Editor's note: This article previews a scheduled meeting based on the published agenda packet. After the meeting is held and video is released, coverage will be updated with the actual discussion and any votes taken. The Croton-on-Hudson Planning Board meets Tuesday, September 8, with a new business agenda pairing a village-wide rewrite of its site plan review standards against a single accessory cottage application on Emerson Avenue.

Zoning referral: Local Law Introductory No. 13 of 2026

The board is set to take up a referral from the Village Board of Trustees asking it to review Local Law Introductory No. 13 of 2026 and send back a recommendation. The trustees referred the draft law, with a Short Environmental Assessment Form and a Coastal Assessment Form, at their August 19 meeting, adopting Resolution #183-2026 by a 5-0 vote, and routed the package to the Waterfront Advisory Committee and the Westchester County Planning Board. Behind the law is a change in state law. A July 17 memorandum from Valerie Monastra, AICP, of the village's planning consultant Nelson Pope Voorhis explains that the 2026-2027 Enacted State Budget amended the State Environmental Quality Review Act, creating a new category of SEQRA "qualified actions" exempt from environmental review. The one that matters most to Croton concerns housing: residential construction outside New York City can now skip SEQR if it connects to existing public water and sewer, sits on a previously disturbed site, keeps non-residential uses under 20 percent of floor area and stays within unit caps of 100 generally or 300 in a Census-defined urban area. Those exemptions do not override local zoning, the memo notes. The recommendation that became Local Law 13 writes the environmental questions SEQRA would otherwise have answered directly into the village's own site plan standards, so the board can keep weighing traffic, community services, drainage and natural resources even when the state no longer requires it. The draft amends two sections of Chapter 230. In §230-69, which lists what an applicant must file, it would add a required tree removal plan for any tree six inches or greater in diameter, tied to Chapter 208, Trees; require geologic features such as depth to bedrock and rock outcrops; and require hydrologic detail covering runoff patterns, flood hazard areas and depth to groundwater. Applicants would also have to identify whether the site contains, or is substantially contiguous to, a building, archaeological site or district listed on the State or National Register of Historic Places. In §230-70, which lists what the board weighs in approving a site plan, the draft expands a shorter list of criteria into seventeen numbered standards, adding conformance with the Local Waterfront Revitalization Plan alongside the Comprehensive Plan, application of the village's Complete Streets Policy, attention to public school facilities with the option to require a fiscal and enrollment analysis, a standard letting the board demand a traffic study of trip generation and parking demand, and a new "Consideration of Environmental Resources" section covering critical environmental areas, threatened and endangered species, native landscaping and sites with a hazardous-waste remediation history. The environmental forms treat the law as a legislative action with no project site: the Coastal Assessment Form describes it as covering every district in the village, some 4.69 square miles of residential, commercial and light industrial zoning, and answers the coastal impact questions not applicable. The trustees classified the proposal as an Unlisted Action and declared themselves lead agency.

Accessory cottage at 66 Emerson Avenue

Separately, the board will consider an application from Alex and Dorothy Morales for an accessory dwelling unit, termed an accessory cottage in the village code, at 66 Emerson Avenue in the RA-5 residential district. A draft resolution in the packet, still carrying blank lines where the motion and vote count will be recorded, would approve the cottage with 738 square feet of habitable floor area under §230-41 and fold in the excavation and filling permit under Chapter 120. The draft attaches a lengthy condition list: strict compliance with architectural plans by John Power, Architect, dated May 19, 2026 and updated August 16, 2026; exterior colors and materials substantially consistent with what was submitted; a $1,000 fee in lieu of parkland, on the finding that the development contributes to village population and no suitable land for a park exists on the site; Village Engineer approval of the stormwater and erosion control plan; signed and sealed site plans before a building permit issues; an as-built survey of the foundation before framing; a clearly visible address for emergency vehicles; and notice to the Building Department within 90 days of any transfer of title that a new owner will occupy the premises, failing which the approval is revoked. The draft also records that the proposal is a Type II action under SEQRA requiring no negative declaration, that land disturbance falls under 5,000 square feet and is handled by the stormwater management officer, and that no trees are being removed. The remaining application material, including the redacted application form, the survey, photographs of the property and of neighboring dwellings, the exterior finishes selection and a September 2 memo to the Planning Board, are scanned image files without extractable text.

Draft minutes from July 28

The board will also be asked to approve the draft minutes of its July 28 meeting, which record the board's first session on Croton Carmel Riverside, LLC's proposal for a 49-unit apartment building at 425 South Riverside Avenue — a meeting at which Chairman Robert Luntz recused himself, Acting Chair Geoffrey Haynes presided, and the board worked through 31 comments from Nelson Pope Voorhis while declining to call a public hearing. Related coverage:
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