Remember how we fought to get the town to update the 2005 Comprehensive Land Use Plan? Remember all those public meetings throughout our town in 2016? Remember the choosing of the Comp Plan Review Committee … all those civic minded folks, led by Mike Welti of Barton & LoGuidice, meeting to go over vision statements, goals, plan provisions? Whatever happened to that draft plan?
Well, it’s back. Why is it important? The Comp Plan is a blueprint for future development goals and objectives. It is the community’s vision for its own future. Once a comprehensive plan is adopted by a town, it is supposed to guide development decisions and code changes. Consequently, we must “get it right.”
SAVE members and many other residents have expressed concerns about loss of open space, natural wooded areas, and community character, increased and sometimes unsustainable traffic, allowing single family parcels to be densely developed as Planned Development Districts, and rising taxes despite the development always touted as keeping taxes low.
On Wednesday Feb. 27, at 6 p.m. at the Public Operations Center, the town will hold another Comprehensive Plan Committee meeting, prepping for presentation of the long-awaited revised Comprehensive Planning and Zoning Plan to our Town Board. The new draft Comp Plan 2019 is finally posted on the Planning and Economic Development Department website here at www.coloniepedd.org.
You can also find the preliminary plan recommendations, the draft vision and goals, as well as past meeting agendas and meeting notes going back to the original meeting in June of 2016.
It is imperative that Colonie residents again become involved with this Comp Plan process. Many of us attended meetings and commented, both online and in person. Public comments are also recorded on the website. We must urge the town to provide meaningful opportunities for us to become familiar with and voice our response to what’s coming forward at long last.
Please use your weekend to research these documents that are online at last, and come to the Comp Plan meeting Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Feel free to email SAVE with questions or visit savecolonie.com and our Facebook page.
Thanks for all you do to make things better in our Town of Colonie. See you Wednesday.
Susan Weber
SAVE Colonie a Partnership for Planning