Legionaries Site Overhaul: Town Board to Vote on Starting Review

The New Castle Town Board is slated to vote at its Tuesday meeting to start the environmental review process for the proposed mixed-use redevelopment of the Legionaries of Christ site off of Route 128.

A draft copy of the resolution calls for the board to declare itself the lead agency for the review and for the developer's zoning petition for the project to be forwarded to the New Castle Planning Board and the Westchester County Planning Board for their advisory feedback. 

The proposed changes to the roughly 97-acre property are from Soder Real Estate Equities, LLC. They include the construction of 50 condominiums, 34 hotel rooms, a spa, pool and a restaurant. The project is called The Spa at New Castle.

The proposal involves repurposing an existing mansion that was constructed in the 1920s, where four hotel rooms and the recreational services would be held, and in demolishing two wings that were added on in the 1950s. The wings would then be replaced with new ones, which would include the condos. Thirty of the hotel rooms would be in a new, 30,000-square-foot structure to the south of the mansion.

The condos would each be 2-bedroom units of roughly 2,500 square feet, while the hotel rooms would each be 650 to 750 square feet. The overhaul requires a zoning change for the site, which is currently R-2A, or limited to 2-acre, single-family homes. Soder's proposal calls for creating a floating zone to allow for a “Resort Lifestyle Complex." The proposed zone could only be applied to sites of at least 75 acres and at least 300 feet of frontage along county or state roads. The proposal is not age restricted but is intended for empty-nester types, according to a presented given to the town board in May on behalf of Soder's Stephen Oder.

The board's move to hold the vote came after an attorney for Soder made a sudden public appearance during its June 25 meeting, according to video of the event.

During the public comment portion of the meeting, attorney David Steinmetz pleaded with the board to take a lead agency vote, stating that he was asked to attend the meeting on behalf of his client. 

“All we're asking is can we begin the environmental review process?”

At the meeting, Steinmetz gave the impression that his patience was wearing out, a feeling that was made known when he met with the board the month before with the same request. 

Steinmetz asked for the board to confer with the town attorney, Clinton Smith, and for the item to be added to that night's agenda. The board subsequently went into a closed executive session, which included several items, according to the video. After the executive session, the board voted to schedule the environmental review vote for July 9