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:

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.

To improve the physical appearance of the community with urban design standards that provide more predictable results in the form and character of buildings.

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.

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.

To facilitate the provision of affordable housing and a variety of housing choices within the Village.

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.

To enable and encourage mixed-use development within areas of the community in support of viable and diverse locally oriented business and cultural institutions.

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.

To preserve the Village's historic heritage and in particular to protect and restore designated historic districts, buildings, sites, features, and their environs.

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.

To make provision for access to sunlight and the accommodation of solar energy equipment and other alternative energy systems.

To promote energy conservation and low impact, environmentally sensitive development.

To facilitate the adequate provision of transportation, water supply, sewage disposal, schools, parks, and other public facilities and services as needed by the community.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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).

This chapter shall apply to all land, buildings, structures, and uses of land, buildings, and structures within the Village, unless an exemption is provided by or granted pursuant to the terms of this chapter, or otherwise by law.

Except as hereinafter otherwise provided, no building, structure or land shall hereafter be used or occupied, and no building or structure or part thereof shall hereafter be constructed, erected, moved, altered, reconstructed or enlarged for any purpose, except in conformity with all of the regulations herein, and in conformity with Chapter 18 of the New York Consolidated Laws, Article 18, known as the "New York State Uniform Building Code" and Chapter 64, Unsafe Buildings, of this Code.

In their interpretation and application, the provisions of this chapter shall be held to be the minimum requirements for the promotion of the public health, safety, convenience, comfort and general welfare.

Where the requirements of this chapter are inconsistent with the requirements of any other lawfully adopted statute, law, ordinance, rule or regulation, the more restrictive provisions, or those imposing the higher standards, shall govern.

It is not intended by this chapter to interfere with or abrogate or annul any easement, covenant or other agreement between parties; provided, however, that when this chapter imposes a greater restriction on the use of buildings or land or upon the erection, construction, establishment, moving, alteration or enlargement of buildings, or imposes any higher standards than are imposed or required by any easement, covenant or agreement, the provisions of this chapter shall control.

Except where an application is submitted for the purpose of curing existing violations or will result in the curing of existing violations, no application for subdivision plat approval, site plan approval, special use permit, certificate of appropriateness, certificate of demolition or removal, change of nonconforming use, or variance pursuant to this Zoning Law shall be deemed complete for purposes of commencing review of the same by either the Planning Board or the Zoning Board of Appeals, as applicable, for any premises or property on which there is an existing violation as defined in Subsection C, infra, of this Zoning Law or of any Village, county or state law or regulation governing building construction and/or the development and use of land, buildings and structures within the Village. This provision does not apply to a legal nonconforming use or legal nonconforming structure or lot, nor shall it be interpreted to prohibit the issuance of a certificate of demolition or removal if demolition or removal is deemed by the Code Enforcement Officer to be the reasonable means to remedy a condition determined by the Code Enforcement Officer to be an imminent threat to public health and safety.

No building permit, sign permit, certificate of occupancy, or certificate of compliance shall be issued by the Code Enforcement Officer for any premises or property within the Village on which there is an existing violation of this Zoning Law or of any Village, county or state law or regulation governing building construction, and/or the development and use of land, buildings and structures.

For purposes of this section, a premises or property shall be deemed to be in violation of this Zoning Law where a stop-work order, notice of violation, order to remedy violation, or similar notice or order has been issued by the Village's Code Enforcement Officer in accordance with the provisions of the Village Code, or the Village has filed a criminal or civil action in a court of competent jurisdiction and the violation which is the subject of the order, notice or legal action has not been remedied by the property owner. In the event the automatic stay provisions of § 7-712-A, Subdivision 6, of NYS Village Law are invoked by timely appeal of any such order or notice to the Zoning Board of Appeals, the applicable Board or the Code Enforcement Officer can deem the application complete for purposes of commencing review, but no final approval shall be granted by the Board until such time as the Zoning Board of Appeals has reversed the determination of the officer or the violation has been remedied. For purposes of this provision, remedy of a violation shall be deemed to have occurred when the officer who issued the order or notice has inspected the property and has notified the property owner, in writing, that the violation has been satisfactorily remedied.

No application under this chapter shall be accepted, processed or considered without proof that all taxes, water and sewer bills, garbage bills, and all other fees or fines payable to the Village, including any fines due and payable to the Village Justice Court, for the property subject to the application are paid in full.