The engineering rules that operationalize Penn Yan's Comprehensive Plan.
Adopted March 2017 by the Village of Penn Yan. Last reviewed on this page: May 2026.
The Infrastructure Design Criteria & Construction Specifications is the Village of Penn Yan's binding engineering standards manual. It was adopted in March 2017, the same month as the Village's Comprehensive Plan. It sets the technical design requirements every developer must meet for any project within Village jurisdiction. Water mains, sanitary sewers, stormwater drainage, roads, electric service, and site construction all fall under it.
The document is organized into two parts. Sections 1 through 9 cover Design Criteria — what a developer must design. Sections 10 through 16 cover Construction Specifications — how that work must be built.
The document's own Introduction defines its purpose plainly:
"It is not the intent of the booklet to conflict with land subdivision regulations, zoning policies, Comprehensive Master Plan, or general overall supervision of development by the Village Board. Rather, it is intended to supplement such policies by providing the technical details necessary to carry out general policy in a successful manner."
In other words: the Comprehensive Plan sets the policy direction, and the Infrastructure Design Criteria turns that direction into specific technical rules.
This document is binding law in Penn Yan. The Village Code incorporates it by reference as the standard for any new development. That means a developer cannot get final site plan approval without demonstrating compliance with this document.
For a resident, this matters because the Comprehensive Plan is general. It talks about "ensuring adequate infrastructure capacity" and "protecting water quality," but it does not spell out what those phrases mean in practice. The Infrastructure Design Criteria is where that policy becomes specific requirements. For example, a sewer Basis of Design Report must address gravity mains, lift stations, and the wastewater treatment plant — not just one part of the system. New water facilities need New York State Department of Health approval before final site plan approval. Stormwater in the Keuka Lake Outlet watershed faces a stricter standard.
This subpage explains what each section of the Infrastructure Design Criteria covers, hosts the text of the document for verification, and links to where its specific requirements are tested in active development cases like the proposed McFetridge Farm development.
The Infrastructure Design Criteria has 16 numbered sections. The first nine cover design — what a developer must propose. Sections 10 through 16 cover construction — how that work must be built. That design/build split is the basic structure of the document. Below is the table of contents as published in the document itself.
| § | Section Title |
|---|---|
| 1 | General Requirements |
| 2 | Sequence of Procedures |
| 3 | General Design Requirements |
| 4 | Road, Street, and Pavement |
| 5 | Storm Drainage Facilities |
| 6 | Sanitary Sewage Facilities |
| 7 | Water Supply |
| 8 | Municipal Electric |
| 9 | Miscellaneous |
| § | Section Title |
|---|---|
| 10 | General Construction Requirements |
| 11 | Road, Street, and Pavement |
| 12 | Storm Drainage |
| 13 | Sanitary Sewer Facilities |
| 14 | Water Supply |
| 15 | Electrical Construction |
| 16 | Miscellaneous Construction |
Sections 10 through 16 mirror Sections 4 through 9 — the design criteria specify what must be built; the construction specifications specify how. Standard Details engineering drawings appear throughout the document.
For most active development questions, five sections of the Infrastructure Design Criteria do the heavy lifting. Here is what each requires, in plain language.
The headline requirement: §4.3 requires that any new development with frontage on a state highway must obtain written approval from the New York State Department of Transportation (NYSDOT) for the access design before construction can begin. The Village's own approval is also required.
What this means in practice: A 200-to-500-unit development on Route 14A, which is a state highway, cannot move forward without NYSDOT signing off on the access road design, turning lanes, and traffic flow. The Village's engineering standards also require separate written Village approval.
Where this is being tested: The proposed McFetridge Farm development on Route 14A. NYSDOT approval status as of May 2026 is not yet documented in the public record reviewed for this hub.
The headline requirement: Developers must submit a Basis of Design Report (§5.4.A) and a Stormwater Pollution Prevention Plan, or SWPPP. After development, peak runoff must be held to predevelopment rates for the 1-year, 10-year, and 100-year design storms. The design must also treat 90% of average annual runoff for water quality.
The heightened standard: §5.11 addresses Flood Hazard Prevention. The Village's engineering standards apply heightened scrutiny to development in or near the Keuka Lake Outlet watershed, which drains directly into Keuka Lake.
Erosion control: §5.8 requires Erosion and Sedimentation Control as part of stormwater design. For a 72-acre farmland development like the McFetridge proposal, this is significant — stripping vegetation from that much land creates major erosion risk during construction.
Where this is being tested: The McFetridge Farm Development Review Checklist tracks this requirement as Card B1.
The headline requirement: §6.4.A.2 requires the developer to submit a Basis of Design Report showing how the project would affect the Village's gravity sewers, lift stations, and wastewater treatment plant — not just one part of that system.
What this means in practice: A developer cannot point to one working pipe or one lift station and claim capacity exists. The Basis of Design Report must address the full sewer system end to end, from on-site collection through wastewater treatment plant discharge. This matters for the McFetridge proposal because the Village's wastewater treatment plant experienced repeated equipment failures and more than $1 million in interceptor sewer work in 2024-2025.
Where this is being tested: The McFetridge Farm Development Review Checklist tracks this requirement as Card A1.
The headline requirement: §7.1 — the New York State Department of Health (NYSDOH) must approve the proposed water facilities before the Village can grant final site plan approval. This is not optional and not a routine check.
Additional requirements: §7.4.A.5 requires a fire flow analysis (hydrants, pressure, fire-suppression demand). §7.5.A.5 requires Insurance Services Office (ISO) compliance with a 20 psi minimum pressure maintained at all points during fire-flow conditions.
What this means in practice: A development cannot get site plan approval until NYSDOH signs off on the water system. NYSDOH approval is required, not a routine step. The fire flow analysis helps show whether water pressure stays adequate when hundreds of new units add demand.
Where this is being tested: The McFetridge Farm Development Review Checklist tracks this requirement as Card A2, with a "Critical hurdle" callout flagging the NYSDOH gating requirement.
The headline requirement: Unlike most New York villages, Penn Yan operates its own municipal electric utility through the Municipal Utility Board (MUB). §8 governs design of electric service for any new development — including transformer sizing, service drops, and load capacity calculations.
What this means in practice: Penn Yan owns its electric system. That means a 200-to-500-unit development raises a direct local capacity question. The Village's engineering standards require the developer to show that the MUB system can absorb the added load without degrading service to existing customers. Neighboring towns served by NYSEG do not face that same Village-run utility question.
Where this is being tested: The McFetridge Farm Development Review Checklist tracks this requirement as Card A3 (Electric Service Capacity).
⚠️ Note on this digital copy: The version hosted below is a text-only digital copy of the Infrastructure Design Criteria as adopted in March 2017. It includes the enforceable text, but not the Standard Details engineering drawings. Those diagrams are referenced throughout the document, but they did not survive the OCR conversion that produced our digital copy.
This is a limitation of our scan, not of the Village's official document. The Village's physical and electronic master copy contains the complete Standard Details. We are considering a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request to obtain the full document with the diagrams intact.
The text below includes all enforceable requirements in the manual, including Sections 4 through 8 and the other sections that govern development in Village jurisdiction.
Village of Penn Yan — Adopted March 2017
Text-only digital copy (Standard Details engineering drawings not included due to OCR conversion limitations)
View or Download on Box →Hosted on Box.com. Opens in a new tab. The document can be viewed in the browser or downloaded as a PDF.
We reference the Infrastructure Design Criteria across multiple pages on PennYanCitizens.com — wherever the Village's own engineering standards bear on an active issue. Here is where it shows up.
The Route 14A page anchors its 16-card Due Diligence Wall to the Infrastructure Design Criteria. Four cards explicitly cite specific sections:
The 16-study Development Review Checklist references the Infrastructure Design Criteria as the source for Village-level engineering requirements. The checklist explains what a resident should expect to see in the public record before any large development moves forward.
Visit the page →In Development. The forthcoming McFetridge Compliance Audit subpage will use the Infrastructure Design Criteria as its primary regulatory anchor for evaluating whether the Village has followed its own engineering standards in the proposed McFetridge Farm annexation.
Page in development — no link yetThis subpage hosts a text-only version of a public document. If you want the complete document with engineering diagrams, or the underlying adopting resolution, these are the FOIL requests we have identified as most useful.
If you want the legal hook, it is this: under New York State Village Law §7-722(11)(a), Village land-use regulations must be in accordance with the Comprehensive Plan. The Infrastructure Design Criteria is one of those regulations. Village Code Chapter 158 (Sewers) and Chapter 202 (Zoning) each incorporate the "Design and Construction Standards for Land Development of the Village of Penn Yan" as binding standards.
A focused FOIL request is more likely to get a clear answer than a broad one. The Village has 5 business days to acknowledge the request, then 20 days to respond or set a longer timeline. For the full FOIL guide, see /transparency/foil-requests/.
Go back to the hub to explore the four planning documents and the active issues shaping Penn Yan's planning framework.
Primary sources for this subpage:
This subpage was last reviewed on May 18, 2026. The Village of Penn Yan has not been consulted in the preparation of this subpage. PennYanCitizens.com is an independent civic-journalism site; we are not affiliated with the Village of Penn Yan, the Town of Milo, or Yates County government.
The text-only version of the Infrastructure Design Criteria hosted on this subpage is a public record. PennYanCitizens.com is not the original source of this document; the Village of Penn Yan adopted it and is its legal custodian.
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