New Castle to Pursue Public Outreach on Chappaqua Train Station Lot
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New Castle officials are planning public outreach sessions next year to engage residents in what they hope results in feedback regarding potential future uses of publicly-owned land in downtown Chappaqua.
The town has retained the Land Use Law Center at Pace Law School, which guided New Castle’s 2017 Comprehensive Plan update, and the planning firm Nexus to assist officials in the process.
Supervisor Lisa Katz said beginning this month the board will work with the consultants to devise a set of goals and formulate a vision. Informing residents that their input will be sought may also be communicated at town events starting this fall.
Eventually, there will be feedback generated at public sessions next year regarding possible uses for the train station and other public land in the hamlet, Katz said.
“The town is not going to kind of decide what’s going to be there and then poll residents,” she said. “It’s going to be a very open process, which is really developing the goals of the process and sort of its mission statement, for the lack of a better term.”
The consultants will create a website and a logo to let the public know about the importance of participating, said Tiffany Zezula, deputy director of the Land Use Law Center. She said she envisions about a nine-month process once town officials have completed their goals and mission statement.
Zezula, who attended a first public discussion with the board at its work session earlier this month, said there could be three monthly public sessions staring next March.
“I think we’re trying to get people to vision and think outside the box, to think about being a part of it, the shaping of this, and so I think that’s why we come back to the importance of how this is communicated and how everyone in the community is shaping that same message,” Zezula said.
One of the many criticisms of the former Town Board’s handling of the ill-fated Form Based Code from 2019 to 2021, was that officials failed to engage the public regarding the possibilities for the downtown outside of the required public hearing.
Alternate uses for at least a portion of the multiacre train station parking lot have been a topic of discussion, particularly since the start of the pandemic because it is seen by many as underused. Fewer people commute by train as many residents have switched to working from home all or some of the time.
Councilwoman Holly McCall said it will be interesting to see what the reaction is from stakeholders and what ideas might come out of the public sessions. Regarding the train station parking lot, she wondered whether the community is ready for a use other than parking, she said.
“I have the sense that the train station, with all of the parking, it’s not really contributing to the community atmosphere, and I think that there are probably a ton of possibilities, but I want to understand what the community will feel is acceptable amongst the infinite possibilities,” McCall said.
During the Aug. 8 discussion, Katz said she was under the impression that the process wouldn’t take the better part of a year. She fears that if it takes too long the public could lose interest.
“We’re going to have public sessions maybe in March, April, May. This seems to be a year from now, and it’s not what I was looking at and I don’t think it’s a lot of what other people were looking at,” said Katz.
But Councilwoman Victoria Tipp said while outreach is important, so is the preparation.
“If people aren’t prepared enough and knowledgeable enough, they’re just not going to show up and participate and know what’s going on until it’s over,” Tipp said.
Zezula said taking extra time at the start will pay dividends later.
“I think that proper preparation for this is going to yield us a much better product in the end,” 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/
