Steering Committee Formed for Master Plan Update

A steering committee for updating New Castle's master plan has been picked, Town Administrator Penny Paderewski confirmed.

The master plan is New Castle's overarching document for land use and guidance for planning and zoning decisions. It has not had a major update since 1989.

The committee will include Supervisor Susan Carpenter, along with former planning board Chair Robert Kirkwood. Carpenter, a Democrat, and Kirkwood, a Republican, vyed for the supervisor's office in the 2011 election season. Carpenter won the race narrowly, but both she and Kirkwood made updating the master plan parts of their campaigns.

Other committee members will include current planning board member Tom Curley, former local League of Women Voter's president Maud Bailey, and merchant and former town Councilman Erik Nicolaysen.

The steering committee will help to guide the updating process and to steer it, Paderewski explained. It will also review the text and scope of the plan, and act as a "sounding board" for it before it is submitted to the town board for it review and then acceptance.

Tasks that the committee will take on, Paderewski explained, include identifying "subgroups," in categories such as transportation and housing, reviewing background study that will be prepared by Westchester County - it will include basic data for the update - and involvement with a separate but related "commercial study" that would include sites such as Chappaqua Crossing.

The committee's existence is part of a larger timeline for the update process (click here for details).