Groundhog Day– Developers Renew Application to Build Subdivision on Garden Road

(Updated August 21, 2025) Developers are renewing their attempt to construct a subdivision on a swampy piece of land at 80, 88 and 90 Garden Road in Scarsdale where they hope to build five new homes with pools.

In 2024 the applicants held multiple meetings with the Planning Board in an effort to gain approval to construct eight new homes with pools on the site. The plans involved a private roadway, using landfill to raise the grade of the site and the demolition of hundreds of trees. After significant pushback from residents, those plans were withdrawn in November, 2024. The applicants have been attempting to develop the property, failing to win approval for almost twenty years, since 2006.

Now they have submitted please to “reconfigure the existing lot at 90 Garden Road and re-subdivide the remaining lot area from 2 building lots to 5 building lots and a new shared private roadway. The existing structure at 90 Garden Road will remain while the other existing structures will be demolished and replaced with 5 new single-family homes rather than the eight proposed last year. This equates to a net increase of 3 new single-family residences.” They claim the project will “not create any significant adverse environmental impacts on the environment or community.”

Here are a few elements of the plan as outlined in documents available online:

According to plans submitted, in order to build the new homes

They will remove 246 trees and replace them with 383 trees. The previous plan called for the removal of 437 trees. Among the trees to be taken down are:

33 Northern Red Oaks
13 Tulip Trees
10 White Oaks
19 Sugar Maples
12 Black Oaks
16 Red Maples
20 American Beech
42 Norway Maples
11 Norway Spruce
11 Cedar SPP

In order to raise the grade by four feet, the plan calls for the importation of 8,000 cubic yards of landfill which is expected to be delivered to the premises over a period of approximately 15 days. The previous plan called for the importation of 30,000 cubic yards of fill.

Each of the five new homes will have their own private wells as the Village water system is not adequate to support water service for the additional homes.

In July 2025 Scarsdale Village Trustees reviewed three proposals to improve stormwater flow along both sides of Cushman Road and at the end of Cushman Road near Garden Road and Varian Lane. The area has experienced considerable flooding and water flows from the Garden Road site to these areas. Though drainage plans have been proposed, there are no timelines for their implementation. Jeff Coleman from the Department of Public Works said the Village is conferring with Westchester County to see if these plans could fit into their mitigation plans.

The area is already prone to flooding, Without the stormwater remediation projects in place, building the Garden Road only risks exacerbating an already fraught situation.

The Planning Board will consider the application to develop the Garden Road site at a hearing on September 11, 2025 at 7 pm at Village Hall.

See the full application here.

Developer Eilon Amidor has already filed applications with the Committee for Historic Preservation to demolish 80 and 88 Garden Roads on the agenda for their September 16, 2025 meeting. Therefore the homes are under consideration from two land use boards at the same time.

Commenting on the renewed application, a concerned neighbor said, “This project has been cooking since 2006 despite the repeated reference to 2018. (I have the documents). For nearly 20 years this developer has been trying to develop this site. What makes this iteration any better? There are fewer houses but:

-Still clear-cutting 200+ trees;
-Still trucking in fill from other construction sites to raise the terrain by 4 feet;
-Despite the raised terrain, homes will have basements and pools that will disrupt the high groundwater table;

Q: Where will this displaced water go?
A: Laterally, into neighboring properties;

-Swales to handle runoff will ultimately drain into the too small pipe that feeds into the stream behind homes on Willow;

-The Village has not done any remediation of the stormwater runoff problem at Cushman/Willow/Garden, and it remains, admittedly, inadequate to handle the current level of runoff.

I feel like Bill Murray in "Groundhog Day."