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Village of Lansing Trustees met with the Planning Board Monday to review a draft of an updated comprehensive plan.  Village officials have been working on updating the plan for two years, gathering information from the old plan, the census, a telephone survey, actual canvasses of Village residents and businesses, and letters and emails sent by residents.  While there are no dramatic changes since the last version of the plan was adopted, a set of goals has been identified that will address changes to the Village over the past decade.  Board members reviewed a compilation of changes and additions at Monday's meeting.

"Our goal was to create a comprehensive plan that would embody the original vision of the Village, which continues to be the Trustees' vision and the Planning Board's vision of the Village as a place where growth and development are planned and managed to produce a built environment that is sustainable, livable and attractive," said Planning Board Member Deborah Dawson.  "We tried to articulate goals that were general enough to support whatever planning and zoning initiatives might become necessary to implement that vision of the next decade."

While all members of the two boards plus Code Enforcement/ Zoning Officer/ Stormwater Management Officer Marty Moseley and Clerk/Treasurer Jodi Dake have contributed, dividing the plan into sections that teams of Village officials updated, Dawson and Planning Board member Lisa Schleelein reorganized the plan to give it a kind of narrative flow from the history of the Village, through statistics and demographics, trends, and finally a set of goals.

"One of the main concerns we had with the existing comprehensive plan was that it is difficult to use in the sense that it is hard to find the goals buried in the language of the plan in general," Dawson said.  "Accordingly we tried to develop a new organizational structure for the plan, one that would be easier to  understand and use."

Chapter 1 starts with the history of the Village and a summary of changes in the Village since the last version of the plan was adopted. Chapter 2 lists an inventory of resources and conditions in the Village, largely based on census data.  Chapter 3 explores implications the trends identified in Chapter 2 will have for future planning initiatives.  Chapter 4 lists planning goals for the next decade.

"We have a good, reorganized plan," Dake said.  "It was modeled after the Town of Chili's comprehensive plan, because their award-winning plan was recommended to us."

Most of the officials were happy with the draft, endorsing the new organization and lauding the language as much clearer that the preceding plan.

"It is all substance," said Planning Board Member Mike Baker.  "Everything in here has bearing on the Village the vision that everyone has for the Village."

The strongest criticism came from Mayor Donald Hartill.

"One of the things that you always have to have in something like this is the take-away message," he said.  I had trouble finding what the take-away message actually is.  There is a series of goals, but one of the things I think you want to do is read it with a very critical eye and ask what the take-away message is."

Hartill's introduction has yet to be written, and board members suggested that is the place for the overarching message he suggested.

The plan concludes with 11 goals that cover the kinds of housing desired, maintaining a mutually beneficial relationship with Village businesses, maintaining and meeting increased infrastructure needs, optimizing its traffic system, planning the character, quality and sustainability of Village life, protecting the character of residential neighborhoods, developing a modal transportation system, augmenting and maintaining trails and parks, managing the natural environment, sustainability features in future development and fostering a greater sense of community.

The Town of Lansing is also updating its comprehensive plan, using a different approach.  The Town formed a committee made up of various community stakeholders who have been meeting each month with Town Planning Consultant Michael Long to come up with its plan.

While Monday's draft is not final, it brings the Village closer to a completed plan.  Once completed it will be sent to Tompkins County for comments before the Trustees vote on whether to adopt it.

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