NORTH CASTLE
ZONING REFORM NOW

A Town this strong
shouldn't run on a
code this old.

North Castle is fiscally sound and highly desirable — and still losing small businesses, tax revenue, and vibrant streets to a zoning code that hasn't kept pace. This is a case for modernizing it, town-wide.

The Town Board writes the code. The Planning Board interprets and applies it on every application that comes before it. Modernizing North Castle means both get it right.
The Town's Own Diagnosis — 2018
“If the Town Board would like to provide additional opportunities for restaurant uses, the Town Board will need to intervene.”
— Adam R. Kaufman, AICP, Director of Planning, Town of North Castle
This isn't a new complaint. The Town's own planning staff flagged this structural gap years ago. The platform below is built directly on that recommendation.
Six Degrees of Stagnation

The code, as written, works against the Town's own goals

None of this is about any one project. These are structural features of the current code that make every small business in every hamlet slower, riskier, and more expensive to open — and every vacancy harder to fill.

“Maintain and strengthen the existing hamlet centers” and “maintain and enhance property values through the creation, revision and enforcement of effective ordinances.”— 2018 Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee, stated Town goals
01 — Parking, on an island
Off-Street Parking — calculated lot-by-lot; shared or nearby public parking generally does not count toward a parcel's requirement
A hamlet is a shared ecosystem, not a set of isolated parcels. Fix: count public spaces within a reasonable walking distance toward adequacy, formalize a downtown parking district funded by assessments and in-lieu fees, and incentivize private lot owners to pool inventory.
“Under many current conventional development practices and parking standards, Armonk's Main Street would likely not exist... The character of the Main Street that some find desirable would likely be lost to accommodate the needs of the automobile.”— 2001 Main Street Planning & Design Study
02 — Clocks that don't talk
Variance & Site Plan Terms — run on separate, independent expiration clocks, even while a project remains under active, ongoing Planning Board review
An applicant can be diligently pursuing an extension on one approval while a related approval lapses in silence underneath it — a gap that falls squarely on how the Planning Board interprets and tracks its own conditions. Fix: toll all underlying approvals for the duration of active review, and require written notice before anything expires.
“It's a stupid rule, and it shouldn't exist, and the Town Board needs to fix it.”— Adam R. Kaufman, AICP, Director of Planning, Town of North Castle (in conversation)
03 — Zoning by private negotiation
Community Benefits Agreements — amount and terms set at Town Board discretion; no published formula, cap, or comparability standard; conditions have included requiring private payments to neighboring property owners
Every applicant negotiates blind, and public approvals shouldn't hinge on private-party side deals. Fix: a published, size-based formula for any community benefit; prohibit conditioning approval on payments to private neighbors. This kind of discretionary, uncapped exaction raises real proportionality concerns under New York land-use law.
04 — A zoning map from another era
Commercial & Light-Industrial Districts — numerous overlapping designations (e.g., PLI/RELIP, OB/DOB-20A) with inconsistent, hard-to-navigate regulations
Confusing, redundant zones slow down staff and applicants alike. Fix: consolidate overlapping districts into clear, modern categories that match how the Town actually wants each corridor to develop.
05 — No fast lane for a vacancy
Re-Tenanting of Existing Space — subject to the same full discretionary Planning Board review as new construction, regardless of whether the use is already permitted
A vacant storefront filling with an already-permitted use shouldn't take as long as a ground-up build. Fix: an as-of-right re-tenanting track for uses that already conform to hamlet standards, so the Planning Board's review capacity goes toward projects that actually need it.
06 — A plan already on the shelf
2020 Armonk Parking Study — 31 professionally recommended fixes, ranging from low-cost operating changes to code reform to added supply; no requirement that the Town track or report on its own implementation
The Town already commissioned a professional roadmap for exactly these problems. Six years later, most of it is still sitting on a shelf. Fix: require an annual public accounting of adopted plan recommendations — completed, in progress, or abandoned — so the next study doesn't meet the same fate.
Of the study's 31 recommendations, 1 has been completed and 23 — nearly three in four — remain unimplemented as of mid-2026.2020 Armonk Parking Study implementation audit
Streets & Streetscape

The public realm needs the same attention as the code

Zoning reform doesn't mean much if the streets themselves are falling behind.

Regional Roads
Push NYSDOT for repaving and resurfacing of the Town's key arterials, which residents and business owners consistently flag as overdue.
Lighting & Signage
A cohesive, Dark Sky-compliant lighting standard across hamlets, paired with clear wayfinding signage integrated with QR-code digital navigation.
Pedestrian & Cyclist Safety
With more young families in Town, wide residential streets need striping and defined safe zones for pedestrians and cyclists — not just in the hamlets, but throughout residential North Castle.
Complete Streets, Not Just Complete Code
Treat streetscape investment as part of the same modernization effort as zoning reform — they reinforce each other or they don't happen at all.
Town Hall, Finally
The Town has known for years that its own facilities are past their limit. Modernization should include finishing what's already been studied and recommended — not just the code residents interact with, but the building the Town runs out of.
“Current space is not sufficient and cannot be further modified. The Town of North Castle should strongly consider investing in new facilities.”— 2025 Facilities Needs Report
Growing the Hamlet Economy

North Castle can compete for the businesses it wants

A fiscally strong Town can afford to be proactive about growth, not just permissive about it.

Active Recruitment
Give the Town's economic development function real teeth — working with the Chamber of Commerce and supporting Business Improvement Districts to actively sell North Castle as a destination, not just process applications.
A Community Foundation
Neighboring towns like Bedford and Pound Ridge fund legacy public projects — trails, community gardens, streetscape upgrades — through private philanthropic foundations. North Castle doesn't have one yet.
Transparency

Residents deserve a public record they can actually search

Modernization should include the Town's own accountability tools, not just its zoning map.

A Citizen Portal
A public dashboard showing real turnaround times for permits and applications, approval rates by board, and public safety response metrics — the same kind of data-driven transparency many peer towns already publish.
A Searchable Public Record
Board meetings are already public and often recorded. The Town should publish a full, searchable transcript archive so residents can review what the Town Board and Planning Board actually said and decided — good practice for any municipality, not a response to any one dispute.
A Public Variance & CBA Register
Every variance and Community Benefits Agreement should be published in one searchable place, by property, so applicants and residents can compare like cases instead of piecing the record together file by file. It would also help the Town keep its own numbers straight.
Even a report the Town approved this year has this problem: the April 2026 Parking District No. 2 report cites three different net-space figures for the same project — 16, 65, and 108 — without reconciling them to each other.Parking District No. 2, Map, Plan & Report, April 9, 2026
The Reform Platform

Seven changes the Town Board and Planning Board can make without waiting for the next project to stall

None of this requires a lawsuit. It requires the Town Board to update a code that's out of date, and the Planning Board to apply it with the notice and consistency residents and applicants deserve.

  1. Formalize the downtown parking district

    Count nearby public parking toward a parcel's requirement, fund shared infrastructure through assessments and in-lieu fees, and stop treating every new business as its own parking problem.

  2. Toll approval clocks during active review

    A variance shouldn't be able to expire in silence while a related site plan is under active Planning Board review. Publish a clear filing deadline, decision deadline, and criteria, and toll the clock for any Town-caused delay.

  3. Publish a real Community Benefits formula

    Replace closed-door negotiation with a public, size-based schedule, backed by a written proportionality finding — what impact is being addressed, how it's valued, and credit for any overlapping obligation — and prohibit conditioning public approvals on private payments to neighboring owners.

  4. Consolidate the zoning map

    Merge overlapping, confusing commercial and light-industrial districts into clear, modern categories.

  5. Create an as-of-right re-tenanting track

    If a use already conforms to hamlet standards, filling a vacancy shouldn't require the same Planning Board review as new construction.

  6. Publish the Citizen Dashboard

    Real turnaround times, approval rates, and a searchable public meeting record — transparency as a standing practice, not a one-time response.

  7. Audit adopted plans, every year

    Any study or plan the Town commissions and adopts — parking, comprehensive, facilities — should get a public annual accounting of what was completed, what's in progress, and what was quietly dropped.

Get Involved

The Town Board sets the code. The Planning Board applies it. Tell them both it's time to modernize.

Add your voice — it takes one email.