A transparent, thoughtful look

WE ARE DOING THIS

The Freightway site is one of the most significant Village-owned properties in Scarsdale. It sits at the heart of our Village Center, and while it serves an important purpose today, it also presents a long-term opportunity to better serve the community.

Before any developer is selected or any specific project is on the table, we want to understand what responsible redevelopment would actually mean for Scarsdale.

How would it affect our schools? Our traffic? Our Village finances? Our community character?

Those are the questions this process is designed to answer, and they deserve honest, rigorous answers grounded in data and the Village's planning objectives.

At the same time, the status quo is not without cost.

A 2020 engineering study found that maintaining the existing garage structure would require many millions of dollars in repairs and ongoing maintenance, costs that have only increased with construction inflation. A thoughtful redevelopment, if it meets the Village's planning objectives, could reduce that long-term burden on taxpayers while generating recurring property tax revenue that the current structure does not.

Those are important fiscal realities that deserve to be part of an honest public conversation, alongside the impacts and concerns this study will examine.

The full 2020 engineering report is available for review here.

WE ARE DOING THIS

The Village is launching a Generic Environmental Impact Statement, or GEIS, for the Freightway site.

A GEIS is a Village-led planning and environmental review process that studies a range of realistic scenarios before any development decision is made.

This means examining a broad range of "what if" scenarios and evaluating how different approaches could affect:

• Schools and municipal services

• Traffic, mobility, and parking

• Infrastructure and environmental conditions

• Fiscal benefits to the Village

• Community character and the Village Center

• The relationship to our train station area

This is not a process to select a developer or approve a project.

It is a process to build the information, establish the standards, and create the public record needed for sound decision-making.

If the study concludes that redevelopment cannot meet Scarsdale's community standards, the Village has no obligation to move forward.

WE ARE WORKING TOWARD

By the end of this process, the Village will have a clear understanding of what is possible, what is appropriate, and what conditions must be in place before any future decision is considered.

That means:

• A documented analysis of potential impacts

• Defined parameters for any future development

• Concrete strategies to reduce or mitigate those impacts

• A complete public record of questions, priorities, and community concerns

Equally important, this process brings residents into the conversation while the work is still being shaped, so public input informs the study rather than simply responds to it.