New Castle to Work on Master Plan Update This Year

Work on updating New Castle's master plan, last updated in 1989, will start this year and get support from Westchester County, officials confirmed.

The master plan is used as an overarching item to steer the course of land use in town, including with what is supported for zoning.

The town was chosen by the county last month for assistance in working on what are data called baseline. studies. Town Planner Sabrina Charney Hall told Patch about the selection after she announced it at a December planning board meeting. The services, she wrote in an October memo to the town board, could be done through web-based data sets.

The result of the county's support would save a lot of time for the town. Hull said that working on the studies could take 6-8 months with its support, versus a year to 18 months without.

In a video of the town board's Jan. 8 meeting, Town Administrator Penny Paderewski laid out a timeline. The intent is to have the background studies completed by around August of this year, with town staff reviewing the studies for accuracy. The town board may be able to appoint a steering committee for the updating process by this spring, she said in the video, with work groups established for the fall. Then, Paderewski added, there would be goal and visioning work, along with public outreach. This would be followed, ideally, with the creation of a draft plan by the end of the year, she added, which would be subject to state environmental review.