Pleasantville Hears Second Assisted Living Proposal

Pleasantville may soon be entertaining a second proposal for an assisted living facility within the village.

Representatives from the Jewish Child Care Association (JCCA), which has a campus on Broadway in Pleasantville that includes the Pleasantville Cottage School and Edenwald Center, went before the village board Monday for a work session discussion.

"It's an integrated facility," Andrew Tung, a landscape architect with Divney Tung Schwalbe, said of the 150-acre campus that falls into both the village and Town of Mount Pleasant.

According to Tung, his firm was hired by to explore the currently unused portions of the campus for possible subdivisions. He said the facilities already in place serve "emotionally-troubled youngsters of different types, ages and conditions."

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"They have land that they are not using," he explained. "They asked us to study that and see what we might find."

While much of the campus has a steep grade that would be difficult develop, Tung's team identified an area near the Lake Street border that could potentially be sold or rented to a developer interested in turning it into an assisted living facility.

"This is one proposal," he shared. "We wanted to propose a use that could be somewhat compact in nature, have limited parking and have limited impact on municipal facilities and services."

Preliminarily, Tung said the facility would likely range from 75 to 100 units and span approximately 35,000 square feet and two to three stories.

The proposal, Mayor Peter Scherer pointed out, is just down the street from another proposal similar in size and scope.

The United Methodist Church, located less than one mile from the JCCA campus on Bedford Road, is looking to sell a portion of its unused property to Benchmark Senior Living. That developer is eyeing a zoning change to allow for an assisted living facility on the site.

On the JCCA campus, Tung said a developer would also need to seek approval from the village for a zoning change, as it currently falls in the RRR zone, which does not allow assisted living facilities.

Of the 150 acres that make up the campus that borders Broadway and Lake Street, 23 are within the village's boundaries. The rest is in the Town of Mount Pleasant. The site's current sole entrance is on Broadway. The proposal recommends creating a separate curb cut with access to Route 141 for the facility.

According to Joseph Roazzi, director of business at JCCA, there are no plans to expand or reduce the operations already in place on the site.

Board members questioned how visible the proposed facility might be from the street.

Tung said the elevation of the campus is about 15 feet higher than the roadway and in a wooded area approximately 150 feet from the street.

"You might sense something is there, but it's certainly not highly visible from Broadway," he said.

Trustee Jonathan Cunningham said he would not be in favor of a potential proposal brought forth by a non-profit organization as it wouldn't add to the village's tax base.

"My sense is that they would be looking for a for-profit operator here because they would be likely to pay a high price," Tung said.

Scherer pointed out that Benchmark Senior Living is seeking a "floating zone" to accommodate its proposal on Bedford Road, and asked if that might apply to the JCCA site.

"I believe it would under most conditions set forth," Tung said, who noted he will be tracking the progress of that petition.

While Scherer asked whether Pleasantville could support two assisted living facilities, Tung said interested parties might like having the option of the two and noted a "growing population." Other facilities, he said, offer varying degrees of assisted living for their residents.

Roazzi said the JCCA board hadn't yet created a timeline for the proposal to move forward, and Scherer asked the representatives return with additional information, as well as renderings to share with the public.

"When you are ready, we will hear back," the Mayor said.