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Letter: Mamaroneck Development Threatens Infrastructure

MAMARONECK, N.Y. -- The Mamaroneck Daily Voice accepts signed letters to the editor. Please send letters to mamaroneck@dailyvoice.com .

The closing of the A&P in Mamaroneck village could bring undesired growth.

The closing of the A&P in Mamaroneck village could bring undesired growth.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

To the editor:

The village of Mamaroneck is losing its last supermarket. The Food Emporium on West Boston Post Road closed seven years ago, and now the A&P, in bankruptcy, failed to find a supermarket chain buyer and has instead been sold to the landowner -- an investment vehicle of the Rosenshein family, as it turns out. 

That, and several adjacent properties will almost certainly be aggregated into a big lot -- the Transit-Oriented Development zoning specifies no maximum -- and developed as a mixed-use property with apartments over retail. Retail is likely to include some kind of food store, but parking provisions and the grocery bonus make it more likely it will be a mini-grocer that mostly serves residents and foot traffic from the Avalon. 

This may prove to be the worst of all worlds. Convenience will encourage them to charge premium prices to the residents, pricing out the foot traffic from farther into Washingtonville, and drivers from Washingtonville, the Heights and other parts of the village will have to drive to other communities. 

The second issue is the stress on our infrastructure, including schools. The Mamaroneck school system just was ranked No. 42 in the country by Niche.com. However, the four elementary schools are space-constrained. Central and Mamaroneck Avenue schools are threatened by a wave of new arrivals if the village accepts the development proposals encouraged by the planning board. 

This kind of housing attracts families with school children. Development means more kids, and more kids mean either dramatic increases to class size or a major expansion at taxpayers’ expense. According to estimates from the village, the new Transit-Oriented Development law could bring about 400 residential units. 

There is a conventional wisdom that condos and apartments don’t bring many children to public school, but conventional wisdom doesn’t always apply to Mamaroneck. In the village, apartment living attracts families with school kids at a much higher rate, and a build out of the Transit-Oriented Development area certainly will force an expansion of our schools (not to mention traffic, sewage, water pollution issues and more). 

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