Members:
Todd Fabozzi, Rocky
Ferraro,
Taskforce Mission:
The mission of Taskforce Working Group E is to offer general guidance in developing the “Concepts for Assisting Local Decision Making in a Regional Context” report. CDRPC and CDTC staff will be preparing the report and coordinating meetings of the taskforce. The taskforce will meet as necessary to review and comment on draft elements of the report.
The basic purpose of the report is to articulate approaches to both improve the capacity of the municipal planning and approval processes, and to improve the external support structure provided to local planners.
The following discussion is offered as a starting point for considering which issues should be addressed in the “Concepts for Assisting Local Decision Making in a Regional Context” report.
What is the “Regional Context”?
The first issue to understand is: what is the “regional context” that local municipalities should be considering? If local planning boards are to consider local plan review within the regional context, regional planning principles must be articulated in a clear and concise fashion for locals to consider when they are reviewing project proposals.
The “New Visions 2021” transportation plan adopted by CDTC in 2000 has articulated a number of region-wide planning principles, strategies, and actions that can serve as a starting point for providing local guidance.
For example, the plan calls on local communities to: “Use planning to focus growth to reinforce existing and create new mixed use, vibrant neighborhoods that are efficient to serve with transportation” And to “Improve site access design practice to better accommodate pedestrians, bicycles, goods movement, transit and auto access.” (Pg. 87)
Are the regional principles, strategies and actions of the New Visions plan articulated in a way that they can be used as a guide for local land use decision-making? Should a simplified “checklist” from the plan be created that local planning boards and elected officials can use as a guide when creating plans and reviewing local projects? Should additional regional policies be created (by CDRPC or some other group) that could offer further guidance to local planning policy?
Another way in which local planning boards could consider the regional context would be as a group of two or more municipalities that wish to better coordinate development to meet some mutually defined objectives. For example, the five communities along the Route 5 Corridor have signed an agreement that seeks to coordinate land use and transportation/transit linkages along that corridor. Are there other areas where sub-regional coordination should be promoted?
Other questions to explore
Local planning boards are constrained by their existing land use codes, which may or may not currently take into account or support the regional growth principals of the New Visions plan. What kind of guidance can be offered to local municipalities for reforming local land use laws so they best support regional development goals?
Another potential item to explore is the way local land use decisions are reviewed by county planning agencies (239m,n review). Should/could these review requirements be expanded to take into account other regional policy considerations?
An important element of any discussion about local decisions within a regional context is how to create the appropriate incentives to attract local buy-in. Existing regional/local planning efforts could be evaluated, such as CDTC’s existing “linkage program,” which provides local planning assistance to municipalities, and the Hudson River Valley Greenway Council’s greenway communities’ regional planning compacts, which are based on a set of “greenway criteria.”
Additionally, several national efforts could be evaluated,
such as the Association of Bay Area Governments (around