Parking added to Dakin Avenue plan

A rendering of the proposed 54-unit apartment building in Mount Kisco..

By MARTIN WILBUR

The attorney representing the developer of a proposed 54-unit apartment building on Dakin Avenue confirmed there would be 54 on-site parking spaces and the project would comply with the village’s parking requirements.

Attorney Tony Gioffre told the Mount Kisco Planning Board on Tuesday evening that the applicant, 47 Dakin Owner LLC, would be able to provide one-for-one parking with additional excavation for a larger garage. Furthermore, with allowable reductions for transit-oriented development in the code for the village’s Downtown Overlay District, including an exclusion of the first-floor units from the parking calculations, the developer would exceed the minimum parking requirement by nine spaces, he said. Initially, there were 41 parking spaces proposed.

“So, a marked improvement from where we started and I believe is a bonus and benefit for this project,” Gioffre said of the parking situation.

If more parking is needed for the site, Gioffre said the development team was informed by the village manager’s office that there should be sufficient room in the nearby Blackeby and South Moger Avenue lots for overnight permits. The applicant conducted an overnight parking study on Sept. 16, which revealed that only 14 of 216 spaces were occupied at 3:30 a.m.

“I think it’s an important development that you’re now able to commit to the 54 parking spaces,” said Planning Board Chair Michael McGuirk. “I know that that requires some verification because you’ll be digging deeper and I’m sure that also requires a bit of an investment.”

Parking capacity and circulation into and out of the development and near the site have so far been the main topics of discussion before the Planning Board. Those issues are likely to be raised again when the public hearing opens for the project on Tuesday, Nov. 24.

An increased level of excavation will be required to create the project’s additional spaces on the half-acre property. The village’s consulting engineer Anthony Oliveri said excavation would go to a depth of about 25 feet, with groundwater starting at about a foot and a half. As a result, the developer will be forced to remove a significant amount of water from the site and will have to use sheet piling or some other technique to make the area suitable for dewatering.

“This is a pretty intense undertaking,” Oliveri said. “It will need some close geotechnical oversight, and I can’t say if that’s going to affect the overall project in any way.”

There will be a construction management plan as well as more details related to the excavation in future submissions, Gioffre responded.

McGuirk also said the parcel, which is in the Central Business District but also part of the Downtown Overlay District, enables applicants to supply up to 50% fewer parking spaces than required in exchange for a fee in lieu of parking. It is available in only a couple of districts, including this location, because it is centralized, it is in a walkable area and close to additional public parking.

Mount Kisco’s traffic consultant Elaine Du also complimented the applicant for increasing the number of off-street parking spaces to equal the number of proposed units. She said there is ample overnight parking in the nearby lots, although just 19 permits are currently available.

However, Du expressed concern about how truck traffic to and from the site would be able to navigate Dakin Avenue.

Multiple board members expressed what they think is a need for a second ingress and egress point to the property, particularly for emergency vehicles. Board member W. Robert Phillips said he would like the board to consider having Dakin Avenue extended from Highland Avenue to the area south of the courthouse and police precinct.

That comment drew the support of board members Michael Bonforte and Barbara Roppolo. 

“I think it solves several issues,” said Roppolo, also referring to the potential difficulty for trucks.

If the board recommended extending Dakin Avenue, the Village Board would have to agree to that change. It is not something that the Planning Board could require on its own, McGuirk said.

Phillips said he wasn’t yet recommending opening up Dakin Avenue but wanted the board and applicant to explore that possibility.

“We have an opportunity, we have a problem,” Phillips said. “Let’s see if we can find a solution that might make it better while we’re looking at it.”