10. The Achievement of the Town's Land Use and Development Goals through the Cooperative Efforts of Public and Private Sector Interests.

The town of Red Hook recognizes fully that the achievement of its land use and development goals and objectives, and the implementation of the Town's Comprehensive Plan, will require a sustained and cooperative effort of all private and public sector interest with the opportunity to influence the timing, location and type of land use and development activities within the Town.

The Town urges the County, State, and Federal governments to each embrace the Town's Statement of Land Use and Development investment decisions that may directly affect the Town of Red Hook. The Town similarly urges the private sector whether in its role of nurturing cultural, education, recreational and other programs, or in its often times more visible role as development project sponsor, to accept its niche within the unique rural, small-town environment known as Red Hook and to tailor its own objectives to fit those of the overall community in which it seeks to live and do business

The Town of Red Hook is not opposed to growth and change, recognizing such as vital to human beings and their communities. The Town of Red Hook is, however, adamant in its view that the accommodation of growth and change must not diminish the quality of life experienced and enjoyed by the residents of the community and should, to the contrary, contribute additional human energy and economic resources to achieve the Town�s land use and development objectives and, thus, preserve and enhance the quality of life.

Town Land Use Plan

The Town of Red Hook Master Plan Committee has prepared a Town Land Use Plan to set forth a generalized, yet coordinated, pattern of preferred land use and development intensity on a Town-Committee's data base regarding existing infrastructure, and carefully reflects the Committee�s recommended Statement of Land Use and Development Policy.

Taken combination with those land use and development policies, the Land Use Plan is intended to serve as a legal and policy basis for preparing legislation and carrying out programs activity within the town of Red Hook. The Master Plan Committee recommends adoption of these elements, in combination, by the Town Planning Board and the Town Board in satisfaction of the "comprehensive plan" requirements set forth in Section 263 of the Town Law.

In order to facilitate understanding of the Land Use Plan, the Master Plan Committee presents the following capsule description of the eight (8) land use categories which are depicted:

Waterfront Conservation

The Waterfront Conservation (WC) area includes the most ecologically significant and severely-restricted areas for development within the Town of Red Hook. This category includes the Tivoli Bays State Nature Preserve and Wildlife Management Area, Cruger Island, the South Bay and North Bay tidal wetlands, and other sloping and escarpment lands lying within 1000 feet of the high water mark of the Hudson River, except for the established hamlet of Barrytown. All lands within 100 feet of the high water mark of the principal stream corridors within the Town (i.e. the Lakes Kill, Stony Creek, Saw Kill, White Clay Kill and Mudder Kill) are also designated within the Waterfront Conservation land use category.

Preferred use within the Waterfront Conservation area is restricted to passive and water-dependent recreation and to land-extensive open space uses which provide little disturbance to the natural environment. Consideration should be given to the development of Hudson Riverfront parks at Tivoli and Barrytown to provide the Town's people "windows on the Hudson" and to the creation of a continuous trail network along the Town's substantially-undeveloped Hudson Riverfront to extend the concept of these "windows" to that of a "corridor".

Institutional Use.

Principal institutional (I) uses depicted on the Land Use Plan include the land-extensive, campus-type settings held by Bard College, the Unification Theological Seminary and Montgomery Place to the west of NYS Route 9G, the Devereaux Foundation and New York State Eddie Parker Youth Center properties to the east of NYS Route 9 and the Red Hook School District elementary school facilities at Mill Road and Rockefeller Lane. Further development of these institutions should occur in accordance with sound community planning practices and the institutions� long-term master plan.

Historic Hamlet

The Historic Hamlet (HH) land use designation applies to the historic settlements of Upper Red Hook, Annandale, and Barrytown. The traditional mix of residential, institutional and small-scale business uses and small-lot development pattern which distinguishes these settlements should be recognized by the community and reflected in its land use and development controls. Architectural design review of proposed modifications to existing structures and new construction is important to protect the vernacular character and scale of buildings within these hamlet areas. Conventional lot-by-lot subdivision of adjoining lands should be discouraged due to its effect on the geographic integrity of the historic hamlet, with clustering preferred to allow for a substantial buffering of the hamlet area.