A New Comprehensive Plan?

a new approach?

At the September 9, 2006 town board meeting, SPACE Suibmitted it's comments and recommendations to the Draft Comprehensive Plan submitted by the Comprehensive Plan Committee (read it here... ). This plan was the result of three years work b y a committee of individuals mainly from town hall, with minimal involvement from the general public. SPACE members, including SPACE president George Potanovic Jr were pointedly kept off the committee - and we have to wonder why. After three years, this committee generated a report of about a page and a half, which sadly, ingnored many of the issues facing Stony Point , and not outlining any blueprint, or plan, to guide the town's development over the next 20 - 30 years. We already see the town "re-developing" before our eyes - with no overall plan or concept guiding it.

Stony Point largely grew up after World War ll, when building and zoning practices recommended by the state discouraged "multi-use' (i.e.: apartments/offices above stores) construction in Business Zones; the beleif then was that the multiple uses were incompatible, with apartment residents subjected to noise and odors from stores below, and the possibilty of fires in the business portions of the structure harming the residents. While the basic premise was valid, the result was a town. like ours, that filled with a disconnected series of strip malls requiring the use of an automobile to get from one errand to the next. In our current rtime of escalating energy costs and concerns about pollution - and global warming, a town like ours becomes much less livable.

We all see the re-development of our town all around us. Witness the tremendous growth of businesses at the intersection of Route 9W and Filors Lane, and the truly ill-considered approval of the new ShopRite will likely cause tremendous traffic congestion. All of this is proceeding with no plan, aside for the hope for new tax ratables. While we certainly need those, we don't need yet more planning screw-ups in Stony Point, a town already plagued with drainage problems caused by successive town governments that have left the planning for the growth of our town to developers whose first concern is making a profit. we need a plan for the future of our town, we need it now, and we need to have ALL the residents involved!

Until the September meeting, the supervisor has refused to allow public input into the new Comprehensive Plan, in violation of New York State guidelines for creating a Comprehensive Plan. His announcement that he will henceforth open it to the general public is most welcome! SPACE has already made written recommendations to the town board; we ask that you read them and give the matter some thought. Then, bring your ideas and recommendations to the town board meetings over the coming months and submit them as well.

This is, after all, YOUR town!

—9/11/2008 FC




a new approach? At the September 9, 2006 town board meeting, SPACE Suibmitted it's comments and recommendations to the Draft Comprehensive Plan submitted by the Comprehensive Plan Committee (read it here... ). This plan was the result of three years work b y a committee of individuals mainly from town hall, with minimal involvement from the general public. SPACE members, including SPACE president George Potanovic Jr were pointedly kept off the committee - and we have to wonder why. After three years, this committee generated a report of about a page and a half, which sadly, ingnored many of the issues facing Stony Point , and not outlining any blueprint, or plan, to guide the town's development over the next 20 - 30 years. We already see the town "re-developing" before our eyes - with no overall plan or concept guiding it. Stony Point largely grew up after World War ll, when building and zoning practices recommended by the state discouraged "multi-use' (i.e.: apartments/offices above stores) construction in Business Zones; the beleif then was that the multiple uses were incompatible, with apartment residents subjected to noise and odors from stores below, and the possibilty of fires in the business portions of the structure harming the residents. While the basic premise was valid, the result was a town. like ours, that filled with a disconnected series of strip malls requiring the use of an automobile to get from one errand to the next. In our current rtime of escalating energy costs and concerns about pollution - and global warming, a town like ours becomes much less livable. We all see the re-development of our town all around us. Witness the tremendous growth of businesses at the intersection of Route 9W and Filors Lane, and the truly ill-considered approval of the new ShopRite will likely cause tremendous traffic congestion. All of this is proceeding with no plan, aside for the hope for new tax ratables. While we certainly need those, we don't need yet more planning screw-ups in Stony Point, a town already plagued with drainage problems caused by successive town governments that have left the planning for the growth of our town to developers whose first concern is making a profit. we need a plan for the future of our town, we need it now, and we need to have ALL the residents involved! Until the September meeting, the supervisor has refused to allow public input into the new Comprehensive Plan, in violation of New York State guidelines for creating a Comprehensive Plan. His announcement that he will henceforth open it to the general public is most welcome! SPACE has already made written recommendations to the town board; we ask that you read them and give the matter some thought. Then, bring your ideas and recommendations to the town board meetings over the coming months and submit them as well. This is, after all, YOUR town! —9/11/2008 FC
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