Mountco renews interest in building 600 houses

By Edie Johnson
CHESTER — There's a new board in Chester, and new life in the languishing plans for a major new housing development at the former Camp LaGuardia site.

The new town supervisor, Alex Jamieson, last week had lunch with Joel Mounty, owner and president of Mountco Development Corps of Scarsdale; John Madeo, Mountco vice president; and Carl Meinhardt, vice president and planner, to set up a presentation for Tuesday night's town board meeting.

The three gave an update on the project, which had seemed to stall over the problem of insufficient sewer capacity six years after Mountco first bid on the county-owned property.

The sewer problem remains, however, along with some other sticking points (see related article).

In the meantime, years of neglect of the 258-acre site and its buildings, which once served as a homeless shelter for New York City, have taken their toll: vandals have smashed nearly every window in the place, thieves have made off with copper piping and other valuable materials, and, last January, a suspicious fire destroyed one of the outbuildings. The problem became a point of contention in November's race for county executive, in which both candidates — including the eventual winner, Steve Neuhaus, the former Chester supervisor — advocated cutting Mountco loose.

"Stop giving Mountco repeated extensions on the County/Mountco contract," Neuhaus said in a statement last fall. "The project should be re-bid. It has languished for years because the developer wants high-density housing that will ultimately raise local property taxes." He also suggested putting aside eight sites for commercial development and using the rest for agriculture and recreation.

This plan was nowhere in sight Tuesday. And it is unclear what has changed to remove the hurdles that last year had seemed insurmountable. The biggest is the lack of sewer capacity for the 600-plus houses that Mountco wants to build. Blooming Grove, which shares the site with Chester, recently beat back Orange County’s plan to extend sewer service to the LaGuardia site, and the plant in Harriman that treats sewage from Chester has nearly run out of capacity.

The other stumbling block is the "developer's agreement" that Mountco still wants from both Chester and Blooming Grove before it agrees to spend more money on environmental studies. Officials in both towns have vowed to never sign the agreement, which would allow Mountco to adapt its plans to the ups and downs of the housing and commercial markets.

Because the property is split between Chester and Blooming Grove, both towns must agree before the project can move forward.

'Real people' needed
The number of proposed housing units has plummeted over the years, from more than 900 to what Madeo called "six hundred and change." The commercial space, which brings in more tax revenue than residential space, has increased to approximately 100,000 square feet.

Mounty also promised to reserve at least half of the units for senior citizen housing, which is needed in Chester. Some units reserved for veterans and others for what Mountco officials call "workforce housing." Madeo said Mountco was open to expanding the commercial component even more, "but not on spec" — meaning they would have to have real users lined up.

"We have met with Orange County Partnership, and we are on their radar," Madeo said. "They have even sent people over. The issue is when we would be ready to build."

The environmental studies were stopped because they were based on the 900 housing unit number, Madeo said.

"We need real people in order to progress," he said, referring to the need to have customers ready to move into the commercial portion.

Both towns and the county agree that the county needs to recoup the $8.5 million it spent in 2007 to purchase the property, and that the property needs to get back on the tax rolls.

Mountco's next step will be to appear before Blooming Grove. While the town board is lead agency for the project in Chester, the planning board is lead agency in Blooming Grove.

Blooming Grove will be considering two issues: First, zoning in its portion is for houses only, and planning board members have in the past wanted to keep it that way. Second, White Tail Run, a narrow back road, would become an entrance to the development. Residents say they don't want it to become a through road.

Madeo estimated that even when the towns give Mountco the go-ahead to complete its environmental and traffic studies, it will be up to 18 months before construction begins. The project would progress in phases over a number of years, he said.