Increases to the traffic, concerns over development, requested zoning amendments and maintaining the quality of the environment through the formation of a conservation advisory council were all brought forward during the second public input session on the Comprehensive Plan for the Town of Newburgh. The session took place at the town hall on Monday, August 21.

Back in July, the town hosted its first public input session at Middlehope Firehouse, and comments are still being made and received either at the town hall or online via the town website. On Monday night, an updated presentation with suggestions and made since the last meeting was presented to the board and general public for their review. Town Supervisor Gil Piaquadio made the public aware Monday night that no questions or answers would be addressed that evening, as the purpose of the public input session would be to mainly collect further public comments.

Town Attorney Mark Taylor provided an explanation of the purpose of the plan to the public. In preparing the plan, a committee was formed consisting of the town board members, Planning Board Chairman John Ewasutyn, Zoning Board Chairman Darren Scalzo and David Smith of Planning and Development Advisors. “The Comprehensive Plan is one of the town’s most important documents. It sets forth the community’s vision, its goals and policies,” Taylor said.

“The committee is in an information and input gathering stage. Once it has completed this stage, a document will be prepared by the committee and Mr. Smith,” he said. “Once that document is prepared, the committee will conduct a public hearing, beginning revisions it feels necessary, then the town board will conduct a public hearing and consider the adoption of the plan.”

Simultaneously with this process, according to Taylor, the town board will also be conducting an environmental review of the Comprehensive Plan update. Smith, who had the opportunity to work on the revised plan back in 2005, concurred with Taylor’s explanation of the plan. “It also helps in making future land use decisions and capital investment by the town with respect to budget,” Smith said.

Back in the 2005 update, Smith recalled that the Town of Newburgh at the time was the fastest growing town in the fastest growing county in New York State. With the updated plan today, it has focused on transportation, infrastructure and utilities, along with town planning and zoning.

Recommendations provided to Smith during this process were to revisit the design guidelines that were originally created to help with planning board project reviews. Smith also noted several other changes since 2005 that included: the town’s bulk regulations were updated in 2010; the Anchorage property along the Hudson River was acquired; buffer strips and screening was amended in 2007; and the Desmond property was acquired, to name a few. Furthermore, the town’s population is getting older as many residents have lived here for extended periods of time. “Part of this process is to go back, look at what’s been implemented, what hasn’t been and then to get kind of the pulse of the public as what are some additional issues that need to be addressed,” said Smith.

With zoning in the town, Smith noted the Code Compliance office has asked for clarification of several definitions such as accessory apartment, accessory buildings, gross floor area and to update the town’s bulk table for potential bed and breakfast usage. Other zoning items included the tree preservation ordinance, identification of the Critical Environmental Area designation, being Crystal Lake and there has been a petition to add kitchen facilities in hotels.

“There’s also legislation being considered for how to regulate electric vehicle charging stations. That’s important because the state of New York is fostering and promoting the use of electrical vehicles,” Smith said. “In addition, the town has received several petitions to rezone properties or they’ve received requests from private property owners for rezoning. This is an important part of the comprehensive plan update process because essentially your zoning map needs to be in line with the comprehensive plan.”

From the public, Smith has noted comments for repurposing buildings, recreational trails for biking/walking, discouraging clear cutting and the need for affordable housing for younger families and seniors. Routes 300 and 52 have also been commented on due to the high volumes of current traffic, and short term rentals have also been presented as an issue. Additional comments for the public’s knowledge can be sent to the town to the office of Town Clerk Lisa Vance-Ayers or through an online format located on the website. A third meeting is still being planned out but may be held in the West End of town, and the Comprehensive Plan documents and presentations are also on the website for public review.

“You had comments about we need affordable housing for younger families and seniors. We need affordable housing for everybody,” said Jim Lynch. “The traffic on Route 300 and 52, I could spend days on that. I got here late because I couldn’t get out of Tom’s Lane. I see you plan for Newburgh. I see as a committee, you would like the population to go up. You would like people to be able to go to businesses and shops, you want to see Newburgh prosper. I don’t see that happening by putting the Enclave up here. Keeping Farrell Communities there.”
A development project known as the Enclave has been proposed to be developed and built along Route 300 that has proposed 246 new apartments for town residents. This project has also been before the planning board for its review and has also received criticism.

“When you move someplace, you know, there’s going to be growth. And we know that. And I’ve always said we should have smart growth,” Vanessa Tirado “We need to watch out for our water. We need to watch out for development. We need to watch out for traffic. We need to look at smart growth.”

“I’ve actually read part of the earlier comprehensive plan, and I was impressed with the thoughtfulness of it. It made me proud to be here and made me feel, you know, encouraged. I’m an ecologist so a lot of my concerns are on conservation” said Elizabeth Landis. “I was kind of surprised to find out that Newburgh had a conservation advisory council at one point. Is there an opportunity to fill those seats? It could be helpful, you know, for this process to receive input from a conservation advisory council, and also to do a natural resources inventory.”

“One [comment] that is specific has to do with whatever the board comes up with, to address the issue of these short term rentals, Airbnb and VRBO. They have the potential to change the character of neighborhoods. When you have an established neighborhood, and elderly people are living there, young couples with kids living there et cetera, and then all of a sudden the house across the street, that’s a two bedroom home advertising ‘We can accommodate eight people’ starts renting out on the weekends and during the week to individuals not from the area and the owner of that house is not from the area, you have something that really impacts the neighborhood,” said Joe Catania. “I’m not completely against short term rentals, but they’ve got to be, it seems to me, very carefully circumscribed, monitored and enforced, with licenses, inspections, etc. When you’re going to do something like what you’re about to do with this new zoning amendment, you make sure that it sticks.”