Tarrytown’s move into the 21st Century can be described as both "rapid" and "on target." First, Ferry Landings is getting all of its permits in place, and all of the developments that are planned will soon be active. The most obvious change to Tarrytown’s new look is its Village Hall across from the railroad station. The current Village Hall building schedule calls for a July ’08 completion and according to Metro North, renovation work on the railroad station itself will have a finish date in 2010. The first rumor of an expanded parking garage nearby the new Village Hall has been heard and could be a welcome addition to the Village which is in need of proper parking, not only for the uptown Main Street area but for the station area as well.
Additionally, thought is currently being given to the future use of the old police station including a shooting range or a training center.
Lawsuits are now in place by both General Motors and Tarrytown as they relate to Sleepy Hollow’s GM property. GM wants more homes than are currently called for and its developers Roseland Property Company from Summit, N.J., has dropped the project altogether, objecting to the lesser number of units being proposed. However, several experts have already pointed out that the project may need a complete overhaul with an even smaller number of larger homes and commercial properties that can end up being the financial equivalent of the currently proposed 1200 residences. There is general agreement that consideration of traffic problems in both villages should be revisited before we are all in a grid-lock situation that is intractable. As one of Tarrytown’s leading planning consultants has pointed out, traffic is currently an "unmitigated" problem that has not received the necessary attention of rivertown residents.
In other areas of development, the Sleepy Hollow High School, with its new auditorium, will be completed this April and its new gymnasium will be ready for athletic use in the Fall of this year. Both new Tarrytown fire stations will be completed shortly in February ’08. Joe Cotter, the Ferry Landings developer, recently made a presentation to the Village with a view toward what his organization could add to the waterfront area over and above their Ferry Landings development. Of major import for Cotter would be a waterfront hotel with an estimated 120 rooms, and dock slips for visiting boats.
Village Adminstrator Steve McCabe addressed yet a new problem in the Village with a recent fire on Cobb Lane which exposed maintenance problems with certain fire hydrants that were not owned by the Village. Short term, says McCabe, all hydrants have been checked and are in working condition. Long term, legal issues such as easements for pipelines on private land will be handled by the Village attorney. McCabe also reports that Tarrytown is working on the Village water system by replacing 100-year old pipes with larger updated pipes. McCabe estimates that the project continues to cost a million dollars each year and will continue for at least five more years.
Finally, both the County Riverwalk project and Tarrytown’s Scenic Hudson Riverwalk Park will begin work this coming Spring. Various grants have been approved for the project including those from Scenic Hudson, Westchester County, the Village of Tarrytown, various Federal resources as well as substantial private gifts.
