Two Croton-on-Hudson local laws quietly took effect on September 8 — not when the Village Board voted on them, but six days later, when the village clerk's filing reached the New York Secretary of State. That gap is not a formality. Both laws end with the same sentence: "This local law shall take effect immediately upon filing in the office of the New York State Secretary of State in accordance with Section 27 of the Municipal Home Rule Law." Under that section of state law, a New York local law takes effect on filing unless it says otherwise. The Board of Trustees adopted both on September 2. The village code actually changed on September 8. Here is what changed.

The rent-relief income limit goes from $50,000 to $75,000

Local Law 10 of 2026 amends Chapter 204, Taxation, of the village code. It rewrites Section 204-30, the section by which Croton adopts the state's Real Property Tax Law 467-b — the law behind the rent-increase exemption for senior citizens and for disabled people living in rent-regulated apartments. Tenants who qualify are shielded from a rent increase, and the building's owner receives a corresponding tax abatement. The old section set the ceiling at a combined household income of $50,000. The new text sets it at $75,000, in both places the figure appears. The increase originates in Albany, not in Croton. The adoption resolution records that the state budget for 2026-2027 "included legislation that increased the income limits for the senior citizen rental income exemption and disabled persons rental income exemption programs from $50,000 to $75,000." The village's own code already anticipated exactly this: a second subsection of Section 204-30 provides that if the state raises or lowers the 467-b limit, the local limit "shall automatically adjust to said statutorily allowable incomes." The new local law does the alignment explicitly rather than leaving readers of the code to work it out from a cross-reference. The program is small. At the September 2 meeting one speaker — the transcript does not identify who — said that "two people from Barry Manor" were believed to be receiving the benefit, and the board discussed publicising the higher limit so that more eligible renters apply. The Village Manager said the village would begin at a seniors meeting that Friday. The law was Local Law Introductory No. 11 of 2026 before adoption. A public hearing was opened and closed on September 2 with no one asking to speak. Resolution 199-2026, moved by Deputy Mayor Len Simon and seconded by Trustee Nora Nicholson, adopted it by a 5-0 vote.

A redrawn map of who shovels

Local Law 11 of 2026 amends Chapter 197, Streets and Sidewalks, rewriting Subsection B of Section 197-15. That section makes the owner or occupant of any property next to a public sidewalk responsible for clearing it of snow and ice, and then exempts a short list of specific stretches where, in the code's words, geographical circumstances would make that an undue burden. Those stretches are the village's to clear. The list had seven entries. It now has eight, and three of them are different. Added: two stretches of Farrington Road. On the east side, the sidewalk beginning 270 feet from the intersection of North Riverside Avenue and running 306 feet south. On the west side, the sidewalk beginning 396 feet from North Riverside Avenue and running 275 feet south. Removed: Radnor Avenue, north side, the 50-foot stretch west of Old Post Road South. Redescribed: the Old Post Road South entry. The old text exempted the east side from the intersection of Cleveland Drive for 825 feet north. The new text runs from a point 187 feet west of Cleveland Drive to a point 600 feet east of the driveway to Croton-Harmon High School — a different, shorter stretch that leaves two properties fronting Old Post Road South responsible for their own sidewalks. Unchanged: Brook Street, Brook Street and Terrace Place, both Cleveland Drive entries, and South Riverside Avenue. The review that produced the changes came out of last winter. Village Manager Bryan Healy told the board the law grew from a June work session held after a season in which, as he put it, "we had multiple large snowstorms, right, which taxed our DPW." He and the Department of Public Works went back through the list of sidewalks the department maintains and proposed adjustments. Radnor Avenue came off the list without changing who clears it. "The sidewalk on Radnor is adjacent to village owned property, so we have to maintain that regardless," Healy said. "So it doesn't need to be listed in the law." The Farrington Road additions cover sidewalks that the properties behind them cannot reach. "There's no access from that property onto the sidewalk on Farrington, and it's a similar story for the homes that have Palmer addresses that back down onto Farrington," Healy said. One resident used the hearing to ask about the rest of the year — the months when the problem on a sidewalk is not snow but growth, "in the summer, after things have grown, weeds, ivy, sometimes poison ivy." Healy said the law reaches only winter: "during the other times of the year, the property owners are still responsible for maintaining vegetation." Asked what a resident should do about an overgrown sidewalk, he said the engineering department and code enforcement would inspect it. This law was Introductory No. 12 of 2026. Resolution 200-2026, moved by Trustee Nora Nicholson and seconded by Deputy Mayor Len Simon, adopted it 5-0 on September 2 after a public hearing opened and closed the same evening.

The published code has not caught up

Both laws are in force. Neither has yet been folded into the chapter text published at croton.news/villagecode, which reproduces a code snapshot that predates them: Section 204-30 there still reads $50,000, and the Section 197-15 exemption table there still lists Radnor Avenue. The filed laws govern; the published chapter text is behind them. Anyone relying on a sidewalk exemption or an income limit should read the filed law, not the posted chapter.

Still proposals, not law

Five more Croton local laws exist only as introductory drafts, and none of them has changed the code. Introductory No. 10 of 2026, the rewrite of the zoning code's animal-keeping rules that would permit backyard chickens and ducks under lot-size limits and prohibit roosters and pigeons in residence districts, has had its public hearing and is going back to a work session. Introductory No. 14 of 2026, on waterfront revitalization, and Introductory No. 15 of 2026 both have public hearings scheduled. Introductory No. 13 of 2026, on site plan approval, is under referral review. Introductory No. 7 of 2026, which would rewrite the village's sign rules, has been in review since May. Until one of them is adopted by the board and filed with the Secretary of State, it is a proposal — and a proposal changes nothing.