The Village of Montgomery’s residents got a taste of the NY Forward Program last Wednesday, May 20 during the Local Planning Community’s (LPC) first public workshop, where participants provided feedback on the village’s vision and learned how to submit their ideas.

“Tonight, you will be a part of this four-and-a-half million grant that’s going to take this beautiful village and make it even more beautiful,” said Mayor Mike Hembury at the start of the session.

Tommy Boston, a consultant and senior planner for VHB, one of the village’s consultants, guided the first half of the workshop and refreshed participants on the information presented during the first LPC meeting. He played the village’s application video, recapped New York Forward, and listed the LPC’s roles in the process. He then explained Open Call for Projects, a submission form allowing residents to propose their ideas to the LPC and consultants.

“It’s an opportunity for community members, organizations, and businesses to submit project ideas for consideration by the LPC,” Boston said. “All projects, including those submitted as part of the community’s public application, will be considered and must be submitted through the Open Call for Projects.”

This submission form will open on the village’s NYF website starting Tuesday, June 11, and close on Monday, June 15. All submissions must specify the following to be considered eligible: timing, project size and scale, project sponsors, financing, matching and leverage, site control, and reimbursement.

Additionally, the best project ideas should align with local and state goals, have a well-developed plan, attract investors, yield secondary benefits, and carefully manage public resources. Christina Kastalek, the environmental planner for VHB, added that the projects must fall within the village’s boundary map, signifying the downtown area.

Similar to the first LPC meeting, residents submitted keywords associated with their ideal downtown Montgomery to a website that projected them on the presentation. The two biggest keywords were “accessible” and “collaboration,” with others including “vibrant,” “history,” “inclusivity,” and “artistic.”

“The consultant team along with LPC are going to take this back to the LPC meeting and we’re going to refine that vision that was submitted in the application and that’s ultimately going to be the vision that guides this process,” Kastalek said.
Kastalek then recapped the program’s timeline and provided new dates for most of the later meetings. The revised schedule goes as follows:

LPC Meetings: June 10, July 24, August 29, September 30, November 7

Public Workshop #2: October 16
For more information on NY Forward and Open Call for Projects, visit montgomerynyf.com.