Business Use

In addition to business uses in the Villages of Red Hook and Tivoli, continuation of retail commerce, small-scale non-retail business, and personal and business services uses is recommended near the hamlet of Upper Red Hook and in the immediate vicinity of the Town's established business center, the Village of Red Hook. Consistent with the Town�s stated land use and development policy, both voluntary efforts and the regulatory controls should be employed to ensure that the scale of business uses and their building and site design characteristics are compatible with the Town's overall rural character and with neighboring properties and land uses. In particular, emphasis should bel directed to the use of traditional building form and materials, introduction of suitably-landscaped and maintained buffer areas, creation of pedestrian access opportunities and linkages, appropriate signage and lighting, and safe and functional vehicular access control and parking layout.

Light Industrial Use

Service commercial, light industrial, manufacturing and related uses would be encouraged in accordance with accepted design and environmental protection standards. A "floating light industrial district" should be incorporated in the Town's Zoning Law to allow proposals for the establishment of individual light industrial uses, or preferably a small-scale individual light industrial park or other multi-tenant facilities. While the district would be created within the Zoning Law and confined to an overlay district it would be mapped on a more site-specific basis only after careful review of a project-specific proposal. Appropriate buffering of nearby residential and institurional uses and strong consideration for suitable access should be among key performance criteria that would have to be satisfied.

In assessing the full range of potential development opportunities within the Town of Red Hook, the Master Plan Committee, and this Land Use Plan, is also cognizant of expansion opportunities within the incorporated Villages of Red Hook and Tivoli. While the Village of Tivoli is locationally more remote, the Village of Red Hook is central to the Town and in close proximity to the Town�s principal residential and business areas, both as presently developed and identified as locations for future expansion. Town/Village cooperation in land use planning and coordination, and in the planning, design, and development of suitable infrastructure, is, thus, strongly encouraged and vital to the long-term economic viability of our total community.

In addition to the above cited land use categories, the Land Use Plan takes special note of the following jurisdictional or resource boundaries that have been considered in formulation of the Plan:

Local Waterfront Revitalization Program (LWRP)

The Local Waterfront Revitalization Area extends from the center-line of the Hudson River to a line 500 feet east of NYS Route 9G from north-to-south throughout the Town of Red Hook. Land use and development activities within the LWRP boundary must be reviewed for consistency with the "coastal zone management" plan prepared during the late 1980�s through a cooperative effort of Town of Red Hook and the NYS Department of State. Included within the LWRP boundary are the principal institutional uses within the Town, i.e. Bard College, Montgomery Place, and the Unification Theological Seminary; two of its historic hamlets, Annandale and Barrytown; and the NYSDEC Tivoli Bays Nature Preserve and Wildlife Management Area.

Mid Hudson Historic Shorelands Distict Scenic Area

That portion of the Mid-Hudson Historic Shorelands District Scenic Area within the Town of Red Hook is coincident with the Town's "coastal zone" and is subject to a management plan prepared by the Heritage Task Force for the Hudson River Valley and adopted by NYSDEC in 1983.

Twenty Mile Historic District

This National Register Historic District lies within the Mid-Hudson Historic Shorelands Scenic Area and is composed of the surviving estates built in the area throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Significant estate properties included within the Twenty Mile Historic District in the Town of Red Hook include Teviot, Ward Manor, Cruger Island, Blithewood, Montgomery Place, Messena, Edgewater, Sylvania, Rokeby, and Mandara (Stee Valatje). To the extent that any of these properties cannot viably function as residences or in other present use, the Land Use Plan encourages that they be maintained and preserved for cultural office or conference