Clarkstown To Hold Meetings On Plans For Nanuet

The Town of Clarkstown will hold two meetings this week and next with residents of Nanuet and Bardonia to discuss the town’s comprehensive plan for Nanuet and the area around Route 59.

The first meeting is Thursday, May 9th from 7 to 10 p.m. in the Nanuet High School auditorium. The second meeting is Saturday, May 18th from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. also in the high school auditorium.

At this past Thursday night’s Nanuet Civic Association meeting, Clarkstown Town Council members Stephanie Hausner and George Hoehmann spoke to the group about the importance of the meetings.

“We’re working on corridor studies in the town and we’re up to Route 59. We’re also looking at Middletown Road, and we’re looking at the zoning in those areas,” Hausner said. “I know it’s come up, we have the train here in Nanuet. How could we make better use of zoning around the train station? All of these things, it’s basically called visioning exercises, and we’re just asking all the residents of Nanuet to come to the session and bring their ideas of what you would like to see along that 59 corridor — it goes all the way to Exit 14 of the New York State Thruway — and the Middletown Road area.”

Clarkstown Principal Town Planner Joe Simoes said the town adopted its comprehensive plan back in 2009 and have been actively implementing it since then. He added the biggest part of the upcoming meetings is the Route 59 Corridor Study. Simoes said the town's consultant Cambridge Systematics' corridor study concentrated on the eastern section of Route 59 in Clarkstown last year and this year the focus is the western section in Nanuet and the properties along it. 

The two meetings will be broken up into smaller sessions looking at the different sections of the hamlet and possible rezoning. 

“The hamlet center touches highway corridor,” he said. “We’re inviting people to tell us what they envision hamlet center and highway corridor to be.”

Simoes said they’ll also look into rezoning, which they’ve done in all hamlets in the town except for Nanuet.

He added that they’re looking at a broadly defined area from the train station to Normandy Village, along Middletown Road between Route 59 and Old Middletown Road up to the New York State Thruway overpass, as well as Route 59 from the Palisades Interstate Parkway to the border with Ramapo.

"The area is a pretty large area," said Simoes. "It's not one area. It's different sub areas."

Simoes said he anticipates separate breakout sessions on Route 59 and the Nanuet Hamlet Center. Five facilitators will be available to lead sessions in different classrooms. Simoes said Cambridge Systematics has some preliminary analysis that will be presented at the outset of the meetings and that he expects a concept that incorporates community input will be ready in the fall. 

Hoehmann said the timing is right to discuss plans for the town given the incoming Shops at Nanuet.

“With the Nanuet Mall, it’s a new opportunity,” he said. “It’s gone now, so with the Shops at Nanuet opening up in October, what is that going to do and what impact is that going to have on the local community, and what are some of the things we can look at in preparation of that?”

Hausner and Hoehmann said they, along with the other town council members, planning staff and housing committee went to Park Ridge, NJ, and met with the mayor and planning staff over there. Hausner said they recently made some changes around their train station, and people could go look at other areas for ideas on what to do in Nanuet. Hoehmann said they also discussed “transit-oriented development” with the Park Ridge officials.

“It’s typically mixed use,” he said. “Retail on offices with offices on the ground floor and housing on the second floor and third floor. It’s done very well in Park Ridge.”

Hausner said they want as many opinions as possible.

“Bring high school students, middle schools students,” she said. “I think it’s a great opportunity to get all ranges of voices in. Neighbors, friends, everyone.”

Roberta Bangs, Nanuet Civic Association vice president and member of the housing committee, also urged the other members of the group to attend the meetings.

“This is really our chance. This is it,” she said. “If you really care about our town you will attend the meetings, because this is very, very important to our future and to the future of our community going forward.”

Bill Ryan, president of the Nanuet Civic Association, said people might also want to attend just so they can hear what others want for the hamlet.

“Everybody with a vested interest, whether they’re property owners or landlords or whatever, they’re going to be there and they’re going to push,” he said. “Maybe you don’t want what they want.”