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NEW ROCHELLE, N.Y. – You can voice your opinion on an environmental impact statement for the Echo Bay Waterfront Project in New Rochelle, following the recent approval of a public hearing by the City Council.
“What we are talking about is taking an area that is nothing but a dead weight on the physical, environmental and economic ambitions of this city and transforming it into a site of which we can be proud,” said Mayor Noam Bramson.
The public hearing will take place during the Citizens To Be Heard portion of the March 12 meeting of the City Council. Following public comment and more discussion by the council, a final environmental impact statement will be created.
“I don’t want any of us to lose site of the big picture because this is going to be a major win for New Rochelle when this is accomplished," said Bramson to his fellow City Council members. "I’m excited about the fact that we’re so close, so close now to getting it done.”
A draft environmental impact statement prepared by Forest City for the proposed redevelopment would consist of 285 apartments, 29 of which would be moderate-income housing units; 25,000 square feet of retail space; and 430 parking spaces for all uses. It also would include the creation on the Armory property of Armory Place, a landscaped boulevard providing access to various buildings and parking for the Echo Bay Walkway, a waterfront esplanade.
In addition, the Echo Bay project would include a public seating area with three benches and a pergola overlooking the bay; a pedestrian bridge connection to the Westchester County Wastewater Treatment Plant for a future pedestrian path to Five Islands Park; a sloped, open lawn area toward the waterfront; the Echo Bay Walkway; a 45-car public lot; and a small nonmotorized boat launch and rehabilitated stone building on the Armory property.
Comments (2)
Funny that they show a picture with water at the shoreline. That must be the high tide picutre. The low tide picture shows only the mud flats that are there. And the picture conveniently omits the 10 story sewage plant to the right.
And this project will only be built if the developer gets 20 year tax abatements.
That's right, no money for the schools so you can expect your school taxes to go up, especially when a new school needs to built to accomodate all these new students.
And your city taxes? Well they'll have to go up too to pay for the $25 million in bonds the city will have to issue to needlessly move city yard.
And you county taxes? They'll stay more or less the same, unless of course the voters of Westchester are dumb enough to elect Noam Bramson county executive, then we'll go back to the tax & spend days of Andy Spano. You remember him? The guy Astorino threw out of office 3 years ago before he put the county on the road to fiscal stability.
What a waste of money this city can never do anything right