Sandy Stops Chappaqua Crossing Grocery Hearings

Due to Hurricane Sandy, the two Tuesday-night public hearings on whether to permit a large grocery store and supporting retail at Chappaqua Crossing will be rescheduled, the town announced Monday.

In terms of procedure, the hearings will be adjourned. Town Administrator Penny Paderewski explained that the Town Board will hold a mini meeting, with Supervisor Susan Carpenter and two other board members present to merely vote on the adjournment.

The plan is for the board to hold its emergency meeting to adjourn the meeting to next week, Paderewski confirmed.

The two items that would have been discussed included the Town Board's proposed rezoning of Chappaqua Crossing's commercial site to allow for a grocery store of 50,000 to 60,000 square feet, plus 5,000 per support retail usage. The zone is proposed to be an overlay for the site's existing commercial area, which is currently intended mainly for office usage.

The other item on the agenda concerned owner Summit/Greenfield's similar proposal, which was submitted earlier in October in response of the Town Board's version. It calls for building a grocery store of 36,000 to 66,000 square feet, with a total of 120,000 square feet of retail space. That plan calls specifically for developing the southern part of the site.

The concept being discussed has run into opposition, including from neighbors of the property worried about traffic and quality of life changes, to folks who are concerned that a new business district could be formed that will pose a threat to existing merchants in town.