How Should Bedford Village Land be Developed?

When town officials, local residents and others sit down in a couple of weeks to discuss development in downtown Bedford Village, Frank Boccanfuso will likely be all ears.

As owner of the biggest, choicest chunk of undeveloped downtown real estate—some two acres of grassy slope beside the Bedford Playhouse movie theater building—his company, Phoenix Capital Partners LLC, is keenly interested in the community’s ideas of just how that land should be put to use.    

And Phoenix Partners, to be sure, has some ideas of its own.

If things go as envisioned April 22, those ideas, as well as dissents, detours and wholly new directions, will get a full-scale airing at a joint meeting of the town board, planning board, Phoenix Partners, community groups, neighboring property owners and anyone else who wishes to contribute or listen, or both.

“There are no rules, really,” said Bedford Supervisor Lee V.A. Roberts. “What’s going to happen is Jeff Osterman, our planner, is going to talk about what the current situation is there. And then we’re going to discuss with community groups and other interested people . . . what they envision for their hamlet.”

Pace Law School Professor John R. Nolon, a nationally recognized land-use authority, will moderate the discussion, known in planning circles as a charrette (shuh-ret).

The term was unfamiliar enough to stump even some of the meeting’s participants, reflecting perhaps the unusual development route chosen by Boccanfuso and his company, Purchase-and Manhattan-based Phoenix Capital Partners. 

A real estate, property management and investment company, Phoenix in 2011 bought the Bedford Playhouse and its adjoining land. A Bedford Village landmark since 1947, the Playhouse contains not only a movie theater but also retail shops, a restaurant and 25 apartments spread over two full floors and part of a third.

The Phoenix purchase included the sloping, two-acre lot beside the theater. It’s property that offers 200 prime feet of Route 22 frontage in Bedford Village’s commercial strip. It’s zoned, however, only for two-acre residential development.

Ordinarily, a property owner who wanted to build, say, a mixed-use complex on the site, something similar to the neighboring Playhouse, would petition the town board for a change in zoning to accommodate retail shops, multi-family dwelling units and parking to serve those uses. Separately, the owner would seek planning board approval of a site plan, his detailed vision of the property’s development.

Instead, Boccanfuso and Phoenix have chosen the more-collaborative charrette approach. Attempts to reach Boccanfuso by telephone or email have been unsuccessful. But his lawyer, William P. Harrington, a partner in the White Plains firm Bleakley Platt, suggested reasons for the unusual development approach. He also lifted the veil, however slightly, on what the development plans might contain.

“He’s sensitive to the community’s concerns,” Harrington said of Boccanfuso. “He’s been a developer for 25 years. He understands that the Village is a historic area. People love it. And, really, the purpose of the meeting is for him to listen.”

Without providing specific details, Harrington said, “He’s got a concept to develop some housing at the site, with some retail and some affordable units that would go toward the HUD consent decree.”

Westchester, in a landmark 2009 accord with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, agreed to provide at least 750 units of racially and ethnically diverse housing in 31 largely wealthy and white communities, including Bedford.

Harrington said his client “really wants to open up a line of communication because his concept would be great: It has enormous environmental benefits, a parking benefit, a huge tax-ratable benefit. It would be good on so many, multiple levels.”

For her part, Roberts, the town supervisor, said she’s approaching this meeting with an open mind. “I have no preconceived notions,” she said. “I’m anxious to hear from the community and what they’re thinking.”

She applauded Boccanfuso for choosing the charrette alternative, saying, “I’m happy that the owner was willing to go to such a visioning session and hear from the community. . . . You don’t always get an opportunity like this.”

Already twice-postponed, the charrette is now scheduled for 7 p.m., April 22, a Monday, at Bedford town hall. The term, as used here, essentially calls for convening all interested parties, then airing the broadest range of views on this particular land use.

Boccanfuso’s attorney sees a potential clash of ideas. “Reasonable people can differ, and other people will have [different] views about that downtown Village district—and he wants to hear them,” Harrington said, adding with a smile of anticipation, “I’m sure he will hear them.”