Wappingers Falls Village
City Zoning Code
City Zoning Code
ARTICLE II
Zoning Districts
§ 151-11 Establishment of zoning districts.
For the purposes of this chapter, the Village of Wappingers Falls is hereby divided into the seven zoning districts listed below in Table 1: Summary Table of Zoning Districts and as illustrated on the Village of Wappingers Falls Zoning Map. Three overlay districts are also hereby created. Within the overlay districts, all of the underlying land use district regulations remain in effect, except as they are specifically modified by the overlay district regulations.
Table 1: Summary Table of Zoning Districts | |
|---|---|
Zoning Districts | |
Residential | |
R | Residential |
VR | Village Residential |
Mixed-Use and Commercial | |
RMU | Residential Mixed Use |
VMU | Village Mixed Use |
VC | Village Commercial |
CMU | Commercial Mixed Use |
B | Bleachery |
OVERLAY DISTRICTS | |
 | |
§ 151-12 Purpose of zoning districts.
The purpose of each zoning district is described in Table 2.
Table 2: Purpose of Zoning Districts | |
|---|---|
R – Residential | |
The primary purpose of the Residential District is to preserve the character of existing pedestrian-friendly, moderate-density, single-family neighborhoods. Building height and front yard setbacks in this district are consistent on each block face. Single-family homes have front porches or stoops and are located on narrow lots. Streets generally have curbs, sidewalks and street trees. While almost exclusively residential, some civic functions and parks are also complementary to the character of this district. | |
VR – Village Residential | |
The primary purpose of the Village Residential District is to provide for pedestrian-friendly residential neighborhoods with a variety of housing types, including single-family, two-family, three-family, and townhouses, and some civic functions and parks. Lots in this district are compact and narrow. Shallow front yard setbacks and a consistent build-to line and building height on each block face serve to define the public realm of the street and encourage walking. Most homes have front porches. Streets with curbs, sidewalks and street trees define medium-sized blocks. | |
RMU – Residential Mixed Use | |
The primary purpose of the Residential Mixed Use District is to provide for a mix of clustered garden-style apartments and limited commercial uses, such as professional offices, for the convenience of neighboring residents. Front and side yard setbacks may be variable. In the Channingville Road area, the intent is also to preserve significant areas of open space, particularly along the road frontage, on lands that are constrained by topography. Streets generally have sidewalks and street trees. | |
VMU – Village Mixed Use | |
The primary purpose of the Village Mixed Use District is to provide for pedestrian-friendly neighborhoods with a mix of housing types and some small-scale commercial uses that primarily serve the local community. Lots are compact and narrow, and building height and front yard setbacks are consistent on each block face in order to define the public realm of the street and encourage walking. Streets with curbs, sidewalks and street trees define medium-sized blocks. On East and West Main Street, the VMU District additionally serves as a gateway to the Village, to slow traffic and provide a transition between the large commercial uses on Route 9 and the walkable Village center. | |
VC – Village Commercial | |
The primary purpose of the Village Commercial District is to provide for a vibrant, walkable downtown with higher density mixed-use buildings that accommodate a range of retail, service, entertainment, and office uses on the ground floor, and apartments above or below the ground floor. Infill development is designed to reinforce the existing well-defined urban character of the Village's historic downtown area. Streets have curbs with consistent street tree plantings, relatively small blocks, and wide sidewalks that accommodate outdoor dining while providing for comfortable strolling and easy view of retail merchandise. Buildings are set very close to the sidewalk in order to define the public realm, with frontage types that encourage substantial pedestrian activity. | |
CMU – Commercial Mixed Use | |
The primary purpose of the Commercial Mixed Use District is to redevelop the Route 9 corridor as a more contained sub-center with shared entrances and parking; higher quality landscaping, signage and architecture; sites that are upgraded with sidewalks, street trees, internal service roads; and development that fills in the fronts of large parking lots with small, closely spaced storefronts to build a street frontage with courtyard parking behind. Development form supports a high-quality commercial character, with one-story back buildings in the rear of the lots, and two- to three-story mixed-use linear buildings close to road frontages. Linear buildings conceal parking lots, and include ground floor commercial uses, a uniform setback, and wide sidewalks to increase pedestrian activity in the area. | |
B – Bleachery | |
The primary purpose of the Bleachery District is to revitalize the former Dutchess Bleachery into a vibrant contemporary market place with small-scale artisan manufacturing, collaborative makerspaces, startup or incubator businesses, recreation-based uses, craft beverage manufacturing, and tourism-support businesses, through the adaptive reuse of historic industrial buildings and construction of new architecturally compatible buildings. Increasing waterfront access and recreational opportunities in the district, and reestablishing the pedestrian connection between the Bleachery and downtown, will attract tourism, encourage private investment in new economic development and employment opportunities, and support downtown businesses. | |
The purpose of each overlay district is shown in Table 3.
Table 3: Purpose of Overlay Districts |
|---|
AWP-O – Aquifer and Wellfield Protection Overlay District The primary purpose of the Aquifer and Wellfield Protection Overlay District is to preserve the quality and quantity of the Village's water resources to ensure a safe and adequate water supply for present and future needs. |
H-O – Historic Overlay District The Historic Overlay District is coincident with the Wappingers Falls Historic District, which is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and it also includes any locally designated historic districts in the Village. The Wappingers Falls Historic District includes within its 90 acres extensive historic resources that reflect the development of a significant Hudson Valley industrial community over more than two centuries from 1730 to 1940. The Village retains significant, well-preserved examples of industrial and commercial buildings, working-class houses, stylish residences, and public structures and parks directly linked to the Village's historic industrial economy. The primary purpose of the Historic Overlay District is to promote the general good, welfare, health and safety of Village residents by providing for the protection, enhancement, perpetuation, and use of buildings, structures, and features of historic or architectural significance within the Wappingers Falls Historic District, and any locally designated historic districts, to link the community to its heritage and contribute to the aesthetic character of the Village. |
MH-O – Manufactured Home Overlay District The purpose of the Manufactured Home Overlay District is to promote orderly planned development of manufactured home parks through designs that foster a pleasant, attractive, safe environment while preserving the benefit of relatively low-cost housing traditionally associated with manufactured homes. The regulations are designed to preserve and protect the residential character of the district, and to ensure compatibility with adjacent neighborhoods. |
§ 151-13 Official Zoning Map.
The location and boundaries of the zoning districts hereby established are shown on the attached map[1] entitled "Official Zoning Map of the Village of Wappingers Falls" (referred to herein as the "Zoning Map"). Said map, together with all explanatory matter thereon and all amendments thereto, is hereby adopted and declared to be an appurtenant part of this chapter.
[1]
Editor's Note: A copy of the Zoning Map is included as 151 Attachment 1 of this chapter.
The Zoning Map shall be kept on file in the Village Clerk's office at Village Hall for the use and benefit of the public. Certified copies of said map shall also be on file in the offices of the Planning Board and the Village Building Department at Village Hall, and on the Village website.
Regardless of the existence of purported copies of the Zoning Map that may from time to time be made or published, the Zoning Map that is on file in the Village Clerk's office shall have final authority as to the current zoning status of any land in the Village.
The Village Clerk shall maintain copies of superseded versions of the Zoning Map for historical reference.
§ 151-14 Interpretation of district boundaries.
The precise location of any zoning district boundary line shown on the Zoning Map shall be defined by the rules of this section.
District boundary lines are intended to follow centerlines of streets, highways, rights-of-way, or watercourses or be parallel or perpendicular thereto, unless such district boundary lines are fixed by dimensions as shown on the Zoning Map.
Where district boundaries are indicated as approximately following lot lines, such lot lines are construed to be such boundaries.
Where district boundaries are indicated as approximately following the Village boundary line, they shall be construed to be coincident with such Village boundary line.
Where a district boundary divides a lot, the location of any such boundary, unless the same is indicated by dimensions shown on the Zoning Map, is determined by the use of the map scale shown thereon.
Where district boundaries cannot be determined by the Code Enforcement Officer through the use of center lines, existing property lines or by the Zoning Map, the Zoning Board of Appeals, upon hearing, shall determine and fix the location of such boundaries upon consideration of the purposes set forth in this chapter and all relevant evidence.
§ 151-15 Lots in two or more districts or municipalities.
Where a lot of record existing at the time of enactment of this chapter is divided by one or more district boundary lines, the following shall apply:
Each of said divisions of the lot shall be subject to the regulations of the district in which it is located.
The regulations for the less restricted portion of such lot may, at the owner's discretion, extend not more than 25 feet into the more restricted portion, provided the lot has frontage on a street in the less restricted district, and provided that all other requirements of this chapter, including extraordinary setbacks or buffers which may be required between certain land uses, are wholly met.
For the purposes of this section, the "more restricted portion" shall be deemed to be that district subject to regulations which:
Where portions of a lot lie in two or more districts or municipalities and the area of the lot within any district or within the limits of the Village (as the case may be) does not comply with the provisions of this chapter, the Code Enforcement Officer shall nevertheless issue a building permit, provided that the total area of the lot and the proposed setbacks comply with the most stringent zoning provisions applying to any part of the lot. However, where the area and/or setbacks do not so comply, the Zoning Board of Appeals, on direct application to it, may, after a public hearing, grant a variance to modify the area and setback requirements of the portion of such lot within the jurisdiction of the Board in such fashion and to such degree that the zoning requirements shall be affected to the minimum extent necessary.