A housing development proposed by the Dominican Sisters of Sparkill, initially proposed as 122 units of housing for senior citizens, has been scaled back. The new proposal is for 59 rental units in a single building and 21 affordable ownership units in a mix of townhouses and flats.
The new plan was presented by Matthew Wexler to the Saugerties Town Board on Wednesday, April 17 at the board’s regular meeting. “We have participated in many meetings of the town board and the planning board concerning our project on Spaulding Lane for residences, and we’ve heard comments at many of these meetings about the critical need for affordable housing in Saugerties, as well as concerns about the size,” he said.
In response, the proposal has been cut from three buildings to two, and the project will mix rental housing for senior citizens with owner-occupied housing. “This will be a combination of townhouses and flats.”
While the Dominican Sisters hope to maintain as many elements of their original design as possible, there are changes in grade, there’s a wetlands running through it. We have a great desire to preserve the historic nature of the site, so we will try, as best we can, to place these new for-sale units basically along the footprint of where the former site plan put the residential rental units.”
The new design will still require the Sisters to submit a proposal for a change in zoning to high density residential, Wexler said. “We submitted, with the zoning petition, land use restrictions which would be permanent — that would run with the land.” Among the restrictions were that it would all be affordable housing. There was a cap on the unit count and there was a restriction that it be senior-only housing. The restrictions would still apply to the rental units, but the for-sale housing would not be limited only to seniors. It would be available to families, but the income restrictions would be retained, Wexler said. The new deed restrictions would be included and would remain permanent for rental units, but the restrictions on for-sale housing would run for 40 or 50 years.
If someone buys one of the for-sale units and decides to sell it after a period of time, they would have to maintain the affordability; they could not profit from general increases in home prices, Wexler said. “Someone could not hold onto it for five years, watch the property values go way up and then sell to make a lot of money.”
The project, both the rental and the sales rely heavily on state financing sources, Wexler said. “There are lots and lots of guidelines and rules we have to follow in using these sources, mainly around affordability, green design and sustainable design and environmental issues.”
The original design received planning board and state approval, but this is a new design, and the Dominican Sisters “would have to go back to the planning board and say this is a new proposal and they would have to consider this just as they did before.”
The presentation at the town board meeting was preliminary, and there will be more meetings and public hearings in the future, Wexler said.
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