The Peekskill Common Council held a work session on Monday, May 4, 2026, starting at 6:45 p.m. in the Common Council Chamber. The meeting featured presentations on the city's comprehensive plan update and a proposed 158-unit affordable housing development at 418 N. Division Street, followed by discussion of several routine agenda items, liaison reports, and an executive session.
The council voted to enter executive session to discuss matters concerning the medical, financial, credit, or employment history of a particular person or corporation, as well as matters leading to appointment, employment, promotion, etc.
Committee of the whole meeting for today, May 4th, 2026. We have two presentations from our planning department along with a short agenda. And then we have executive session for discussion of matters concerning the medical, financial credit, or employment history of a particular person, persons, or organ or corporation, or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal, or removal of a particular person, persons, or corporation. So at this time I'm going to turn it over to our city manager. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening. Good evening. First up, I would like to ask Carol Samuel our planning director if she would introduce uh 418 North Division Street update with the 418 North Division Street LLC. Good evening, Mayor and Council. Good evening. If you don't mind, we're gonna switch uh presentations and go to the second one first. This was like a last-minute change. Um if that's okay with you all. Sure. Um and I'm introducing both. So um, you know, I I we're very happy to be able to have this conversation with you this evening with Interborough, um, and for you to meet uh some of the team, the principal, um uh Dan uh Diaca and uh Justin Paul Ware, who is our project manager, so you can start to get to know them more personally. Um we're very excited to be working with the team. We were very struck by their commitment to engagement and their kind of thinking outside the box for that kind of um approach to engagement, which we want you to hear a bit about this evening. Um this evening, they're just really presenting to you about the comp plan the structure, um, a little bit of the public engagement, and uh the resident advisory committee, which it bears repeating, they will they will go into it in more detail, which is an opportunity for residents to uh help lead the project and uh be a voice for their community, but also a conduit to their community because we're gonna be counting on them to be doing a lot of things, reaching out as well as as providing uh feedback as one piece of the structure of governance. And so we're very excited. We we will just um also bears repeating this Saturday, we'll be at Mothers Yay staff will be uh to present um the uh comp plan to um help people understand what they can do with the uh community advisory committee, but also to present the waterfront public realm plan. Um so we we will see everyone on Saturday and then probably at other events going forward. So let me first introduce um uh uh Dan Dioka and um from Interborough. And let's do you want to share this now? Yeah, I think so. Sure, uh thank you, Carol. Um good evening, Mayor McKenzie and Council. So happy to be here. Uh so my name is Dan Dioko. I'm a principal of of Interborough, also co-founder. So we're an urban planning and design firm. We're based in Brooklyn, although I live in Duchess County. Uh so we'll be uh leading the uh the preparation of the PSGL plan. Could not be more excited about about that. So at Interborough, we uh we really focus on helping cities translate community input and data and all that good stuff into implementable plans. So we've done this work all across the country. So excited to be um doing this work here in Peakskill at this moment. We have a um a pretty big team, um, which you could you could see here. So we've got Ty Lin, who's gonna lead the transportation work and the traffic safety work, Bureau Haphold, um, also based out of New York City, who will lead the resilience work, BJH advisors who will focus on economic development and housing strategy, and the Pace Land Use Law Center, who will support with zoning, land use and implementation. Um what is uh the peak skill plan? I think you all know. So just a quick reminder in really simple terms. Um it's a community-driven effort to create a new comprehensive plan to guide the city's future growth, investment and development. Once completed and adopted, the peak skill plan will replace the city's last comprehensive plan, which was last updated in 1981, together with residents, businesses, and local leaders, the plan will shape key priorities, including land use, transportation, housing, resiliency, sustainability, economic development. So it'll answer questions like you know, where should growth happen and where uh should it be more limited? How do we align housing, transportation, and economic development? How do we protect what makes PSK great while planning for the future? So the process is gonna take uh about 16 months, and at the end of the process, peak skill will have a very clear land use framework to guide growth and development, strategies for housing, transportation, all the stuff you see on the screen. Um, and so we're looking to produce a plan that's not just a document, but really a tool for everyday decision making. And uh so we've got a couple different phases, prepare is kind of the phase we're in now, moving into uh an analysis phase.