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mailmanEditor, The Lansing Star:

I'm glad to see that Town Supervisor, Ed Lavigne, now appears to be on board with the proposal from new Town Councilperson, Joe Wetmore, for a series of open meetings that would encourage public input on the proposed comprehensive plan revision. As most of us recall, Joe consistently advocated for such meetings during his campaign. Lansing residents clearly have questions about the content of the proposed plan and should have the opportunity to get the information that they need to understand the proposal.

In order to facilitate the process and make sure that residents have a clear understanding of the comp plan's proposed revisions there are, I think, three important steps that should be taken:

  1. A power point presentation should be prepared which compares the current comp plan to the proposed revisions. Current language should be shown next to proposed new language. A list of reasons for each proposed change should be included.
  2. Each proposed revision should be linked to an item in the town wide survey that was done to determine residents' vision of Lansing in the future. A statement should be made in the power point as to whether or not each revision is in keeping with survey results.
  3. Copies of the power point should be available for distribution at the meeting when it is presented.

I believe that a presentation as described above could go a long way toward ameliorating the concerns that have been expressed about the comp plan process. It matters little, I think, how many meetings have been held or how much work has been done already if the current situation leaves residents feeling left out of the process and unsure of the results. With a genuine effort to involve residents, town leaders will show that they recognize the importance of broad input into decision making. Further, the outcome of the process, an updated comp plan, is more likely to have broad support in our town.

Sincerely,

Pat Pryor
Lansing, NY

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