Bedford Adds Cafés to Residents' Dining-out Options

Faster than you can say—OK, enjoy consuming—coffee and a nosh, the town board added cafés Tuesday to Bedford's roster of permitted food outlets.

The new classification, embodied in a revision of the town code, will allow retailers of food and beverages for at-home consumption—a bakery or deli, for example—to offer on-premises eating as well. Under the code revision, cafés could devote, at most, an area of 450 square feet—as much space as you'd find in an 18 x 25-foot room—and 20 seats to the on-premises eating area.

By accepting those capacity limits, the cafés will be permitted to operate with up to half the usual off-street parking, subject to approval by the town planning board.

The planning board, seeing a need to refine the definition of an eating establishment—and its parking demands—beyond the traditional restaurant, had done most of the heavy lifting on the new ordinance.

"We've created a new zoning-use category called café," town Planning Director Jeffrey Osterman said in formally presenting the proposed code revision Tuesday. The town board later unanimously adopted the revision.  

To tailor parking in the Central Business and Neighborhood Business zoning districts to accommodate café needs, the planning board will be able to waive certain requirements, subject to strict conditions.

The board may study, among other things, whether the area has adequate parking, that the waiver complies with Bedford's comprehensive plan and that it "will not significantly affect the use and availability of parking spaces in the immediate area [of the café]." The board could also restrict a café's proposed hours of operation as a condition of granting the waiver.

A formal legal agreement would bind the parking waiver to the premises' use as a café, Osterman said.

Committee sheds light on town's illumination

The town board took an aerial-photo tour of Bedford's night skies, courtesy of a working group that seeks some formal regulation of the town's nocturnal illumination, especially on commercial property. Not surprisingly, Bedford Hills—notably Route 117—outshined both Katonah and Bedford Village, the latter a subdued twinkle in the nighttime photo.

"As far as residential properties are concerned, we're not [going to suggest] making huge changes," said Deirdre Courtney-Batson, a member of the town planning board as well as the lighting group. Donald Coe, chairman of the planning board and a leader in forming the lighting group, said his panel had seen a growing number of applications with lights that were too bright. Other lighting group members at Tuesday's meeting included Councilman Christopher Burdick; Simon Skolnik, chairman of the Conservation Board; and Stan Starr, a Conservation Board member. 

Bedford backs calls for constitutional convention

The town board formally endorsed growing calls for a state constitutional convention, specifically mounted to overhaul a widely criticized state government. The board had delayed an official vote at its Sept. 21 meeting after splitting along party lines over backing Republican Assemblyman Robert Castelli's legislation calling for the convention. It had no problem Tuesday unanimously supporting the multiple efforts to reform Albany through constitutional revision.