Responsible Regionalism

Goal 45. Align Town land use and development planning

With the adop­tion of this Plan, New Cas­tle is align­ing its plan­ning poli­cies with those of the region­al plans dis­cussed above, includ­ing Westch­ester 2025, the MHREDC Strate­gic Plan, and the MHREDC Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Plan. This Plan has posi­tioned the Town to under­take zon­ing changes that encour­age devel­op­ment which is con­sis­tent with region­al sus­tain­abil­i­ty objec­tives such as increas­ing hous­ing afford­abil­i­ty, enabling tran­sit-ori­ent­ed devel­op­ment, and pre­serv­ing open space and biodiversity.

Action 45.1. Adopt the Plan

Adopt the 2016 New Cas­tle Com­pre­hen­sive Plan which is aligned with the goals and poli­cies of Westch­ester 2025 and the MHREDC’s Strate­gic and Sus­tain­abil­i­ty Plans.

Action 45.2. Undertake zoning changes to encourage development

Under­take zon­ing changes to encour­age devel­op­ment dis­cussed with­in this Plan and is con­sis­tent with region­al sus­tain­able devel­op­ment objec­tives (i.e. hous­ing afford­abil­i­ty, tran­sit-ori­ent­ed devel­op­ment, preser­va­tion of open space and biodiversity).

Action 45.3. Update Town's housing policies

Ensure that local hous­ing sup­ply appro­pri­ate­ly address­es region­al hous­ing demand through the update of the Town’s hous­ing poli­cies and zon­ing designations.

Action 46.1. Open space corridors

Iden­ti­fy biot­ic and open space cor­ri­dors that go past the Town’s bor­ders. Coor­di­nate with appro­pri­ate sur­round­ing munic­i­pal­i­ties to pre­serve these corridors.

Action 46.2. Foster communication between neighboring municipalities

When nec­es­sary, fos­ter com­mu­ni­ca­tion between neigh­bor­ing munic­i­pal­i­ties regard­ing plan review that sup­ple­ment the Westch­ester Coun­ty refer­ral process.

Action 46.3. Watershed planning

Par­tic­i­pate active­ly in cross-juris­dic­tion­al water­shed plan­ning and protection.

Goal 46. Strengthen cross-jurisdictional planning and coordinate with neighboring municipalities, State, County and regional agencies in project review of developments likely to cause impacts beyond the Town’s borders

The Town should strength­en its rela­tion­ships with sur­round­ing munic­i­pal­i­ties to ful­fill its respon­si­bil­i­ty as a con­sid­er­ate neigh­bor, as well as to accom­plish plan­ning goals that have impacts across polit­i­cal bound­aries. In iden­ti­fy­ing biot­ic and open space cor­ri­dors that reach beyond New Castle’s phys­i­cal bor­ders, the Town should coor­di­nate with sur­round­ing munic­i­pal­i­ties to pre­serve these cor­ri­dors. When nec­es­sary, the Town should fos­ter com­mu­ni­ca­tion between neigh­bor­ing munic­i­pal­i­ties regard­ing rel­e­vant plan review that sup­ple­ments the Westch­ester Coun­ty refer­ral process. The Town should also con­tin­ue to par­tic­i­pate active­ly in cross-juris­dic­tion­al water­shed plan­ning and pro­tec­tion. The Town should pro­mote and help coor­di­nate inter-munic­i­pal scenic road preser­va­tion, includ­ing work­ing with state, coun­ty and local offi­cials to mit­i­gate impacts on our scenic roads from util­i­ty companies.

Goal 47. Coordinate Town infrastructure planning with regional infrastructure improvement objectives

The Town should work with its neigh­bors to help accom­plish region­al infra­struc­ture improve­ment objec­tives such as inte­grat­ing Com­plete Street fea­tures on road­ways, imple­ment­ing sus­tain­able waste man­age­ment prac­tices, main­te­nance of util­i­ties and their aes­thet­ic impact, and recy­cling waste­water. The Town should pur­sue cre­ative ways to com­mu­ni­cate and build rela­tion­ships with State and Coun­ty agen­cies to accom­plish this goal.

Action 47.1. NYS Dept of Transportation

Pur­sue inno­v­a­tive ways to com­mu­ni­cate, nego­ti­ate and build rela­tion­ships with the New York State Depart­ment of Transportation.

Action 47.2. Regional infrastructure and linkages for pedestrians and bicyclists

Expand region­al infra­struc­ture and link­ages for pedes­tri­ans and bicy­clists. Map areas where link­ages are appro­pri­ate. Exam­ine the fea­si­bil­i­ty of side­walks that facil­i­tate non-motor­ized trans­porta­tion across munic­i­pal borders.

Action 47.3. Local bike routes

Explore connections/​creation of local bike routes to con­nect with the North Coun­ty Trailway.

Action 47.4. Sustainable waste management

Part­ner with non-prof­it and pri­vate orga­ni­za­tions on the imple­men­ta­tion of sus­tain­able waste man­age­ment programs.

Action 47.5. Reuse of stormwater and wastewater

Coor­di­nate with Westch­ester Coun­ty Health Depart­ment to inves­ti­gate oppor­tu­ni­ties for the ben­e­fi­cial reuse of stormwa­ter and wastewater.

Goal 48. Promote the consolidation of services and cost-sharing with surrounding municipalities, where possible

Past ini­tia­tives such as Solar­ize Somers-New Cas­tle and Com­mu­ni­ty Choice aggre­ga­tion have demon­strat­ed that aggre­gat­ing the Town’s pur­chas­ing pow­er with that of sur­round­ing munic­i­pal­i­ties can result in low­er prices for qual­i­ty goods and ser­vices that ben­e­fit the res­i­dents of New Cas­tle. The Town should iden­ti­fy oth­er oppor­tu­ni­ties for cost-shar­ing with oth­er munic­i­pal­i­ties and pur­sue fund­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to sup­port these efforts. In par­tic­u­lar, the town should pur­sue oppor­tu­ni­ties to cost-share in order to enhance sus­tain­abil­i­ty efforts Town-wide. The Town should work with state, coun­ty and local offi­cials to enhance coop­er­a­tive emer­gency services.

Action 48.1. Cost sharing

Iden­ti­fy poten­tial ser­vices appro­pri­ate for cost shar­ing approach.

Action 48.2. Cost sharing funding

Exam­ine fund­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties to sup­port cost shar­ing efforts.

Action 48.3. Community Choice Aggregation

Con­tin­ue to pur­sue arrange­ments sim­i­lar to Com­mu­ni­ty Choice Aggre­ga­tion (CCA) and Solar­ize Somers-New Cas­tle to enhance sus­tain­abil­i­ty in the Town at low­er costs.

Action 48.4. Uniform signage program

Work with neigh­bor­ing munic­i­pal­i­ties to deter­mine their inter­est in cre­at­ing a uni­form sig­nage pro­gram along cross-juris­dic­tion­al trans­porta­tion routes.

Action 48.5. Aggregate negotiating power with the State

Coor­di­nate with oth­er munic­i­pal­i­ties to aggre­gate nego­ti­at­ing pow­er with the State for rel­e­vant issues (e.g. aes­thet­ic improve­ments of trans­porta­tion sig­nage, infra­struc­ture needs, road­way improvements).