Community ideas sought for zoning law re-write

The Village of Warwick is inviting community members to share input on areas such as housing, commerce and culture to as part of its efforts to seek grant funding for a planned re-write of local zoning law. The information-gathering session will be held on July 16 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the Tourism Center at 75 Main St.

During the July 7 board meeting, Mayor Michael Newhard explained that this meeting would function much like the New York Forward grant meeting, where interested parties were invited to write down their thoughts on large sheets of paper with various prompts asking about the best way for the village to utilize the grant money. Newhard said that along with the writing prompts, village trustees will be available to answer any questions.

Public input is important, Newhard said, because it shows the state how much the Village of Warwick cares about the needs of its community members. He noted that the grant would enable the village to hire a planner to work with them on rewriting the zoning law and more opportunities for public engagement will follow.

During the meeting, the board approved two easements for Yesterday’s Restaurant and for a planned nursery school in the Town of Warwick. Yesterday’s easement, as part of its conditions of approval for the village planning board, is for an existing drainageway to allow for the entry upon, repair, maintenance and replace as deemed necessary by the village. The nursery school, which received conditional approval from the town planning board to repurpose an existing commercial building on Clinton Avenue Extension, has agreed to grant easements to the village of Warwick for storm water, sewer line and water line management.