westfaironline.com October 10, 2022
Self-storage and warehouse proposal for Armonk BY PETER KATZ
Greenwich panel considers the effects of wealth disparity BY EDWARD ARRIAZA earriaza@westfairinc.com
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he balance between the haves and havenots was considered in “Exploring the Wealth Divide in Greenwich,” a recent public forum hosted by Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo’s Diversity Advisory Committee. A panel of representatives from government, academia and the nonprofit sector addressed the subject before an audience at Greenwich Town Hall.
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Pkatz@westfairinc.com
Greenwich First Selectman Fred Camillo addressing the “Exploring the Wealth Divide in Greenwich” public forum. Photo by Edward Arriaza.
State Rep. Stephen Meskers began the discussion by going against the narrative of Greenwich as an all-affluent, all-white town. According to Meskers, Greenwich is both ethnically and economically diverse, with a population that is around 14% Hispanic and 8% Asian, and approximately 28% falling under the ALICE (asset limited, income constrained, employed) designation, with income levels that just narrowly afford necessities such as food and gas. “We’re a fairly diverse town,”
Meskers said. “The reputational expectation up in Hartford is that everybody in Greenwich is driving around in a Mercedes.” With education, Meskers stated the achievement gap between rich and poor is wide and will continue to widen, due in large part to a minimum wage that is not keeping up with rising prices. “At the state level, we’ve been relatively active,” Meskers said. “We’ve kept sales tax off of all food products, we’ve initiated an earned income tax credit,
WEALTH DISPARITY
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proposal to amend an approved site plan for a new warehouse is under review by the town of North Castle. The proposed structure would be built at 100 Business Park Drive in Armonk. It’s an 11.27-acre parcel where there already is a two-story 62,782-square-foot office and light industrial building occupied by a number of tenants. On May 24 of this year, the North Castle Planning Board had granted site plan, tree removal and wetland permit approvals for the construction of a single-story 74,850-square-foot warehouse at the site. The applicant now wants to amend the site plan to maintain the same size building footprint while adding a self-storage component. The Planning Board declared itself to be lead agency for the review of the amended plan. The applicant is WMG Acquisitions LLC, based in Coconut Grove, Florida. The property currently is owned by A&R Real Estate Holdings LLC. According to Attorney Kory Salomone of the White Plains-based law firm Zarin & Steinmetz, the footprint of the proposed building will be 74,850 square feet, which is identical to the footprint of the previously approved warehouse building. The self-storage portion of the proposed building would be three stories and have a footprint of 30,900 square feet. The
self-storage portion would have a total of 92,700 square feet inside. The warehouse portion of the building is proposed to be one story with a footprint of 43,950 square feet. It would include a 10,000-square-foot mezzanine for a total 53,950 interior square feet. The Zoning Board of Appeals approved a variance for the previously approved site plan to allowt the building to be constructed 57 feet from the front property line instead of the required 100 feet. A 36,750-square-foot wetland mitigation area was proposed by the property owner and an easement agreement with the town of North Castle was entered into in order to provide North Castle with a 200-foot control radius for the existing water supply well, which is located across the street from the proposed southern driveway access. Salomone said that it is anticipated that the hours of operation for the self-storage facility will be from 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. and that there would be one or two full-time employees. Salomone said the applicant estimates that on average there will be two to four users of the facility every four hours. Salomone said that anticipated hours of operation of the warehouse would be the same as the self-storage facility, 7:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., and there would be from 25 to 30 warehouse employees. Salomone said that the
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