New Castle Focuses on Hamlets as Comp Plan Nears Finish
New Castle officials stressed that the updated Comprehensive Plan will emphasize revitalized commercial hamlets but in 10 years the town’s residential zones will look similar to today.
Town Director of Planning Sabrina Charney Hull said that while the public had significant input into the revised document that is nearing completion, it is important that residents have a keen understanding of the revised plan and what changes are outlined in the town’s blueprint for at least the next decade. The last update was done in 1989.
“I think it’s important to emphasize that the vision for 2025 keeps the town essentially as it is today, with our single-family residential or low-density rural character, but we enhance our commercial centers, and the level of enhancement is up to you,” Hull told the board last week.
She and Tiffany Zezula, deputy director of the Pace Land Use Law Center, which has assisted the town with the update, said that one of the challenges the town faces is having residents able to educate itself on the key components of the updated Comprehensive Plan.
Toward that end, the updated document will be easy to read with eye-pleasing graphics. Preparations to put the plan online are also being made.
“We didn’t want to have a boring Comprehensive Plan,” Zezula said. “I didn’t want to leave you with that at the end of the day. So we are trying to graphically make this an exciting document so people want to pick it up and people can actually read through it.”
Adoption of the revised plan is several months away, Hull said. The current schedule is to have the draft document ready by the end of this year, which will allow for the town’s various boards to have discussions early in 2016, followed by the required environmental review, she said. The official final Comprehensive Plan is on target to be adopted next spring.
As the town moves forward with the final stages of the update, there is a public workshop scheduled for Thursday, Nov. 19 examining the revitalization of downtown Chappaqua and Millwood. The revitalization efforts have been the focus of the area studies for the two business hamlets that have been completed during the Comprehensive Plan update process.
The workshop will be held at Robert E. Bell Middle School on Senter Street starting at 7 p.m.
“I think (this) Thursday is a critical educational component as well for everybody because it brings to life…the Comprehensive Plan in a variety of different ways, and, here are these ideas on the table, and so we want to have people understand how that connects,” Zezula said.
Supervisor Robert Greenstein said the workshop will feature discussion of a series of proposals regarding land use and traffic, among other topics, that are have been developed over the past year and a half in hopes of transforming Chappaqua and Millwood into vibrant commercial centers.
Among the issues that will be addressed is improving pedestrian safety, diversifying the retail mix, providing more community activity, parking and offering more housing choices.
As work on the Comprehensive Plan nears completion, the one draft chapter that still needs to be finished is implementation. Zezula said she recently met with the planning board to discuss that issue.
Once the updated plan is adopted, Greenstein suggested the town use a checklist to keep track of how well the town is attaining the goals that will be outlined.
“I think the hard part, the challenging part is going to take these ideas into reality, and that’s why having a report card and checklist (is important), and push us a little past our comfort zone,” he said.
Hull estimated that about 75 percent of the goals highlighted in the 1989 plan were implemented; those that weren’t were consciously excluded for one reason or another. There is also a mechanism for the town to review the plan every five years, so officials will have the ability to alter course, if necessary, she said.
Martin has more than 30 years experience covering local news in Westchester and Putnam counties, including a frequent focus on zoning and planning issues. He has been editor-in-chief of The Examiner since its inception in 2007. Read more from Martin’s editor-author bio here. Read Martin’s archived work here: https://www.theexaminernews.com/author/martin-wilbur2007/
