Planning · · 9 min read · by KB Quality Painting
Key takeaways
- A new exterior color can need approval in a local historic district. Repainting in the existing colors usually counts as maintenance.
- In Newburgh a color change needs a Certificate of Appropriateness from the Architectural Review Commission, which meets once a month.
- Warwick's review board approves color schemes down to the front door, and Goshen's design district rules cover exterior changes in the village center.
- Settle colors and paperwork in the off-season and buy the paint only after approval.
This guide is general information for homeowners, checked against each municipality's published code and application materials in October 2026. Rules and forms change, and the final word is always the board or building department for your address. Ask them before you choose colors.
Why a paint job can need permission here
Orange County has some of the oldest housing in the Hudson Valley, and several of its cities and villages protect that housing with local review boards. If your house sits inside one of those districts, an exterior paint job can need written approval before work starts. The trigger is usually not painting itself. It is changing what the house looks like, and on a historic street a new body or trim color counts.
The rules are not the same from one municipality to the next. The City of Newburgh, the Village of Warwick and the Village of Goshen each handle it differently, so this guide takes them one at a time and then sets out how to plan a job so the review doesn't hold up your painting season.
Local districts and the National Register are different things
People often assume that a house "on the historic register" comes with paint rules. The National Register of Historic Places is a federal list, and the National Park Service, which runs it, says that listing by itself places no restrictions on what a private owner does with the property using private money. It is an honor and, in some cases, a route to tax credits. It is not a review process.
The rules that actually bind a homeowner come from local law: a city or village creates a district by ordinance and gives a board the power to approve or refuse exterior changes inside it. A house can be on the National Register and outside any local district, or inside a local district and not individually listed anywhere. The local designation is the one that matters for your paint job, so that is the one to check.
City of Newburgh: a new color needs a Certificate of Appropriateness
Newburgh has the most clearly written rules in the county. The City Council designated the East End Historic District in 1977, and the city's Architectural Review Commission (ARC) reviews exterior changes to properties in its historic and architectural design districts. Under the city code, no one may carry out an exterior alteration in a designated district without first obtaining a Certificate of Appropriateness (COA) from the ARC.
Same color is maintenance. A new color is a change.
The code protects ordinary maintenance and repair, but only where the work does not change the design, material, color or outward appearance of the building. In practice that splits exterior painting in two:
- Repainting in the existing colors is maintenance. The ARC's own exemption list includes repainting windows and exterior lead paint abatement that involves scraping and repainting in the same color.
- Changing the body, trim or door color changes the outward appearance, and that needs a COA before the brushes come out.
What a painting application involves
The ARC has a short "painting only" application. It asks for color photographs of the building, with a simple drawing showing where each photo was taken, and for every proposed color the manufacturer, color name, color number and a paint chip. You don't have to use a particular brand. A painting-only application carries a small fee and no public hearing, and the commission can put routine applications on a consent agenda, approved in a single vote without the applicant needing to attend.
Build the calendar around the meeting
The ARC meets once a month, on the second Tuesday, and an application has to be in by the third Tuesday of the month to make the following meeting. Depending on where you land in that cycle, that is roughly three to eight weeks from submission to a decision. The commission also recommends not buying materials until the COA and any permit are granted. For an exterior job, the practical rule is simple: apply in late winter or early spring so approval is in hand before the painting season opens.
Village of Warwick: the review board looks at the details
The Village of Warwick adopted its Architectural and Historic District law in 1986, and its Architectural and Historic District Review Board reviews changes to the exterior architectural features of buildings in the district. The village code defines "alteration" broadly: it covers changes to the exterior of buildings in the district, and it states outright that repair required by normal wear and tear counts.
The board's published minutes show how specific its color reviews can be. At its March 4, 2025 meeting it approved a color scheme item by item, with the deck surface and the front door each named by manufacturer color and number, and the windows and trim specified to match the siding. If your house is in the village district, expect the board to want the same level of detail from you, and ask the village before you assume a "simple repaint" is exempt.
We've painted in Warwick (one example is this Warwick colonial interior), and the village's older houses reward that care. The review is part of what keeps the streets looking the way they do.
Village of Goshen: the Architectural Design District
Goshen protects its village center through an Architectural Design District (ADD), set up under Article XV of the village zoning code. It covers the downtown business and historic areas shown on the village zoning map. Every building permit application for exterior modification or signage inside the ADD must include a signed acknowledgement that the work is subject to those rules, and the Building Inspector can refer major exterior work to the Planning Board or the village's architectural consultant.
Goshen's published forms don't say whether a paint color change on its own triggers that review. So treat it as an open question and put it to the village Building Inspector before you choose colors. If your house is in the ADD, a short call before the job is far easier than a violation notice after it.
The rest of the county
Newburgh, Warwick and Goshen aren't the only places with historic centers. Montgomery, Walden, Cornwall-on-Hudson and others have older village cores, and any municipality can adopt its own design review. Homeowners associations in newer developments often have color rules of their own, too. We haven't covered every local code here, so the safe habit is the same everywhere: if your house is in a village or an HOA, ask the building department or the association whether exterior colors are reviewed before you fall in love with a swatch.
How to plan the job so the review doesn't cost you the season
- Confirm whether you're in a district. Check the district map or call the building department with your address. Don't guess from the age of the house.
- Decide early: same colors or new ones. If you're keeping the existing scheme, the review question usually goes away. If you're changing it, the application comes first.
- Pick colors with the application in mind. Look at what suits the house's period and the street (more on that below), and keep the manufacturer names and numbers together.
- Apply before you book the start date. Newburgh's monthly cycle alone can take weeks. Our guide to the best time to paint a house in the Hudson Valley explains why the good exterior weeks fill up fast.
- Plan the prep around the age of the house. Most houses in these districts were built well before 1978, so scraping and sanding fall under the EPA's lead-safe work rules. Our guide to lead paint safety in pre-1978 homes explains what changes.
Don't buy the paint yet. A board can approve your scheme with changes, such as a different trim white or a softer door color. Order paint after approval, not before.
Choosing colors a review board will accept
Boards don't usually hand out a single approved palette. They ask whether a scheme fits the building and the street. A few principles help:
- Think in a body, trim and accent scheme. Most 19th-century houses were painted with a body color, a contrasting trim color, and sometimes a third color for sash, doors or details. A clear scheme is easier to describe on an application and easier for a board to picture.
- Use a historic color collection if it helps. Newburgh's application notes that several manufacturers, including Benjamin Moore, Valspar and Sherwin-Williams, offer historic color lines, while making clear you don't have to use any particular brand.
- Sample on the house. A chip under store lighting tells you very little about a color on a north-facing clapboard wall. Paint test patches on the siding and look at them in morning and evening light before you commit.
If you're stuck, a color consultation is a good way to arrive at the board with a scheme that already makes sense for the house.
Prep matters more on these houses
Approval gets you permission. It doesn't make the paint last. Older wood siding, cornices and window trim in these districts often carry many layers of paint, and the condition of those layers decides how long the new coat survives. Read why paint fails in our guide to peeling exterior paint, and see how long exterior paint lasts by surface in this climate.
How we handle historic-district jobs
At the estimate we ask whether the house is in a local district and whether you're changing colors. If you are, we put the products, color names and numbers in writing so you have what the application asks for. We schedule the job around the board's decision instead of starting and hoping. On the job itself our exterior painting crews work lead-safe on pre-1978 houses and hand-prep the original woodwork rather than blasting it.
If you have a house in one of these districts and you're thinking about next season, get in touch now. Fall and winter are the right time to settle colors and paperwork, so the painting can start as soon as the weather allows. More answers are on our painting FAQ.