Rye's median home price has reached $2.2 million, and even dual-income professional families are struggling to stay, Councilmember Marion Anderson said Thursday. That affordability squeeze now sits at the center of the city's first comprehensive plan update in more than 40 years.

The story that sums up the problem.

Anderson, Rye's first African American council member and lead on public outreach for the plan, described meeting a young couple during her campaign — two attorneys with two children, living in apartments on Theodore Fremd Avenue, who told her they feared they couldn't afford to stay in Rye. With a median household income above $483,000 and that $2.2 million median home price, Anderson said the numbers speak for themselves. "We do have people that are much, much, much more modest in their income, people living on Social Security, people living on much less," she said. "So how do we balance that? It's all about finding balance."

The city's 1985 plan was built entirely around single-family homes, Anderson said, but Rye is now landlocked with little undeveloped land left — meaning new moderate-income housing options may be the only real path to giving young families a place to start their lives here.

A flood agreement Anderson calls a genuine first.

Anderson also revealed what she called a first-of-its-kind intermunicipal agreement between the City of Rye, the Town of Rye, and Harrison to tackle Beaver Brook flooding together. "First time Harrison has actually come to the table with us to talk about flooding and Beaver Brook," she said. "Water does not care about artificial boundaries of communities. So we have to be working together." Rye is also part of a 14-community regional watershed council that Anderson says has been "reinvigorated" with new focus on flooding. City officials did not respond to requests for comment on the agreement's current status.

Where the plan itself stands.

The 15-member steering committee held its second meeting Monday, guided by consultants from AKRF Planning and Pace University's Land Use Law Center, with six technical groups now forming around housing, economy, transportation, environment, parks and recreation, and history and community. Mayor Josh Nathan called the committee's work key to helping Rye "finding that beautiful tension between preservation and progress." The city approved a $285,000 contract in February to run the full 18-month process.

Roots in Rye's civil rights history.

Anderson's approach to the plan is shaped by her own advocacy work: she and a Rye High School classmate led the campaign to rename the train station plaza "Paul and Orial Redd Way," honoring the couple whose 1960s housing discrimination case led to New York's Redd Bill. More than 200 people attended the dedication last September.

Other priorities on her radar.

Beyond housing and flooding, Anderson flagged cell service gaps, deer management, sustainability, and the city's new gas-powered leaf blower restrictions — noting she spotted a battery-powered mower on the Village Green for the first time this week.

Get involved.

The steering committee's August meeting date hadn't been set as of late July. Residents can participate through the comprehensive plan website, technical advisory groups, neighborhood committees, and surveys.