Lewisboro vote on parish house expected soon

St. Paul's Chapel is hoping to build a new parish house on its property at 313 Smith Ridge Road in South Salem. THANE GRAUEL PHOTO

By NEAL RENTZ

A proposal from St. Paul’s Parish to construct a parish house is scheduled for a Planning Board vote next month.

At its May 19 meeting, the board instructed its consultants to prepare an approval resolution for its next meeting, June 16. The parish is seeking approvals for its site development plan, town wetland permit, and a special use permit.

The property is on an approximately 4-acre parcel located at 313 Smith Ridge Road, South Salem.

Matthew Gironda, principal with Bibbo Engineering Associates, told the Planning Board last week the parish house would be an accessory structure to the existing church. The Westchester County Department of Health recently approved his client’s proposed subsurface sewage disposal system, he said. The parish house would be a three-bedroom raised ranch building, he noted. 

The proposed parish house received a positive recommendation from the Architecture and Community Appearance Review Council, Gironda said. 

Planning Board Chair Janet Andersen said when the proposal was before the Planning Board in April, members expressed concern about county health department approval. During last week’s public hearing Conservation Advisory Council co-chair Sally Frank asked what the applicant’s tree removal plan was and what would be done to mitigate the loss of trees. Gironda said the property is wooded except for the church and parking lot. The impact on trees would be similar if the proposed parish house was built elsewhere on the property.

“We tried to locate it centrally to maintain as much buffer with the existing vegetation around the property as we could,” he said. “Our mitigation is through stormwater management and an effort to conserve as many of the existing trees as we can.”

Most of the trees that would be taken down are small trees and there are also dead trees that would be removed, Gironda said. 

Andersen noted that the board decided not to require a tree survey for the application.

“There’s substantial screening from the side of this house to the road,” Gironda said of the proposed structure. 

The board came to a consensus that submission of a tree planting plan to screen the property be part of the approving resolution.

Villas at Vista

Also at last week’s meeting, the board instructed town consultants to prepare an approval resolution for 11 garages proposed by Villas at Vista, located at 920 Oakridge Commons, South Salem. The resolution is slated to be voted on at next month’s meeting.

Smith Ridge Associates is seeking to construct five garages, built either under or projecting out from the new residential units in Building 9A/B and six freestanding garages, split between the two freestanding buildings. Each building has three garage bays associated with the 12 rental housing units currently under construction at Building 9 A/B.

Andersen the applicant needed a zoning compliance determination from Building Inspector Kevin Kelly.

At the board’s May meeting, it was not clear if the affordable housing amenities included a garage for the affordable units, Andersen said. Counsel to the Planning Board Judson Siebert replied at last week’s meeting that car garage access is not part of the required amenities for affordable housing because they are not a residential amenity. 

Andersen said the approving resolution should state that none of the spaces in the proposed garages should be allowed to be rented to anyone who does not live in the 12 units.