June 20, 2024
NEWS RELEASE
Siegel Announces Opposition to Extension of
Lake Osceola Overlay District
Susan Siegel, candidate for the Town Board in the July 23rd special election, announced today her opposition to expanding the Lake Osceola Overlay District to include 50 acre Navajo Fields site.
Her opposition is based on her experience with the Underhill Farms development in the Yorktown Heights Overlay District. “Once the Town Board approves including a property in an overlay district, nothing is likely to stop the project,” she said.
Currently zoned for single family houses on 2 acre lots, inclusion in the overlay district would pave the way for a proposed mixed use development of 254 residential units, a 5,500 square foot clubhouse, 4,000 square feet of retail space, a 23,000 square foot athletic structure and the expansion of the site’s existing ballfields.
In exchange for the higher density allowed in the overlay district, the developer, Charles Diven, is offering to construct a sewer trunk line from his property’s Route 6N access point along East Main Street to Hill Boulevard where it would connect to an existing sewer trunk line that carries sewage to the county’s Peekskill treatment plant. According to former supervisor Michael Grace, Diven’s attorney and spokesman, the sewer line is a “compelling reason” for the town to approve the project.
“The only reason the developer wants his property included in the overlay district is to bypass its existing single family zoning and win town approval for an extremely high density mixed use development,” Siegel said. “The Navajo Fields site has no relationship to Lake Osceola or the properties in the existing overlay district. The additional traffic from the development will exacerbate an already dangerous situation along East Main Street.”
Passed in 2021, the Lake Osceola Overlay District allows mixed use developments with more than double the density permitted in the town’s current multi-family zones. Since the district was created, no development proposals requesting overlay status have been received by the town
While Town Board members have expressed interest in the sewer plan as the key to revitalizing the Jefferson Valley hamlet, Siegel suggested Board members take a closer look at the extent to which sewers would, realistically, result in new commercial development. As desirable as sewers are, Siegel said, sewers may not be a strong enough incentive to attract the commercial development Board members want to encourage.
“They should read the Environmental Assessment report they commissioned in 2021 before adopting the overlay district,” she added. “The report, prepared by one of Westchester’s leading planning firms, concluded that given the area’s environmental constraints, including steep slopes on the north side of East Main Street and the lake and wetlands on the south side, the potential for new commercial development, even with sewers, was limited. The report actually projected a decrease in commercial development and 139 residential units over a ten-year period.”
The report identified only five possible properties for future commercial development, three of which can be combined into a single site (the former Osceola Beach property) which would be close enough to Hill Boulevard to hook up directly to the existing sewer line. The other two sites at the eastern end of the overlay district abut the lake.
A long-time supporter of sewers for existing residential properties on aging septic systems, Siegel pointed out that the proposed sewer trunk line would not benefit to exiting homeowners to the north of East Main Street. “Town Board members keep talking about septic leaching into Lake Osceola, but there are no plans to sewer the residential streets in Jefferson Valley. The proposed sewer trunk line will benefit the Navajo Fields developer, not the residents of Jefferson Valley.”
The developer’s request to include his property in the Lake Osceola Overlay District comes after earlier discussions with town officials, dating back almost a year, to either rezone the property to the town’s multi-family zone or create an entirely new zone for the mixed use project went nowhere.
#####
Attached
Map of Lake Osceola Overlay District
Map of proposed extension of the district
Some background
In circa 2009, Mr. Diven proposed a three story structure that would be home to multiple sports activities. While pursuing that plan, he sought, and received, town permission to establish “temporary” ballfields on a portion of the site. That plan was subsequently amended to allow for a bubble type dome over another portion of the site. The three story plan was never pursued.
Over the years as the temporary ballfields and dome were constructed, the developer was found to be in violation of both the town’s and the New York State DEC’s wetlands permits. In 2019, the developer agreed to a settlement with the DEC that involved a $60,000 fine.