Playing Checkers

I am particularly concerned about the apparent lack of progress toward updating our Town Comprehensive Plan for Rotterdam. Yes, there are numerous CDTC studies completed or in progress for each NYS Thruway interchange that feeds our town. Yes, town officials are trying to update the town code to be more relevant. But this has been going on for far too long without a resultant Comp Plan that can be applied to development pressures throughout the town.

For instance, the first CDTC study was completed for the Route 7 – Burdeck Street Corridor in 2004. The information contained within it wasn’t part of the Comp Plan when Wal-Mart was planning a new super center in that area. That should’ve been a wake-up call to the Town to get their house in order and they were essentially granted a reprieve for their past failure to do so when the Wal-Mart idea was scrapped. Interestingly, the Town adopted a 6 month moratorium during that time but failed to implement the zoning they desired when it was over. I think if they had implemented the town-wide moratorium I advocated for at that time instead and focused on updating the Comp Plan properly, we’d be in better shape now.

Two other studies are done or nearing completion, and are yet to be incorporated into an adopted Plan. But assuming your Comp Plan gets updated every 10 years (our 2001 Plan was scheduled for updating after 5 years in 2006, by the way), the information from the first study is already halfway out-of-date. The Town Code (yet to be available to residents online) is incredibly stale. The obvious problem this all highlights is the fact that development pressure has not been standing still and we are increasingly falling behind in addressing it adequately. We’re busy playing checkers when we should be playing chess.

It’s still not too late to make our best attempt at preserving our Quality of Life and denying Rotterdam from becoming merely a non-descript drive-through town. Here’s what I’ve suggested before and continue to suggest. First, impose a year-long, town-wide moratorium with the intention of getting the Plan updated and functional. At the same time, freeze all requests for zone changes and update the Town Code. The absolute simplest way to beef up the Code is add at least two zeros to every existing penalty/fine on the books in an effort to deter violations, but it certainly needs more than that. Enforcement and oversight has to become a higher priority than it has been previously. Second, develop a detailed plan for building infrastructure in a strategic manner to support the vision that has been determined by the Plan. These are broad strokes to be sure, but at least they’re strokes.

McLane’s recently pulled the plug on their intended project, but Route 7 parcels are being gobbled up as I write, no doubt the next “crisis” of planning. On the other side of town, Hamburg sits waiting for sewers to revitalize that corridor. We need to be better than we’ve been addressing these matters before it’s too late. We need to start playing chess instead of checkers.