October 28, 2009

 

Supervisor Gromack and Town Board Looking Forward

to Completion of New Comprehensive Plan for Clarkstown

Residents Can Comment on Final Plan Until November

 

(New City, NY) - After two years of extensive research and public outreach and with the support of Supervisor Alex Gromack and the Town Board, the Town of Clarkstown is nearing completion of the 2009 Town of Clarkstown Comprehensive Plan: Partnerships and Connections.  November 4 is the deadline for submission of comments by the residents of Clarkstown.

 

“Public participation was a critical aspect of this process,” said Supervisor Gromack.  “It is the ideas and concerns of residents that helped shape the vision for Clarkstown over the next 5 to 10 years.  Their input provided for a thorough analysis of the issues facing the families and businesses in our Town and the ways government can assist in moving our Town forward.” 

 

Residents can comment on the plan until November 4 by visiting the Town’s website at www.town.clarkstown.ny.us and under the Community section click “Final Comprehensive Plan”.  The plan will be adopted by resolution of the Town Board before the end of the year.

 

Under the direction of Supervisor Gromack, the Town has taken innovative steps to study Clarkstown in the broadest way possible. Beyond simply updating the previous Comprehensive Plans of 1999 and 1966, this Comprehensive Plan examines the past, present and potential future conditions of the Town and works to serve as a reference and guide for land use decisions.

 

In November of 2007, the Town Board established a Special Board to develop the Comprehensive Plan, who gathered information from a range of sources including residents’ comments and ideas, technical research, data and studies. 

 

Clarkstown’s residents were invited to attend three public workshops to provide comments on the Comprehensive Plan, during which over 600 residents attended.  Additional data was collected from written surveys of over 1,300 area high school juniors and seniors, as well as 600 phone surveys of the general populace.  In addition to studying numerous existing studies, private consulting firms provided updated technical research and data. 

 

In a true grass-roots effort, subcommittees comprised of Town staff and citizens collaboratively developed the goals and objectives of this Plan.  The Special Board presented a draft of the Comprehensive Plan to the Town Board on August 25, 2009.  The Town Board collected comments on the document from the public thru October 2, followed by a public hearing on September 22.  The Final Comprehensive Plan, which addressed the public comments, was presented to the Town Board on October 20.

 

“The new comprehensive plan examined everything from bio-diversity to sidewalk construction, from the future of our volunteer emergency services to the use of open space, from the development of vacant commercial land to making our downtowns more pedestrian friendly,” said Supervisor Gromack.  “By providing a blueprint for our future, the Comprehensive Plan will allow us to create and adopt initiatives that will promote continued improvements in our quality of life, the recruitment of industry to the Town that will continue to stabilize our tax base and environmental conservation that will define the well being of generations to come.” 

 

 

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