At first glance, the only thing going up right now at the senior affordable housing site at the corner of North Street and Theodore Fremd Avenue is weeds. But behind the scene, developer Lou Larizza says that “in fact, we’re moving forward nicely on all fronts.”

By Bill Lawyer

At first glance, the only thing going up right now at the senior affordable housing site at the corner of North Street and Theodore Fremd Avenue is weeds. But behind the scene, developer Lou Larizza says that “in fact, we’re moving forward nicely on all fronts.”

The 2.08-acre property wraps around a service station, with the entrance located on Theodore Fremd Avenue. It was acquired by Westchester County years ago, and the County’s Planning Department has long expressed a desire for the site to be developed for affordable housing.   

Larizza has a long track record of successfully carrying out affordable housing projects in Rye.  

First proposed to the Rye City Council in December of 2013, the project has been modified during review by the City’s Planning Commission.

Changes were made to the project’s size, number of parking spaces, and location of its footprint on the site. The original proposal called for 54 units, but the final version allows for 41, all of which are restricted to seniors (55 and over) — including the building superintendent’s unit.  No family resident can be under the age of 18.

Twenty-seven of the units will count toward Rye’s quota within the countywide Housing and Urban Development settlement.  

The revised site plan received Planning Commission approval June 9. So what’s happened since? In a recent discussion with Larizza, the developer said that everything is going along smoothly. When he said “on all fronts,” he included the financing, the preparation of detailed plans for Rye’s Board of Architectural Review, and the presentation to and their approval of these plans.

If all goes according to plan, Larizza said that if the BAR review and funding approvals are completed by January, construction can begin in March or April of next year.

“We want to make sure that everyone will be happy with our final product,” he said.