Revised renovations at tennis club OK’d, sans pickleball courts

By NEAL RENTZ

A revised proposal from the Pound Ridge Tennis Club was unanimously approved by the Pound Ridge planning board Jan. 23, ending months of review.

At the Dec. 19 board meeting representatives of the club provided a new proposal which does not call for construction of new pickleball courts.

“We’ve talked a lot about this application over many meetings,” planning board chairperson Rebecca Wing said prior to the board’s vote to approve the project last week. 

The club, located at 2 Major Lockwood Lane, was originally seeking site plan approval for the construction of four new pickleball courts, one new paddle ball court and deck, expansion of the two existing parking lots and approval for the club’s plan to build an addition to the existing clubhouse. But the proposal was criticized by several neighboring residents over a series of meetings and did not receive support from any of the planning board members. 

Following the November public hearing, Keith Betensky, an attorney representing the club, said his client would consider coming back to the board with a revised application at the December meeting.

At the December meeting Betensky came back with a revised proposal without new pickleball courts and associated parking.

Dawn McKenzie, senior project landscape architect from Insite Engineering, told the board in December the proposed new parking spaces would be placed away from a pond that is on the club’s property. The proposed parking spaces would be striped, she said. There are 40 parking spaces on the revised site plan, she said.

“There’s no land banked parking included in the revised plan,” McKenzie said. “We had 58 (spaces) and we were going to land bank,” she said. 

The revised proposal “definitely addressed the concerns that have been raised,” Wing said at the December meeting.

One of the conditions of approval from the planning board should be a landscaping plan, Wing said. 

Currently, pickleball is limited to two courts and was not part of the club’s application. 

Prior to the board’s vote last week, there was a discussion of some of the conditions of approval. 

Betensky said the condition that states an approval by the Westchester County Department of Health is required for the sewage disposal system to serve the expanded clubhouse facility. 

“In speaking with our engineer, it is our understanding that no approval is required in connection with the sewage disposal system,” Betensky said. 

Jason Pitingaro, the president of the town’s engineering firm, Pitingaro and Doetsch Consulting Engineers, said the approval is up to the county, not the town. “So, we need something from them (the county) that says it’s OK,” he said. 

On the condition regarding the project’s landscaping maintenance plan, which includes a requirement for the club to regularly remove invasive species and weeds, Betensky said it should apply to “the area of post-plantings only, not the entire area.” Betensky said he wanted that point clarified.

Pitingaro said the requirement to remove invasive species and weeds would just pertain to the area where the club would do landscaping work “and remove what is there already.” 

Planning board member John Bria recused himself from deliberations regarding the club’s proposal and did not vote last week.