Local Planning
Local Planning
The Department of Planning has created an innovative tool for Westchester County municipalities, that includes maps, charts, figures and analysis, in the form of Web-based data sets. This tool provides the "base studies" planners have always used to draft a comprehensive plan.
The first tool set has been developed in colloboration with the Village of Rye Brook. We hope, soon, to make base studies available for other county municipalities.
Why are we doing this?
This tool provides a sustantial amount of the materials required to assemble a municipality-wide comprehensive plan. Many plan updates get bogged down in this phase – and it is the most costly. The Department of Planning has an incredible amount of data, from GIS layers to the results of various studies. We are offering local communities this new and efficient means as part of the county's shared services initiative. By tapping into our existing resources, local communities will expedite the comprehensive plan process.
What we have found is that local governments hire consultants who do not always utilize available county data. If they do, however, it is often re-packaged at an additional cost to the local community. If they don’t, the consultant will gather the data anew at even higher cost. Either way, the data used and its interpretation may differ from the county’s, creating problems that could've been avoided.
How should the tool be used?
This base data will become part of the municipality’s Web site and be accessible to all. Web site visitors may want to engage in a discussion that could help narrow down the issues and physical areas that should be addressed in detail in the comprehensive plan.
After pulling these materials together, a community may then issue a Request for Proposals (RFP) for consultants to complete a municipality-wide comprehensive plan. The RFP will refer back to this Web site by asking for proposals to refine and address the issues identified, to identify issues that may be “buried” and to draft policies or alternative policies for the community to consider – all within a public participation process that the responders to the RFP would propose.
For more information about comprehensive planning, how a plan gets developed and a plan’s many formats and tools, browse this Local Planning section, specifically:
Review the Village of Rye Brook’s planning base studies to see how this first collaborative effort is evolving.