This chapter shall be known as the "Zoning Law of the Village
of Wappingers Falls, Dutchess County, New York" and shall hereafter
be referred to as the "Zoning Law."
This chapter is enacted pursuant to the authority and power
granted by the Municipal Home Rule Law of the State of New York (Chapter
36-a of the Consolidated Laws), and under § 7-700 of the
Village Law of the New York State, to protect and promote public health,
safety, comfort, convenience, economy, aesthetics, general welfare,
and natural and cultural resources of the Village of Wappingers Falls
(the "Village"), and for the following additional purposes:
A. To guide development and redevelopment of the Village in accordance
with the Village Comprehensive Plan so that the Village may realize
its potential as a place to live and work, with the most beneficial
and convenient relationships among the residential, commercial, mixed-use,
and public areas within the Village and with due consideration to:
(1) The character of the district and its suitability for particular
uses;
(2) The existing conditions and trends in population, economic value
of buildings and neighborhoods;
(3) The limitations imposed upon development by natural and cultural
resources; and
(4) The historical pattern of compact, pedestrian-oriented development
in the Village.
B. To protect the character and the social and economic stability of
all parts of the Village and to protect and conserve the value of
land and buildings appropriate to the various districts established
by this chapter.
C. To improve the physical appearance of the community with urban design
standards that provide more predictable results in the form and character
of buildings.
D. To coordinate the placement, orientation, and design of buildings
in established neighborhoods to ensure a coherent and walkable streetscape
and traditional urban character by creating well-defined street edges
with uniformly placed building walls, appropriate frontage types,
and architectural features that create visual interest and an attractive
pedestrian environment.
E. To enhance the appearance of the Village as a whole by ensuring that
all development is orderly and beneficial to the Village, by eliminating
inappropriate and poor quality design in the provision of site improvements
and in the exterior appearance of structures, and by controlling the
erection and maintenance of signs and lighting in the Village.
F. To facilitate the provision of affordable housing and a variety of
housing choices within the Village.
G. To capitalize on opportunities to attract a variety of residential
building types, retail, service, and cultural establishments to serve
local needs, enhance tourism, and create a robust economic base.
H. To enable and encourage mixed-use development within areas of the
community in support of viable and diverse locally oriented business
and cultural institutions.
I. To preserve residential neighborhoods and provide privacy for residents
by protecting such areas from, among other factors, the intrusion
of nonresidential uses and, wherever reasonable, by the elimination
of nonconforming uses.
J. To preserve the Village's historic heritage and in particular
to protect and restore designated historic districts, buildings, sites,
features, and their environs.
K. To prevent the pollution of streams, lakes, wetlands, groundwater
and other water resources; protect steeply sloped areas; avoid hazardous
conditions and excessive damage resulting from stormwater runoff and
flooding; protect significant wildlife habitats; and encourage the
appropriate use and sound management of natural resources throughout
the Village in order to preserve the integrity, stability and beauty
of the community and the value of the land.
L. To make provision for access to sunlight and the accommodation of
solar energy equipment and other alternative energy systems.
M. To promote energy conservation and low impact, environmentally sensitive
development.
N. To facilitate the adequate provision of transportation, water supply,
sewage disposal, schools, parks, and other public facilities and services
as needed by the community.
O. To bring about the gradual conformity of the uses of land and buildings
throughout the Village through the comprehensive zoning law set forth
in this chapter.
P. To promote the most beneficial relationship between the uses of land
and buildings and the street system which serves these uses, having
particular regard to the potential amount and intensity of such land
and building uses in relationship to the traffic capacity of the street
system, so as to avoid congestion in the streets and to promote safe
and convenient vehicular, pedestrian, and bicycle traffic movements.
Q. To provide a guide for public policy and action in the orderly and
efficient provision of public facilities and services and for private
enterprise in building development, investment and other economic
activity relating to uses of land and buildings throughout the Village.
R. To ensure compliance with all applicable laws, rules and regulations,
local, county, state and federal, governing the use and development
of land and structures within the Village.
S. To implement the policies of the Dutchess County and Village Comprehensive
Plans, as set forth in Directions (February 1987), and the Village
Comprehensive Plan (2023), respectively, as may be amended from time
to time, and the Village's Brownfield Opportunity Area Nomination
Study (2020).
The Village is a member of Dutchess County's Greenway Compact
Program and has adopted Greenway Connections: Greenway Compact Program
and Guides for Dutchess County Communities, as amended from time to
time, as a statement of land use policies, principles and guides to
supplement other established land use policies in the Village. In
its discretionary actions under this chapter, the reviewing agency
should be guided by said statement of policies, principles and guides,
where and whenever appropriate.
The Village Board hereby declares its legislative intent to
supersede any provision of any local law, rule, or regulation or provision
of NYS Village Law inconsistent with this chapter. The NYS Village
Law provisions intended to be superseded include all of Article 7
of NYS Village Law, and any other provision of law that the Village
may supersede pursuant to the Municipal Home Rule Law and the Constitution
of the State of New York. Courts are directed to take notice of this
legislative intent and apply it in the event the Village has failed
to specify any provision of law that may require supersession. The
Village Board hereby declares that it would have enacted this chapter
and superseded such inconsistent provision had it been apparent.
From time to time, at intervals of not more than five years,
the Planning Board shall conduct a review of the effectiveness of
the provisions of this chapter, including the locations of zoning
district boundaries, and shall submit a report thereon to the Village
Board, recommending such changes or amendments, if any, which may
be desirable in the interest of the public health, safety, convenience,
necessity or welfare.
This chapter, together with the Zoning Map described in §
151-13, shall take effect immediately upon its filing in the office of the Secretary of State of the State of New York, in accordance with the applicable provisions of law, specifically § 27 of the Municipal Home Rule Law.
It is the legislative intent of the Village Board in adopting this Zoning Law that all provisions shall be liberally construed to implement the purposes set forth herein and the Village Comprehensive Plan, and to guide zoning and development in accordance with the existing and future needs of the Village as established in the Comprehensive Plan. If any clause, sentence, paragraph, section, subsection or part of this chapter is for any reason adjudged by a court of competent jurisdiction to be invalid or unconstitutional, such judgment shall not affect, impair or invalidate the remainder thereof but shall be confined in its operation to the clause, sentence, paragraph, section or part thereof directly involved in the controversy in which such judgment shall have been rendered. Without affecting or limiting this general statement, each section of the sign regulations in Article
VII, Signs, of this chapter are specifically severable, and the invalidity of any regulation in that article shall not affect the validity or enforceability of other regulations in that article.