Mt. Pleasant Affordable Housing Probed by ZBA

by Meg Yergin -

The Mt. Pleasant Avenue affordable housing project proposed by Search for Change was reviewed by the Zoning Board of Appeals (ZBA) at its meeting on November 6, 2025.  

Search for Change is a not-for-profit which provides housing and support services to individuals with behavioral, mental and medical conditions. See HERE.   Funding for the Mt. Pleasant project would come from several state agencies including NYS Empire State Supportive Housing Initiative (EESHI).  ESSHI serves people who have both unmet housing needs and one or more disabling conditions.  See HERE.

Revised Zoning Determination

On July 1, 2025, Building Inspector (BI) Scott Ransom issued a zoning determination for the project which contradicts a 2024 determination issued by a former building inspector.  Ransom’s determination states that multi-residential housing such as a nursing or other similar home does not constitute a dwelling unit and so the project is not a permitted use under the Code.  See HERE.

Search for Change appealed Ransom’s determination to the ZBA on August 24, 2025, asserting that all residents will live independently within their own unit, and that all the units meet the definition of a dwelling unit.

Project Design

The project plans to demolish three existing unoccupied buildings on three adjacent lots and construct a new six-story multi-residential building.  All 62 units in the building will be offered as Fair and Affordable housing with 50% designated as Fair and Deeply Affordable and set aside for individuals who also qualify for ESSHI housing.

The site for the proposed building is in the Village’s commercial district, bordered by residential neighborhoods on two sides.

Rendering of proposed Search for Change building on Mt. Pleasant Avenue

Support Services and Lottery Questions

At the initial public hearing for the appeal on September 6, 2025, the ZBA asked the applicant to clarify the supportive services to be provided.  In response, Neil Alexander, the attorney representing Search for Change, sent the ZBA a letter dated October 23, 2025 that includes a general description of the goals of the support services without specifics on how they would be delivered.  See HERE.

Pressed at the November meeting by ZBA Member Gretta Heaney for more details about the number of onsite support staff and their specific roles, Alexander impatiently replied that she should review the traffic study conducted in August 2024 without explaining why he thought the information Heaney sought would be included in a summary of traffic and parking patterns.  See HERE. Alexander refused to provide any other information about onsite services and argued that the ZBA does not have the authority to regulate the use of the building.

The ZBA also asked the applicant to clarify how the project would meet the Village’s affordable housing lottery requirements since 50% of the units would be assigned to individuals who also meet NYS EESHI standards.  Alexander said that under the Code, the Village could designate an outside agent to certify both the affordability and EESHI eligibility of individuals applying who would place them on a list for the lottery drawings for the units.

Residents Voice Their Opposition to the Project

A group of residents hired attorney David Wright to represent them at the meeting.  See HERE. Wright stated that the revised Letter of Determination was correct in finding that the project was an unpermitted use.   Wright also pointed out that Search for Change has never managed a project this large before.

Wright informed the ZBA that under NYS Supportive Guidelines, see HERE, the 31 EESHI tenants would not be chosen through a lottery but instead placed there by Westchester County through the Single Point of Access (SPOA) program. See HERE. He said that EESHI applicants would be in effect “cutting the line” ahead of the large number of eligible people seeking affordable housing but do not qualify for EESHI support.  Wright also pointed out that the county supervisor in charge of the SPOA placement is the wife of Ashley Brody, CEO of Search for Change.

Many residents stayed until after midnight to make comments opposing the project and criticizing Search for Change’s lack of transparency.  Several pointed out that the EESHI residents would be individuals diagnosed with severe mental illness and questioned whether the support they would receive will be adequate.  Commenting on the level of care the tenants will require, a resident asked, “Who is supervising them as they walk down the street next to my children?”

Another resident pointed out that the project will increase flooding in the area and negatively impact the safety and value of neighbors’ homes.  He recommended that the project move to a different location to show benevolence to Village homeowners in addition to mentally disabled individuals.  “Our people here are certainly on the brink of extinction,” he said to applause from the audience.

Litigation or Arbitration

Search for Change appears to be preparing for litigation if it is unsuccessful in the appeal.  In his letter to the ZBA, Alexander claims that Ransom’s July 2025 Letter of determination violates the rules of statutory interpretation, constitutes unequal treatment and departs from prior determinations by the Village.

Alexander also writes in his letter that “although it appeared at the conclusion of its ZBA appearance [on September 6, 2025] that there might be traction within the Village for separate discussions in the form of pre-litigation settlement surrounding the re-scaling of the Project in size, to which the Applicant remains amenable, the Applicant has unfortunately not received an overture from the Village. The Applicant remains open and supportive of having such a dialogue. It remains hopeful the Village’s animosity need not persist.”

Trustees Consider Changing Affordable Housing Bonus

The proposed Mount Pleasant project takes advantage of the sixth-floor bonus enacted in 2019 for buildings with 100% affordable units in certain zones, as well as reduced parking requirements for all fair and affordable units. However, a public hearing for a new local law has been scheduled for November 24 which would return portions of the 2019 zoning amendment to the original language for three items: eliminating a sixth story bonus, restoring parking requirements and reducing the site size to less than 40,000 square feet for fair and affordable housing.  At the October 27, 2025 Board of Trustees meeting the Village Attorney Steven Pambianchi explained that the above-mentioned zoning amendments were not properly evaluated with regard to State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA). See HERE.

Approvals Required

If Search for Change wins in its appeal and the project is allowed to move forward, it will still need to obtain an area variance for insufficient parking from the ZBA, a consistency review from the Harbor Coastal Zone Commission, and Planning Board site plan approval including a storm water management plan to mitigate stormwater runoff.

The ZBA adjourned the application until its next meeting on December 4, 2025.