Gardiner updating Comprehensive Plan

By Katherine Donlevy
Posted 4/14/21

The Town of Gardiner is moving forward in its quest to update its Comprehensive Plan, which hasn’t been modified in over 15 years.

The Town Board, serving as the project team, unanimously …

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Gardiner updating Comprehensive Plan

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The Town of Gardiner is moving forward in its quest to update its Comprehensive Plan, which hasn’t been modified in over 15 years.

The Town Board, serving as the project team, unanimously approved the engagement and procedural strategies for the process at its April 6 meeting.

“This is pretty much an update and not a total overhaul,” said Town Supervisor Marybeth Majestic. “It’s long overdue, and we’ll do the best in the situation that we have, and when things get back to whatever our new normal is maybe in another five years do a much deeper dive. I think it’s important that we recognize the accomplishments taking place and readjust our goals moving forward.”

According to Deputy Supervisor Laura Walls, the project is in and will remain within the engagement stage until June 30. Over the next several months, the board will seek to engage community organizations and civic members to discuss what should be included in the new Comprehensive Plan.

Once the information is collected, the board and its consultant will form the new plan by August. The plan can be modified until December 15, when the board will adopt it in its final form.

“It will be a perpetual work in process,” said Walls, who has been spearheading the project.

A town’s Comprehensive Plan helps guide decisions and investments. It’s goals are intended to shape the overall pattern of development so that it conforms to the vision for the Town of Gardiner, which hasn’t updated its plan since 2004.

The board’s Comprehensive Plan Worksheet is publicly available on the town’s website. The goals are split into four sections: land use, resource protection/ open space, economic development/ community development and community infrastructure and services. Each goal is supplemented by a series of recommendations the board can take to achieve its mission.

For example, a goal of Gardiner’s is to maintain the rural character of the landscape by preserving significant parcels of undeveloped land. A recommendation to achieve this is to establish a cluster development as the preferred of development for major subdivisions.

As the Town Board looks to engage community members, it plans to increase its web presence, mail out a series of press releases, publish in the Gardiner Gazette and more. Because the pandemic is putting extra stress on the public’s ability to attend in-person seminars, Majestic suggested scheduling Webinars. Walls noted that internet accessibility isn’t guaranteed to all town members, particularly seniors, so the board will be reviewing other avenues of reaching all residents for suggestions and comments.

Also at its Tuesday meeting, Majestic states that a public hearing on the proposed Dog Kennel Law could be scheduled at its April 13 meeting.

The Town Board had implemented a six-month suspension on the processing and approval of permits for commercial on non-commercial dog kennels in the town, was proposed after an application to erect one on Denniston Road was brought before the Planning Board and shortly thereafter repealed in November.

Neighbors raised concern that the proposed kennel plan had numerous issues and failures, but would still have fallen within the rules of the law. The Town Board is revising its kennel law during this moratorium so that no new kennels could be approved ahead of a potential regulation switch.

“We should make our six month moratorium if we can hold our public hearing in May. Hopefully it’s open and shut public hearing and then we adopt the law,” she said.