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Planning board asks town for data, joint meeting before endorsing MFRC housing incentives
Summary
The planning board declined to take a firm position on proposed MFRC incentives, saying staff must provide an inventory of eligible lots and impacts; the board asked staff to draft a memo requesting a joint meeting with the Town Board and to identify priority incentives such as ADU tweaks and incentives for accessible units.
The New Castle Planning Board spent the middle portion of its June 17 meeting discussing a referral on MFRC housing incentives and agreed it cannot responsibly 'support' or 'refute' the draft metrics without additional staff-provided inventory and analysis.
Board members said the proposals contain potentially useful incentives but lack the underlying data necessary to assess whether the draft metrics (for lot sizes, density and bonuses) will produce the town’s intended outcomes. Members repeatedly urged staff to prepare an inventory of eligible lots, estimate potential dwelling-unit yield under alternative thresholds (for example a quarter-acre vs. a tenth-acre trigger), and return with the analysis before the board commits to numerical metrics.
Several members emphasized policy priorities that should guide incentives. They suggested the town prioritize accessible and senior housing, revise accessory-apartment (ADU) rules to increase downtown housing supply (including removing an owner-occupancy requirement), and consider developer-focused incentives such as reduced fees, expedited reviews and targeted tax breaks rather than simply increasing allowable unit counts.
“Before we can endorse or amend the metrics, we need to see the inventory and the impacts,” a board member said. The board directed staff to draft a memo to the Town Board that (a) states the planning board is not positioned to approve or reject the draft metrics without additional data and (b) requests a joint meeting to discuss goals (design, scale and the specific incentives the Town Board seeks). Staff agreed to circulate a draft memo for board edits within a tight timeline so the board can consolidate comments before sending a formal response.
