Land Use Law Center Gaining Ground Information Database Topic: Healthy Communities; Traffic Calming & Safety Resource Type: Policy Statements and Planning Documents State: New York Jurisdiction Type: Municipal Municipality: Ossining Year (adopted, written, etc.): 2009 Community Type – applicable to: Urban; Suburban Title: Traffic Signals and Narrower Lanes to Improve Safety Document Last Updated in Database: March 18, 2019 Abstract Ossining, New York’s Comprehensive Plan includes traffic-calming measures to be implemented throughout the village, though particularly on Route 9. Route 9 is the primary north-south arterial reaching through Ossining and onto major highways in New York. Route 9’s increasingly congested condition has resulted in residential road use throughout the village. These residential roads are narrow, steep, and winding, and often dangerous during inclement weather. Ossining’s goal is to improve pedestrian safety and comfort, and to change the behavior of motorists who would otherwise use residential roads to bypass congestion on the major roads. One traffic-calming measure employed by the New York State Department of Transportation re-striping. Re-striping to a narrower lane slows traffic and increases the safety of the roads. What congestion might be created by this process is mitigated by the town’s restructured traffic signal timing and coordination which is based on traffic data collection. Restructured traffic signals are also meant to increase the safety of pedestrians crossing wide sections of Route 9 by increasing the time allotted. New traffic lights are to be implemented at strategic intersections where congestion and hazards typically occurs. Data collection is to be continued on the sections of the road that underwent re-striping and signal light restructuring in order to assess the effect of the measures. Adaptations to the original plan should be made as needed. Resource [Type text] [Type text] VILLAGE OF OSSINING, NEW YORK COMPREHENSIVE PLAN B Village of O s s i n i n g Comprehensive Plan VILLAGE OF OSSINING COMPREHENSIVE PLAN VILLAGE OF OSSINING, WESTCHESTER COUNTY, NEW YORK Prepared for: The Village of Ossining Prepared by: Village of Ossining Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee With: Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates, Inc. Planning and Real Estate Consultants 434 Sixth Avenue New York, New York 10011 July 2009 Village of O s s i n i n g Comprehensive Plan I ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Village of Ossining Board of Trustees Infrastructure and Transportation Sub-Committees Mayor William R. Hanauer Valerie Monastra Janis Castaldi Karen D’Attore Marlene Cheatham Reverend Stephen Holton Michael Curry Alice Joselow Susanne Donnelly Dana Levenberg Village Manager Linda G. Cooper Downtown, Waterfront and Economic Village of Ossining Department of Planning Development Sub-Committee Valerie Monastra, AICP, Village Planner Valerie Monastra Joyce M. Lannert Village of Ossining Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee Joy Solomon John Codman, III, Chair Antonio DaCruz Joyce M. Lannert, AICP, Vice Chair John W. Fried Joy Solomon, Secretary, Jerry Gershner Environmental Advisory Committee Gordon D. Albert, Former Director, Neighborhood Quality of Life Sub-Committee Interfaith Council for Action Valerie Monastra Catherine Borgia, Former Village Trustee John Codman, III Karen D’Attore Alice Joselow Antonio DaCruz Dana Levenberg John W. Fried Rose Marie Parisi Jerry Gershner, President, Greater Ossining Chamber of Commerce, Inc. In cooperation with: Reverend Stephen Holton, St. Paul’s-on-the-Hill Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates, Inc. Episcopal Church Elizabeth Leheny, Project Director Alice Joselow, Board of Education Trustee John Shapiro, Principal-in-Charge Dana Levenberg, Board of Education Trustee Charles Starks, Zoning Specialist Linda Levine, Interfaith Council for Action, Inc. Namiko Kimura, GIS Specialist Rose Marie Parisi Elizabeth Jordan, Graphic Artist Elaine White Bobby Williams Stantec Stephen Tilly Architect, Inc. Affordable Housing Sub-Committee Valerie Monastra John Codman, III Gordon D. Albert Linda Levine Rose Marie Parisi Elaine White II Village of O s s i n i n g Comprehensive Plan Table of Contents 1. INTRODUCTION 1 2. VILLAGE OVERVIEW 7 3. THE WATERFRONT 17 4. THE DOWNTOWN CRESCENT AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 41 5. TRANSPORTATION 61 6. SUSTAINABLE INFRASTRUCTURE 73 7. AFFORDABLE HOUSING 81 8. NEIGHBORHOOD QUALITY OF LIFE 97 Village of O s s i n i n g Comprehensive Plan III LIST OF TABLES Table 1: Population Trends, 1990 To 2005 9 Table 17: Westchester County Affordable Housing Allocation—Percentage of Residents Table 2: Family Trends, 1990 to 2000 9 Living at or Below 80 Percent of Area Median Income and County Table 3: Population and School Enrollment Affordable Housing Obligation for the Trends, 2000 to 2006 9 Village of Ossining, Neighboring Towns and Westchester County 94 Table 4: Tenure by Year Householder Moved Into Unit, 2000 10 Table 18: Ossining Landmarks on the State/National Registers of Table 5: Overall Ossining Population by Race Historic Places 99 and Origin, 1990 and 2000 10 Table 19: Ossining Parks and Open Spaces 104 Table 6: Median Household Income in The Village and County, 2000 10 Table 20: Comparison of Ossining’s Active Recreational Facilities Compared to Table 7: Employment Status For Population Need on the Basis of and Over, 2000 11 Table 8: Employment by Industry for Population LIST OF MAPS and Over, 2000 11 Existing Land Use 12 Existing Zoning 13 Table 9: Breakdown of Land Uses in Proposed Parks and Greenways the Crescent 43 in the Waterfront Area 25 Steep Slopes 28 Table 10: Downtown Parking Supply 54 Proposed Traffic Circulation in the Waterfront Area 31 Table 11: Current Hours and Charges for Parking Existing Zoning 33 in the Village 56 Proposed Zoning 39 Downtown Opportunities 51 Table 12: Recommended Changes to the Downtown Parking Supply 55 Existing Business Zoning 59 Proposed Traffic Circulation in the Downtown Crescent 57 Table 13: Area Median Income Per Households Proposed Zoning 60 in Westchester County, 2007 85 Indian Brook Reservation 75 Percentage of Houses with more Table 14: Workforce Wages vs. Homeownership than One Person Per Room (by Block Group) 86 Costs (Housing Costs Gap Analysis) Houses without Plumbing Facilities for a Four-person Household 85 (by Block Group) 87 Table 15: Affordable Housing Needs for the Village of Ossining 88 Table 16: Existing Affordable Housing in the Village of Ossining 89 IV Village of O s s i n i n g Comprehensive Plan 1. Introduction Village of O s s i n i n g Comprehensive Plan 1 The Village of Ossining is proud of its historic, scenic and socially diverse character. It is quite unlike the homoge- neous majority of Westchester County. Although only situ- ated within three square miles, Ossining has a population of approximately 24,000 people and contains an assortment of land uses, social diversity and an abundance of public amenities. The Village is almost completely developed and offers a good quality of life. The Village, located on the east- ern shore of the Hudson River 30 miles north of New York City, is also one of a number of river towns with older industrial/waterfront and historic/downtown areas in need of investment and poised for a revival complete with significant public amenities. To the north and northeast, the years including: Village borders the Town of Ossining and to its south and • Comprehensive Development Plan for the Village of southeast it borders the Village of Briarcliff Manor. The Ossining, 1969. Hudson River forms the western boundary of the Village of • Urban Renewal Plan for the Central Renewal Area, Ossining and provides three miles of Riverfront land. 1971. Spectacular views of the water and the pristine Hudson • Rehabilitation Feasibility and Historic Preservation Palisades are offered throughout the Village, even in loca- Study of the Crescent-Main Street Area, 1975. tions remote from the River’s shores. • Waterfront Redevelopment Plan, 1977. • Village Center Planning Program Central Renewal Ossining was incorporated as the Village of Sing Sing in Area, 1977. 1813, but changed its name to Ossining in 1901 to distance • Architectural Lifelines: Working with Historic itself from the already infamous prison that still dominates Buildings in Ossining, NY, 1978. the Village’s waterfront. Though Ossining has periodically • An Urban Cultural Park Management Plan, 1985. updated its zoning code over the years, a comprehensive • Proposed Land Use Plan for the Village of Ossining, plan for its development has not been prepared since 1959. 1987. There have been other planning initiatives throughout the • A Local Waterfront Redevelopment Plan, 1991. 2 Village of O s s i n i n g Comprehensive Plan • A Main Street and Waterfront Plan, 1994. with an additional unrestricted comment page. Typically, • The Downtown Ossining Vision Plan, 1998. the response rate for mail surveys is fairly low (around 2 percent), though Ossining gave cause for optimism given However, in view of the market, real estate and demo- the 4 percent response rate for the Village-wide recreation graphic changes of the past decade, Village leaders decided survey conducted in 2001. Of the 11,500 surveys mailed, that the preparation of a comprehensive plan should at last 1,436 were returned accounting for an excellent response be undertaken. rate of nearly 13 percent. Of those 1,436 surveys, more than half of the people took time to fill out the “Additional PUBLIC ENGAGEMENT Comments.” Ossining is not just a special place historically,