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Mount Vernon West Rezoning Project Takes Leap Forward

MOUNT VERNON, N.Y. - After more than a year, local officials are making progress on the potential rezoning plan for the proposed transit-oriented Mount Vernon West development near the Metro-North train station.

The Mount Vernon West development has been in the works for more than a year.

The Mount Vernon West development has been in the works for more than a year.

Photo Credit: CMVNY

After listening to public input for several months, officials have released final Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS) for the location, which includes suggested amendments to the zoning code to create the transit-oriented district.

The GEIS outlines and evaluates “potential impacts associated with the adoption of amendments to the Mount Vernon Zoning code to create the Mount Vernon West form-based zoning district.”

“A defining, and perhaps the most important feature for the future success of the area is the Mount Vernon West Metro-North train station,” officials wrote in the GEIS. “The areas proximity to this feature indicated to the city the sustainability of employing some form of transit-oriented development zoning.

“The city’s desire to encourage high quality development that would integrate mixed-uses into the area suggest that form-based zoning would be yet another appropriate zoning tool to employ.”

According to the GEIS, the proposed form-based zoning is different from traditional zoning “in that it relegates the regulation of use to a position that is ancillary and secondary to form.” It allows for private development to be integrated in the public realm by streamlining the lengthy review process associated with traditional “use-based” zoning.

Mount Vernon officials envision a viable longterm plan to revitalize the city with a transit-oriented development, centered around the Mount Vernon West Metro-North Station. The proposal calls for more than 3,000 new residential units and more than 250,0000-square-feet of retail space.

Among the city officials’ stated goals include positioning Mount Vernon West as a concentrated investment area, strengthening the Mount Vernon Avenue gateway into Yonkers and exploring high-density options through re-zoning and the assembly of vacant buildings and underutilized sites.

The complete Generic Environmental Impact Statement can be read online. It will be on the docket Friday at the city Real Estate Committee meeting at 9:30 a.m. in the Memorial Room at City Hall.

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