Comprehensive Planning

The importance of town comprehensive planning cannot be overstated. The Town Comprehensive Plan is the blueprint for where the town should be headed and the guide for making appropriate planning decisions. Of course, as time elapses the document is intended to be reviewed and updated on a specified periodic basis to ensure the goals and objectives remain valid and relevant.

Development of responsible zoning designations and performance standards are critical to actually realize many of the stated goals of any Plan. Effective land use doesn’t just happen. It’s planned for in advance.

One of the more serious, and often overlooked, problems in our town is failure to maintain a viable, updated Comp Plan. Too many times, planning decisions have been subjective, resulting in the plethora of spot zoning decisions and ill-conceived projects that have complicated further growth initiatives and eroded quality of life for so many residents. It shouldn’t have happened and it certainly doesn’t have to continue.

Recently, many positive steps have been taken to try to address exactly this. Critical Impact legislation was passed by the Town, new zoning designations are being developed, and several CDTC studies have been conducted at the major interchanges that serve the Town. While all these things are positive moves, they must be incorporated into the Town Comp Plan to realize any significance. That Plan update is grossly overdue. Moreover, the Plan was already seriously deficient and the Town has been delinquent in its application to decision-making anyway.

My displeasure with the decision-making of the Planning Commission in various matters is a well known matter of record. I’ll discuss reform or abolishment of that body in another post but I have to question their decisions when they’re based, at best, on an outdated guiding document.

I think in my next post I’ll examine my semi-controversial advocacy of using a quite effective land use tool, moratoria, to help rectify the Comp Plan problems. In the meantime, here is an excerpt from the Town Of Rotterdam Comprehensive Plan Vision Statement:

The main objective that the Town of Rotterdam would like to achieve as reflected in the theme of this Vision Statement is to preserve the Town's character and identity, while allowing for environmentally sound growth and development. The only way to achieve this is to develop a set of goals and policies that will guide town officials to make appropriate decisions regarding land use.

Among the goals identified as essential in maintaining a satisfactory quality of life for the Town of Rotterdam residents, business owners, and visitors are:

1) Provide an effective stewardship of the environment to protect critical and sensitive areas, maintain water quality, and conserve land, air, water, and energy resources by taking advantage of existing plans or ongoing planning activities such as watershed management plans, regional and local transportation plans, and other resource protection plans.

2) Encourage changes that promote a healthy environment in which to live by encouraging responsible development that limits noise pollution and traffic congestion, provides for pedestrian safety, discourages growth in environmentally sensitive areas, protects cultural resources, and provides high quality community design.

3) Utilize local human resources whenever possible to encourage local involvement in community actions and enhance community pride. This should include continued encouragement of public and private involvement in community traditions, as well as encouragement of volunteerism and activism.

These goals shall endure as the comprehensive plan is implemented, specific measurable tasks are accomplished, and changes occur. As the comprehensive plan is updated in the future to account for changing conditions, the goals in this Vision Statement will provide direction for future revisions. The Town will revise its development ordinances as necessary to implement the objectives of the Vision Statement and Comprehensive Plan.