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As the heat is upon us, residents are able to cool off at the Town of Washington Town Pool in Mabbettsville. The Park is now open on a daily basis from noon – 7:00 PM through August 22nd. Season passes are available, as well as day passes, which may be purchased at the lifeguard booth […]
On May 22nd, the Comprehensive Plan Committee hosted an information gathering meeting at the Dutchess County Farm and Home Center. A synopsis of the comments are available at the Town website www.washingtonny.org on the Master Plan page. Residents are always welcome to submit comments regarding the Comprehensive Plan by sending an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or at […]
At the June 10th meeting of the Town of Washington, the Town Board introduced and scheduled two separate Public Hearings for the public to weigh in and offer their opinion. After listening to the public input and taking into account revisions in state regulations, the Town has proposed a revised Wetlands and Watercourses Law. The […]
On May 22nd, the Town of Washington held another public input session to provide the Master Plan Revision Committee insights and suggestions for what residents envision for the future of their town. Over 100 people attended this interesting, informative meeting and the Planning Committee gained valuable information to assist them in putting together a draft […]
Author : Howard Schuman Comment:
It is inappropriate at this time to be asking for comments about your draft visioning statement, which was supposed to be the original topic of the May 22 public meeting but was never discussed in open forum. Regarding the content and wording, you are for all practical purposes asking the general public to operate in a vacuum, without any explanation by yourselves as to what you believe the statement implies.
Are you suggesting by your language in the comment form that if people do not respond to it in one of the several ways that you suggested, that it signals their tacit acceptance of your draft visioning statement and there will be no “revisions to the statement as appropriate” and that there will be no future, widely advertised, public meetings, similar to the May 22 meeting in order to discuss it?
The vision statement should reflect the general consensus of the community at large. Housing issues and increased business and commercial development as well as creation of additional hamlets have placed at the bottom of community priorities. The final vision statement should reflect that.
Regarding the May 22 meeting, the term “diversity of housing” had been added to the previously published list of goals without prior notice being given to the public. This along with the Comprehensive Plan Committee’s failure to define what they mean by the term makes it a difficult item for people to comment on effectively.
Furthermore, there is a difference between what a community envisions for itself and a list of items that may be looked at at some point as part of the comprehensive plan process. It is clear that diversity of housing is not a widely held community vision. While it may be something that is looked at in some point as part of the overall process it does not belong in the vision statement. It should be removed.
Howard Schuman
- July 16, 2009
The Town of Washington has added a NEWS system to the Town’s website so we may keep you more informed about: General Town News The Comprehensive Plan Update Recreation Department News Press Releases Requests for Proposals Other News The system allows website users to subscribe to email updates of all town news.You can subscribe to […]