Public can chime in on gateway land use

The town will accept public comments at a June 14 workshop about possible landuse regulations for the portion of state Route 299 between the village of New Paltz and town of Lloyd, the so-called “gateway” to New Paltz.

The workshop is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the community center at 3 Veterans Drive.

Town Supervisor Neil Bettez said the session will help the town determine zoning regulations for an area in which developers have proposed large retail projects.

“We’re hoping to hear what people want their town to look like and how should the gateway to New Paltz look,” Bettez said.

“I look at it as a minichance to do planning,” Bettez said of the June 14 meeting. “Ideally we’d be doing a master comprehensive plan for the whole town, but we can’t afford that. So we’re going to start by at least doing it the gateway because it ... is the first thing that people see as they come into town as they come off the Thruway.”

Bettez said the town’s comprehensive plan has not been updated since 1995 and that vacant properties in the gateway area have become sought-after commodities in the years since.

“There are a lot of things that are proposed, and if we didn’t do this now, we’d lose our opportunity to have community input on what the gateway is going to look like I think for the next 50 years,” the supervisor said.

In April, the Town Board enacted a ninemonth

moratorium on new development in the gateway area after some residents objected to an application to construct a CVS drugstore and a Five Guys Burger and Fries restaurant at the intersection of state Route 299 and North Putt Corners Road.

The moratorium impacts 46 parcels and halts reviews of special permits, area variances, use variances and

subdivisions except for residential developments of five units or less and

nonresidential structures of 2,500 square feet or less.