 you have to do, an economics study for it and it
10 takes a little time, that’s why I was just asking
11 the question --
12 MR. STEINMETZ: Understood.
13 MR. LAPINE: -- because someone brought
14 it up.
15 MR. STEINMETZ: Yeah.
16 MR. KESSLER: Okay. Any last questions
17 from the staff or the board?
18 MR. KOBASA: No, I’m good.
19 MR. KESSLER: No? Great. So let’s move
20 on. Karen?
21 MS. TIMKO: Hi, I’d like to make a
22 motion regarding the application of the Yeshiva
23 Ohr Hameir to adjourn this matter to the February
24 3, 2026 planning board meeting.
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2 MR. KESSLER: Thank you. Hope to see you
3 all then. Can I have a second please?
4 MR. KOBASA: Second.
5 MR. KESSLER: And on the question, all
6 in favor?
7 MULTIPLE: Aye.
8 MR. KESSLER: Opposed? Thank you. All
9 right. Wow.
10 (CROSSTALK)
11 MR. KESSLER: Okay, let’s, if we can,
12 let’s move on. Our next item is another public
13 hearing. It’s a brand new public hearing. It’s
14 the application of VS Construction Corporation
15 for site plan approval and for tree, wetland and
16 steep slope permits for a proposed 96,860
17 assisted living facility located in the Medical
18 Oriented District at 2003 Crompond Road, drawings
19 latest revised November 20, 2025. Mr. Steinmetz,
20 good evening again.
21 MR. STEINMETZ: Good evening, Mr.
22 Chairman and members of the board. David
23 Steinmetz here on behalf of VS Construction and
24 one of the critical lots in their Evergreen Manor
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2 proposed subdivision to be developed, as you
3 indicated, by an assisted living provider. This
4 is not the first time we’ve talked about this
5 particular issue. But we’re really pleased to be
6 here tonight, specifically with regard to
7 proposed future lot one, which is in the south,
8 the northwest, northeast corner of the Evergreen
9 Manor property, which is within the medical
10 oriented district.
11 The proposal is for one of the
12 preeminent providers of assisted living and
13 senior care in the region, Benchmark Senior
14 Living. And I’m pleased that Eric Gardner, one of
15 the principals of Benchmark Senior Living, along
16 with his project architect, Michael Stein, are
17 present. We have talked about this previously.
18 I’m going to let Matt Steinberg from our project
19 engineering and planning firm go through the
20 details. But we are here to present a state of
21 the art senior assisted living residence of 100
22 units, 118 beds. We have provided you with a
23 number of materials throughout the last several
24 months. There is, continues to be strong demand
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2 in the Cortlandt area for a state of the art
3 modern assisted living facility.
4 This is not skilled nursing care. This
5 is an assisted living residence, which provides
6 assistance with the activities of daily living,
7 distribution of medication, assisting folks who
8 may need work with dressing, toileting,
9 activities can be conducted in terms of fitness,
10 meals, congregating within the building. This is
11 a rental model program and this is not
12 Benchmark’s first rodeo. They have a substantial
13 number of facilities and residences throughout
14 the northeast, are very excited to enter the
15 Cortlandt market.
16 And the only other thing I will say and
17 kind of hand it off to Matt, we presented this
18 application initially, or the proposal of the
19 location of this building, we walked the property
20 with a number of you several months ago. Comments
21 were provided by your board about the location of
22 the building, its importance relative to Route
23 202 and the entrance to this subdivision. And
24 together, DTS and Eric’s team were able to modify
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2 the building’s orientation. We think it works
3 better. We think it’s far more attractive and I
4 will let Matt talk about those details.
5 MR. MATT STEINBERG: Good evening, DTS
6 Provident. So as David mentioned, so this project
7 is located along Crompond, the Crompond Road
8 portion of the Evergreen Manor site. The, it’s
9 approximately six acres of the site. The building
10 is pulled to the front of the site, near Crompond
11 Road, which is consistent with the MOD zoning and
12 what was reviewed during the SEQR process, the
13 extensive SEQR process. And the site is largely
14 influenced by the site’s topography and a number
15 of zoning constraints.
16 One of the key ones is the 100 foot non-
17 disturbance buffer along the eastern side of the
18 property. As you can see, it might be a little
19 hard to see, but that strip along that side of
20 the property is 100 foot non-disturbance area,
21 that the trees within that area will be
22 preserved.
23 The steepest sections of the site are
24 within that eastern portion of the site and then
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2 on the western side, along the proposed Evergreen
3 Manor roadway. The elevations of the site go from
4 approximately elevation 350 near the Crompond
5 Road intersection of Evergreen Manor to about 430
6 along the eastern property line. So you can get a
7 sense of the topographic change. By pulling that
8 building forward, it gives us a chance to place
9 that parking to the rear and side of the
10 building.
11 As David mentioned, one of the other
12 redesigns that we went through was to move the
13 loading area to that rear portion behind the
14 building as well. So essentially the building
15 screens the parking and the loading. Access would
16 be from the Evergreen Manor roadway. You can see
17 it, it’s sort of at the top of this screen. That
18 provides access to the parking lot, to a covered
19 entryway at the back of the building, which
20 essentially is the main entrance to the site, a
21 series of sidewalks that would connect to the
22 rest of the Evergreen Manor development, along
23 with a series of outdoor patios and garden spaces
24 for the residents and their guests to enjoy.
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2 Heather, if you could move on to the
3 next? So the building complies with the maximum
4 45 foot maximum under the MOD zoning. The
5 building was designed to fit into that Evergreen
6 Manor site that I was talking about with that
7 stepping topography, so that it appears as a
8 three-story building on the Crompond Road side,
9 and a two-story side and a two story building on
10 the reverse.
11 The building, as you can see, it’s
12 articulated in a number of materials and
13 features, such as stone and siding. But as, you
14 know, I discussed, a number of retaining walls
15 are required in order to make that site work and
16 provide that access to the front. So those block
17 retaining walls, which were shown partially in
18 this image and the image before would be done in
19 a natural earth tone color to complement the
20 site’s architecture. The applicant proposes to
21 carry that throughout the site to have a cohesive
22 master plan.
23 At the top of the wall, where it faces
24 Crompond Road, it would be topped with a metal
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2 decorative fence. And as this depicts, a use of
3 plantings, both evergreen and shrubbery would be
4 placed at the bottom of the walls to partially,
5 to screen that and soften the look.
6 The parking, there are 66 parking spaces
7 are proposed, 59 are required. This is also
8 consistent with the Institute of Transportation
9 Engineers parking standards. The parking layout
10 has been refined as we’ve gone through this
11 process, to accommodate fire apparatus and to
12 respond to comments that we received from the
13 fire department.
14 There would be a gated emergency access
15 to Crompond Road from the parking lot. The
16 lighting would be a full LED lighting system.
17 We’ve provided photometrics in our latest
18 submission. It shows that there would be no
19 spillover into any adjacent properties,
20 particularly because of that 100 foot non-
21 disturbance area. The landscaping would be
22 predominantly native plantings, a number of new
23 trees, plus extensive shrub plantings and as I
24 mentioned, evergreen wall -- evergreen trees
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2 along the front of the walls to soften that look.
3 The project is consistent for coverage
4 both on its own and as part of the overall master
5 plan. The coverage is considered based on the
6 master plan. And that’s essentially that’s an
7 overview of the project. I’d be happy to answer
8 any questions, or obviously, this is a public
9 hearing.
10 MR. KESSLER: Just again, how far is the
11 building from Crompond Road?
12 MR. STEINBERG: The setback is 30 feet,
13 so it’s at least 30 feet back.
14 MR. KESSLER: Thirty feet from Crompond
15 Road?
16 MR. STEINBERG: Correct.
17 MR. MICHAEL STEIN: The retaining wall
18 is 30 feet from the right of way and then the --
19 MR. KESSLER: I don’t see a retaining
20 wall in the front. Can you go back to the front
21 of the building? Oh, that retaining. So now I’m
22 talking when you go to the building, that
23 building, you know, the building, you’re saying
24 is 30 feet from Crompond Road?
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2 MR. STEINBERG: The retaining wall
3 itself is 30 feet to the right of way to the
4 road.
5 MR. KESSLER: Okay.
6 MR. STEINBERG: So it fluctuates
7 probably between 20 to 24 feet.
8 MR. STEIN: Right, sorry, yes. Right.
9 The retaining is 30 feet from the proposed right
10 of way. And the building is another 20 feet back.
11 MR. STEINBERG: Twenty to 24 feet.
12 MR. KESSLER: So basically 50 feet from
13 the road?
14 MR. STEINBERG: From Crompond Road, yes.
15 MR. KESSLER: Okay.
16 MR. STEINBERG: Sorry, I stand
17 corrected.
18 MR. KESSLER: All right, so you guys
19 done, so we can open it up? Yeah.
20 MR. STEINMETZ: The only thing I want to
21 add, we’re not here on anything else in the MOD
22 on the Evergreen Subdivision, but I want you all
23 to know, because you’ve heard us talk about it a
24 little bit. As a result of attracting Benchmark
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2 and this assisted living of this quality to the
3 site, VS Construction has also been successful in
4 attracting Lennar Home Builders, one of the
5 nation’s largest home builders, branded by the
6 name U.S. Homes. Actually the branding is Lennar,
7 U.S. Homes owns Lennar. We will be coming in
8 shortly and staff knows this, with a townhouse
9 proposal that’s consistent with what we studied
10 under SEQR and went through the whole MOD.
11 I wanted you to know that, because we
12 have the ability now bring high quality
13 developers, high quality product to the town and
14 it’s something that I think both Lennar and the
15 town should be extremely pleased. They were happy
16 to see that Benchmark was coming in with this
17 building. And that allowed for the synergy that
18 the Santuccis have brought to the Evergreen
19 Manor.
20 MR. KESSLER: Hopefully, you’ll file a
21 two-lot subdivision before you do that?
22 MR. STEINMETZ: We, so we’ve been -- in
23 fairness, we’ve been working and I heard some of
24 this in the work session and I don’t want to
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2 overstate it.
3 MR. KESSLER: All you have to do is say
4 yes.
5 MR. STEINMETZ: Steve, we’ve been
6 working with DOTS and waiting for some input on
7 some things for a while, which we finally got. We
8 are working with Katie, Mike and Chris. And we’re
9 spending a lot of time trying to get that
10 subdivision finalized so that we can come back --
11 MR. KESSLER: That’s my point.
12 MR. STEINMETZ: -- with another 96 lots.
13 MR. KESSLER: Maximum of, yes. Right,
14 that was the town board approval, maximum of?
15 MR. STEINMETZ: Ninety-six lots.
16 MR. KESSLER: Maximum of, yes, thank
17 you, maximum of. Okay. So this is a public
18 hearing. Who wishes to comment on this
19 application? Oh, come on. Yes, come on up,
20 please.
21 MR. SALVATORE FARINA: Hello everyone.
22 My name is Salvatore Farina. I’m a resident of
23 the town of Cortlandt since 1986. I’ve raised two
24 children here. In the Hudson Valley Hospital they
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2 were born, which is now Presbyterian Hospital.
3 And now I’m raising two grandchildren here in the
4 Presbyterian Hospital.
5 It’s hard to believe that so many years
6 have gone by already, being involved with the MOD
7 project. As a resident, I expressed concerns,
8 along with my fellow residents, about the scale
9 and the scope of the project. I spoke with fellow
10 residents on many occasions. I invited some to my
11 yard to discuss their concerns. I, at one point,
12 invited Supervisor Becker and town board member
13 Creighton to come and look first hand at my
14 concerns, living so close to the project.
15 Through the years, I have expressed my
16 grievances here in this room before the board. I
17 discussed these concerns with our previous
18 supervisor, Linda Puglisi, and continue with our
19 present supervisor Richard Becker. They were
20 willing to listen and understood the seriousness
21 of those grievances and expressed their own
22 reservations and concerns.
23 Our present supervisor and town
24 officials through emails and face to face
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2 meetings, listened and had positive feedback. We
3 spoke about what we seen as overreach and need
4 for modifications in these conversations. They
5 were always informative and constructive,
6 constructive meetings and I thanked them.
7 A fellow resident involved with the
8 town, Mr. Tom Walsh, reached out to me, speaking
9 with one of the builders involved with the
10 project, Val and Armando Santucci, and if I was
11 interested in speaking with them. And of course,
12 I said yes.
13 After that initial meeting, we continued
14 to speak on many occasions. In those
15 conversations, I told them my grievances and
16 concerns. They took the time to listen and
17 understood my view in this situation.
18 Since then, there have been many changes
19 to the initial plans presented. I have two quotes
20 that I use in my way of thinking, one by John
21 Peters, who said if you always say no, you killed
22 a good idea. And one by John F. Kennedy who said
23 change for the sake of change is not good.
24 I think the willingness to exchange our
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2 ideas and produce a responsible compromise was
3 achieved. Like I said in the beginning, I felt
4 the scope of the project would change the
5 complexion of the town too much. But changes have
6 been made and there have been amendments to the
7 plan. I think we’ve reached an inflection point
8 where the town is ready to step and create
9 something that’s for the betterment for the town
10 and the residents of Cortlandt.
11 The first step is the assisted living
12 project. We have a responsible town board
13 overlooking that project. We have a responsible
14 builder overlooking that project. Everyone has
15 been working together, businessmen, town
16 officials and fellow residents. I think the
17 project is on the right track and thank you.
18 MR. KESSLER: Thank you.
19 MR. FARINA: And Happy New Year.
20 MR. KESSLER: Happy New Year. Anybody
21 else wish to speak? Any other comments from staff
22 or the board?
23 MR. KEHOE: Well, I think, as we
24 discussed at the work session and I think Chris
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2 Lapine mentioned and Chris and Katie correct me
3 if I’m wrong, but this one is a little further
4 along in your engineering review than the
5 yeshiva?
6 MR. LAPINE: Yes.
7 MR. KEHOE: But I still think there’s
8 some more technical review work that needs to be
9 done. And plus, even though there is very little
10 public comment, a project like this size and
11 scope probably should get a second opportunity
12 for a hearing.
13 MR. KESSLER: Yeah, I agree.
14 MR. KEHOE: So, with that, I just want
15 to reiterate that I think we’re going to
16 recommend that this be adjourned for one more
17 month.
18 MR. KESSLER: Sounds fine to me. Any
19 last comments from anybody before we do that? No.
20 Okay.
21 MR. STEINMETZ: I think, before you,
22 before you move on and I’m not here to oppose the
23 adjournment, I heard you say you were going to do
24 it in the work session. You’ve got one of the key
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2 representatives of Benchmark here who came in
3 from Massachusetts. If you have questions about
4 assisted living and operation, feel free to ask.
5 If you want to ask it at the next session, that’s
6 fine. I hate to make him come out, especially
7 since there was literally no public comment
8 besides Mr. Farina. If you have any additional
9 continued concerns about the retaining walls, we,
10 those of us who walked the property several
11 months ago, we talked about it, we went out
12 there. I know you were concerned. Mr. Santucci
13 took great pains to erect strings and posts to
14 depict it. We have since really broken it into
15 two terraced areas and landscape. I hope we’ve
16 assuaged and addressed your concerns, those of
17 you who raised them.
18 And I guess I’d love Mr. Stein and Mr.
19 Gardner to go away thinking the planning board
20 seemed with what they’re seeing in this Benchmark
21 building. If you’re not willing to do that,
22 you’re not. But I made them come so I’d like you
23 to tell them you like their building.
24 MR. KESSLER: Honestly, I don’t know
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2 enough to know to ask a question about, you know,
3 the assisted living. As you said, they’ve been in
4 the business for a while, and far be it from me
5 to question how they run their business.
6 MR. STEINMETZ: Fair enough. I’ll make
7 one editorial comment. Some of you have heard
8 this, others probably haven’t. As someone who had
9 a parent go into independent living, graduate to
10 assisted living and to memory care, and for
11 someone who, I’m involved in a number of
12 different assisted and independent living
13 applications elsewhere in our county, you all
14 should know that the demographics show that there
15 is a tremendous, continued demand for beds in our
16 county and in our region. And that’s why I said
17 something that may have kind of passed over. You
18 kind of deserve something like this in the town
19 of Cortlandt and I’m really happy that Eric and
20 Benchmark are here.
21 MR. KESSLER: Okay.
22 MR. KEHOE: Just also, with respect to
23 the architecture, this has all been referred to
24 the ARC, they’ve commented positively, there’s
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2 been some back and forth with the project
3 architect.
4 MR. KESSLER: Great. Okay. Last call?
5 Oh, wait. Oh we do, see.
6 MR. STEINMETZ: Second round.
7 MR. KESSLER: Let’s get it over with.
8 MR. DEBENEDICTIS: John DeBenedictis
9 again. This really is going to help the town,
10 okay. Let’s face it. This isn’t going to hurt the
11 town at all. And it’s not some big housing
12 development that’ll dump a hundred kids into the
13 school district and your taxes will go up 25
14 percent. And there’s a need for this kind of
15 stuff. And everyone of us in this room probably
16 can use it in the next, near future, you know,
17 myself included. I’m hoping to get a discount.
18 MR. STEINMETZ: Just leave your address
19 with him. [laughter].
20 MR. DEBENEDICTIS: But it is, it’s a
21 good project and, you know, I hate to
22 [unintelligible] [01:45:03], you know, the
23 envisionaries of the town, I mean this MOD thing
24 has been going on for how many years, right. And
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2 so the envisionaries sat down and said this is
3 what should go on. And this is what it is.
4 They’re doing it. So, I mean I think it’s just --
5 MR. KESSLER: Great.
6 MR. DEBENEDICTIS: -- it’s something
7 that will help.
8 MR. KESSLER: Thank you.
9 MR. DEBENEDICTIS: And there just really
10 hasn’t, shouldn’t be a lot of mumbo jumbo going
11 on here. Just let it go. Thank you.
12 MR. KESSLER: We just want to make sure
13 it’s planned correctly. That’s all. Yeah.
14 MS. JANET FALK-KESSLER: Janet Falk-
15 Kessler on Washington Street. I don’t know if my
16 question, it’s for the planning board, I look at
17 the design and I think all the time of whenever I
18 have passed independent living spaces, assisted
19 living, etc., hospitals, I drive by and I see the
20 residents through the windows. And I keep
21 thinking that whoever designed these buildings
22 did not think about their integrity, you know, we
23 have to preserve their dignity. So I’m just
24 hoping that either where the residents’ rooms are
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2 that they’re not facing, they’re not on Crompond
3 Road, where you not only have the noise, but
4 everyone driving by could look in, that they get
5 an opportunity to look out at the trees that are
6 being preserved instead. Or if the windows
7 themselves can somehow be darkened so that nobody
8 can see in, but they can see out. That’s just one
9 of the things I have always had a concern about
10 and I just wanted to raise it.
11 MR. KESSLER: Thank you. Anybody? Yes,
12 sir, come on up.
13 MR. MICHAEL PARISH: My name is Michael
14 Parish. I live at 204 Lafayette. And the last
15 meeting you had that was public, I came up and I
16 posed several questions and I followed up in
17 writing. And I haven’t heard a response from
18 either. I have a well on the corner of my
19 property. It is the northeast corner of my
20 property and when you start your mitigation for a
21 wetland, and you put your road in, you’re going
22 to impact the water level in my well. And I’ve
23 requested that somebody look at it and decide or
24 ensure me that when you’re done working I’m still
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2 going to have water in the well. I haven’t heard
3 a thing. It’s been almost a year.
4 MR. KESSLER: Who did you write you?
5 MR. PARISH: The board.
6 MR. KESSLER: The town board?
7 MR. PARISH: I’m not, well, whoever was
8 at the meeting got the letter.
9 MR. KESSLER: Well, a lot of this is
10 done at the town board and this is --
11 MR. PARISH: Okay, so, well don’t, well,
12 you know --
13 MR. KESSLER: This is the first time,
14 recently we got it.
15 MR. PARISH: The last time I was up here
16 and somebody made a comment like that, I told you
17 that when it’s all said and done and something
18 happens to the well and I don’t have the water in
19 it, then the lawyers are going to get involved.
20 And that’s all I said. I said I just want
21 response, I want somebody to look at it and get
22 back to me.
23 MR. KESSLER: Okay.
24 MR. PARISH: I don’t care which part of
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2 Cortlandt does that. I don’t care if it’s the
3 planning board or whatever, but --
4 MR. KESSLER: Well, now --
5 MR. PARISH: -- it’s a public meeting,
6 and I’m making it known that I want to know what
7 you’re going to do about the well.
8 MR. KESSLER: Okay. You’ve raised the
9 issue and now it’s the applicant’s responsibility
10 to respond to that.
11 MR. PARISH: Now, second item.
12 MR. KESSLER: You’ll get your answer.
13 MR. PARISH: Second item, I requested
14 that the buffer zone be moved from 25 feet to
15 maybe 100 foot, like you did on the other project
16 across the street from Lafayette. And I was
17 wondering if it’s possible to increase it so I’d
18 have a little bit more room before, before I run
19 into either a parking lot or a building.
20 MR. KESSLER: The buffer?
21 MR. PARISH: And I haven’t heard about
22 that either.
23 MR. KEHOE: I’ve spoken with Mr. Parish.
24 His house is off of Lafayette and it would be the
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2 house immediately adjacent to where the
3 commercial establishment would be proposed, which
4 is not before the board now. And apparently isn’t
5 the next phase. It might be the phase after that.
6 And Mr. Parish is correct. There’s a 30 foot no
7 disturbance buffer between his property and
8 whatever building happens on there. That was set
9 by the town board, the 30 feet.
10 MR. KESSLER: Okay. So I think when the
11 applicant comes in with a proposal for that lot
12 that abuts your property, that is the time that
13 we will evaluate your concerns.
14 MR. PARISH: Okay. Very good, thank you.
15 Just to step back, the well impact will happen as
16 soon as you start to mitigate the wetlands for
17 the road you’re going to probably put in first
18 for this project, for this section that we’re
19 talking about.
20 MR. KEHOE: Yeah, the well concern is
21 legitimate with this phase that’s going on now
22 and will be addressed.
23 MR. PARISH: Thank you very much.
24 MR. KESSLER: Thank you. Thanks for
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2 coming. Okay, last call? Nothing else from the
3 board, so if not, let’s move on. Peter?
4 MR. MCKINLEY: Mr. Chairman, I’d like to
5 adjourn the public hearing proposed for the
6 assisted living facility.
7 MR. KESSLER: Thank you. Second, please.
8 MR. BIANCHI: Second.
9 MR. KESSLER: And on the question? All
10 in favor?
11 MULTIPLE: Aye.
12 MR. KESSLER: Opposed? Okay, so we’ll
13 see you in February. Okay. Last two items of the
14 evening, old business, it’s the application of
15 2051 Cortlandt Holding LLC for amended site plan
16 approval for the addition of five parking spaces
17 at the existing gas station located at 2051 East
18 Main Street, drawing latest revised December 22,
19 2025, for, that’s the Parkland Gas Station on
20 Route 6 by the Bear Mountain Parkway, right,
21 that’s what we’re talking about?
22 MR. KEHOE: Yes.
23 MR. KESSLER: So we discussed this at
24 the work session. Staff does not seem to have an
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2 issue with adding those five parking spaces, so
3 Tom’s going to make a recommendation, a motion
4 please.
5 MR. BIANCHI: Yes, Mr. Chairman, I’ll
6 move that we refer this back to staff and ask
7 that a proposal be --
8 MR. KEHOE: A resolution.
9 MR. BIANCHI: -- resolution, resolution
10 be prepared for the next meeting.
11 MR. KESSLER: Thank you.
12 MR. BIANCHI: I couldn’t think of the
13 word.
14 MR. KESSLER: Second, please.
15 MR. MCKINLEY: Second.
16 MR. KESSLER: And on the question? All
17 in favor?
18 MULTIPLE: Aye.
19 MR. KESSLER: Opposed? Okay. Final item
20 of the evening, it’s the application of BEB
21 Capital LLC for property of Skyview/Westview LLC
22 and Eastview/Southview LLC for site plan
23 approval, a residential reuse special permit and
24 for tree removal and steep slope permits for a
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2 proposed 70-unit residential development located
3 on East Main Street, Regina Avenue and Lexington
4 Avenue, drawings latest revised December 23,
5 2025. Hello again, Mr. Steinmetz.
6 MR. STEINMETZ: Hello again Mr. Chairman
7 and members of the board. Very briefly, we have
8 previously talked about this --
9 MR. KESSLER: Excuse me. Could you take
10 that into the hallway please? Thank you.
11 MR. FARINA: Oh, I’m sorry. I thought it
12 was over.
13 MR. KESSLER: We all did.
14 MR. STEINMETZ: We previously talked
15 about this RRUSP, the Residential Reuse Special
16 Permit associated with this project at the
17 intersection of Regina and Route 6. As you talked
18 a little bit at the work session, again, this was
19 the subject of a rather extensive site inspection
20 that we conducted several months ago as a result
21 of that site inspection. I appreciate some of the
22 comments that were made at the work session. Ray,
23 I don’t know whether you were here for that
24 portion? You heard the whole work session?
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2 I am joined this evening by Ray Beeler,
3 our project architect, Matt Steinberg from DTS
4 Provident, our engineering, traffic and planning
5 consultants. And a lot of time was spent by our
6 team and our client in redesigning. That’s why
7 we’ve been gone for several months. A lot of time
8 spent on trying to reorient and relocate some of
9 the buildings, and some of the retaining walls.
10 You talked a little bit in your work session
11 about the impact of slopes. This is an existing
12 development that has been there for decades on
13 these slopes.
14 And the one thing I can tell you,
15 because this project started, as it must, in
16 front of the town board. The town board was
17 rather pleased to hear that there would be a
18 number of affordable housing units associated
19 with this project, that, so much so that one of
20 the town board members suggested at a work
21 session that we file a petition for a text
22 amendment allowing for slightly larger units than
23 are there, because the town board felt that if
24 there were going to be affordable housing units
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2 in the town of Cortlandt, they ought to
3 accommodate families and not just be a modest,
4 really small two-bedroom bungalow.
5 So that is what we are really talking
6 about here. We’re talking about bringing in a
7 wonderful product on a challenging site. Nobody
8 is going to say it isn’t a challenging and
9 challenged site. But what DTS and Ray’s firm have
10 been able to do is try to work some magic with
11 entrance points from both Regina, Route 6 and
12 from Lexington and to bring 70 townhouses -- 69,
13 I knew I, that’s why I turned, 69 townhouse
14 units. I’m going to turn it over, whichever one
15 of you guys goes next.
16 MR. RAY BEELER: Thank you, David and
17 good evening everybody. Heather, could you bring
18 up the slide deck that starts with the site plan?
19 Is that possible? Anyway, so what I’m going to do
20 is just do a very recap of what we presented in
21 October. And more importantly, go over what the
22 changes are.
23 So as you all recall, I’m sure, we have
24 two separate building areas. That’s because of
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2 the steeply wooded area in the middle of the
3 property. There was a separate slide deck that we
4 sent yesterday. That’s it, great, thank you.
5 So this is the overall site plan, which
6 shows the north site, which is off of East Main
7 and the south site, which is off of Lexington,
8 separated by the heavy wooded area in the middle.
9 Let’s go to the next one. Now, this is a blowup
10 of the northeast main development site. As David
11 mentioned, vehicular access and egress is from
12 two different locations, both off East Main and
13 Regina Avenue.
14 We have now at the end of the main
15 access road, there’s a cul-de-sac that’s sized
16 for fire truck turnaround. The unit counts have
17 changed a little bit and now we have 38
18 townhouses in nine separate clusters on this
19 site. Each cluster has four or five units each.
20 And the mix of units is a little bit different
21 also. Before, we had two different types of
22 units, which I described, uphill units and
23 downhill units. Now we have uphill, which are in
24 yellow. We have downhill units which are the unit
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2 in red, reddish, and now we have also at-grade
3 units, which are in blue. The uphill units and
4 downhill units are all three-bedroom units and
5 the at-grade units are two-bedroom units.
6 So staying on this one the big change
7 that David mentioned, and I think we all
8 discussed this as we were doing the site
9 walkthrough, was to move everything west, which
10 is down the hill. So townhouses, access road,
11 everything moved to the west. And that’s yielded
12 many, many benefits which Matt is going to go
13 into in detail in a minute. And we can go to the
14 next one.
15 So then now, this is the Lexington
16 Avenue development site, similar arrangement to
17 what we had before, but it’s been fine tuned with
18 the topography. We have vehicular access and
19 egress and the new access road, which is directly
20 opposite Lawrence Road. Again, the same
21 configuration of a cul-de-sac at the end of the
22 access road, sized for a fire truck turnaround.
23 Here we have 31 townhouse in eight separate
24 clusters, and the same mix of uphill, downhill
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2 and at-grade units.
3 As David mentioned then, the overall
4 number of units has been reduced by one. If you
5 recall, the RRUSP calculation was 58 times 1.2,
6 which is 69.6. Before we had 70 and now we’ve
7 reduced that to 69. The breakdown now that we
8 have is 52 three-bedroom units and 17 two-bedroom
9 units. And we can go to the next one.
10 So now this is an aerial view of the
11 north area. One thing you can see now is a little
12 bit of the architectural articulation we’re
13 starting to develop. All of the units have south
14 facing roofs and that’s with the idea of
15 maximizing the solar panels. Every one of the 69
16 units is going to have solar panels on the roof.
17 And all of the roofs, no matter what the
18 orientation of the townhouses, will be facing
19 south.
20 Here you can see a little bit more
21 information about the retaining walls that David
22 mentioned. Now, they’ve been brought down in
23 height. The most extreme -- before you go to that
24 one, let’s go back -- the most extreme area of
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2 retaining walls is at the end of the access
3 drive. And you can see then that the retaining
4 walls now have setbacks. The maximum height is
5 six foot with a setback with landscaping. And
6 that’s the, in the upper left-hand corner, you
7 can see a blowup of, that’s the highest retaining
8 wall that we have in the whole project.
9 MR. STEINMETZ: Can you describe quickly
10 the height that the retaining walls were
11 previously?
12 MR. BEELER: Matt can --
13 MR. STEINMETZ: Matt can do that? I just
14 want to make sure they get that. That’s fine.
15 MR. BEELER: Okay. Matt will address
16 that when he talks in a minute. So now we can go
17 on to the aerial view of the Lexington site,
18 which is the next one. Yes, so similar idea then
19 here on the Lexington site with all of the south
20 facing roofs designed for solar panels. And here
21 you can see retaining walls that are lower but
22 there are some retaining walls behind the uphill
23 units on the Lexington site. And we can go to the
24 next one.
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2 So just, I just want to make a couple of
3 comments about the architectural design of the
4 units. We’re designing these townhouses to
5 incorporate passive house characteristics. And
6 the architecture is, the architectural design is
7 being informed by what we’re doing with the
8 passive house.
9 Building features include solar panels
10 on all the south facing roofs, triple-paned
11 windows, concrete brick made with recycled glass.
12 We have engineered wood siding, which is going to
13 look like natural wood, but it’s 95 percent
14 recycled material. And then we have electric heat
15 pumps.
16 And the next one. And this is an image
17 that shows the different units. The upper left is
18 a typical downhill cluster, the upper right is an
19 at-grade cluster and the lower image is an uphill
20 cluster.
21 So this approach with incorporating
22 passive house characteristics will result in
23 ultra-low energy use, thermal comfort, high
24 indoor air quality, limited or maybe no use of
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2 fossil fuels and reduced carbon footprint. And at
3 that, I’ll turn it over to Matt to go into some
4 of the site plan issues in more detail.
5 MR. STEINBERG: Thank you, Ray. Matt
6 Steinberg, DTS Provident. You know, so as Ray and
7 David talked about, there are significant
8 topographic constraints, along with geometric
9 constraints just in the shape of the property
10 that have kind of shaped how this has come
11 together.
12 So part of getting those roadways and
13 those building pads in, we’ve not only had to
14 comply with the various standards, we’ve also
15 tried to comply with requests obviously from the
16 fire department. There’s maximum grades and cross
17 slopes of those roadways, so getting those to
18 meet at the correct angles at the existing
19 roadways and then throughout the site has
20 obviously been a challenge. But we’ve been able
21 to make that happen, so we’ve been able to
22 accommodate those required slopes and grades, the
23 internal roadways, the utility infrastructure and
24 the building footprints.
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2 As was discussed during the work
3 session, we have worked to pull that, as Ray
4 mentioned, pull that development, especially in
5 the north side further to the west. That has
6 allowed us to tier those retaining walls. So
7 there are still significant retaining walls. Some
8 of them were up to I think about 40 feet in total
9 in the original couple of versions of this. In
10 this case, there are still some overall heights
11 tiered to 30 feet. But it’s given us a chance to
12 tier those so that we can have plantings between
13 those tiers, so we can put shrubs that will break
14 those up and in some cases, cascade over the top
15 of the walls.
16 And in most cases, the retaining walls
17 are located behind, behind units so that they are
18 screened from the exterior. So that 3-D image
19 that Ray had shown didn’t show all the
20 landscaping because the intent of that was to
21 show the relationship of the site buildings and
22 the retaining walls to the exterior perimeter
23 planting, which we’ve got a significant amount of
24 trees that are being protected along the
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2 perimeter of the site.
3 Heather if you could scroll to the next
4 one, I think the landscape plan is -- yeah, it’s
5 a little hard to see but this is the landscape
6 plan in the north area. We proposed evergreen
7 trees, six to eight and eight to ten foot height
8 at installation along the base of the retaining
9 walls. That would continue to grow up and help
10 soften the view of the retaining walls from
11 within the site along with slope plantings,
12 restoration of certain slopes that are already
13 existing and shrubs at the top of walls and in
14 between.
15 The water and sewer utilities would be
16 routed along the front of the townhomes. The
17 sewers conveyed, all conveyed to East Main Street
18 from both portions of the site. There’s a utility
19 corridor between the two sections, and then water
20 would be fed from East Main Street and from
21 Lexington Avenue.
22 So that’s kind of an overview of some of
23 our site plan changes that we’ve been making over
24 this period. And we can certainly answer any
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2 questions, both Ray and I.
3 MR. KESSLER: Obviously, the issue is
4 going to be steep slopes on this site.
5 MR. STEINBERG: Mm-hmm.
6 MR. KESSLER: Chris, what’s our
7 requirement in terms of providing a map showing -
8 - did they have the steep slopes here showing
9 zero to 15, 15 to 30, 30 and up. I thought we had
10 more gradations on those?
11 MR. KEHOE: Yeah. I think it’s, there
12 are a lot of gradations. A lot of people don’t
13 necessarily do it. I think it’s 15 to 20, 20 to
14 25, 25 to 30 and above 30.
15 MR. KESSLER: So if you could redo this
16 map with greater detail in gradations of steep
17 slopes, that’ll be helpful, because what I’m
18 seeing here is your disturbance -- 60 percent of
19 your project is going to be on slopes of 15
20 percent or more disturbance, which is significant
21 and probably more than we’ve ever considered in
22 terms of an application. So that’s going to be a
23 high bar, no pun intended here, but a high
24 threshold to convince us, or at least me.
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2 MR. STEINBERG: Mm-hmm.
3 MR. MCKINLEY: The addition of solar, is
4 that a new development? I didn’t remember that
5 detail last time. I applaud it.
6 MR. BEELER: Yeah, I hadn’t really
7 addressed the sustainable characteristics yet, so
8 tonight, I’m starting to talk about what we’re
9 looking into, so yes.
10 MR. MCKINLEY: Okay. And I heard you say
11 something about south facing roofs. Is this
12 inclusive of every unit or just --
13 MR. BEELER: Yeah, every unit, no matter
14 what the orientation, the roofs are facing south.
15 MR. MCKINLEY: Okay.
16 MR. BEELER: So we’re designing it
17 intentionally to maximize the efficiency of the
18 solar panels.
19 MR. MCKINLEY: Okay. Small detail, but
20 do these come with battery backups inside the
21 unit as well, or is it just --
22 MR. BEELER: We don’t know yet. We’ll
23 have that information in the future.
24 MR. KESSLER: There will be battery
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2 backups or no?
3 MR. BEELER: No, we don’t --
4 MR. MCKINLEY: No, he doesn’t know.
5 MR. BEELER: -- we haven’t gotten to
6 that yet.
7 MR. KESSLER: Okay. What type of heating
8 did you say there was in these units?
9 MR. MCKINLEY: Electric heat pumps.
10 MR. KESSLER: Heat pump?
11 MR. BEELER: Yeah, heat pump, electric
12 heat pumps. The goal will be to use no fossil
13 fuels.
14 MR. KESSLER: Usually, they’re only
15 effective down to a certain temperature like 30
16 degrees or 25 degrees? What do you do if it goes
17 lower?
18 MR. BEELER: Well we’ll get into all of
19 that. This still needs to be engineered so we’ll
20 have answers to those questions in the future.
21 MR. KESSLER: All right. Okay. Any other
22 comments? Chris?
23 MR. KEHOE: And maybe more so for David,
24 you know, he has mentioned the affordable units.
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2 And I think that this is not, it’s not a
3 subdivision, so these will either be for rent or
4 condo’d.
5 MR. BEELER: Correct.
6 MR. KEHOE: And it’s not decided yet,
7 but they may be for sale units.
8 MR. STEINMETZ: They may be. I don’t
9 believe they will be, but they may be. There’s
10 nothing that would preclude them from being for
11 sale.
12 MR. KEHOE: Okay. So if they’re not for
13 sale units, it’s a little bit easier, but we
14 asked, we still have concerns about a high end
15 project like this, about the affordability
16 component and how to ensure that that happens.
17 And you answered the questions that you’re in the
18 process of determining how the units will be
19 marketed. We’re getting to the point now where I
20 think this is moving along. So if we, whether
21 it’s a meeting or whether we get in touch with
22 someone from Westchester County. The county
23 letter directed us to their model ordinance to
24 help.
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2 MR. STEINMETZ: Correct.
3 MR. KEHOE: But I’d really like to flesh
4 out some more about the thought process of how
5 these affordable are going to work.
6 MR. STEINMETZ: So we should certainly
7 have a meeting offline.
8 MR. KEHOE: Okay.
9 MR. STEINMETZ: Whenever you’re ready,
10 we’re happy to do that. It’s been a while since
11 we’ve done that together. I did do that with the
12 town at the Cortlandt Ridge project off of Croton
13 Ave., which was a Toll Brothers project where we
14 had seven affordable units in the middle of that
15 project in the townhouse component. We will have
16 affordable units if as and when Matt and I show
17 up with the Lennar project, which I think will be
18 in the next couple of months. And they’re going
19 to be a number of affordable units there. Same
20 kind of thing, they will be townhouses and there
21 will be an affordability component. So while it
22 may be a little novel for Cortlandt, we’re doing
23 this elsewhere throughout the county and we have
24 a choice.
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2 MR. KEHOE: We’ve all been, or most of
3 us have been around long enough that some of the
4 affordable units are no longer mandated to be
5 affordable. There was only a 20 year requirement
6 that they stay affordable. And so we were
7 notified by the Housing Action Council for me to
8 take those off of my list.
9 MR. STEINMETZ: Interesting.
10 MR. KEHOE: So I guess I don’t know if
11 it’s standard 20 years or 30 years or 50 years.
12 MR. STEINMETZ: So I think the county
13 model ordinance, I can stand corrected. I think
14 it’s a 50 year recommendation in the county
15 model. And look, right now, these are all
16 affordable rentals. Some of them are Section
17 Eight rentals. To the extent that we had
18 conversations earlier tonight about properties in
19 the town with code violations, this 56 units has
20 been kind of pretty sad for a number of years.
21 Our client stepped in through financing
22 and ended up owning the property. So our client
23 would like to eliminate some of those problems.
24 One of the first things I had to do was deal with
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2 your code enforcement department because one of
3 the buildings needed to be condemned. So if we do
4 nothing, if we all decide you don’t want to
5 approve this and the RRUSP can’t be implemented
6 and we do nothing, you’re not left with a good
7 situation in terms of housing, code compliance
8 and satisfying what I think the town’s goals are.
9 I started with it, I’m going to end with
10 it. You have a very unique statute here in
11 Cortlandt that was adopted by the town board, the
12 Residential Reuse Special Permit. It was
13 specifically adopted in connection with Pondview,
14 which is next to this, which we all -- which some
15 of us worked on together about ten, 12, 14 years
16 ago. And this, to the extent that Cortlandt has
17 old bungalows that might be reused in some way or
18 repurposed, this was what it had in mind. So
19 yeas, there are steep slopes. I know it’s
20 challenged. Mr. Chairman, I don’t know if you
21 were on the site walk with us.
22 MR. KESSLER: I was not. I was on one
23 of the, the earlier one, not the last one.
24 MR. STEINMETZ: Right. So this one, we
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2 all walked it. There are definitely slopes, but
3 when you get onto the building pad area, it’s
4 actually a buildable site, once we got up that,
5 Kevin, Peter and Tom, we were still together, we
6 lost you after this site inspection.
7 MR. KESSLER: You can’t forget that, can
8 you?
9 MR. STEINMETZ: I can’t. I was the one
10 wondering what happened to you. In any event,
11 this is a project that I think really does
12 require some of your thought and attention. In
13 addition, I said at the outset there are text
14 amendments. So we’re talking about the site plan,
15 which is great. But Chris and Michael probably
16 won’t let me forget you have a recommendation
17 back to the town board you’re supposed to give
18 them about the text amendments that we proposed,
19 sort of at the encouragement of the town board.
20 So don’t lose sight of the fact that you’re
21 supposed to chime in at some point on yeah, we do
22 think the units being a little bit bigger and it
23 accommodating families and having slightly larger
24 coverage capability, right. It was coverage and
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2 number of bedrooms. We tweaked, we’re proposing
3 to tweak those to allow for these to be three-
4 bedroom units, as you heard from Ray, 52 threes,
5 17 twos.
6 MR. KESSLER: Okay.
7 MR. KEHOE: In the context of the
8 affordable too, the other component, which has
9 been sort of put on the back burner is a
10 relocation plan for the people that are there.
11 You know, as we’re moving along, we’ve got to
12 start thinking about these things.
13 MR. STEINMETZ: Absolutely. So I mean
14 the planning board should hear that I think, we
15 may have talked about it, we certainly got hit by
16 the town board on that. If in fact the folks who
17 are residing there don’t end up renting or buying
18 a unit here, they’re going to need to be
19 relocated.
20 MR. KESSLER: Sure.
21 MR. STEINMETZ: So we, as a team, were
22 directed by the town board to reach out to
23 Housing Action Council and do what we can to
24 begin to facilitate that at such time as this
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2 project ever really came to fruition.
3 MR. KESSLER: Thank you. All right,
4 anything else?
5 MR. MCKINLEY: Just something small, it
6 seems academic now because you’re talking about
7 bigger pictures here. But can you just flash up
8 the section where you show the garage door and
9 then sort of a narrow parking spot. Just
10 something to consider, I mean if we’re thinking
11 about this. Some of these things will be three
12 bedrooms.
13 MR. BEELER: These, what you’re talking
14 about I believe is the lower image.
15 MR. MCKINLEY: Yeah.
16 MR. BEELER: Which is the uphill unit.
17 That’s where the unit is buried into the hill, so
18 there’s an internal garage in the uphill units
19 that the other units have onsite parking. So the
20 uphill unit are the only units that have an
21 internal garage.
22 MR. MCKINLEY: Okay.
23 MR. BEELER: And that’s what you’re
24 seeing with the garage door.
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2 MR. MCKINLEY: I was simply expressing
3 that I mean I see it everywhere in neighborhoods.
4 I mean we have two, three, four cars for a single
5 family, something you might have to consider as
6 you do a three-bedroom or multiple three
7 bedrooms. I understand this is a garage for that
8 one piece, but it seems very narrow, it seems to
9 be a lot of jockeying around, very academic,
10 early, early on, as you said. Just consider
11 parking as far as a growing family, especially
12 one for apartments.
13 MR. BEELER: Okay. Thank you. We will.
14 MR. KESSLER: Thanks. Anything else?
15 MR. KOBASA: I just have one other,
16 along the affordable aspect, are you only looking
17 at the two bedrooms as the affordable units, or
18 it will be a mix of the three and two bedrooms?
19 MR. STEINMETZ: Well, under, certainly
20 under the county regs and we’re trying to abide
21 by that here in Cortlandt even though I don’t
22 think you have an express mandate, it has to be,
23 Kevin, a proportionate allocation.
24 MR. KOBASA: Okay. All right.
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2 MR. STEINMETZ: So several of the three
3 --
4 MR. KOBASA: Some three, some two?
5 MR. STEINMETZ: Mostly threes.
6 MR. KOBASA: Mostly threes, cool.
7 Thanks.
8 MR. STEINMETZ: And that was, again, I
9 want to make sure that my point was -- it fell if
10 you asked that question. I got the question from
11 two town board members at a work session, why
12 can’t we have three bedroom affordable?
13 MR. KOBASA: Got you.
14 MR. STEINMETZ: And Matt and I
15 explained, because the RRUSP doesn’t allow for
16 it. So we were told by the town board to file a
17 text amendment request so that you can get three
18 bedrooms in here and that’s why --
19 MR. KOBASA: Sorry, I missed that.
20 MR. STEINMETZ: -- I hope you will
21 support that request.
22 MR. KOBASA: Thank you.
23 MR. KESSLER: Okay.
24 MR. MCKINLEY: It’s me. I’d like to make
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2 a motion to refer back to staff for additional
3 review.
4 MR. KESSLER: Thank you. Second, please.
5 MR. BIANCHI: Second.
6 MR. KESSLER: And on the question, all
7 in favor?
8 MULTIPLE: Aye.
9 MR. KESSLER: Kevin, take us home.
10 MR. KOBASA: No, not me.
11 MR. KESSLER: What?
12 MR. KOBASA: No.
13 MR. KESSLER: I thought you still wanted
14 to do it.
15 MR. KOBASA: Oh, fine. The time is 8:45,
16 the meeting is adjourned.
17 (The public board meeting concluded at
18 8:45 p.m.)
19
20
21
22
23
24
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CERTIFICATE OF ACCURACY
I, Claudia Marques, certify that the foregoing
transcript of the Board meeting of the Town of
Cortlandt on January 6, 2026 was prepared using the
required transcription equipment and is a true and
accurate record of the proceedings.
Certified By
Date: January 22, 2026
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