Statement of Land Use & Development Policy

The principle objective of the Town of Red Hook, as a unit of general local government is to preserve and enhance the quality of life experienced and enjoyed by the residents of the community. Accordingly, the Master Plan Committee recommends that the Town direct and coordinate its planning activities, its land use and development controls, its capital expenditures, and its intergovernmental initiatives to efforts which contribute to the overall, day-to-day achievement of the following goals and objectives:

1. The Maintenance and Protection of the Rural Character and the Scenic Resources of the Community.

Although it is experiencing moderate population growth, the Town of Red Hook remains predominately rural in character, with many distinguishing scenic resources, including country roads; open views of agricultural fields, mountains and woodlands; streams and other waterways; and its Hudson Riverfront setting. The rural character and scenic features are identified as important elements contributing to the sense of place and the quality of the living environment within the Town. The community's objective is to maintain this overall sense of rural character while accommodating the inevitability of growth and change by:

a.  Providing incentives for new development to locate within the Village of Tivoli and within, or adjacent to, the Village of Red Hook and other established areas of the Town, such as the hamlet of Upper Red Hook, while discouraging a land use pattern that might be characterized by an inefficiently-serviced and environmentally-insensitive uniform dispersion of development throughout the Town.

b.   Encouraging the preservation of existing landscape elements, including vegetation and landforms, to integrate new development with its surrounding landmass.

c.   Requiring that significant open space consistent with the Town's rural character be preserved and appropriately maintained in every development, whether residential, commercial, or institutional.

d.   Inventorying the principal scenic and open space resources of the committee and developing an action plan for the preservation of the most significant of these resources, e.g. the promotion of opportunities for the maintenance and expansion of public access to the Hudson Riverfront at locations such as Cruger Island, Tivoli Bays, the hamlet of Barrytown, and the Village of Tivoli.

e.   Promoting, as part of that overall plan, the use of innovative land use techniques, such as conservation easements, transfer of development rights (TDR) and cluster development, to preserve scenic resources and to focus development toward either the less sensitive areas of the particular development parcel or, in the specific case of TDR, to transfer permitted development density to less sensitive acreage elsewhere in town.

f.   Encouraging building design that gives appropriate recognition to compatible building forms and materials indigenous to the community and its rural character.

g.   Encouraging careful design and exterior lighting to ensure that it similarly is appropriate in scale, material, and form to the community and its rural character

h. Discouraging highway commercial or franchise modern architectural styles, and associated signage and lighting design, more appropriate to urban and suburban environments

i.   Deterring the proliferation of unattractive and unsafe highway strip development, whether commercial, residential, or institutional, along the principal highways in the town.

j.   To the extent practicable, encouraging voluntary efforts to improve the function and appearance of existing properties through the introduction of suitably landscaped and maintained buffer areas, more restrained signage and lighting, and better-designed access control and parking layout.