The Maybrook Village Board is looking to institute a limited building moratorium that would affect only the so-called Traditional Downtown Design District (TDD). A public hearing on the draft law will be held at 7 p.m., Monday, June 24.

The TDD is a five-block area bordered by Homestead Avenue to the west, the Galaxy property (south of the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) hall at the end of Main Street to the east, Volunteer Place to the south and Prince Street to the north. Main Street runs approximately down the middle of the district.

If approved by the village board after the public hearing, said Village Attorney Kelly Naughton, the law would take effect as soon as it is filed with the N.Y.S. Dept. Of State and would last for six months (unless the board later extends it).

The moratorium would prohibit the issuance of permits, certificates of occupancy and approvals for development in the TDD. Without such moratorium, the draft law notes, “there is the potential that uses could be located in areas…which would be unsuitable” and “would have materially adverse and irreversible impacts to the village”.

The moratorium will give the village board time to analyze and determine potential appropriate revisions and amendments to the zoning code.

“There are developers interested,” Mayor Dennis Leahy noted. “We just want to make sure the zone is what the current village board wants.”

The board created the TDD in response to what is known as the Galaxy proposed development along the former railroad property. Galaxy wants to develop its property which runs from Main Street north to Henry Henning Drive in the Town of Montgomery. The firm has owned the property for about 30 years and has sought development there for more than ten. Initial plans for the first two of seven lots are for warehouse/industrial use. Many of those plans were thrust into limbo when Yellow Freight, which borders the Galaxy land to the west, closed its doors with the Galaxy owners and the village waiting to see what will happen to the Yellow Freight facility and land.