Consultants present draft comprehensive plan, outline review and adoption schedule

Susan Caravana, Planning Services Manager at EDR, and consultant Laura Reynolds told the Glens Falls Common Council that a draft comprehensive plan is complete and now in a formal review phase.

Caravana said the project was funded through a 2024 Department of State (DOS) Smart Growth comprehensive planning grant and that EDR had met the DOS contract tasks, including preparing a community participation plan and a project website. “Public engagement is a key piece of writing any planning document,” Caravana said.

The consultants described the outreach and analysis that informed the draft: a comprehensive plan committee that has met eight times plus a work session since an October kickoff; stakeholder interviews and focus groups involving residents, businesses, parks and recreation and tourism; a community survey with 438 responses; and two public open houses (one in April at the Queensbury Hotel and a July session with about 70 attendees). The team said they used both qualitative input from meetings and quantitative data from the U.S. Census and state labor statistics to prepare a community profile and a future land-use map.

The consultants emphasized that the future land-use map is a planning recommendation and not a zoning map. They also described an implementation strategy in which the committee ranked recommended actions as high, medium or low priority and assigned approximate time frames.

Laura Reynolds described the next procedural steps required by the grant and New York law: the draft has been returned to city staff and the plan committee and was sent to the state reviewer; the team is targeting Oct. 20 for state comments, after which the plan would go out in early November to the city planning board and zoning board of appeals for comment. The consultants said they hope to present a comment copy to the Common Council around Nov. 25, and, following required environmental review, county review and any revisions, to hold a final public hearing and local adoption in January, depending on comments received.

Reynolds said the comprehensive plan is a Type I action under the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQR) and will require a full environmental assessment form (EAF); the council would declare intent to be lead agency and the county planning board has a 30-day review under state municipal law.

The consultants asked council members to use the implementation matrix as a reference for priorities, potential partners and potential funding sources while the plan moves through formal review.

No formal council action on the draft comprehensive plan was recorded during the portion of the meeting covered in the transcript.