ARMONK, N.Y. At Wednesday nights North Castle Town Board meeting, the board quickly acknowledged the receipt of the application for the CVS special use permit and sent it to the planning board for review.
The motion followed almost an hour of public comments, most of which addressed CVS and other building projects, which residents fear threaten the small town charm of Armonk.
Local residents Barbara DiGiacinto, Marion Kelley, Adam Gershony, Ken Narva and Albany lawyer Jeff Baker, who represents the Concerned Citizens of Armonk, spoke about CVS, which had its building permit voided yesterday for the former A&P property on Main Street, according to town attorney Roland Baroni.
CVS received a building permit without getting a site plan approval and a special use permit, but announced plans to restructure the space for a second retailer in late February, which prompted it to apply for planning board approval.
CVS avoided the approvals initially because it was going to use the property in the same manner as A&P, as a retail store. But Baker argued that CVS must apply for a special use permit because its a different type of entity than the A&P. The town must consider the changes of bringing in a big box chain that has a bigger impact on the community with traffic, noise and hours of operation that threatens the character of the hamlet.
The public comments at the meeting didnt just challenge the CVS, but a number of other Armonk building projects as well. Ken Narva, the founder of Street-Works, a North White Plains development company, and former chairman of the North Castle Architectural Review Board, said, The town is faced with several major proposals, to rezone the NB district (Mariani Gardens), the potential expansion of retail uses into Business Park Drive and dramatically increasing retail zoning along Bedford Road.
The speakers also called for a coordinated town master plan that would regulate all construction projects and maintain the hamlets character.
It would be a grave mistake and irreparable loss of opportunity to allow these projects to proceed without undertaking a comprehensive review and drafting the blue print for downtown development, Narva said.
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