By Justin Leitgeb

At last night’s joint meeting of the Village Planning Board and the Board of Trustees we decided to extend the deadline for Local Waterfront Revitalization Program (LWRP) review of the Active Transportation Plan (ATP) by an additional sixty days. The LWRP was adopted in 2005 and it tells us that the Village must work to improve access to Canal resources. It also calls for traffic calming measures (a primary theme of the ATP). The Planning Board found many areas in the ATP that can be improved, primarily since it did not take the policies of the LWRP into account when it was drafted. Overall, the Planning Board called for stronger pedestrian safety measures and increased access to the Canal in the ATP.

Screen shot from Planning Board and Village Board of Trustees on September 3, 2020

The extension of the LWRP process gives time for the Trustees to look over the Planning Board’s recommendations and see how they can be added to the ATP. This is where you come in - the window also gives you more time to participate in the process. Ask questions, and look at the draft ATP yourself to ensure that your concerns about specific dangerous streets and intersections have been addressed. Once the ATP is adopted it can be used for improved negotiations between the Village government and NYSDOT for the streets that we manage, and it helps focus Village priorities for streets that are within our jurisdiction. Independent efforts (e.g., petitions to NYSDOT, requests for additional enforcement in certain areas) should point to relevant sections of the adopted ATP to strengthen their case that our Village is unified in what our streets need to be safer for everyone. If the ATP doesn’t suggest the changes that you think are necessary to address areas that are dangerous for bicyclists or pedestrians, now is the time to speak up.

There will be public meetings and public hearings as the ATP approaches adoption. For your input to have the most impact and appear on the record, it has to occur at properly-noticed public hearings (not informal meetings with a subset of Trustees). Public meetings and public hearings are the primary means by which we ensure transparent direction of our local government by its citizens.

Speeding is a serious problem in the Village, and it’s one that the Village Board and Planning Board have been working hard to address. Now is not the time to come up with independent efforts to address these issues, but to make sure that efforts are coordinated so that we can make our Village safer for pedestrians and bicyclists by working together.

Here are the relevant resources:

If you have questions, don’t hesitate to ask!