Scarsdale Neighbors Fight to Save 58-Year-Old Wetland From Development

Proposed Building Site(The following was submitted by Yingying Na of Rock Creek Lane)

A developer is pushing to build a new home on a small lot, (.17 acre) on Spier Road that has been designated as protected wetland since 1968 — and the neighbors surrounding it are fighting back.

The lot, tax parcel 19.01.375, sits at the corner of Spier Road and Rock Creek Lane. The developer, who coined the address "0 Spier Road" in their January 2026 application to the Village's Planning Board, is proposing a single-family home on a constrained, 7,538-square-foot parcel that borders an active stream on one side and an open storm water drain on the other. The proposed house would stand 37.3 feet tall — nearly 12 feet above the neighborhood average — and require the removal of 13 mature trees from a slope that drops 20 feet toward the stream below.Rendering of proposed house.

The developer purchased the full 111 Spier Road property in April 2022 for $887,250, a package that included three tax lots. That same year, they attempted to expand the main house by building extensions over the watercourse and adding a three-car detached garage with living quarters — a proposal withdrawn after two Planning Board hearings under fierce neighborhood opposition. In 2025, they successfully challenged the Village's tax assessment, reducing the wetland lot's assessed value from $110,500 to $75,000. Then, in January 2026, they filed plans to build on the wetland lot while listing the other two lots on Zillow for what would become $1,800,000 — more than double what they paid for the entire property.

Yingying Na, who owns the adjacent property at 230 Rock Creek Lane and initiated the neighborhood's petition, says the moment demanded action. "I live next door to this lot. I've watched that stream run and those trees grow for years. When the developer filed to build on wetland protected since 1968 — land they were paying discounted taxes on — I couldn't stay silent. This isn't just my backyard. It's a living ecosystem, and a test of whether Scarsdale's environmental protections mean anything. I started this petition because the community deserves a voice in what happens here."

Neighbors have appeared before the Village of Scarsdale Planning Board twice and the Board of Architectural Review once to oppose the project. When the group launched a campaign website and public petition on May 11, the response was swift: more than 240 people signed in under a week, with new signatures arriving every day.
What is at stake, opponents say, goes beyond one lot. If a wetland protected by the Village for 58 years can be reclassified the moment a developer finds it profitable, no protected parcel in Scarsdale is truly safe.

Learn more on their website at https://stopzerospier.org.