Nearly 100 residents filled Town Hall Thursday, May 15, to get the first say on the town’s ongoing endeavor to create an open space plan.
Landowners, businesspeople, residents, park enthusiasts, planners, and developers, along with members of the town board and the Citizens Advisory Committee on Conservation, all sat down together and discussed the future of Bethlehem.
Residents were broken into smaller groups to brainstorm what they envisioned for the town and what open space meant to them.
They then presented their findings, which will be included in the current study, to the rest of the audience.
John Behan of Behan Planning Associates is working as a consultant for the town to help shape the new land use policy. The town hired him strictly in an advisory capacity ` not to draw up an open space plan himself, according to Supervisor Jack Cunningham.
`It’s obviously a very individualist decision,` Behan told residents at the beginning of the workshop. `What’s important to you is important to us.`
The town’s open space plan will be a comprehensive land use plan that will give landowners more tools to protect their land or do what they want with it, according to Cunningham. But according to some landowners, the plan could do more harm than good by tying the hands of large landowners in town and actually taking options and opportunities away from them. Some residents previously criticized the board for not including enough farmers and large landowners in CACC.
The town’s senior planner, Robert Leslie, stressed that landowners would get their say and would be a part of the planning process if they wanted to.
`We’re making sure willing landowners are a part of the plan,` Leslie said. `We’re not taking a plan from another town and putting our name on it. We want to hear what Bethlehem wants.`
Once adopted, the open space plan will be the overriding template or guideline the town uses for future growth.
Thursday’s public hearing was meant as the `kicking off` of shaping the open spaces plan. Behan said that he and the town will continue to collect input from residents and CACC, which is acting as a lead advisory agency, until the holiday season, after which time a report will be issued to the Town Board.
Department of Economic Development Director George Leveille said the town was looking for initial feedback on what is to go into the plan and where residents rank their priorities over the matter.
`We’re talking about concepts. Think about values that can guide the community,` Leveille told residents. `So at the end of the day, we’ll find common ground on what’s important to you.`
Behan said that people are realizing `land is finite,` citing that $6.3 billion was approved by voters for local conservation spending in 2006. He added `New York state is the leader in open space planning.`
Councilmen Mark Hennessey and Sam Messina were also on hand during the two-hour public workshop.
Messina said he sat in and listened to the residents in several different groups, and he was surprised by how different each group’s perspective on open space was. He also noted that despite the big turnout overall, there was not a very large representation from residents of inner Delmar.
Several key components were reiterated by most of the groups when they reconvened shortly before 9 p.m. to report their findings to everyone left at the meeting.
Keeping land sustainable; protecting natural resources; tax relief for landowners maintaining open space; landowner respect; respect for the land; and keeping the open spaces plan `a living document,` were some of the repeated concepts.
`The open space protection place is important to the community,` Cunningham told residents at the end of the meeting, after thanking them for coming. `Your participation is integral to its success.`
CACC holds a public meeting that focuses on the open space plan and other conservation issues on the second Monday of each month at Town Hall at 7 p.m.“