Plan to Plan The Town’s existing Comprehensive Plan was adopted nearly 30 years ago and has served us well. Since adoption of the Plan, growth and change in New Baltimore have been relatively slow and orderly by most measures. However, many feel that New Baltimore may be poised for growth and change. We want to better understand how the people who live here now feel about growth and change so we can be sure that our efforts to influence and direct that  growth match the consensus of our residents.   To begin to organize that effort a Plan to Plan sub-committee was appointed by the Town of New Baltimore Planning Board in June 2003. The Plan to Plan committee made initial recommendations to the Town Board in December 2003. To view recommendations of the Plan to Plan committee, click here. Following up on those recommendations, the Town Board appointed over a dozen town residents from throughout the town to be part of a Citizen‘s Planning Advisory Group to guide and support the planning process. The Citizen's Planning Advisory Group held its first meeting on January 15, 2004 and has continuedto meet twice a month since then. All of its meetings are open to the public. One of the first things that the advisory group did was to discuss the why we want to pursue a planning effort and to develop a draft statement of purpose. To review the statement of purpose adopted by the Citizen's Planning Advisory Group click here.
The proposed process will provide useful results in at least three ways: Documented public input, including the survey, will provide useful information to elected and appointed officials in making decisions. In a pinch, it can help to provide legal justification for decisions. Even if the process does not go beyond this public input/vision phase, it has important results. With the development of goals, objectives and strategies, the process leads to actions by Town Board, Planning Board and other to improve the community. A "Comprehensive Plan" may be prepared using input from the process along with additional documentation and policy.	Planning Process  Vision Phase Public input has been the cornerstone of the planning process for New Baltimore. A series of three public information and input meetings were held in April and May 2004 to provide the public with opportunities understand the proposed planning process for New Baltimore and to discuss where we are and where we want to go as a community. To view a summary of these information and input meetings, click here.  Recognizing that some residents would not participate in the public input meetings, a mail out survey was conducted in November and December 2004 to provide another means of input. Hundreds of responses were received - an excellent 29% response rate. The survey provided a wealth of information to help understand what the community wants. (To view a summary of survey results click here.)  Based on information received in the public input meetings, from the community survey, from many interviews and discussions with elected and appointed officials of the Town and County, and from research and discussion by three task forces, the Citizen Advisory Committee and others drafted a Vision statement and Goals. These were presented at public meeting May 10 and 11 and then will be recommended to the Town Board for adoption. To view the draft vision and goals click here. This will complete the Vision phase of the planning process.
	Action Phase What will happen next should depend on the priorities and goals established in the vision process, and on resources available to go further. Logical next steps might include: Defining objectives and strategies for goals and developing action plans to carry out those plans. Ad hoc activities by citizens, with approval of Town Board,  to carry actions to support goals. Follow up by Town Board or Planning Board to support goals. Develop a revised Comprehensive Plan for the Town. This would involve significant additional work to prepare sections of the plan and develop policies to support the Comprehensive Plan. To view a sample of a sample of a comprehensive plan click on the link below. This is the final draft of a plan for the Town of Plattekill. It looks like a good job to me, and is about the order of magnitude that New Baltimore might want to undertake. The content, of course, would be different for New Baltimore. The fact that this plan is posted as an example on the New York Planning Federation web site suggests that they think it is a good example also. To view the Master Plan for Plattekill click here.