By Carol P. Bartold

Nov. 4, 2015:  For Pondfield Court LLC, developers who seek to convert the former Morgan Manhattan Storage building at 100 Pondfield Road into 11 condominium units with ground-floor parking, the long road to site plan approval has grown longer. 

Although scheduled to continue the application before the Bronxville Planning Board in both September and October, the developer's representatives cancelled their appearances. Since the planning board will not meet in November, December is the earliest that Pondfield Court LLC could receive site plan approval. 

"At this point, the application is not being held up by the planning board," board chairman Eric Blessing stated. "The developers need to secure a number of variances from the Hudson Valley Regional Board of Review." That board will meet on November 10. When it approves the variances, it will notify the Bronxville Planning Board. The Hudson Valley Regional Board of Review is part of the New York State Division of Building Standards and Codes in the New York Department of State's Office of Planning and Development.  

Presented to the Bronxville Planning Board in early 2013 as a pre-application for the long-empty and landlocked building, and in July of 2014 as a formal application, the proposal received a conditioned negative declaration from the planning board in June of 2015. This declaration determined that the developer can mitigate any potentially significant adverse impact on the environment by satisfying the conditions outlined. 

To satisfy the conditions, the developer must submit construction documents to the International Code Council for review; include all fire safety systems recommended by the Eastchester Fire Department; designate and implement the driveway easement access as a fire lane; obtain a declaration from a court of competent jurisdiction that vehicles may not stop, stand in, or obstruct the easement area; comply with all recommendations regarding hazardous materials investigation, handling, and disposal; and revise the parking garage layout to reduce the number of spaces and eliminate obstructed spaces. 

Pondfield Court LLC has submitted the plan to reduce the number of parking spaces from 17 to 14. 

"The developer has not, to my knowledge, procured a judgment declaring they have an enforceable easement for the driveway," said planning board member Adrienne Smith. 

The Bronxville Planning Board will meet on December 9 at 7:30 pm in the trustees room at Bronxville Village Hall.

Pictured here: 100 Pondfield Road (behind Topps Bakery and Studio One).

Photo by N. Bower