STEWART AIRPORT – The growth potential for Stewart Airport at Newburgh is great, but potential pitfalls to the region must also be considered, according to an official of the New York-based Regional Plan Association.

There are the opportunities for transportation improvements, overall growth in the economy and more jobs, but Robert Lane of the RPA said the Hudson Valley must also beware of the potential negatives.

“The potential downsides are that this thing will become nothing but a magnet for more sprawl development, that it will create easier access to the Hudson Valley, but without the land use controls in place, the kind of development that it may spur could be more sprawl and not respect the incredible underlying green infrastructure of the Hudson Valley,” he said.

Organizations like Pattern for Progress and other county and regional groups are working in an effort to prevent that from happening.

As for the airport itself, the Port Authority has a goal of making it a carbon negative facility and as ‘green’ as possible.