The decision, which affects a mixed-use zoning area along North Chestnut Street, will reduce the current limit by one story. “We already have a downtown New Paltz,” said former mayor Tom Nyquist, expressing a view which is common among those seeking to scale back the current rules. Others, like architect David Toder, whose mixed-use Zero Place development is proposed for the area ,see the blighted North Chestnut corridor as precisely where a vision of 21st-century development should be unfurled.

Planned pay cuts for members of the Lloyd town board — $2000 for board members, and $6000 for the supervisor — don’t pass legal muster, according to town attorney Sean Murphy.

Supervisor Paul Hansut, who is in the minority party on the board, believes the decision was political.

The delay in processing applications could affect some pending projects, such as the controversial Heartwood resort, if significant changes to the initial proposal are made by the applicant.

Four stories or three?