Mt. Kisco Athletic Club Proposal Scheduled For June 22 Vote 

Diamond Properties' proposal to relocate the Mt. Kisco Athletic Club to 333 N. Bedford Road took a step closer to becoming a reality during Tuesday's meeting.

The Planning Board reviewed draft resolutions for the special use permit and the site plan for the athletic facility following a public hearing in which no comments were made or submitted.

Board members then moved to schedule a vote on the final drafts of those resolutions during their next scheduled meeting on June 22.

Jim Diamond, owner of Diamond Properties, said his next step after the board gives its blessing to the project is to submit construction plans to the building department for approval and begin construction. "Mt. Kisco Athletic Club is looking forward to opening and we think it's going to be a great opportunity," Diamond said.

The athletic club, which is currently located at 151 Kisco Ave., wants to build three squash courts and a six-lane pool at its new location. The move would also allow the club to increase its maximum occupancy from 250 to 275 and its available parking spaces from to 300 to 450. The club would be built adjacent to another another sports related facility that's planned on the site, the Mt. Kisco Sports Arena.

Diamond has said in the past that the sports arena, which is meant to have batting cages, basketball courts and indoor athletic fields, has been on hold due to lost financing. Ultimately, the athletic club would take up about 40,000 square feet of space, while the sports arena would take up about 60,000 square feet.Diamond said that he didn't know what future plans exist for the athletic club's current location on Kisco Avenue.   

BMW Dealer Finds That It Needs Village Board Approval For Proposed Car Display

The owners of BMW Mt. Kisco, which is located at 250 Kisco Ave., suffered a minor setback to their plans to get approval for a proposal to create a four-car display. The board discovered  that the dealership currently sits in an urban renewal zone, and that the plan must be approved by the Village Board of Trustees before it can move forward.

Village Attorney Whitney Singleton said there was some confusion as to whether or not the urban renewal zone was still in existence. There were plans to eliminate the zone in the state legislature, but those plans fell through, according to Singleton.

Planning Board Chairman Joseph Cosentino expressed frustration that the board was notified at the last minute about the urban renewal zone.

"In the future, can this board be notified sooner than than the witching hour that there's urban renewal," Cosentino said.

Singleton said the village board hadn't been notified by the state until recently.

The board said that it could give conditional approval to their application during the June 22 meeting, with the hope that the village board approves the application during its June 28 meeting.

Village Engineer Anthony Oliveri still had concerns about the sloping of the retaining wall planned for the property, while planning board member Doug Hertz still had questions regarding issues with the intensity of lights being reflected of the cars that are being displayed. Oliveri and Hertz asked the applicants to address those concerns before the next board meeting.

Boys & Girls Club Farmers' Market Gets Go-Ahead

The Planning Board gave permission to the the Boys & Girls Club of Northern Westchester, which is located 351 Main St., to continue the operation of an outdoor farmers market on its property. The farmer's market, which is run on Saturdays, has been operating indoors at the Boys and Girls Club since January, according to Brian Skanes, the club's executive director. Community Market Inc. runs the farmers' market and rents space from the Boys & Girls Club for $160 a month.

Skanes said his organization received permission to run the the market indoors, but he was unaware that he needed permission from the Planning Board to move the market outdoors when the weather got nice. He said the market fit in with his organization's mission of teaching nutrition and sustainability to its youth. Board members determined that the outdoor farmers market is consistent and typical to the facility's principal use. They also found that it did not cause any increased problems with traffic or noise in the area.

CVS Submits New Site Plan

The CVS at 10 S. Bedford Rd. submitted a new site plan for its store renovation proposal. The plan is a scaled back version of a proposal submitted in 2008 that eliminates the addition of a rear entrance and decreases the amount of landscaping. The Planning Board asked for additional information on the level of lighting in the parking lot.  Oliveri also questioned whether the store's plans for the relocation and design of its dumpster met county guidelines. Shannon Rutherford, the planning engineer for the project, said the next step is for the company to have its signage and store elevation reviewed by the village's Architectural Review Board.