Comprehensive Land Use and Action Plan Update

The Town of Willsboro (Contractor) and its Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee will prepare an update to the Town’s existing Comprehensive Plan pursuant to New York State Town Law §272-a, which grants municipalities the authority to prepare and adopt comprehensive plans. The Town of Willsboro will utilize funding from a 2023 DOS Smart Growth Comprehensive Planning grant in the amount of $40,500 for the consultant services necessary for the coordination of the planning process, preparation, and adoption of the updated Plan. The development of the Plan update will be driven by a community engagement process and will result in a planning tool and document that incorporates Smart Growth principles, addresses existing assets and local resources, identifies needs and opportunities for growth, outlines goals and priorities for future development and better reflects the vision that the current population has for this rural community. The selected planning consultant will work closely with the Steering Committee to update the Plan through a public process that will engage a variety of stakeholders. The updated Plan will seek to identify gaps in the existing zoning ordinance, establish goals to address the community’s short-term and long-term needs, guide future sustainable growth, enhance quality of life, and protect natural and cultural local resources.

The Town and the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee anticipate that this project will be an update and not a re-write of the existing Plan. The 2012 update process included extensive public participation, and the Plan contains applicable historical and geographical data, and offers a solid template for the proposed update. The Committee has initiated this process with a thorough review of the existing Plan to assess the applicability of current Recommendations/Goals & Objectives and to identify what has been accomplished, what continues to be relevant/achievable, and what is no longer relevant and may potentially be removed from the Plan. The Committee will further support the update process by providing the selected planning consultant(s) with additional information regarding local and regional planning efforts, stakeholder recommendations, and public participation outreach.

The Plan update must address the following general Smart Growth principles, in addition to the elements suggested by the New York State statutes:

• Promote mixed land uses in focus areas
• Create an adequate range of housing opportunities and choices
• Promote development and redevelopment where infrastructure is adequate and sustainable
• Build on traits that make a distinctive and attractive community with a strong sense of place
• Promote well-planned and well-placed public spaces
• Promote sustainable compact neighborhoods
• Protect and conserve farmland and open space
• Increase mobility and circulation within jurisdictional lines and improve connectivity with areas outside jurisdictional lines
• Promote sustainable mass transit that reduces the local levels of greenhouse gas emissions
• Promote walkable/bikeable neighborhood designs
• Promote and integrate clean energy resources and related incentives
• Improve green infrastructure and resident’s participation in this effort
• Increase resiliency to extreme weather events
• Encourage social diversity and integration
• Expand planning and implementation efforts across jurisdictional lines, to increase effectiveness, sustainability, and resiliency
• Promote community and stakeholder collaboration in planning