SUMMATION 6/18/19 VILLAGE RE-ZONING WORKSHOP

Thank you Croton United:

ICYMI: The village's zoning public workshop was held on Tuesday evening at the Harmon Firehouse. The mayor opened with some remarks, then the zoning consultant did a presentation, about 30 minutes, reporting on the results of the community survey. After that, there was a short break, and the attendees were asked to break into small groups to discuss any further development ideas. The groups were focused on either the Municipal Place Gateway, or the North Riverside Neighborhood. After another forty five minutes or so, there was a reporting period. 

From one personal perspective: there was no real enthusiasm for development in the North Riverside corridor. People expressed concerns about parking, congestion, density and views. There was more diversity of opinion about developing the Katz property, but the conversation seemed divided on that. I was in a group that discussed the gateway, and the group members did not like the idea of developing Katz. More than one group expressed that more data was needed before any zoning changes should be undertaken.

The format makes it difficult to synthesize more in terms of takeaway, since the discussion was among small groups, not the larger crowd.

The consultant will be making zoning change recommendations to the board, and the themes they stressed were: a. no change to the 35 foot height limitation, but changes to allow three stories where two are now the limit; b. preference for all-residential or mixed-use; c. making changes that reflect the "current reality" of zoning, i.e., creating a new district to overlay on Brook Street called "RD" (residential district) that will allow those property owners to come into conformance with zoning (i.e., they will no longer be pre-existing nonconforming, which will allow them to make upgrades to the buildings without zoning board involvement).