By Mary Marvin, Mayor of Bronxville

Sept. 24, 2025: 

Sidewalk Sale & Importance of Supporting Our Merchants

Our Chamber of Commerce is sponsoring the annual Sidewalk Sale this coming Friday and Saturday, September 26 and 27.

Our merchants will be offering a great variety of high-quality merchandise combined with free parking throughout the Village.

The Sidewalk Sale is also the traditional kickoff to the fall shopping season for our loyal merchants, coming off of what were very quiet summer months. The merchants looked  forward to your return and continued practice of thinking local and shopping local.

September also presents an opportunity to reiterate how much we need our merchants and how much they depend on us. Bronxville has one of the highest concentrations of locally owned independent businesses in the county some with us 20, 50 and in the case of the Picture House and Mrs. Morgan’s Flower Shop approaching anniversaries of 100 years of service to Villagers. Their presence adds such enormous enrichment to our community and their personal touches define the close-knit character of our community.

Unlike the big box stores or the mail order behemoths, local merchants have supported all of our fundraisers, school festivals and local charities for decades.

Their presence not only produces a unique ambience, but a wonderful ripple effect both for our other merchants and quite dramatically the Village’s bottom line by purchasing parking permits, paying taxes, buying goods and food from their fellow merchants and using the services of other local professionals including lawyers, accountants, computer consultants and graphic designers to name but a few. The million plus dollars we receive annually in sales tax revenue thanks to local purchasing is absolutely vital to the Village’s budget.

Their presence also results in the delightful confluence of strollers and seniors connecting on our sidewalks with intergenerational energy and discourse. These interpersonal interactions, according to many studies, are actually good for our health.

According to Susan Pinker, a social science reporter for the Wall Street Journal, frequent social integration and interaction with people on a daily basis is as much a factor in life expectancy as health risks including smoking, drinking, and heart disease so shopping in the village is actually a strong predictor of your longevity! Hope to see you in town!

Lots of Activity in Building Department and Planning and Zoning Boards

September also signals the onset of a great deal of activity in our Building Department in concert with our Planning and Zoning Boards and Design Review Committee. This year‘s requests have truly been unprecedented necessitating two Planning Board meetings in the month of October alone.

All of this activity is a good signal for the Village’s health as everyone works to improve their homes and businesses.

In light of the activity, I thought I would share the role and duties of our boards.

Role of Planning Board & Design Deview Committee

By state law, a Planning Board’s duty is to evaluate a proposed development change to the village under the lens of its appropriateness based on considerations including but not limited to:

-Appropriate population densities

-The preservation of adequate light, drainage, the rights of adjacent neighbors, open space preservation and historic significance

-The effect on traffic, congestion, noise, and environmental concerns

In essence, the question is whether the proposed development is consistent with promoting the long-term attractiveness and functional utility of a community.

Analogous to our Zoning Board, the Planning Board has five members and two alternates who are appointed by the Mayor and Trustees. Beyond the power of appointment, the Village board does not, and should not, have any influence or role in the independent judgments made at the at any board level as there must be an ethical wall of separation.

As an adjunct to our Planning Board, a Design Review Committee, consisting of three permanent members and one alternate, reviews such aspects of an application for development as the Planning Board may refer to it and makes recommendations to the Planning Board.

Common issues referred to the Design Review Committee include the type, quality and color of construction materials, landscaping, awnings and signage.

The state requirement of a 10-day notice prior to a hearing to alert neighbors living within 400 feet is strictly enforced. The Village also puts the board schedules up on the Village website under the Building Department tab as soon as the applications are complete and ready for a hearing so neighbors can react in a timely fashion.

The meetings also have to be noticed in a printed paper of record which for us is the Journal News. Unfortunately, we are not allowed by state law to notice in an online paper which would make so much better sense for our Village readership.

A Planning Board is also tasked with developing and keeping current a comprehensive plan for the entire Village that guides and encourages appropriate proposed fencing use and possible development of all land structures in the Village.

The goal of this plan is to promote the rational functioning, economic stability, public health and safety, general welfare and sustainability of the Village.

The Planning Board works in tandem with the Village Board of Trustees to monitor this overview of the Village.

First enacted in New York City in 1916, zoning codes and zoning boards offer a level of certainty and reliability as a potential property owner knows what he can build, and as important, what can’t be built near him.

These codified standards keep property values up and neighborhoods consistent in use and design.

Role of Zoning Board

The Zoning Board and its membership and notification processes mirrors the Planning Board rules.

Zoning Board is appellate in nature.

A property owner must apply for a building permit and have it denied by the building department as inconsistent with the applicable zone code before appearing in front of the Board.

Quasi-judicial, Zoning Boards can look to prior decisions and local precedents as factors in decision-making.

The Board has the power to grand variances – permission to use property in a way not currently allowed by the local codes. Any variance “runs with the land” not with the property owner. The most common variance requested is an “area” variance – seeking authority to use property currently not allowed by the dimensional or physical requirements of the applicable zoning code section of the local code.

Decisions are based on a set of criteria which, in essence, balance the proposed benefit to the homeowner versus possible detriment to the neighborhood.

The Zoning Board must evaluate any application using the following questions as their guideposts:

-Can the proposed benefit be achieved another way? i.e. could the proposed additional bedroom be added to a different location in the house thereby not infringing on property setback rules?

-Is the change substantial? i.e. too great a deviation from what is allowed in the code. Courts have held that an addition of 15% or more of currently allowable floor area can be deemed “substantial” on its face.

-Are there environmental or physical impacts on the adjacent neighborhood: drainage issues, the loss of permeable surface, traffic and congestion.

The Zoning Board is authorized to require studies in these areas to alleviate concerns.

-Was the hardship self-created? i.e., did the homeowner buy a small house with the plans of a big and encroaching addition in the future?

If approved by law, the Board must grant only the minimum variance that is absolutely necessary to afford the relief requested.

As a component of any approval, the Zoning Board can impose reasonable conditions and restrictions that are directly related to the propose use of the property to mitigate the impact of the change. Examples include a landscape plan, fencing or a drainage system.

As you can see the Villagers who give their time and talents to our Boards, make a major volunteer commitment for the betterment of Bronxville. I thank them for lending their enormous skills and incredible good judgment.