NY Forward Town Hall Meeting
evening, everyone. Good evening. Thank you all for joining us tonight. And for those who are watching at home, thank you for tuning in. I'm Bryan Healy. I'm the village manager here in Croton On Hudson, and I'm very happy to, be here tonight to talk about the, New York Forward grant opportunity that the village has, to be able to apply for once again this year. We've previously applied for this program in 2024, and we've spent, the time since that, submission reviewing our application, working to make it better. And we're gonna hear tonight from Valerie Monastra, who is our planning consultant from, Nelson Pope Voorhis on, what our application looks like, and she's also gonna give a little more detail on the program itself. And we're also gonna hear tonight from mayor Marjorie Hsu of the village of Sleepy Hollow. And Sleepy Hollow has successfully received the New York Forward grant grant
award.
And so we're gonna hear about how that process has been going so far in Sleepy Hollow. So, I'm gonna turn it over now to Valerie. Alright. Great.
Thank you very much. My name is Valerie. I'm a Principal Planner at Nelson Pope and Voorhis. And I also have a history of working I actually We are the consultants for the downtown room revitalization initiative, which is a $10,000,000 process. We work in the Mid Hudson communities, and right now, we're currently working in the city of Yonkers. And I also worked with other communities dealing with their New York Forward programs, especially like the Village Of Sleepy Ho, excuse me, the Village Of Dobbs Ferry. So I'm familiar with the process, the programs, and stuff like that. So I think first slide. Okay. Perfect. So basically, what is the New York Forward program? So the New York Forward program is a kind of a mini of the downtown revitalization initiative. That downtown revitalization initiative is in its ninth round now, and that was developed originally to give $10,000,000 to communities to really revitalize their downtowns.
But at some point in time along the process, the state realized that, okay, so maybe, like, larger cities could use the no. Not that we all. All communities can use $10,000,000, but in all reality, the types of projects they're looking for, they realized they really wanted to be able to give smaller communities the chance to be able to capitalize on the same type of program. And that's when they came up with the New York Forward program. So the idea of the New York Forward program is now this is gonna be its fourth round. It's it was launched in 2022, and it's $4,500,000 that are given that is given to a community. And it's specifically focused on you plan the projects and then you act as opposed to identifying very specific you you identify specific projects from the outset, and then you work with a planning consultant to develop the strategic investment plan. And then from there, you send those projects up to the state, and the state will identify certain projects to give the $4,500,000
to. And I'll explain that a little bit more in detail. But the first round, the village of Sleepy Hollow receipts funding, and then, rounds four right now are taking place in the village of Ellenville and Hamlet Of Livingston Manor. Next slide. Alright. So in general, New York Forward communities, this is what typically the characteristics that distinguish a New York Forward Community versus some of the larger, cities that would get the downtown revitalization initiative. It's really the New York Forward Communities provide the areas provide important services to local communities, so it's usually a mixed use neighborhood, walkable setting. It also features a distinct place of, due to the presence of, like, either cultural, historic, or natural resources, agricultural assets, certain assets that are unique to that community. It also has 10 typically have a, like, less dense development than your $10,000,000
DRI communities. But the New York Forward communities still have what I'm gonna call your unquote downtown or commercial areas where they're really focusing on where the funding would be focused on. And this also includes, you know, New York Forward communities typically tend to include villages, hamlets. It could even just be a particular neighborhood. So it really varies depending upon the application process because with throughout New York State, there's 10 regions. So we can we're talking about, you know, right now we're talking about Westchester communities, but they vary very much so when when you look at, like, the counties, I mean, like, counties like Ulster County and communities up in the upper and the lower tier. So the New York four program specifically, its goal is to really activate a downtown. They want you to they wanna be able to provide, like, seed money to attract new businesses, new development,
enhance public spaces, encourage public art, cultivate, like, if there's a variety of housing opportunities, and sometimes that's just really getting that impetus of that housing to start being developed. Also, identify potential projects to grow local tax revenue. They're very much focused on a lot of their projects and dealing with what they call this decarbonization. So they really want some sustainability and different types of initiatives it worked into those particular projects. And then also, specifically dealing with like, projects that focus on amenities that support, like, the ability for walkable communities like bike lanes or pedestrian thoroughfares and new trails or pedestrian connections. Next slide. So let's just talk about eligible activities. So the way the New York Forward process would work is that if the village of Croton On Hudson were awarded the $4,500,000, it doesn't mean that the village actually gets $4,500,000
and says here, you decide what to do with it. And there's a whole another process involved where they call this open call for projects. So basically, it's a process and it's usually about six weeks or so where the the state will come in with their consultant team and then advertise for potential projects that fall within the New York forward area. And those projects, any private property owner or you can also have be an owner of a business and you get permission from your landlord or it could be the village themselves can submit four projects. And those projects fall into four different types of categories. The first category is new development or rehabilitation of existing downtown buildings. So this would be like any sort of mixed use to commercial buildings. It would also allow for, development of housing as well, but it's usually multi family housing. And so a couple examples, you know, I provided some examples of projects, like for example, in the village of Montgomery, they had a mixed use development that ended up ultimately getting funded. And then I know the mayor will talk about her projects later on, but, you know, the Strand Theater is one of those types of projects.
Public improvement projects are another example where you can apply for, like, broadband green infrastructure, specifically streetscapes. They love funding streetscapes. They do will do new park upgrades, plazas. They will also work on other sort of public infrastructure, especially if it's an important improvements that really would catapult that particular area. Small project fund is another bucket of projects, and this is really if you have a lot of smaller businesses that potentially could do facade improvements or maybe need some additional funding to activate internal space for new commercial or new residential development, you can also provide you can put together what they call they can the village can submit a project called the small project fund, which basically if awarded that, the village would have $300,000 to create a grant program locally for individual business owners or merchants to be able to obtain funding to upgrade their businesses
or facades improvements. So it's a project of itself, but ultimately that project would end up going to the local community in terms of a small grants program. And then the fourth category is branding and marketing, and this is really for materials and signage or way finding or other types of, like, branding that really specifically speaks to that New York forward area and sort of provides like a little bit of a landing of here you are, this is what we have to offer that a lot of communities, you know, it's an expense to be able to incorporate branding and marketing and this allows them to be able to undertake that work. The ineligible activities, so projects that will not get funded as part of the New York Forward are stand alone planning activities. So if for some reason the village decided they wanted to a new comprehensive plan process, that would not get funded as part of the New York Forward program.
Operations and maintenance. So at times, and I've experienced this in a number of different rounds where a property owner will say, I really need a new roof or I really need, like, a new HVAC system. They consider that to be, like, operation and maintenance. If for some reason somebody comes in and says, I need a new HVAC system because there's 20,000 square feet of space that I can't use right now because it's not heated or air conditioned, they would consider that project because that's really kind of expanding it and now, catalyzing that particular space to become new commercial or residential development. Pre award cost, so if for some reason somebody spent money ahead of time, you cannot get to develop designs or maybe to do certain types of investigations. Those would not get funded through the New York Forward program. Property acquisition, so the assumption is that you, property owner or whoever's what they call project sponsor,
Whoever is submitting for that particular project, they either own the property or they would own the property by the time that, you know, the grant would be awarded. And then the last is training and other program expenses. So if somebody wants to train their employees, that would not count as towards eligibility for this funding. Next. Alright. So with that, let me just I wanna just give you one more little bit about the process. So once those projects are submitted, you have local planning committee that reviews all the projects that get submitted from the public as well as the village. And they would identify which projects most align with the New York Forward goals. Also, ones that are look like they're ready to go and ready to be easily implementable and would be able to be, implemented within a two year time frame. And that they have their finances together as well. So there's a lot of information that does get asked from the project sponsors.
And then the local planning committee will select which, which projects they feel potentially could get funded. And for New York Forward, they typically like a slate of projects somewhere if it's $4,500,000, they like to see DRI, excuse I me, New York Forward requests for somewhere between, like, 6,000,000 to 8,000,000 because some projects will potentially fall fall apart as you go through the process. But also, that slate of projects goes to the state, and then the state vets those projects again, and then they will ultimately assign the 4,500,000 to projects within that slate of projects that was submitted by the local planning committee. So it is a little bit of a process, but it moves very, very quickly, and it usually moves through a nine month, period. And so I'm gonna turn this over now to the mayor of Sleepy Hallows. She can talk a little bit about her experience with it and, and the projects that they received.
Thanks, Valerie.
A can move that. Heels. But Here, I can move that. That's fine. I can okay.
So first of all, thank you, Len and and Brian for, inviting me to join your town hall this evening. I'm Marjorie Hsu, and I think that, you know, for DRI and now New York Forward, the two keywords are persistence and patience. Because when I was planning board chair, I actually participated in the first application for DRI, which was back in 2016, two years ago. So, and nothing happens very quickly in, local government, but we were very happy that New York Forward got created for smaller municipalities because all those $10,000,000 grants were going to the bigger places like New Rochelle and Kingston. And so the the little villages and hamlets were kinda getting left in the dust. So we were thrilled because we were applying every year. I do think you need to be persistent, and it does help you refine your application year over year. So we were happy to be in the first tranche of funding in 2022.
And, you know, for those of you that aren't as familiar with Sleepy Hollow, we're a two square mile village, and we're an economic justice community. We have a lot of low income residents. We have a lot of low income housing. We're also very diverse. We're a majority Latino community. So probably just over half of our residents are of Hispanic descent. And in our school systems, it's probably two thirds Hispanic. So we, we're excited to get the the four point five, million back in 2022. And now fast forward, we're, in 2026, and of all the the funds that have been granted to the four point five as, Valerie has kindly, created a slide on, the only one that's really made any progress is the facade program. So that's been kicked off. We've found an excellent program manager, one of our local residents who is also an architect. And we formed a three person committee that took, applications from, I wanna say,
20 to 30 local small businesses that wanted to improve their facades. And so this three person committee reviewed all the applications and selected 12 small businesses to get some sort of funding for the, to improve their facades. So that is kind of a a public private partnership since, as Valerie described, we, the village, are administering the $300,000, but it's going toward small business owners. And then the other initiatives, one that we're extremely excited about is the Strand Theater, which is, like, smack in the downtown, very central on Beekman Avenue, which is our main downtown. And that building has been vacant the whole time I've lived in Sleepy Hollow, which is about twelve years. And, I've toured it a couple times as planning board chair, and there's a lot of renovation that is required, but it's such a historic building for us. And so there's a gentleman that has purchased it as of last December.
So that $1,500,000 grant is actually going to him. And he it's two levels. If you go upstairs, you actually see the big kind of reel to reel film projectors from back in the day with the old bulbs and so very historic, but a lot of work. And so his vision is to have retail storefronts in the first level facing right on Beekman Avenue and then to have some sort of performance space and then also upstairs to have kind of maker space. So for artisanal projects, etcetera, etcetera. I actually have a meeting with him tomorrow. So that's the Strand Theater. Totally separate from New York Forward, we have another nonprofit that recently formed called Sleepy Hollow Cinema, which is for Sleepy Hollow. They're interested in sharing, and showing, primarily horror films. So, you know, we're spooky towns. So, I'm trying to get, Sleepy Hollow Cinema, which is a five zero one c three and Strand Theater to kinda,
get together since it's, I think, entirely symbiotic. The one, that is entirely on the village that we're looking to start in the spring Again, it's taken a long time to to get the funding and to get the approvals, is our Cortlandt Streetscape project. So that is right off of Beekwyn Avenue and is very desperately in need of a facelift. So new sidewalks. There's gonna be a new pocket park. There's gonna be, we're gonna take advantage of this New York Forward funding and and incorporate a bioswale because we do have some drainage and, infrastructure issues. We also have a developer that has come in and purchased some properties on Cortlandt and on De Peyster. And so we're hoping that we can kinda kill multiple birds with one stone as we're doing the streetscape improvement to take into account his development of new housing there and and try to get some maybe community benefit funding from him as far as improving
the sewer and water infrastructure to improve capacity as well as some modernization. The next is Plaza Nueva, which is it's all village, but it's really a school district initiative because it's the playground of our Moore School, which is again right on Beekman Avenue. So it's all about Beekman Avenue and Cortlandt Avenue. And so this will create a new playground, but really new park space for Sleepy Hollow right downtown. One of the things we're lacking is place making. Like, we don't have places for people to hang out downtown. We created this little tiny pocket park on the intersection of Cortlandt and Beekman, but it's a little kludgy, and it's not beautiful. So we need to create some beautiful spaces that people wanna spend time in because, you know, all of our, downtown, on Upper Beekman is is mostly, multifamily. And so you've got people, especially with the hot summers we've been having, they're hanging out on their front stoop.
And, you know, other people complain about sidewalk access and noise and but, you know, these people don't have backyard to hang out in. So we have some cultural differences. You know, we have some cultures that, you know, liked their big families to come together and play music, and other people don't necessarily embrace that. So we we have some blending of of cultural norms to to manage as well. So Plaza Nuevo will give a space in the evenings for families to hang out with and and spend time there. And then the last one I'll touch upon is $500,000, which is a private funding for more affordable housing. We actually have a lot of affordable housing, but, like, all Westchester towns, there's just not enough of, affordable or workforce or what we call missing middle. So we've got a lot of luxury housing now at Edge on Hudson right on the riverfront, which we're about half done of the 1,177
new homes that are being built at Edge on Hudson. So hearing a positive update on that person who is gonna, initiate a new affordable housing initiative. So administering this grant has been challenging. The planning process and the final approval took a very long time, and getting the projects to contract is taking even a little longer than that. But we do expect to kick off our big, village streetscape project in the spring, so that's exciting. And, we're just trying to work closely with the two private, funding, recipients, the Theatre and the Affordable Housing, so that we keep those going as well. So that is what we're doing in Sleepy Hollow, and I'm happy to answer any questions if there are any, but I'll sit down.
Mayor, thank thank you very much for the excellent presentation. I just had one general question. You you laid out all of these projects. And as Valerie told us, you know, once you get approved as the New York forward, then you begin to work with the state and obviously it can be a multi year process. How would you describe, since your tenure, has it been I
just took office December 1, so I haven't been around that long. So most of the heavy lifting is on our village administrator and his grant, team. So it's been a lot of back and forth. I think, you know, the state is been pretty responsive and, communicative, but it it was also the very first time. Right? So they were, you know, kind of engineering the plane mid flight. So but, yeah, we're very appreciative of the support we've gotten from New York State, and I I think our point of contact has been, really good. Thank you.
We'll just hold all questions until the end. After that, just because if we don't have, people speaking to the microphone, anyone watching at home is not able to hear. So okay. Okay.
You can go to the next slide. Alright. So we're gonna talk a little bit about I spent a couple of minutes talking about so what Croton On Hudson would like to put forth as the the New York forward boundary area. Let me just explain again this New York forward boundary area. It's supposed to be an area where there are very specific it's not supposed to be the entire village. It's supposed to also cover an area where there is a concentration of either mixed use business, can be some multifamily residential. They also like to see, like, land uses such as cultural land uses. They also like to see public transportation land uses. So there is, you know, looking at as you can as you know, that Croton has about three different, I'm gonna say, mixed use business areas. And I think in the past, the prior applications focused on, you know, this area here, basically, your your Grand Street area. And but looking at the projects,
just when we went through, like, the eligible projects and you saw from the mayor, the types of projects that they like to fund, looking at potential projects in all three of, like, the business corridor areas in the village, it really became it came to the forefront that this particular area, which is recalling the South Riverside area, would really be a a good candidate for New York Forward funding. And so the proposed area right now includes the historic Hudson Valley property. It includes the train station. It includes your commercial center of, like, with ShopRite. It also com includes the commercial corridor along South Riverside Avenue to a little past Oneida Avenue. The state also likes to see that there is momentum already taking place within that area as well. And so you had some recent development that was approved that will we're gonna begin the construction soon, and you also have some development in the pipeline.
And those are the also kinda key criteria that the state likes to look for because they wanna see that there is some sort of momentum, and it's not just if projects get put forward that there is a really high chance that those projects will continue moving forward. So let's talk a little bit about the projects themselves. And you wanna talk to the next slide? And then I'm gonna turn this over to to the village manager who's gonna talk a little bit about the projects that we're looking at identifying. And you'll see how a lot of them fit those kind of key categories that we talked about at the beginning of the presentation.
Thank you, Valerie. So our first project that's listed here are the Croton Station parking lot upgrades. I'm sure as many of you are familiar, our parking lot is susceptible to flooding. Whenever there is a storm system that is off the East Coast, it could be hundreds of miles away from us, but the energy from the from the storm comes up the Hudson River and the tides flood, the parking lot. And so we have been working with, a planning firm, AKRF, for a number of years now in developing a plan to install a seawall along the shore of the parking lot. And, you know, this was after AKRF did some shoreline resiliency studies and analyzed everything in the parking lot that was the, best option that was available to protect the, available parking spaces in the parking lot. And so, that would be a major, project that we would seek to have included in this grant application. Secondly, streetscaping along Riverside Avenue and Benedict Boulevard.
This would be your general, replacement of trash cans, street lights, benches, redoing tree pits, just basically beautifying all of the street infrastructure in those areas. You know, there is a desire, especially among the comprehensive plan and reports done by our advisory board for the visual environment that all of our streetscapes kind of complement each other. And so that would be an idea behind that project. Third, bike lanes from Oneida Avenue to Croton Point Avenue. There is an existing bike lane on, Croton Point Avenue, as I'm sure many of you know, and there is also an existing bike lane on South Riverside Avenue that begins at Oneida and continues down to, Maple Street. And so this would basically fill in that, missing link along South Riverside between, Oneida and Croton Point Avenue. And this would be done in part by, reducing the width of the sidewalk on South Riverside between
Clinton Street and Wayne Street. You know, this is a sidewalk that is much wider than your standard sidewalk. And by reducing the width of that sidewalk, we would still be able to keep parking on South Riverside while still adding the, bike lane. The historic Hudson Valley upgrades, this would be one of our private projects, you know, as historic Hudson Valley is privately owned. As I'm sure, you have all seen, historic Hudson Valley is undergoing, a pretty expansive project to upgrade a lot of their facilities, involving redoing some electrical conduit, water infrastructure, sewer infrastructure, replacing the fire hydrants, you know, just a lot of infrastructure work that has been needed to take place on the On The Manor property for many, many years. And so, phase one has officially been closed as of August 1. They're now taking a pause and, you know, for the blaze period, and then phase two will be starting up sometime next year. And so, depending on
what they're gonna assess the their progress on phase two, and depending on that progress will depend on exactly what project they propose to include in our grant application. But Historic Hudson Valley has always been willing to be a very good partner with the village, and I'm sure that, the project that they come to us with will will continue that that effort. The 425 South Riverside Avenue development, as you may know, this application has just begun the process before the planning board. In some form, whatever or if any form, whatever that gets approved by the planning board, we would propose to have that project included in our grant application to fulfill the housing requirement that is included in the in the list of tasks for the grant. The Save More Pharmacy development, Save More has purchased the parcel that is at the corner of, Oneida and South Riverside, the former Umami restaurant.
They have knocked down the building. So right now, it's a vacant lot. At some point, they do plan on constructing a pharmacy there and relocating. They did come to the village board with a special permit application about three years ago, two and a half, three years ago, and that effort is has currently stalled at this point. There were some information that they were requested to present specifically on traffic that they have not come back to the boards with. But, you know, in in speaking with them, they are still interested in developing that site, so we would propose including that project in this, in this grant application as well. And then finally, the small project fund, as was discussed earlier, this would be similar to, what Sleepy Hollow had done in that there would be funding available for, small businesses to improve their facades, you know, clean up their windows, replace their awnings, whatever that might might might be for them.
So this is our list of potential projects. You know, there certainly could be additional projects that are put on the list. As Valerie was saying, the state could come in and cross off half of these and tell us, nope. We don't wanna do the these half, and we're gonna do these. So this is, you know, certainly a a list that is in flux, but this is what we have developed at this point.
Okay. Yeah. And I think I just wanna add the the purpose of listing the projects as part of the application is to show the state that you actually have potential projects. Right? So it doesn't even mean because ultimately, as I said before, this open call for project process would mean that, for example, the Save More Pharmacy would have to submit an application saying they want funding. They might choose never to even submit that application and another property owner might submit an But what this does is just demonstrates to the to the state that there is potential projects within the New York forward area. And then I think with that, we'll open it up for any questions.
So just give me one moment here while I turn this Yep. Can I see the last slide? Oh, yeah. Sure.
Yeah. Okay. I'm gonna try to get it on the camera here. Okay. Alright. So whoever would like if anyone would like to speak, there is a five minute time limit that we would like to respect. But anyone who would like to ask comments of myself or Valerie or Mayor Hsu, please feel free to come up.
Start. Do want me to announce? Yeah. If you could just say your name and Sure. Your address, that would be great. So my name is Virginia Norton. I actually live in Bramblebush, so it's outside of the village, but I pay tremendous amount of taxes to the village for school taxes. And are very interested in developing developing Croton and Downtown Croton. So a couple of questions. My first one is who decided on the project area and what input came from the community as to the particular area? So, Brian, that might be yours as opposed to Valerie's or the mayor's.
Do you wanna just ask all your questions at once and then we can answer them? So that's one question
as to who developed that. And then also the list of projects because No. Sorry. When I think about this, I think about, for example, like the school system that we have, the schools that we have here. And I would be interested, Valerie, in your thoughts with respect to the state funding and what the state will fund with respect to the school and the school buildings. To me, it's all about tax revenue. It's all about inviting people to come live here. Let's put aside the housing, which is a big issue in this town. But it's also making sure that, you know, we have the infrastructure for to support children and families that come in. Big issue with respect to teachers having ability to meet with kids, kids having area like the idea of actually that plaza, you know, something like that. Like, we have, you know, three schools right in this area close together. Where do the where do the kids go? As opposed to the parking lot, which,
you know, for sixty five years of my life has always been flooded and continues to flood. You know, I think about what does the community really need? And then a question, Valley, probably for you is, how does the state and what's the state gonna do if a lot of people go to the state and protest against this application, specifically if they don't like the projects that are listed or they don't like the project area? I would imagine the state would not be happy if there's a contingency that is not in support and is vocal about it. So you really wanna make sure we wanna make sure that the community is behind us. Because everybody wants the community to flourish. And we wanna make sure it flourishes for everybody or the majority. So maybe you can I think that's that's it at this point, but maybe if you guys don't mind? And I guess another question for the mayor. I know that you started. You started say you started in December. So in the application process, though, that took place, how
much was the community involved in that application process? Giving their thoughts as to projects. I would like that, you know, your thoughts as to or at least factually, what actually happened? Was there back and forth? Were there town halls about the projects, community meetings about the projects, even the project area, or was just a town board, the one that decided all of that? So I think that's
Thank my five minutes there. Thank you very much. I'll just start off by answering the first question you had, and then we can, turn it over.
So the project area, as, I said at the beginning, we originally were looking we originally did this grant in 2024, and we picked an area that started on North Riverside and went up into the Upper Village. We were trying to connect our multiple business districts and have one application. And, you know, obviously, were not chosen as part of that part of New York Forward at that time, and when we had our debriefing with the Mid Hudson REDC, the Regional Economic Development Council, some of the feedback that we got indicated that we needed to choose a really defined downtown area. And so, you know, once we had that feedback, we started looking at, alright, where could that potential where could that potential downtown area be? Because, you know, one of the things that makes Croton somewhat unique in a good way, right, is that we have these areas of the village that have lots of commercial economic activity,
but we don't have really one centralized downtown of somewhere like a Sleepy Hollow or a Tarrytown or a Hastings or a Dobbs Ferry half. Right? We don't necessarily have that in Croton. And so working with Valerie and members of the board, we were able to hone in on the Harmon area as meeting the requirements of the grant program in that it has some economic development already ongoing within it, and there is the potential for additional economic development, you know, in the future. So I hope that answers your question.
And question. Yeah. Right. So so part of Hello. I'm sorry. Oh. Is that the I'm sorry. Could you just go back Yeah. Yeah. I just wanna know follow follow-up to that one. Is that is that debrief available? Is that public information, or do we have to foil that one
for the last So that that was just that was just a private meeting that went on between, myself and, trustee Simon and the REDC. So it wasn't I don't you're welcome to put in a foil for anything you'd like, but I'm not sure if there were any records that would exist because it was just a it was a a meeting over Zoom. Okay. Yep.
Right. So I think part of the purpose of tonight's meeting is to get additional ideas and potential projects. Right? So something like you mentioned with the public park, you know, That's something that we can go back and and speak to the village about about, like, is there something or a space or something like that that could potentially turn into, like, a pocket park or something like that. We've, but also, I think in terms of, like, the the questions you had in terms of, like, for example, like, the schools, I think the technically, the school districts or any school district, if there's a property or something that they want to create new, right, because when we're talking about campy operation and maintenance, but it would have to be something that would be open to, like, the full public or something like that. So that's why you have, for example, like, the park. You know, the those types of situations, the school district could potentially move and identify a particular project as part of that open call for projects. So this application doesn't preclude any other property owner
from putting forth their own projects themselves as long as they meet that that criteria. I think what we're looking for tonight is any other ideas that you have within that particular New York forward boundary area, or for some reason you really have, you know, interest in, like, the boundary is not completely set, but it just can't be an extremely large area where they like to see that there is some sort of synergy between the different projects that get funded. And so that was part of the reason why specifically looking at the South Riverside Avenue that there is potential for some synergy from, a number of different projects.
I think it's tough to ask people to come up with hot projects. You mean to speak in the microphone. Oh, yeah. Absolutely. Well, this is why we're taking the public right. You can't have, a meeting one night and then ask people to come up with projects tonight. Like, what you really should do is reach out to people in the village and and say to them, hey, listen. You know what? Here's a summary of this, you know, meeting that we had today. Because everybody talks about transparency in this town, which, you know, village. So let's be transparent. Let's tell them what happened here. Let's talk about let's publish the projects for them and then ask people. And maybe that was your intent, hopefully, to then ask people, the public, to submit. You know? Because maybe there are buildings that perhaps are available that within the school, near the schools, that perhaps would be great buildings, and the teachers have some great ideas as to,
you know, having those buildings as part of maybe for the kids to go to. And maybe they're, you know, great for, you know, those that have, you know, learning disabilities or those, you know you know, maybe that are more arts or something that would actually help the community as a whole. I mean, I think it would be great to actually reach out to the community and ask them, give them a timeline and ask them for these That's
this is the beginning of a process. Right? Yeah. So, you know, we're probably four months away from submitting this grant. We really don't know what the timeline is because the state hasn't released it yet. But, I mean, this is being recorded. The presentation is already available on the website. Right? And this is being recorded, and this is just the beginning of a process. We put in the email we sent out today reminding people about this meeting. There was a link for people to fill out the form to share their comments. Yeah. People can always email us. So we will this is we will be doing a lot of outreach. This is just the start.
You might also just talk about how the community should come together and what happens if it's negative, like, if the community is negative going to the state.
Because I think you wouldn't want that. So I I will just mention, when you go through the New York Forward process, there is another whole public outreach process. And I think, you know so there is at least two workshops, and there's surveys. And so there's another outreach process on the actual projects themselves. So this isn't the only the outreach process. There will be another outreach process if you are awarded the New York Forward. In
terms of our process, we, after thirty years, finally updated our comprehensive plan. So the comprehensive plan actually provides a very good kinda road road map prioritization and kinda North Star as far as what the village's aspirations are for, growing and modernizing. So I think that helped guide our New York Forward applications, over the years. And so, to Valerie's point, there were multiple workshops soliciting community input and, you know, help with the the final list of, initiatives. And, you know, we have two major private initiatives of the 4,500,000 grant. So it really is, a public private partnership because as we all know, $4,500,000 doesn't go that far, when you're talking about, a downtown revitalization. So, yeah, there's a lot of community input and, kinda help with kinda prioritizing what we wanna do. And so these these four or five that we ended up more definitely supported
by our our village. The schools, you know, in terms of capacity and all of that, that's a totally separate outside of New York Forward. We recently hired a new superintendent in the last, I don't know, four or five years. And he actually, one of the first achievements he made, was passing an $86,000,000 school bond. So everybody, whether you live in Westchester or, any other state in the country, the majority of the taxes that we pay all go towards schools. So Sleepy Hollow and Tarrytown, which have district, hadn't upgraded their school infrastructure since the nineteen fifties. So $86,000,000 went to upgrading all the all the schools, and, then we got additional funding for some green initiatives and and such. So, there's a lot going on in in Sleepy Hollow.
I'd like to make a suggestion, but I'll take my time. I suggest that you pass the microphone around if it works, and people can ask a question, maybe follow-up on it, then the next person can ask their question as opposed to allotting time. I came here very suspicious because this is a planning session. We're in a tremendous controversy in Croton over, transit oriented housing. We have one behemoth that has which will be, taller than the Harmon Shops, which we had no say over. And therefore, my basic questions have to do with, did we have to qualify for this? In other words, did we have to be a pro housing community, which I hope we don't I hope we disassociate ourselves with that operation, because it's basically a dirty political deal between a state senator and a governor to urbanize Westchester County. So my question is is do we have to be a pro housing community? Did did Sleepy Hollow have to be a pro housing community?
Do we have to promise to make certain number of housing units going in? And what other requirements were there? Typically, with these things associated with these environmental things, there are things like bike lanes, which I see are in here. So I would like to know what the minimums are. I'd also like to know who they is. Who who decides this stuff? And is this what criteria they're decided by? And is there an appellate process, a judicial process, or is it just a bunch of bureaucrats? But what are the basic foundational things to get in the door? Because quite frankly, the entire up state New York needs this money more than anybody in the Hudson Valley, including Elmsford and, Sleepy Hollow. So but but but Westchester's been very cooperative with this sub suburban housing, development, And our village has been at the forefront of that, probably because of a conflict of interest between
some of the members of our boards. So that's I would like that answered. There are some questions I'd like to ask the mayor of I've been dying to ask the mayor of Steepie We can't tell where. Steepie Howell, unlike Croton, I believe one has 10,000 people, 2,001, we do. And it's married It's in the town of Mount Pleasant, married to a village in the town of Greenberg, which makes for an interesting combination. But down the waterfront, where we've seen an entire new village, maybe city developed, Maybe you can explain how many units are in there, how many belong to you, how many belong to Tarrytown, etcetera, etcetera. Was any of this built as as part of a promise to the state about transit oriented housing as as has been said in architectural magazines in Westchester County. And it would be interesting to me also, how many pot stores you have between, the village of Sleepy Hollow and the village of Tarrytown
and surrounding areas. And perhaps you could tell us the size of your budget so we can compare it to the village of Croton's budget. And then then you can tell us specifically both of you can tell us specifically what the housing requirement is. You know, you you got a grant in twenty in twenty twenty two for 4,300,000, whatever it is. $500,000 could buy a single family house, and it certainly couldn't build two houses. Maybe they're for ADCs or something like that. So maybe you could explain that also, just to acquaint us with your experience. I think the only thing on the list, 425 Riverside Avenue should never be on the list. Save More should never be on a Croton list. A bike lane, maybe a traffic light at Oneida to, to ease with the traffic or the save more traffic might be appropriate. And and anything with housing in Croton, should not be on this thing. So and the and the last question is, is this money
part of this big housing compromise from four or five years ago where the state wanna take over zoning at every level? Was this, this lump sum of money, Trump changed, actually, part of their compromise. So I have a lot of questions. I have still more. And once again, I'd recommend if you pass it around, we could ask one people could ask one at a time. Thank you.
You want me to you want me to start? If you want, and then you can pass it on and Okay. Explain more about the program. Okay. So,
I think your first question was, do we have to be a pro housing community for this? And the answer to that is yes. Right? So there's most state programs now are prefaced on being a pro housing community.
What is what's the minimum definite? Come back to if you're gonna if we're gonna have a conversation, you gotta come back to the podium. Okay. Yeah. So
That's why I suggest we pass this around. Can you tell us what the minimum is for pro housing? There
there is I mean, there was an initial when you were initially applied, you had to meet certain metrics, which I don't remember off the top of my head. But since that time,
we have been recertified and there are no set metrics that you have to that you have to meet. Right. When they when they when the program first started, there was there was something about a 1% growth over three year period or something like over one something like that. Yeah. So but, basically, a lot of Is that is that population or housing units? It was it was housing units. But most or majority of the communities did not meet that criteria. And so the state re redesigned the program so that, you know, it required communities just to pass a resolution stating that, basically, that they were in support of, you know, basically, they were in support of residential, communities and wouldn't necessarily throw up obstacles.
Got a question. That is, what would you know this, I don't. What is 1% of Croton's housing unit? How many units would have to be built a year?
It was I wanna I would like to believe we're are there now? That's why I'm I would wanna say we're somewhere around 3,100 or 3,200.
Right. 1% is 30? Yeah. So that's 30 single family homes, 30 apartments. Yeah. It's 30 housing units. Yeah. And that's why a lot of communities were not you know, because if you had, like if a community had a particular development come in, like, let's say, it was, like, multifamily housing or, let's say, it was a new subdivision, most likely, they didn't have that developed year after year, especially the more denser communities that already, like, to a larger extent, have a lot of development. So, it's well, really was just your big cities that were meeting that those targets. That's why they changed the program just to have a resolution passed. There's no targets. There's no requirements except that you're just supposed to submit your statistics statistics every cup every year just to know that, you know, what has been done in terms of building permits issued. So what is the likelihood that a a village like like Sleepy Hollow, it's probably built
100 or 200 units a year versus Croton, who who looks like we're gonna build a thousand, you know, 500 units or 300 units in the next two years,
who may be going at a pace of 30 or 50. What's the likelihood of us winning this race? It's not it's not rest of the way. So so you mean in terms of the New York forward funding? So you just have to be a pro housing community in order to submit the application. Other than that, they just the same things as I was referring to that they'd like to see that things are happening within the area that you've defined as the New York forward area in terms of the different types of potential projects. And who is the Oh, I'm sorry. The they they? Is Who is they? Yeah. So the they is actually the economic regional councils. There's 10 of them throughout the state, and we're in the Mid Hudson region. And then it's also the Department of State and the Empire State Development Corporation that also gets involved.
I'd like to draw people's attention to projects like this, one of which, the Industrial Development Authority in the state of New York, in Yonkers, and so forth. It took what the the history and the smell from those organizations has been over time. I'd like to propose a couple of thoughts that have never been brought up. One, the village of Croton has a lousy relation relationship with the railroad. They don't have a great relationship with Westchester County in terms of pushing the railroad, pushing Westchester County, and pushing back in the state. And part of this is because the relationships and jobs of some people are intertwined with these things, so they can't push back like they should. And what I'm referring to is if we had a full map of Croton, half the half of Croton would be in the in the water. Probably 30 to 35% would be either owned by Westchester County, which are park, half of which is not used,
and then a railroad, which runs through the entire village, including a huge plant, which to my understanding, we get zero back, zero back, and we don't even talk to them except when we send our fire department. And then and I'm I'm scared about this one. I understand that historic Hudson Valley is not in good economic shape. They've lost, I think, three or four of their properties over the last ten years. I really don't know what I'm talking about here, but that's what the word is. And they've let go a lot of people. They just lost Kayakut. And they have a piece of property there above their manor house, which I'm afraid someday will look like the Dyckman house in the Bronx. It'll be a half a a half a acre surrounded by cityscape and pigeons.
we have the state of New York, which owns a huge road corridor. And and in addition to that, we have railroad properties at the north end, a CSX freight yard, and a old, passenger yard with an abandoned station, it looks like now, etcetera. And then lastly, no one's ever proposed looking at the then this is ecological environmental impact of what happened down below Van Cortlandt Manor when they put that first road across. And then ever since then, we've been encroaching upon a bird sanctuary, a sanctuary for fish and everything else, and we've never advanced with all our claims to be environmentally sound, never advanced any ideas to improve that area in terms of wildlife, etcetera, as opposed to putting, like, 50 kayaks on the Croton River? Thank you.
I I'm Connie Warren. I live at 1 Young Avenue. For the most part, this seems like something that would be good for Harmon, where I've lived for the last thirteen years. It's one of the three neighborhoods in Croton that we've lived in. The one exception is the 425 South Riverside development, which is highly contested. So I have a question about community engagement and what that really means. From what it sounds like, community input is come suggest projects to us or tell us if you like our projects or not or add some frills to our projects. But I'm not sure that community input of a a broader kind is is actually being invited in the process. I mean, how much is it a symbolic process versus a real process? So I wanna know, are any residents, and particularly residents who would be immediately affected by the 425 South Riverside development, anticipated becoming part of a planning process? Who who's in who who gets involved in that planning process? Is it only business people or residents actually involved?
Do you wanna Yeah. Sure. I mean, so we're the so there's two different processes kinda taking place. Right? So this is the grant application where we're just identifying,
like, as part of the grant application, the state likes to see, what types of potential housing developments are potentially in that area. Right? That is separate from the land use approval process that the planning board is just starting. So, ultimately, the village will still have full control over what ends up getting built and developed at that site. That has nothing to do with this New York Forward application. All it is is identifying that there's a potential housing project within that area, but it doesn't necessarily mean that that project is finalized, settled on a particular, like, number of residential units or anything like that. That's all through the planning process that has just begun. So they are they are separate. The purpose of to date and also the public outreach that's taking place is to identify if there's any other types of projects that that we could potentially add to that list to identify,
what's potentially taking place in that area. And then also just to receive public feedback like yourselves on, you know, types of projects that you're that you like, don't like necessarily, and so that we could potentially emphasize certain projects over other projects within the application.
So when once the local planning committee is formed, will residents be part will there be any residents that will be asked be part of the local planning committee? The local planning committee ultimately
if if awarded, there is a the local planning committee that gets developed, they usually like to see representatives from many facets within the community, and that'll be up to the village to identify who potentially would be on that local planning committee. But and you could probably talk about your local planning committee, but I think for the most part, there are usually representatives from, residents, you know, or or somebody that's involved in, like, the chamber or, you know, business owner or property owners or people that, you know Business and property owners seems
for granted. You know? I mean, Harmon is the lowest income area of Croton. It has the most modest, houses. It has people with the most modest incomes, and it has the people who are not likely to be in the decision making rooms. So the question is, will people from Harmon
be involved Yes. In the decision making? Typically, it's there are people there are representatives from I'm not gonna say properties. It could be residents or it could be organizations within that New York forward area that are on that. I I
guess the the feedback that I'm giving you is that, you know, getting a notice last Friday afternoon for a meeting with almost no supporting materials with the exception of being able to see the state guidebook, it feels like a very one way kind of community engagement. And it it doesn't feel like, you know, it feels like we come into this room being asked for input when we don't even really know what we're being asked for input into. I I would hope that in the future that it's a much more two way and substantive process and a much less symbolic process that fulfills state requirements that you have a certain number of community engagement meetings. On a potential project, I don't know whether where the boundary lines are for the Croton Railroad Station, how much is Metro North controlled, how much is Croton controlled. But someday, somebody's gonna fall down the stairs at that station because the stairways are crumbling.
So if it is possible within the range of projects to renovate the stairways at the Croton Station, I think that you should put that in your proposal.
Thank you. And as as I said, previously, this is just the beginning of the process. So, you know, there will be many more opportunities for people to to give their input.
I wanna thank the mayor of the Sleepy Hollow for coming out to speak, with us tonight. I I I do have I do have a John, could you just introduce yourself again? Thank you. I do have a question. Do you do you control the tax assessment process in in the village of Sleepy Hollow, or is that part of a greater entity that makes determinations as to to valuations of properties? Because what I'm I'm trying to get to and trying to understand is that in the state of New York, structurally, probably because of the presence of New York City as a political entity in our state, multifamily residential units and apartment complexes pay about 40% of what individual homeowners pay in terms of the valuation of their property for the to pay their tax bill. And what we pay on average for the 3,000 odd residences, both individual apartments and condominiums, towards our schools and towards the operation of our village,
on average, is probably about $12,000 a year. We are in the process of bringing online a 100 unit structure down in a parking lot by our train station that will will net about $4,000 a year per occupancy. And we have already built and are are operating another unit at Maple Commons that's generating $2,000 a year per unit. While we are being asked to pay property tax and school tax in individual residencies at level on average of about $12,000 a year. A lot of villages have faced the same dynamic in our county, and as a result, they've gone to a fee simple structure for tax assessment purposes so that there is an equalization between the condominium value property tax payments with the individual homeowner property tax payments. Our village made a determination just a year ago to preclude that capability because they voted to save a half an FTE to have the control of our taxation in the town of Cortlandt.
There are other mechanisms that we could use to try and right that wrong. But my question is to you. In in your village, these these units that are being brought online, these luxury units that are being brought online, how are they being assessed? Who's assessing them? And are they paying property taxes comparable to single individual family residences that are in the village? And and do you see that as a problem, or is that a solution that you found?
So we have our own tax assessor, and I would like to do a tax reevaluation with the entire town of Mount Pleasant as this gentleman has pointed out that the village of Sleepy Hollow is a part of Mount Pleasant. Mount Pleasant is not interested in doing a tax reval. We haven't done one in thirty years. They haven't done one in fifty years. So we're kind of on our own. We have, as our village administrator likes to describe, we have the poorest of the poor because we have a lot of low income housing in the southern part of, the village, all the way up to the Rockefellers live in Pocantico Hills. And then the Edge On Hudson, to answer your earlier question, it was approved for 1,177 new housing units. We're about halfway done. We just issued the first the, like, six hundredth cent certificate of occupancy. I'm told that one of the units at Edge On Hudson sold for 6,700,000. So we have the the wide range of
market value. Sleepy Hollow is also unique. We're one of the few municipalities that have a homestead, nonhomestead tax structure. Okay. So we're different than Croton, but, the way I look at it is if a person who's lucky enough to be able to afford a $6,700,000 home in Sleepy Hollow, he should pay the commensurate property taxes to you know, because he can afford it.
have people in in what I call I came from Long Island, a Levitt house in Harmon that are paying 11 to $12,000 a year in taxes towards the school and maintenance of the village. And and they are holding on to their houses with their fingernails because the value of these houses has geometrically increased in the last several years. They really have no other place to go in this marketplace. And the expense associated with maintaining their house and paying school tax and property tax is very burdensome. And my concern is that bringing in these additional units at the facto subsidized tax rates on top of federal incentives, state incentives, and now you're talking about additional incentives of $500,000 for subsidized housing associated with another grant level. It's it's just a little scary for me. I
I will say that we have high tax burden in Westchester, and it's not the fault of little village mayors or, whoever you wanna blame, but it's a systemic issue in that in the county of Westchester, there are 40 municipalities each with their own school district. In the state of New York, there are 686 school districts and municipalities. In the state of Maryland, guess how many counties and school districts there are?
There are all county school districts down there. Yeah. Virginia, Maryland, or county Yeah. County. Terrible. What county school districts So I don't know what counties there are in Maryland. Montgomery County population,
So in the state of Maryland, you know, Maryland and New York are very different places. There are 24 school districts. So when you compare 24 school districts to 686 school districts, and we all know the majority of our taxes go to pay school. Yeah.
per student in the village of Croton on Hudson. Well, the village is catching up. Okay. If we could mister So so my point is No. Can I ask to answer your question? He he gave you No. Mister Riley, no. No. Will you ask will you ask her to answer your question? I I need to get into a debate.
I just wanna bring home the point that if we're going to have development here, and I'm not against it, that that development pays for its fair share of the tax burden that we face as incumbent residents in our village.
Thank you. Is there anyone else who would like to share their thoughts on New York Forward? You're next, John.
Hi. Adam Adam Shapiro. Shapiro, 37 Wells Avenue. So as you know, I've moved here four years ago. I have two young kids. So I'm when I see, you know, this type of, you know, application being considered, like, I I I find it, you know, very like, I'm I'm very I I I feel encouraged by it. I I think it's a good thing to be considering to be considering these these projects. I get I'm just I my input is that it's more about within some of these projects to to think about I see I go to a lot of events here in the village with my two my son who's four and my daughter who's almost a year old. There's like the summer programming was a great thing here. And I just wonder, or well, let's just think about how we some of these projects could incorporate the young things that attract young families. Like Mhmm. Because I think revitalizing because I think invigorating the downtown is, like, a lot of that will
involve pulling bringing young families into, you know, that district. Because I know there's I see so many, you know, families who have kids in day care around here who are just, like, itching to go out and, like, do things, know, because the kid know, just to give their kids our kids something to do. And just that I think with Historic Hudson Valley, I I do think there's promise in that. Like, I I I go there, you know, for the blaze with my family, and I do wonder that just with that area, like, it could be utilized more because I just think it's, like, a great activity. And I know people from out of, you know, from out of town go. I've I've had friends from Connecticut tell me they are here. I've had friends from Lopingers Falls who didn't tell me they were here, but they they apparently came to it. And I was very annoyed by that. And I'm still a little kind of bitter about that. But so
yeah. So I just, yeah, I just wanted to offer my thoughts on that, and I I look forward, you know, to seeing seeing this process, you know, begin. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thanks.
John Sasso in Morningside Drive. First of all, sounds great. A lot of it. There isn't a person in Croton who wouldn't love to see things paid for by the state that they decide needs to be done. I have an idea about one I can just put out there. There's a park at the duck pond that's got benches that no one would sit on, but they still be have been there for years in disrepair. And there's no access for the ice skaters to go in and out of the on the ice. I'm not a skater. People have told me this. They have to walk on rocks with their skates and rather than just get a big mat to to give access. Simple. My bigger question is is this what's listed here, is this part of the application that's gonna go in?
Yes. So, ultimately, they usually ask for you to they ask for there's a section of the application that says what are, like, past investments within that area and what are current investments and then what are potential future investments.
So there is where I get get stuck. Okay. Because 425 South Riverside I lived in Croton forty five years. I know a lot of people. There isn't one person, not one, that's in favor of this project. And, you know, I wish I if if this were notified in the gazette with an announcement that this is to talk about 425, you would have had the room filled three times over because there's a lot of opposition to it. Yes. Not only is the builder somebody with not a great reputation in Croton of some project he's tried to get done, but the whole idea of it. So now it seems like this goes in and you say it doesn't have to have housing as part of the whole project. But that's what it's the umbrella is about housing. Right?
Isn't this No. The umbrella is really about revitalization of your downtown area. So it's supposed to be it's it's not only it's not just the sole focus on housing, it's public upgrades.
toward people who want to What they what the state would like to see is as part of the application process Right. That you are dealing with wait. Are they finished?
That you do have you do have the ability to have housing in the area. That doesn't necessarily mean it has to be a lot of housing development. You can also utilize the housing that has occurred in that area, which you have some housing development that has been recently approved for that area, and that just demonstrates that there is housing within that area. But, you know, for example, Dobbs Ferry just was awarded their $4,500,000 in projects. And I don't I there were I think there might have been one project that had a little bit of housing associated with it, but the rest of them were not housing related projects. So and I think you had only one there that said housing,
Right. They don't they don't want an area they don't want an area that doesn't have residents in it. That's for sure. So my point is, it's almost like the tail wagging the dog.
Because if this goes through and there's an approval for this project for to improve the water, sewage, whatever the project is is involved with, Well, now it comes back to the village. Well, we've approved this. Let's do it. It's a one time opportunity. You follow my thinking here? Yeah. I understand I understand what your concern is. But pro. We've got, okay, we well, there's no problem. We've got sewage. We've got water. We we we went ahead. Right. And so it's it's got the the people in this village very leery about seeing that on this list. Right. And that's my opinion.
So Okay. No. I understand I understand your concern. I just wanna emphasize again that the the actual planning board approval process is clearly I understand how things work too. I get it.
But if there were a meeting held on that, you'd see a much bigger turnout and a lot of disapproval about it. I know. Thank you.
How are you? Yes. I'm Cynthia Eldridge. I own one of the properties in that section there. I had two questions. One is I was here for the first gateway proposals made, I don't know, twenty something years ago And they talked a lot about sidewalks and improving the sidewalks in that area. And there are still people who walk past my building, The new sidewalk that kind of goes between Doctor. Fields and the Strattles Complex is great. That was helpful. Mhmm. But it's still really hard. People are trying to get into that ShopRite Plaza area on foot, and that's super difficult. So something I could suggest is, you know, can that be improved so people have access down there? There's a lot of young people using the gym. There's older people trying to shop. It's that's a thing.
And that's a I think that's a really great project. I think the village manager is trying to work with the property owner as maybe potentially identifying that as a project as part of the application.
The other thing I wanted to say was, I agree, my whole life, that lot floods. It floods. It's been redone. It floods. Do you have an estimate from the people working on the plan of how much that costs? Because as the mayor pointed out, 4,500,000 isn't that much, sadly. So Yeah. What does the what does the wall cost?
You wanna sit down? No. No. The the estimate from our engineer is about $7,000,000 for the wall. But obviously, only a small portion of this grant would be going towards that. We are seeking out multiple sources of funding for that particular project. Do you have a projection of how much of this grant you're looking for for the wall? No. That's not gonna be decided by us. That's gonna be decided by the state. Right? They're gonna they're gonna tell us. So but, I mean, I don't I wouldn't think I mean, and Valerie may be able to share a little bit more, but I don't think that they would put a lot of it towards it. Right? I mean No. I mean, I I would I would I
would think that the the state's gonna wanna, if they're going to like, as you saw with Sleepy Hollow, there was a couple $1,500,000 projects, $1,400,000 projects, and you saw a lot of those happen to really involve, like, public, like, parks and those types of projects, streetscaping. They'd like to spend bigger amounts of funding towards those types of projects versus something that would be, like like, for example, with the the Croton Train Station. Yeah. So maybe, like, $500,000
towards something like that. Okay. Yeah. Thank you. You're welcome. Any other comments, please?
Michael Audin, 55 Van Wyck. I was just curious. Does the boundary area have to be contiguous?
with Yeah. And that's and that was what we were trying to do originally in 2024 is we tried to be a little, you know Yeah. A little loose with that and we had we had a a little bit down on North Riverside and then we came up Brook Street and then we had some in the Upper Village and they were like, you know, they told us that they appreciated the effort. Right? But it was not it was not what they were looking for. Okay. Yeah. I'm tempted in that same way. So thanks for clarifying. And then
I appreciate all the work you're doing. I lived on Beekman for a year. No. So it's very it's gonna be very exciting to see all these developments take place. Great. Thanks for your work, Kyle. And I can visit. Yeah. Yeah. I will do. And, yeah, just I guess, I'll plant the seeds even though it's outside of the Mhmm. Boundary area Sure. The sense you may be applying year after year for this among other grants. But there's a little bend in the river along Elliot Way. It's like Croton River Walk, and it's right kind of between and the Yacht Club. And it's it's an area that's kind of like dead space in the water because of old pilings, and it's kind of out of the way. It doesn't really get in the way of the sunset or anything, but, like, my dream would be that you can encourage a connection to the Hudson River by having a restaurant platform there, like a modest one. But just have one place to eat on the river to encourage reverie
and then have like a grab and go commissary to encourage those parents that are just itching to have something something to do. And it would kinda just having one kind of feature restaurant right there would tie into lots of development along the waterfront there, but it would also just tie other communities together. And we have the recent development in housing and yada yada. But anyway, just there's, like, kinda one little sweet spot, which if it could go through all of the stakeholders with respect to all the things. It would be just so cool to have one little restaurant on the river. Because we're at the the widest span of one of the great rivers in the world without a place to eat and appreciate it. So that'd be cool. Yeah. That's great. Thank thank you. Yeah.
And that's that's something that's been identified in our comp plan for a little while now is trying to do that. Something that we continue to look at. Any any further comments?
Though I'm on the board, I just wanted to share that we did have a neighbor that a Nora Nicholson. So we did have a neighbor that sent an email. He wasn't able to make it tonight. But his idea is to run a trail sort of to connect the neighborhoods there. So if you have the pointer, Brian. Yep. So sort of a connector trail. I think using that Van Cortlandt Manor property, someone made a point that maybe they would want to sell that off. Like does that become an opportunity for trail network along the river there? Not necessarily you know, sort of parkland improvement back there versus, you know, what it is right now. Right now, it's just woods. I have an idea at Echo Canoe Launch Mhmm. Of really developing that space into more of a park. So Beacon, if anyone's been up there, they've just recently done a canoe launch with canoe storage, which is really quite fabulous. But using that space down there,
I think, would be really great. And I just wanna, like, you know I've been listening to this meeting and just thinking about, you know, the ideas that sort of happened along the way. Mister Riley, you pointed out marshlands around the Croton River and enhancement there, protecting those. I mean, that is something that we can include in the grant. I think beautification of the station and repairing the staircase would absolutely be something that we could work with Metro North and the opportunity at the station. I mean, right now, it is you know, we haven't seen a renovation to that station in a very long time. So you kinda come into Croton, and it's like, So that could be an opportunity for some beautification, and absolutely, the walkability in that area is much, much needed to Shop Wright Plaza and getting down there and even making this. I mean, I think what's hard about this particular grant is we're saying it's a down you know, we're saying it's an improvement to a
business area downtown improvement kind of thing, but it's really not downtown. Right? So we're gonna need to try to spin it. So it seems like it is more of a area, but we have so many people coming into the station. Right? And we have so many people kind of going up and over to Van Cortlandt Manor. Hopefully, with phase two for Van Cortlandt Manor, that property will be open more than just The Blaze. Right? I mean, that's sort of the dream that when I was growing up here in Croton, that that was open all year round. There were school groups going there. There were visitors there. That would bring more commerce to the village and more tax revenue. So, you know, those are some of my ideas, but, you know, I think it is it's it's it's a challenging pitch and we you know, I think we're gonna learn along the way with this one just like we learned along the way with the other one. Just in terms of just so people kinda understand, when we pick this area
when we look at sort of the Grand Street Upper Village area, which is really the true downtown of the Yes. Village, why isn't that a great candidate? Like, if we just circled sort of the Upper Village, why wouldn't that be a great candidate for this grant?
So, I mean, I can think I mean, I don't know if wanna weigh in, and then I can talk a little bit about it too. So,
yeah, it really it has to do with the types of projects, right, that the state is looking for in this particular grant application. Yeah. There is not really an opportunity to build out in the Upper Village. Right? I mean, there's very few properties that are available or property owners who are interested in building out their properties. And, you know, we had a couple of projects in the Upper Village in our previous round, right, which involved Vassala Park specifically and doing some streetscaping. But as as Valerie has said earlier this evening, you know, the state is really looking for as much private investment as they are public investment. So unless, you know, and these are totally hypothetical. Right? Unless somebody was to come in and say, I wanna put another story on the black cow or if I want to, you know, build a three you know, multiple three story, you know, mixed use building, something like that. Right? I mean, unless there was projects like that that had interest that were going to potentially move forward,
that there's just not the investment needed in the in the upper village.
Yeah. What I was gonna say is, I think for Sleepy Hollow, have a smaller geography than than you do, but we really leaned into the connectivity between our neighborhoods. And as we were building this, you know, very affluent enclave on the the river, we wanted to make sure that all these different neighborhoods had good connectivity. And so walkability, we're, you know, partners in the the project mover as far as bike, bikeability. And being that we have two train stations on the Hudson Line between Tarrytown and Phillips Manor, it's all about, you know, how do we get around Sleepy Hollow without a a car would be ideal. So I think, you know, you're onto something as far as, like, trails and, you know, access to the train by foot or sidewalks. Know, I think that that's important to the state. Right? So, like, our Cortlandt streetscape, project that we got 1,200,000 for, that is basically the corridor from the Tarrytown Train Station right up into Beekman Avenue as as you know.
So that's just a very important, thoroughfare for all the tourists that we're trying to encourage to come to Sleepy Hollow via train come this fall season. So we really wanna beautify Cortlandt Street, and we actually have a conversation with Terrytown because the train station's in their village, but we wanna, you know, make it seamless so that, as we're doing our rezoning project right now, we actually asked our zoning consultant to include that Cortlandt Street all the way to Tarrytown, within the scope of our rezoning so that, it's more integrated. And, to the extent that after we do our visioning exercise for Sleepy Hollow downtown rezoning, Cherrytown at least has kind of a head start if they decide to to address that part of their village as well for rezoning.
Yeah. Bryan, before we break up, I just wanted to personally thank the mayor for her time. I mentioned to her before we got started, I said, my goodness, you have enough evening meetings in Sleeping Hollow. You you don't need to add one more to Croton, but it was was off awfully generous. One of the great things about the 45 municipalities that we have in Westchester County is we all try to work together a lot, and this is a one wonderful example. And I think I think our application ultimately has profited greatly from from you being here this evening. So appreciate My pleasure. Now I know why you paid for dinner. I should've ordered the drink. Brian. Yeah. Yeah. That's right. To be continued. But and and again, I just wanted to emphasize just on on behalf of of the board and all of us here is my expectation is that and I could be off by a few weeks, but my expectation is that we'll probably get the notice from
the the state that the application period is open maybe sometime in October, and we'll have until January to to to submit our application. The this is a list, and that's all it is right now. We've we've talked a little bit about it, but as you can see from some of the conversations that we've had tonight, some of the some of the good ideas that have come forth from many of you, you know, we're we're open to to lots of things. We have some basic guidelines about, you know, as Valerie said, contiguous, and, you know, we'll we'll try to figure those out. But we want a great application. And when we didn't get it in 2024, in our region, who did get it was was NIACC. And I happened to bump into the mayor of NIAC a couple of weeks later. And I said, mayor, what was your secret sauce in in getting New York forward? And he said, well, we got it. It was the fourth time we applied. And each time that that we applied, we tried to improve our application, get more good ideas, get more people involved. And so that's what we're doing. I said, well, we're gonna try to do the same thing, but do it in two tries rather than four. So so this is an important part of the process. And as Bryan said, this is the beginning of the process, not not in any way a conclusion. So to all of you that, you know, suggested that that you need more time, we need more time too. And we need we need all of you to to be involved in this. So I just wanted to say that as we as we conclude. Thank you.
Are you gonna put something out to the community so that now that they know that have more time for projects that they can Mhmm. There there there will be there will be a lot of community output,