Clarkstown
Starts Hamlet Planning Meetings
Building
on the success of its Town Wide Comprehensive Plan ‘Kick Off’ on October 25th
,which drew over 150 Town residents, Clarkstown will be holding the first of
five Hamlet Area Meetings on Monday, December 3, 2007 from 7-9:00 pm at the
Nanuet High School. Residents from Nanuet, Spring Valley and Bardonia received
‘invitation cards’ in the mail and ‘meeting flyers’ were provided to civic
groups and the Nanuet
High School.
The
Town’s first Comprehensive Plan which dealt with land use issues was developed
in 1966. It was updated in 1999. What makes this 2007 Comprehensive Plan
different from the earlier plans is the fact that it is being modeled after an
Environmental Impact Statement and its unprecedented outreach to residents.
Town
Supervisor Alex Gromack said, “I like to call this plan the Town’s first
comprehensive, Comprehensive Plan. We will use some of the same public
participation formats in developing this plan as we used during our successful recreational
forums. The Town Board, the town planners, our engineers, our public safety
personnel, all of us are reaching out to our residents. We want them to tell us
what’s on their minds, what they worry about and what they want this town to be
in the next 5-10 years. In addition”, said Gromack, “we’ve retained experts in
economic development, biodiversity and public outreach to help guide us through
the process.”
The
October 25, 2007 kick off was the first of four Town Wide meetings scheduled
for the Comprehensive Plan. The Special
Board for the Comprehensive Plan which was created by the Town Board in
November 2006 designed the Hamlet Area meetings to encourage even more public
involvement and participation in the comprehensive planning process.
The
Hamlet Area meetings will generally mirror the set up of the Town Wide kick off
meeting. They will start with a brief introduction and welcome by Supervisor
Alex Gromack and Town Board Members. Town Planner, Joe Simoes will follow with
a ‘power point’ overview that will explain the ‘what, how, why and when’ of the
Comprehensive Plan.
Following
the introduction and overview, residents will be invited to choose one of seven
focus groups lead by volunteer facilitators dealing with: economic development;
environmental resources; health, safety and welfare; historic and cultural
resources; housing; recreation, parks and open space.
The
concerns raised by residents during the focus group discussions will become the
issues addressed in the Comprehensive Plan. When completed in 2009, the
Comprehensive Plan will be the Town’s ‘road map’ for the next 5-10 years.
Hamlet Area Meeting Schedule (all meetings run from
7:00-9:00pm)
Hamlet Area: Date Meeting Location:
Nanuet
Spring Valley 12/3/07 Nanuet High School
Bardonia
West Nyack 12/13/07 Clarkstown South
Nyack High
School
Central
Nyack
Valley Cottage 1/10/08 Valley Cottage
Upper Nyack Elementary
Congers 1/24/08 Congers
Rockland Lake Community
Center
New City 2/4/08 Clarkstown North
High
School
