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Highland Falls adopts zoning changes to bar ground-floor housing, tweak heights and add parking incentive
Summary
After public hearings, the Highland Falls Board of Trustees adopted Local Law No. 5 of 2025, which clarifies that residential units are to be above the ground floor in mixed-use buildings, reduces maximum height for some senior multifamily housing, and allows up to 50% of ground-floor area to be used for residential parking as an incentive for development.
The Highland Falls Board of Trustees voted on Dec. 15 to adopt Local Law No. 5 of 2025, a package of zoning amendments aimed at encouraging Main Street development while tightening where residences can be located in mixed-use buildings. Mayor DeSalvo led the reading of the local law and the board completed the roll call on the measure.
The adopted changes include an explicit prohibition on residential dwellings on the ground floor of mixed-use buildings, clarified in the law as "Residential use in the form of apartment dwellings and similar residential dwellings may only be located on the floors above." The law also reduces the maximum height for publicly assisted senior multifamily housing from 70 feet to 50 feet and sets the height for mixed-use development at 50 feet. The measure includes language enumerating exceptions for certain architectural features such as parapets and bulkheads.
Mayor DeSalvo said the changes are intended to spur economic development on Main Street while preserving guardrails for density and parking. "This gives developers another tool in the toolbox to build something," she said, adding the law preserves existing density controls while offering incentives to provide on-site parking.
The ordinance creates a parking incentive that allows up to 50% of a mixed-use building's ground-floor area to be used for residential parking when the developer meets the law's criteria. Supporters argued that giving developers the option to add parking on-site could make projects more viable; critics warned the allowance could increase density and should be coupled with more study.
Counsel and trustees discussed precise wording during the hearing after a resident and zoning-board chair raised concerns that the draft language might leave a loophole allowing first-floor residential uses through certain interpretations of the parking/revenue percentages. Village Attorney (counsel) told the board the section could be reworded to make the ground-floor prohibition explicit and offered a rewording that the board adopted into the final text.
The local law was presented as Local Law No. 5 of 2025; the mayor read the resolution and the board took final action. The transcript records affirmative votes from multiple trustees and the mayor; specific full roll-call tallies beyond named 'Yes' votes in the excerpt were not fully enumerated in the provided transcript excerpt.
