Planning for Newburgh’s future

The city of Newburgh”™s newer  residents may not realize why Broadway is so wide; before cars were in vogue, cattle were driven down its wide dirt road to the Hudson River where barges would take them to their next destination.
Now, the city hopes residents will come out to help shape the future of the historic roadway. The first of three interactive public design workshops for the Newburgh Area Transportation & Land Use Study is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 7.

The free workshop will be held at the Newburgh Recreation Center, 401 Washington St., from 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., with a presentation at the start of the public meeting. No prior planning experience is required. Anyone wishing to participate can work with the study team to help plan a streetscape that considers traffic flow, pedestrians, transit, public spaces and development, as well as helps set direction for a buildable design. Residents would also provide input on how the three-mile corridor should function for  business, residents and visitors.

The study is being undertaken on behalf of the Orange County Transportation Council to produce an overall assessment and multimodal plan for transportation, integrated with local and regional land-use planning policies.

The study area comprises the city of Newburgh and the surrounding towns of Newburgh, New Windsor, Cornwall and Montgomery, as well as the villages within their borders.

In early 2010, the project team plans to conduct public design workshops focusing on the suburban 9W/Vails Gate area and on village streets.

For those interested in participating in the workshops, call (845) 855-7077 or email vmold@archstreetscommunications.com.  The study can be found at newburghareastudy.info.

The study is not part of the MTA West of the Hudson Regional Transit Access Study.