ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
(LIST
IN PROGRESS – ADDITIONAL NAMES TO BE ADDED IN THE NEXT REVISION)
Village
of
Nyack
Board
of Trustees
Mayor
Nancy Blaker Weber
Deputy
Mayor John Shields
Gordon
Gebert
Richard
Kavesh
Raymond
T. O'Connell
Nyack
Master Plan Steering Committee
Kieran
Quinn, Chair
Ed
Acker, Waterfront Committee Chair
Carolyn
Cairns
,
Residential Committee Chair
John
Dunnigan, Zoning Board of Appeals
Daniel
Gottfried, Downtown Committee Chair
William
Hodgson, Planning Board
Janet
Hoshour, Project Coordinator
Kevin
O'Donoghue, Parking Authority Chair
Peter
Vermazen, Gateway Committee Chair
Art
Wohlers, Parking Authority Alternate
Downtown
Committee
Daniel
Gottfried, Chair
(Names
of other committee members to be added)
Gateway
Committees
Peter
Vermazen, Chair
(Names
of other committee members to be added)
Residential
Quality of Life Committee
Carolyn
Cairns, Chair
(Names
of other committee members to be added)
Waterfront
Committee
Ed
Acker, Chair
(Names
of other committee members to be added)
Other
Citizen Input and Assistance
Photography
by J.C. Brotherhood, Evelyn Fitzgerald, Richard Kavesh, Jean Pardo and Marilyn
Troy
(photographs
to be added in the next revisions)
Jan
and Lois Frivoll
John
Lavelle
(Other
names to be added)
Abeles
Phillips Preiss & Shapiro, Inc.
John
Shapiro, Principal-in-Charge
Paul
Grygiel, AICP, Project Manager
Erik
DeKok
Dalila
Hall
Elizabeth
Jordan
The
Village
of
Nyack
is a special place, proud of its historic, scenic and socially heterogeneous
character—quite unlike the suburbs that surround it.
It is a small community with a population of fewer than 7,000
residents. Located on the west
shore of the
Hudson
River
just over 25 miles north of
New
York City
,
it is almost fully developed with a dense mix of uses, including a compact,
urban downtown.
Nyack
was incorporated as a Village as early as 1883, with the adjacent villages of
South
Nyack
and
Upper
Nyack
also incorporating around the same time. The
majority of the Village's land area is located in the Town of
Orangetown
,
with a small western appendage located in the Town of
Clarkstown
.
Though
the Village has had a zoning code for a number of years, Nyack never has had a
comprehensive plan for its development!
There have been specific planning efforts throughout the years, including
urban renewal plans in the middle part of the twentieth century, a downtown
plan in 1978, and more recently a Local Waterfront Redevelopment Plan and
Destination Parking Study. In view
of the market, real estate and demographic changes of the 1990s, Village
leaders decided that the preparation of a comprehensive plan should at last
be undertaken.
From
the start, Nyack set about creating a plan that drew from its own strong sense
of community.
In
October 1998, planning professor John Mullin visited Nyack and coordinated a
“town meeting” focusing on downtown Nyack.
This well-attended event generated greater interest in planning for
Nyack's future, resulting in the Village's decision to prepare a comprehensive
master plan. A Master Plan Steering Committee was formed, chaired by former mayor Kieran
Quinn and comprised of Village activists, civic leaders and Planning Board,
Zoning Board of Appeals and Parking Authority representatives.
Significantly, four topical committees
were formed with equally diverse representation.
The selected topics were the downtown,
the gateway,
the waterfront,
and residential
quality of life. These
committees met over the course of a year to generate “bottom-up” plans for
their topics.
Abeles
Phillips Preiss & Shapiro, Inc. (APPS) was selected by the Village Board
of Trustees in early 2000 to serve as the comprehensive plan consultant. A
Village base map was prepared using data from the Rockland County Department
of Planning's geographic information system.
A survey of existing land uses in Nyack was completed and mapped.
Demographic and economic information was obtained for the Village.
With
this baseline of information, and over the next nine months, APPS worked in an
iterative process with the four topical committees
and the Steering Committee. A
walking tour was conducted with each committee and APPS, at which issues were
discussed in depth. APPS, the
committees, Village staff and volunteers conducted additional research.
The recommendations of each committee were distilled and revised.
A
subsequent brainstorming workshop on each topic was
staged. Each workshop was attended
by both the Steering Committee and the relevant topical committee.
The public was also invited, prompted by pre-publication of each
topical committee's draft recommendations in the village newsletter (more on
this later). These were not public
hearings or presentations. Rather,
the single-purpose agenda for each workshop, preceded by research and tours,
provided the opportunity to delve deep into the potential recommendations.
While
this interchange of ideas and priorities formed the core of the planning
process, a variety of strategies were employed to generate more ideas and
input. As some examples:
·
In
June 2000, a second Village-wide “town meeting” was staged on a Saturday
morning. The chairpeople of the four topical committees each presented a
summary of their draft ideas. The
public responded. APPS moderated.
The agenda for future work of the committees and consultants was set.
·
A
resident
survey was designed, and distributed to all Nyack mailing addresses.
In addition, surveys were made available at the public library and
other public places. A total of
164 people responded, representing the normative response rate of over 2
percent.
·
A
merchant
and business survey was also prepared and distributed through the mail
and through drop-offs at virtually all downtown business premises.
A total of 126 businesses responded, representing an unusually high
response rate of over 25 percent.
·
APPS
met with a number of Village
entities, including, in no particular order, the Village Treasurer,
Building Department, Parking Authority, Village Historian and others.
·
Volunteers
were recruited at the start-up workshop and afterward to prepare specific
research tasks, especially those that speak to the experience of Nyack as a
place. These have included surveys
of the most important vistas and scenic features of the village; photo essays
on what people like and don't like in the built environment; maps showing
sidewalk conditions; other maps showing which streets are considered
particularly good or poor for pedestrians; maps and information on housing
conditions; as well as maps and information on quality of life concerns, such
as crime, sanitation, and safety.
·
Information
on the plan, including meeting dates and minutes, have been posted on the Village's
website.
·
The
Village retained Janet Hoshour, Comprehensive Plan Project Manager, to
coordinate the work of the committees, volunteers and consultant, as well as
to be available for further outreach, interviews, and questions from the
public.
·
Set
PowerPoint
and slide presentations will be prepared.
These presentations will be used by the Project Manager and Steering
Committee and Topical Committee members to present the plan to smaller citizen
groupings in order to obtain further input.
Along
with the in-depth workshops, the most innovative aspect of the process has
been the use of the Village's monthly newsletter
(The Nyack Village News) for over a year, to generate ideas and broaden
involvement. As noted, all of the
workshops were advertised in the newsletter, with a printing of the initial
recommendations of each of the topical committees.
The newsletter printed the surveys and the survey results.
This summer, the newsletter will invite people to submit their favorite
traffic calming and landscape important ideas.
This fall, the plan will be summarized in a special edition of the
newsletter. The newsletter is
mailed to every property owner and resident in the Village.
As
shall be discussed, Nyack is not just a special place physically; it has a
special sense of community. This
plan recognizes and builds on that sense of community.
It is truly a co-venture between the consultants (as out-of-towners)
and the residents (as the true experts). The
goal is to draft a plan that captures the enthusiasm of Nyack as a community,
and can hold the Village in good stead for decades to come.
The
remainder of this document consists of five major sections.
The bulk of Comprehensive Master Plan is comprised of four chapters
addressing the following topics:
·
Downtown
·
Gateway
·
Waterfront
·
Residential
As
noted, these topics were selected early on by the Village of Nyack as the
elements around which the Comprehensive Master Plan should be organized,
instead of the typical plan elements such as land use, transportation and
community facilities. This
approach enabled in-depth analysis of the issues facing the downtown, main
corridors leading in and out of the Village, and the waterfront, with issues
particular to neighborhoods and quality of life addressed in the residential
chapter.
The
final chapter outlines the approach to implementation of the many
recommendations set forth in the Comprehensive Master Plan.
These include amendments to the Village's Zoning Ordinance, as well as
actions that should be taken by various Village agencies and other entities.
Downtown
Goal:
To create a traditional downtown center that residents enjoy and in which they
take pride.
Objectives:
·
Promote
and enhance downtown amenities and social character.
·
Promote
and enhance downtown's historic yet eclectic design character.
·
Enhance
the urban mixed-use character of downtown.
·
Enhance
walkability throughout downtown.
·
Address
perceived and actual parking problems.
·
Improve
connections between downtown Nyack and the rest of the village, particularly
the waterfront.
Gateway
Goal:
To generate new and higher-value development that can afford to pay for needed
on- and off-site improvements.
Objectives:
·
Enhance
uses and the walkability of the entire Gateway.
·
Pursue
a design vision and image for the Thruway area other than a typical suburban
corridor.
·
Redesign
the Thruway underpass and ramps to address the Village' design and safety
concerns.
·
Enhance
the character of the Hillside Area as a transition to downtown.
·
Protect
and enhance the predominantly residential character of the Highland Avenue
area.