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White Plains, NY
-- A long-under consideration project creating 74 units of affordable rental housing for seniors is finally moving forward in Greenburgh after the Westchester County Board of Legislators voted unanimously Monday to approve it.

The Mayfair project is located at the Knollwood Road entrance to the Westchester Community College campus. It will transform long-vacant buildings once used as transitional housing for homeless families into 60 one-bedroom apartments, eight two-bedrooms, and six studios for residents 62 and older with low and moderate incomes.
The deal for the former WestHELP site comes after years of discussion between the county, the town of Greenburgh, and the Valhalla School district. It adds to a proposal last year that would have created only 54 units.

The county will lease the property to the developer who in turn will pay $900,000 to Westchester and $600,000 to the town of Greenburgh.  The project is expected to have no impact on the Valhalla school district in which it is located.

Vice Chair Alfreda Williams (D- Elmsford, Greenburgh, Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown), who led the charge to turn the site into permanent affordable housing, said, "This has been a long time coming, and the delay certainly added to the deterioration of the property. Now I look forward to opening day.  Westchester is an aging county and 74 units of affordable senior housing is a boon not only to the Town of Greenburgh but to the county as well."

Majority Whip MaryJane Shimsky (D - Ardsley, Dobbs Ferry, Edgemont, Hartsdale, Hastings-on-Hudson, Irvington) said, “For seven very difficult years, the buildings on that site were left to rot, despite the fact that so many in Westchester County desperately need affordable housing. Thank goodness we can look forward to a time in the not-too-distant future when 74 senior households can live in these buildings.”

Legislator Margaret Cunzio (C - Mount Pleasant, North Castle, Pleasantville) said, "This property has been vacant for a long time, so I'm looking forward to seeing the positive impact this redevelopment and remediation brings to the community.  This not only provides affordable senior housing which is needed in the area, but it will have no adverse fiscal impact on the Valhalla Central School District and that was important -- it's a benefit for the seniors, yet it helps keep school taxes down."

The Mayfair project is just one of three affordable housing projects the Board approved Monday night.  The others included a deal to enable the construction of 76 affordable rental housing units as part of a project at 14 LeCount Place in New Rochelle.  In addition, the Board approved another long-in-the-works deal that will create seven units of affordable rental housing as part of a development on Halstead Avenue in Harrison.

Also this term, the board has approved Mount Hope Plaza, a 56-unit project of affordable housing for seniors at Lake Street in White Plains.