Town of Schaghticoke
The laws behind the decisions — every one we can find, numbered, dated, and explained in a sentence, with the parcel and the zoning change spelled out.
Proposed — not yet law
Would restrict amplified noise in the four hamlet districts (Speigletown among them) between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. Public hearing Wednesday, August 12 at 6:30 PM, Town Hall, 290 Northline Drive, Melrose — the Board votes after it.
Local laws are how the town changes its own rules: rezoning a parcel, regulating solar, allowing lit signs, opting out of a state tax exemption. They are the most consequential documents the Town Board produces, and they explain most of what you read in the minutes archive.
The town publishes them as unlabelled scans, in alphabetical order by title — no law numbers, no years, no indication of what any of them did. Eight are titled some variation of "Amending the Zoning Law and Map of the Town of Schaghticoke," which tells a reader nothing. We read all 21 of them, took the number and year off each one's Department of State filing cover, cross-checked those against the list of amendments printed on the Zoning Law itself, and wrote down what each one actually does.
These are the town's documents and the town's text — we have added only the labels and the plain-language summary. Every PDF is mirrored on our own CDN, because the town's 2026 site migration took all of them offline at once. For a certified copy of any local law, ask the Town Clerk.
The law all of these amend
The consolidated Zoning Law, with every amendment folded in. Its cover page lists the amending local laws, which is what let us number and date the scans the town posts without labels.
Allowed electronic message signs in certain zoning districts and set the rules for them — brightness, how often the message may change, and where they are permitted. Directly relevant to any lit sign proposal in the hamlet.
Filed as: Amending the Zoning Law of the Town of Schaghticoke with Respect to Electronic Messaging Signs
Read the law ↗Rezoned two adjoining parcels at 850 Route 40 out of the Residential District.
Filed as: Amending the Zoning Map of the Town of Schaghticoke for Lands Located at 850 NYS Route 40
Read the law ↗Took a 4.76-acre parcel out of the Hamlet District — Speigletown and rezoned it Highway Commercial 1. One of the few laws to remove land from the hamlet zoning that governs Speigletown itself.
Filed as: Amending the Zoning Map of the Town of Schaghticoke for Lands Located at NYS Route 40 (east side) and Fogarty Road
Filed with the Department of State on August 24, 2020.
Read the law ↗Rezoned two parcels at 943 Route 40 to Highway Commercial 1.
Filed as: Amending the Zoning Map of the Town of Schaghticoke for Lands Located at 943 NYS Route 40 in the Vicinity of Campbell Road
Read the law ↗Changed the Schedule of Use Regulations to allow residential development in Highway Commercial districts, prompted by an owner of 138 acres on Route 67.
Filed as: Amending the Schedule of Use Regulations Contained in the Zoning Law of the Town of Schaghticoke
Read the law ↗Took 8.15 acres out of a 19.87-acre horse farm zoned Residential Agricultural and rezoned it Highway Commercial 1. This is the law that made commercial development possible on the corner now proposed for a Dollar General and for ProLine Power’s equipment storage.
Filed as: Amending the Zoning Map of the Town of Schaghticoke for Lands at the Corner of NYS Route 40 and East Schaghticoke Road
Read the law ↗Rezoned about 67.4 acres to Residential Agricultural.
Filed as: Amending the Zoning Law and Map of the Town of Schaghticoke for Lands Adjacent to Old Schaghticoke Road
The town also posts a one-page public notice summarising this law, adopted June 14, 2017.
Read the law ↗The town’s permanent solar siting law, replacing the 2016 moratorium: where solar is allowed, at what scale, and under what conditions. This is the law every solar application in the Planning Board minutes is judged against.
Filed as: Amending the Code of the Town of Schaghticoke to Regulate Solar Energy Facilities
Read the law ↗Rezoned about 66 acres next to Turner Road to Highway Commercial.
Filed as: Amending the Zoning and Map of the Town of Schaghticoke for Land Adjacent to Turner Road
Read the law ↗Paused solar development for nine months while the town wrote permanent siting rules — which became Local Law #1 of 2017.
Filed as: Local Law Imposing a Nine-Month Moratorium
Filed as "Local Law No. 1 of the year 2016" — the same number the opt-out law below carries. One of the two filings is mis-numbered; the town’s site gives no way to tell which.
Read the law ↗Removed the automatic property-tax exemption that state law grants solar and wind installations, so those projects are taxable here unless the town negotiates a payment agreement. A real decision about who pays for what, taken with almost no public attention.
Filed as: Opt-Out of Section 487 of the NYS Real Property Tax Law
Also filed as "Local Law No. 1 of the year 2016" — see the note on the moratorium above.
Read the law ↗An eleven-page package of amendments tidying up provisions across the Zoning Law after nearly a decade of minor Town Board changes.
Filed as: Amending the Zoning Law of the Town of Schaghticoke
Read the law ↗Replaced the Zoning Law’s "Development Near Streams and Wetlands" subsection — imposing a 100-foot setback from the normal streambank of the Hudson, the Hoosic, the Tomhannock, the Deepkill and other named waters — and rewrote how the Planning Board records decisions on special use permits.
Filed as: Zoning Amendment 2013
The town publishes this as "Zoning Amendment 2013". The document carries no local law number, and no 2013 amendment appears in the Zoning Law’s own list of adopted amendments — so treat it as the town presents it and check with the Town Clerk before relying on it.
Read the law ↗Rezoned about 7.78 acres to Highway Commercial at the owners’ request.
Filed as: Amending the Zoning Law and Map of the Town of Schaghticoke
Read the law ↗Created a lighter review path for small projects, so the Planning Board is not obliged to run a full site-plan review on everything. This is the law behind the "minor project" shorthand in Planning Board minutes.
Filed as: Amending the Zoning Law of the Town of Schaghticoke with Respect to the Review of Minor Projects
Read the law ↗Rezoned roughly 28 acres to Highway Commercial at the owner’s request.
Filed as: Amending the Zoning Law and Map of the Town of Schaghticoke
Read the law ↗Changed the zoning map for one parcel.
Filed as: A Law Amending the Zoning Map of the Town of Schaghticoke
Read the law ↗Updated and modernised Chapter 108 of the Town Code — the rules the Planning Board applies to every subdivision application, including the ones in the minutes archive.
Filed as: A Law Amending the Subdivision Law of the Town of Schaghticoke
Read the law ↗Rezoned roughly 20 acres to Highway Commercial at the request of the owner.
Filed as: Amending the Zoning Law and Map of the Town of Schaghticoke
Read the law ↗The town’s original siting rules for cell and telecommunications towers, adopted the year before the current Zoning Law. Enacted under the Municipal Home Rule Law to supersede provisions of Town Law.
Filed as: A Local Law Which Provides For Regulations for Telecommunication Towers Within the Town
The town posts two scans of this law. They differ slightly in length; we mirror both.
Read the law ↗No laws match that filter.
The Zoning Law's own cover page lists these as adopted amendments, but the town does not publish them anywhere we can find. They are in force regardless. The first one is the one to care about here: it rezoned multiple parcels in Speigletown and we cannot tell you which ones or how.
If you have a copy of any of these, or the Clerk provides one, send it our way and we'll host it here.
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