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The public hearings will focus on property owner Summit/Greenfield’s Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (DSEIS) for its latest site plan, which calls for 120,000 square feet of retail space of which would be anchored by a full-service grocery store of 36,000 to 66,000 square feet. The grocery store would be supported by smaller retail stores.
According to Smith, New Castle Town Planner Sabrina Charney Hull recently sent a memo to Summit/Greenfield, which replied with the expectation of having a revised draft sent back to New Castle officials by Friday. Summit/Greenfield is hoping town representatives will be able to review the changes in time for next Tuesday’s Town Board work session to determine its completeness.
Ideally, Smith says the town is, “looking at a very aggressive schedule,” and hopes to close the public hearing segment of the environmental impact statement review by mid-June.
“It would be a week of public hearings sometime in late April,” said Smith. “And when I say a week, what we were thinking about was, if you open on a Tuesday, and close on the following Tuesday, and have another one in between, that would give the opportunity for three public hearings in a compressed period of time.”
Of course, as the town has experienced with months of continued and postponed public hearings for Conifer’s Chappaqua Station, the public hearing segment for Chappaqua Crossing will also remain open as long as “people are willing to speak,” as pointed out by Town Board member Robin Stout.
Chappaqua Crossing has become one of New Castle's most polarizing topics among residents. One on hand, there is support to fill a local grocery store void left by D’Agostino in 2011. However, there is also the perception that retail stores accompanying the grocery store would detract from the hamlet’s downtown merchants.
If things go according to plan, both trains of thought figure to be heard in public hearings in late April.
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