A Pennsylvania firm wants to build 68 units behind Ardsley Road

ROBERT MARCHANT
The Journal News

GREENBURGH - A community group is organizing to fight a new development plan for 68 townhouses on a large parcel of woods, following the project's formal debut before town officials.

About 15 people turned out recently for a Planning Board work session on the proposal by Toll Brothers of Pennsylvania. The company wants to build housing on a 42-acre stretch of hills and woodland behind Ardsley Road near the Sprain Brook Parkway.

"This would create a fiasco," said Fred Becker, a neighbor who is among those organizing opposition to the plan. "You could fill a legal pad with the objections a person could have to this development ... traffic congestion and personal safety, pollution, the destruction of the environment, groundwater contamination, run-off."

The developer is seeking approval from the Greenburgh Town Board to create a special zoning category to allow a clustered, or "planned unit," development.  The site now is zoned for single-family homes on sites of about a half-acre.

The Planning Board is currently reviewing the application and, at its meeting recently, requested more information on the proposal.

The developer also presented an alternative plan showing that 62 single-family homes could be built on the land, but neighbors insist that the steep slopes could never accommodate that number. They say it is a false comparison to put the clustered development concept in a more favorable light.

Peter Wise, a White Plains attorney representing the project, referred requests for comment to Toll Brothers. Calls to its office were not returned.

Alexander Alkalay, another neighbor, hopes to attract state and county funding to acquire the land and preserve it. He said the land is home to a wide range of animals seldom seen elsewhere in central Westchester, "and it would be a shame to drive them away."

"It is a unique, remaining open space in Westchester County,"  he said.