By JEFF MORRIS
After months of public workshops and hearings, Bedford’s Comprehensive Plan Advisory Committee has completed its draft of an updated town comprehensive plan.
Titled “Bedford Together,” the draft is now available on the town website, at https://bedfordny.gov/191/The-Comprehensive-Plan.
In introducing it at Tuesday’s town board meeting, Planning Director Jesica Youngblood called it a “very thoughtfully derived draft plan.”
She said it offers long-range policy guidance for the town’s future growth, land use and development issues, infrastructure, transportation, open space, community facilities and more. It also sets goals and recommended actions to achieve community priorities, and serves as a foundation for future decisions on development and zoning, capital spending, and general townwide policy decisions.
Youngblood said it was equally important to recognize what a comprehensive plan is not. It does not give new zoning legislation or any other kind of regulation, she said; does not provide development approval for any specific property; does not take over the role of the tax assessor by authorizing a revision to tax assessments or processes; does not advocate a change to environmental regulations; and is not a requirement that the town take specific spending actions.
Those who will make use of the comprehensive plan, said Youngblood, include the town board, town staff, land use approval bodies, state, county and local agencies, and businesses and investors. She said because of the wide variety of users, they had focused on making it very user-friendly and easy to read.
The new plan is organized very differently from the 2003 plan, Youngblood noted. While the old plan was separated into silos and categories, the new plan integrates topics into narrative themes. It also makes use of infographics, and is more visually appealing and user-friendly, explaining complex topics in a way that is more easily understood. There is a glossary of frequently used terms, which was not something included in the last plan. Youngblood said once the final version is adopted, it will be interactive, with document hyperlinks.
The entire document is organized using five planning themes. The first, SHAPE, has to do with how land is utilized. LIVE encompasses housing types, neighborhood characteristics, and community amenities such as schools, libraries, and recreational facilities. CONNECT focuses on how people move about the town. THRIVE covers economic activity, focusing on the three hamlet centers and the Route 117 corridor. The fifth theme, STRENGTHEN, includes the systems that keep the town running, such as water, sewer, road maintenance, energy efficiency policies and environmental resiliency in the face of climate change. These themes are used consistently throughout the plan.
After each issue that is raised, there are recommendations for action, and a section on implementation — also organized by the five planning themes — categorizes each recommended action into a time frame, and assigns implementation to the most relevant town departments and affiliated agencies.
The draft plan needs to be circulated to the Westchester County Planning Board, with the town board acting as lead agency for the plan under the State Environmental Quality Review Act. After review by both the county and the town’s own land use boards, there will be opportunities for public review and comment, and a SEQRA review by the town board; these steps are all required under state and town laws, and must be completed prior to adoption of the plan.
Youngblood invited all who are interested to attend any public hearing scheduled by the town board, provide written comments to the town clerk, or send email comments to comprehensiveplan@bedfordny.gov.
“It’s a fun read,” commented Supervisor Ellen Calves. “The issues and recommendations are easy to follow.”
She said while the section on Bedford Today is interesting, the last 20-30 pages are the parts people should really focus on and about which they will probably want to make comments.
“All public comments are welcome,” said Youngblood. “If there are things that potentially are missing, also let us know. If there are other recommendations that the town board needs to consider before it adopts it, absolutely — this is the time, and that’s why I want to stress that it is not the end of the public comment period.”
Calves said if, after there are comments, there are any significant changes needed, they will need to circulate a revised document. Youngblood noted they had tried to structure it so that there will not be significant changes, “since we were trying to be very very mindful and keep a really close ear to what the community was desiring up to this point.”
Following the presentation, the board accepted the draft plan, declared itself lead agency for SEQRA, authorized circulating it to the county, and scheduled a public hearing for March 4.