Residents Brainstorm on Future of Mt. Pleasant’s Hamlets at Workshop
Mount Pleasant residents provided ideas to improve the Hawthorne, Thornwood and Valhalla business hamlets last week during a second Comprehensive Plan update public visioning workshop.
The roughly 50 residents who attended the Oct. 9 meeting at the town’s Community Center in Valhalla divided themselves into groups to brainstorm and give the town’s consultants ideas to incorporate into the revised plan. During the exercise, each group listed one of the hamlet’s strengths, its current challenges and where improvements may be made.
Tiffany Zezula, deputy director of the Pace University Land Use Law Center which is assisting town officials with the update process, said the ideas provided by residents would be compiled by the town’s consultants. The information will be placed on the town’s website and distributed to residents via e-mails.
Strengths in Thornwood included the Four Corners, the area near the old train station that has a firehouse and post office and the Thornwood Town Center while some of the significant challenges are flooding, traffic and unkempt properties.
Residents listed constructing more sidewalks, creating public commons spaces, new transportation options, bike pathways and the development of more senior housing as potential opportunities.
In Valhalla, the Kensico Dam Plaza and various historic areas were recognized as strengths. Residents cited the lack of access to playing fields and a need for a new bridge over the Branch Brook as weaknesses. Opportunities for Valhalla include creating a commons space for the public and finding ways to maintain its small-town feel.
Hawthorne’s strengths included playing fields that are child friendly, Berger Hardware, which regularly gives back to the community, and the annual Mount Pleasant Day. Weaknesses include areas of Route 141 that are run down and inadequate parking for non-commuters.
Opportunities for the hamlet that were mentioned last week are creating additional parking, building sidewalks, the potential for mixed-used development near the Metro-North station, plantings to help beautify the area and implementation of a streetscape program.
Director of Planning Pat Cleary said the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee and the town’s consultants have created a series of potential goals for the town in the revised plan that fall under four key categories.
Stability, value and character of residential areas, providing housing types to allow residents to remain in Mount Pleasant as they age, revitalizing the hamlets with mixed-use development, adequate parking and improving connections between the hamlets are the main goals in the Built Environment category.
In the area of economic development, Cleary said goals include enhancement of the town’s economy by focusing on successful business districts; diversifying the permitted uses in the hamlets’ commercial business districts; the future of the town’s existing office parks; revising zoning and land use regulations so the town may host significant medical and biotech facilities; and maintaining a stable tax base.
Cleary said preservation, protection and management of natural resources is a key goal under environmental concerns along with design development to minimize energy and water consumption and wastewater production. For all new projects, green building and sustainable design principals should be used, he said.
Utilizing watersheds as fundamental underlying planning areas and assuring that floodplains are not impaired by development so they may continue to provide benefits are also critical.
Under the category titled social environment, Cleary said proposed goals include public health planning, striving for equality of town services, recognizing vulnerable populations’ needs, particularly in disaster planning, and reinforcing the town’s cultural identity with museums, libraries and music and art.
The previous public visioning workshop was conducted in May. Town officials are hopeful to have the draft of an update Comprehensive Plan completed by spring.
