After nearly a yearlong ban on residential development in the village of Larchmont, 17 new proposed zoning and planning laws will be vetted by residents and village board members as the moratorium clock runs out.
The proposed laws, which were introduced during a Board of Trustees meeting on Sept. 19, are designed to address concerns from residents who have decried what they view as the unfettered development of historic neighborhoods in Larchmont.
“The 17 proposed laws are the result of many collaborative work sessions,” said Mayor Lorraine Walsh, a Democrat. “We’re satisfied that many important issues of concern have been addressed.”
Among the potential new laws and regulations are altered tenants on tree removal, subdivision, setback, and soil grading; all of which are meant to curb a growing trend of subdivision and demolitions in the village’s residential neighborhoods.
One area not specifically addressed in the new set of regulations, however, is historic preservation; an exclusion that members of a local advocacy group have highlighted as an inherent flaw in the proposed laws.
A memo posted to a web page for the anti-development group, Preserve Larchmont, which was spawned in response to development trends in the village, states that “The majority of towns and villages, including Mamaroneck, Rye, New Rochelle, Scarsdale and White Plains, all have some form of historical protection legislation. Larchmont has none.”
However, Walsh said that incorporating historic preservation into Larchmont’s new zoning and planning regulations could be more trouble than it’s worth.
Instead of using criteria from the National Register—which Walsh said would be far too broad and would fail to catch many developments in Larchmont within its scope—and may also prove flimsy against legal challenges—the village could create a commission responsible for determining historical significance.
“When we sat at a meeting together with many members of Preserve Larchmont present and discussed the tear downs of the past couple of years… we had agreement that none of them would have met the [National Register] standards,” Walsh said.
Specifically, the proposed historical committee would be charged with determining whether or not demolitions are allowed through a special review process. Under the village board’s proposal, exactly which properties fall under the village’s historic blanket would be determined through a survey conducted by the village.
The debate over Larchmont’s historical character stems back to January of this year when the potential subdivision and demolition of the historic 40 Ocean Ave. property sent concerned residents out in droves to village meetings.
After the backlash, the village Board of Trustees, under the direction of then-Mayor Anne McAndrews, a Democrat, enacted a six-month moratorium on residential development designed to serve as a stop gap measure against residential tear downs.
Since then, the moratorium—which has elicited a number of appeals from developers caught in its net—has dragged on for an additional three months after the Board of Trustees voted to extend the initial ban in August.
According to Walsh, though the moratorium’s clock runs out on Oct. 15, the ban on residential development could last an additional 90 days from Sept. 19 due to a village law that prevents assigning permits for any law undergoing a public hearing process.
“That 90-day clock started running on Monday night [Sept. 19] and will continue until the laws are passed or the 90 days are up,” Walsh told the Review.
The next Board of Trustees meeting will take place on Oct. 17.
Representatives from the Larchmont Historical Society and Preserve Larchmont could not be reached for comment as of press time.
