Comprehensive plan hearing on June 22
WOODSTOCK, N.Y. >> Town Comprehensive Plan Committee members have scheduled a June 22 public information gathering session to take comments on what issues should be addressed when updating land use regulations.
The session is scheduled for 7 p.m. in the Mescal Hornbeck Community Center on Rock City Road.
“Before the draft is completed, we’d like to hear from the public and all the people in town for each section of the comp plan,” Councilwoman Cathy Magarelli said.
The committee was appointed earlier this year to update a 54-year-old comprehensive plan that has largely been updated based on immediate needs and planning applications.
Magarelli said committee members have scheduled meetings to address topics that are likely to need significant attention in the comprehensive plan.
“Every week ... we’re having a presenter that’s an expert in their field come and speak to us about what is important in their particular expertise,” she said. “For example, water and sewer or planning and housing or Air BnB’s.”
Supervisor Bill McKenna said the update is intended to set long term goals for the community.
“This is going to be a road map for the next 10 to 15 years for the town, where we want to be in 15 years and how we’re going to get there,” he said.
The committee is updating the comprehensive plan using the approach of examining where the town currently stands with land use regulations, what would happen under current regulations, where the town should be in the future, and how to accomplish those goals.
McKenna said the committee should be helped by previous efforts to update the comprehensive plan.
“I’m aware that the last one was hung up and never officially adopted but I will
always maintain that it was a valuable (document) and if you go through it today 85 percent of the recommendations in there have been instituted,” he said.
“We’ve have had fairly good success in the last administration in completing things,” McKenna said. “The highway garage took quite a while but once we got on track with that we got that completed, and then there was somewhat less debate with Town Hall, and even less so with the community center.”