AvalonBay asks for an expansion

AvalonBay has made its case for an expansion but it will not know the verdict for a few months.

The Board of Zoning Appeals began the next round of hearings for AvalonBay’s Phase II expansion at its Nov. 19 meeting. The apartment complex is seeking permission to add 177-units next to its existing 349-unit complex. The new units would be at 80 N. Centre Avenue, the former site of Rockville Racquet.

With the environmental impact review out of the way, AvalonBay officials used this meeting to explain the benefits of an expansion with a PowerPoint presentation. Chris Capece, AvalonBay’s development director, said that there are not enough rentals for young people on Long Island.

“Again, we only have ones and two bedrooms at the existing complex,” said Capece. “Here we have a mix of studios, ones, twos and threes [bedrooms] — with the highest percentage of unit types being studios. Thirty-two percent of the units we are proposing is studios. And in the aggregate between studios and one bedrooms is 60 percent. So we are gearing this community more towards the young professional, the young couple.”

The total number of apartments in the expansion are 57 studio apartments, 49 one bedrooms, 55 two bedrooms, and 16 three bedrooms.

The presentation also addressed the number of school-aged children currently living in AvalonBay. “While there were at one time fears to the number of school-aged children that might have been living in Avalon,” said Michael Faltischek, AvalonBay’s counsel, “the reality is that currently there are 19 school-aged children that go to that school with nearly a million dollars a year in tax payments being made. And that represents a very, very beneficial result for the schools.”

Capece also brought up that nearby apartment buildings, such as the Rockville Tudor and 59 S. Centre Ave, have more units per acre than either AvalonBay — 139 and 121 to Phase I’s 49.5 and Phase II’s 80.6.