Zoning and land use laws are extremely important elements of the development of a city. Zoning divides the community into commercial, residential, and industrial districts. The Greater Newburgh Partnership (GNP) is setting the goal to rewrite the zoning codes of Newburgh in order to attract businesses into the City, and to take advantage of all of the amazing gateway real estate that exists on the waterfront and Broadway.
Rezoning would allow the repurposing of existing buildings. This is often seen in NYC where industrial warehouses become zoned for residential loft units. Or an industrial building being zoned for shopping space. If developers or businesses have to go through a lengthy process to a receive zone variance, it will stop them from coming to Newburgh and send them to other cities. Currently, in Beacon there is at 6 month wait time.
This project will be divided into 3 phases:
- The Leadership Team and Advisory Task Force (selected by city staff) sets the stage for strong community engagement and review of existing City documents that will provide perspective on the existing code
- The nuts and bolts of the project; digging into the code with actual rewrite through conversation and engagement of the Leadership Team/ Advisory Task Force and their constituencies. It is necessary for each member of the Leadership Team/Advisory Task Force to involve members of their respective organizations to provide input and guidance.
- Public presentation and feedback that will result in the adoption of the new Zoning by the City Council.
What are your opinions about Newburgh’s current zoning codes?
Suburban mentality pervades our older, denser rivertowns and cities in the Hudson Valley. Zoning does not only separate residential from commercial uses. It dictates how tall buildings can be and how many people or businesses can be housed within buildings. The anti-urban policies of the mid-century era (that continues to exist to this day) are responsible for much of the Hudson Valley’s urban decline. Luckily, we’re learning from our mistakes. However, government must become more progressive when it comes to zoning codes. They ought to look at Form Based Codes as a remedy to the creeping sprawlification of Orange County. http://formbasedcodes.org/what-are-form-based-codes