Town to Commission its Own Chappaqua Crossing Retail Study

The New Castle Town Board has decided that the town will commission its own market study for the retail proposal at Chappaqua Crossing.

The board voted at its June 11 meeting to hire planning consulting firm AKRF to perform the analysis. AKRF would give findings meant to decide whether the proposal could present competition to downtown Chappaqua and what aspects of it are meant to compliment the hamet.

The AKRF study will come several months after site developer Summit/Greenfield submitted an analysis performed by HR&A Advisors, Inc, which was given to the town in February as part of the environmental review process. HR&A determined that the proposal, which comes in at 120,000 total square feet of retail and will include a grocery store anchor tenant of 36,000 to 66,000, will not compete with downtown. In its report, HR&A stated that most existing storefronts are less than 3,000 square feet in size, while there is room on the site for only four small retail spaces, all of which cannot be less than 1,500. 

The retail proposal, which would involve reusing the existing cupola office building for the grocery store and building ancillary retail structures on the site's southern end, requires a zoning change from the town board and then site plan approval from the planning board.

AKRF mentioned in its study scope documents that it will perform a "field verification" of existing retail inventory, which it claims is needed because Summit/Greenfield did not give square footage estimates that were comprehensive. Other criteria that will be explored include storefront conditions, the nature of retail offerings, "points of interest" that bring in residents, parking availability, customer volumes by type and time, and vehicular and pedestrian data. The field surveys will be done on a weekday and on a weekend.

The study will also explore how much of spending from residents is being attained from town merchants, versus how much is going out of town. AKRF argues that if there is "substantial outflow" of spending of some types, then Chappaqua Crossing could capture it, which would make competition with the hamlet less likely. Spending data will be gathered from expenditure trends from the U.S. Department of Labor, along with ESRI Business Analyst. AKRF also stated that it will review part of the HR&A study that identifies a Primary Trade Area, which is where a majority of customers for current Chappaqua businesses are believed to live.

AKRF will look at possible competition for both Summit/Greenfield's proposed site plan, and an alternative that involves a "town center" that has retail separated by streets and walkways. The later version is along the lines of what New Castle Planning Board member Tom Curley suggested as an alternative layout for the project. 

The hiring of AKRF comes after the planning board supported having the HR&A study peer reviewed.

AKRF may provide suggestions for changing the language of the proposed zoning legislation for the project. The intended objectives for changes, according to AKRF, would include encouraging uses to bring in consumer spending that is not attained by the hamlet, using success of the retail zone to support downtown Chappaqua's business conditions, and having legislation that is "permissive enough to attract the types and variety of tenants necessary to maintain a viable mixed-use project."

AKRF anticipates taking three weeks to work on a draft report, which would subject to town review, followed by a final report. The cost of its work will be $9,500, with an additional $2,000 for the presentation of the study's findings. 

Meanwhile, public comment for the project's draft supplemental environmental impact statement (DSEIS) has closed, but a developer-submitted plan for managing stormwater pollution and invasive plants has been submitted, Supervisor Susan Carpenter confirmed at the town board meeting. The public comment period for the newer study is 30 days. Later in the process, Summit/Greenfield will submit a final supplemental environmental impact statement (FSEIS) in response to public comments.