Yorktown Heights Fire House. Commissioners of the Yorktown Heights Fire Company unveiled plans to build a new three story fire house on the site of the current building at 1916 Commerce Street that would be demolished. They explained that the existing structure, which dates back to 1950, is too small to accommodate today’s larger trucks and that it was less expensive to construct a new building than expand and renovate the existing one. During the construction, which is expected to take 18 months, the company’s equipment would be temporarily housed on the land behind the building and at its satellite location on Locksley Road. The new larger building would have the same brick facing as the current building.
Although under state law fire company has the authority to approve the site plan, the commissioners said they would consult with the Planning Board on the SEQRA review and site plan issues. The fire company will hold a public hearing on the plan.
There were no details about the cost of the project that the commissioners said would require a bond.
Curry Honda. After opening and closing a public hearing during which there were no comments, the Board voted to approve a special permit for the installation of roof top solar panels.
Gardena Hotel. The Board granted a second one-year extension to the site plan, approved in July, 2023 after the applicant’s representative advised the Boad that the owner was “not in a position to start the project.”
MJM Subdivision, 3232 Gomer Street. After an absence of over a year, the applicant returned to the Board to continue the review of its 13 lot subdivision. Based on earlier discussions, the plan calls for seven lots with access to Gomer Street and six lots with access to Cordial Road. The applicant explained that while some tweaks had been made to the earlier plan, no decisions have been made yet on the connection to Cordial Road which would require a widening of the road.
Also to be determined was a tree mitigation plan; the subdivision plan calls for about 300 trees to be removed (there are 432 trees on the parcel, 100 of which are invasive species and can be removed without mitigation.) Because there would be no room on the site to replace the removed trees, it is anticipated that the mitigation plan will include a per tree payment into the Tree Fund.
However, the applicant suggested that initially the Board only require a mitigation plan/payment for the 50 trees that would have to be removed to make way for the roads and utilities, arguing that until the owner was ready to build the houses, which could be in 5-6 years, it was unfair to require a payment for trees that might not have to be removed if the location of the houses on the 13 lots changed. The Board said it would consider the idea but wasn’t sure how a delayed payment would work out in practice.
A videoof the meeting is available at yorktownny.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=1969