County-wide, cooperative, long-range planning

Westchester County has six cities, 16 towns and 23 villages. Each of these municipalities has home rule authority on all matters relating to planning and zoning. They each adopt zoning ordinances, establish their own rules for processing subdivision and site plans and enact their own unique environmental regulations. Although the ground rules for this authority are set under New York State law, this situation makes regional planning no small challenge.

As fragmented as land use authority may be, Westchester has a very long tradition of using all of the tools of planning. Most municipalities in Westchester first adopted zoning ordinances in the 1920s.  Three local planning boards date back to 1917. Every municipality in Westchester has prepared a comprehensive plan.

The County Planning Department and the Westchester County Planning Board respond to the challenge of working within this multi-jurisdictional and sophisticated environment by promoting intergovernmental cooperation and urging participation of the municipalities in regional and subregional planning efforts.

The main blueprint that guides our county-wide planning approach is Westchester 2025, the county’s long-range planning policy.

The Land Use and Development section has several goals:

• Provide a regional perspective and offer critical guidance on land use, development and zoning actions being considered by local governments.
• Promote appropriate and sustainable development of land in coordination with transportation and infrastructure, guided by the goals, policies and strategies of Westchester 2025
• Initiate studies on intermunicipal topics that assist local land use and zoning decision-making by municipalities.
• Provide essential technical assistance on planning and zoning actions to municipal officials and county departments.

Westchester 2025 also provides the basis for the county planning board’s review of local municipal land use, development and zoning actions. With the assistance of the planning department staff, the planning board submits hundreds of comment letters each year to the local municipalities on everything from zoning amendments to large housing and commercial developments. Each referred item is reviewed not only with regard to impacts on each specific site but also from a regional, intermunicipal perspective.

For further information, contact Patrick Natarelli at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .