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Town Subdivision Would Allow For Fifteen Lots For Single Family Homes On Part Of Former School Campus
By Tina Traster
The Town of Clarkstown plans to develop a portion of the former Rockland Country Day School campus into a single-family housing development, while preserving the rest for designated parkland.
The town board last Tuesday unanimously designated 13 acres as “surplus municipal property,” a preliminary step needed to prepare a Request for Proposal (RFP) from developers. Town officials said they envision 15 single-family homes on lots ranging from 24,000 square feet to 33,000 square feet to preserve the “nature and character” of the neighborhood.
“We have a housing shortage,” said Clarkstown Supervisor George Hoehmann. “We’ve been at this for years. We’ve been engaging residents. This is what neighbors want.”
Clarkstown purchased the Rockland Country Day School 22-acre campus at 32-34 Kings Highway in Congers in 2018 for $4.4 million. For the first two years after the purchase, the nonprofit school, which was tax exempt, was paying a fee to the town to lease back the land it sold. Ultimately the school shuttered in 2019, leaving the town to scramble for new tenants.
Rockland Country Day School closed after 60 years due to falling enrollment and financial woes and declared Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
A Bond Anticipation Note (BAN) in the amount of $4,450,000 was originally sold in 2018 by the town to pay for the purchase of Rockland Country Day School. Over the years, the town paid down some of the balance and refinanced the obligation in 2024. From the original debt, the town still owes approximately $3.5 million, according to public records.
There has been much debate about what to do with the campus over the past five years.
Four years ago, Clarkstown planned to rezone a portion of the Rockland Country Day School site to allow either affordable senior housing or housing for volunteer fighters or EMT workers. Amid a storm of protest by neighbors over multi-family buildings on the site, the town council retreated, tabling the proposal.
Then in 2023 the town hired architect Michael Shilale to assess the land for development, including hosting “charrettes” to take the temperature of the community and to listen to what “stakeholders” hope will or will not happen on that land. Those who live within 1,000 feet of the property, which runs along Kings Highway, were notified about the session by mail. There was a consensus that the community did not want to see dense housing; many rallied for open space and parkland. Other suggestions included a dog park, hockey rink, art studio, farming, walking trails, childcare, sustainable gardens, pickleball courts.
The site, which has seven acres of wooded property, and six acres of developed property is partly in the R-22 single-family housing zone and partly in the R-40 zone. Town Planner Joe Simoes said the maximum development for single-family homes would top out at eighteen, but the town’s vision calls for 15 single-family homes, plus the preservations of a 16th lot in the subdivision.
Down the road, the town hopes to build four townhomes for EMS workers along Kings Highway.
In 2024, the town built a 73,000 square-foot, natural grass, multi-sport field at the lower level of the former school site. The Town also created an additional parking lot with 57 spaces.
The school site has eight structures, including the 1960s Upper School, the Gym, Café and Elementary School, the administration building, the Steam Lab Building, and some additional smaller structures.
“We’d be looking at $5 million to $10 million to renovate these buildings,” said Hoehmann. “It’s too expensive.”
Hoehmann said at least four of the buildings, laden with asbestos and lead, need to be razed. The town has received an estimate of over $1 million to take down the buildings but said that the developers bearing the cost of razing the structures will be a condition of the RFP.
Town officials are planning another meeting with residents living within 1,000 feet of the campus.
