Parking lot cannot be developed

To the editor,

The Riverdale Press ran an article on Nov. 26 about the parking lot owned by Schervier Nursing Home at the corner of  West 231st Street and Independence Avenue (“Parking lot eyed for new affordable housing”). Schervier, based on a letter sent to the immediate neighbors in August 2015, seems to be in the process of looking for buyers for the Home, new partners and/or new investors.

As many Riverdale residents are aware, the City Council is considering the mayor’s efforts to rezone the city. That proposal is known as Zoning for Quality and affordability (ZQA) and the City Council will be voting on it soon. Community Board 8 voted against the plan, as did most of the community boards around the city. However, because this bill would itself allow higher density in low-density neighborhoods, the parking lot has taken on greater significance as a possible location for a large building project which would terribly choke our section of Spuyten Duyvil, which is already woefully short of street parking and has no public garages at all (which we are certainly not advocating for now).

The Press article was working under the assumption that the parking lot was for the senior residents of Schervier who show “low levels of car ownership” and that Schervier could — if the ZQA passed, deal with the property in an unencumbered fashion.