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Survey says? Smart growth, rural character for Greenville

By David Gordon

GREENVILLE — Through two years of surveys, workshops and interviews, the Greenville Community Plan Committee has found that residents want to preserve the town’s rural character while encouraging well-planned, controlled growth.

The committee also found that recreation and community activities are important to residents. The importance of citizen involvement and volunteerism can be found in a variety of contexts throughout the plan.

The committee presented an outline of its findings at a public meeting on Wednesday, October 29. The 60 or so residents who attended were asked to comment on the plan and suggest additions or changes. The plan has been submitted to the Greenville Planning Board, which has passed it on to the Town Board, which will hold a public hearing.

The community plan will be the basis for amendments to the town’s zoning laws, said Peter O’Hara, the committee chairman. Based on the surveys and meetings, the committee developed a vision statement. A series of goals, based on the vision statement, followed. Finally, the committee developed an action plan designed to accomplish the goals.

The action plan, along with a list of committee members, the survey methodology and results and a draft copy of the plan, are all available on line at www.greenvillecommunityplan.org .

The plan starts with a vision statement: “Residents will work collectively to conserve and enhance Greenville’s small-town rural character and natural beauty. Growth will be well planned and aesthetically pleasing and will create new economic opportunities for all. Desired services will be supported by a productive tax base that is broad, diverse and growing.”

A list of goals follows, incorporating the concepts of preservation and planned growth in the vision statement. The list of goals, as presented on Wednesday, was broking down under seven topics. These were land management and historic preservation; town government; open space and environment; infrastructure; housing; community facilities and recreation, and economic development.

“We recognize that a disproportionate amount of taxes is residential,” O’Hara said. “We will need new commercial growth. We want to make sure that growth is well planned.”

In the various workshops and meetings, “dollar stores got very negative ratings,” O’Hara said. “We want to develop design standards for industrial and multifamily housing.”

Historic preservation is one of the key parts of this plan, town historian Don Teator said. “Making sure we have a sense of pride, a sense of place that we are committed to psychologically and physically; a place we are willing to invest in is really important,” he said. “We’ve got to make sure we get it right.”

Teator also stressed the importance of developing zoning that is consistent with the plan. “To make a plan without the zoning that flows along with it would be wrong. Educate the people who aren’t here about what the plan is, what the zoning is, and all the issues.”

A group is still working on zoning law amendments to implement the action plan, said Margaret Irwin of River Street Planning and Development, the comprehensive plan committee’s consultant. The zoning will be developed through the winter and early spring, she said.

Good planning and zoning protects both the property rights of landowners and the environment and character of the community, she said. “They may seem like they are at different ends of the spectrum, but they are not.”

Outlining the standards for new development, Irwin said, “new development should be constructed in a way that works with the surrounding development, and is approachable by the community, whether they are walking, riding a bike, driving a car, pushing a stroller or walking with a cane or in a wheelchair.”

The plan calls for “responsive, open and transparent local government, professional leadership and excellent communication that will inspire a collaborative environment,” said Gail Biskupich, a committee member. Residents have indicated they feel the town should enforce zoning and building codes more strictly, she said.

“The technology plan focuses on creating what we call a virtual town, making it possible for you to look at any document, agendas, minutes, plans, laws without having to come in to Town Hall,” Irwin explained. “In the long term that means you could pay things like tax bills on line. Creating a virtual government (via a web site) makes it easier for you to interact.”

New York State has developed a grants program to promote shared services and partnerships, Irwin said. As one simple and obvious example, she mentioned the purchase of asphalt, which could be bought more cheaply if several towns and the school district ordered the material together, gaining quantity discounts.

Implementing the plan may cost money and require additional town staff, Irwin said. Grant money for some of these tasks may be available, she said.

The plan has a lot to say about housing, including the need to integrate the design of new housing in hamlets with the rural and historic character of the town.

Committee member Brian Mulligan focused on the idea of life cycle housing, that is, housing for young people starting out, suitable homes for growing families and good homes for elderly people to retire to.

“Today, the majority of Greenville residents could not afford to buy a building site and build a modest home,” Irwin said. “People think of affordable housing as ‘welfare housing’ or ‘workforce housing,’ but when we talk about affordable housing in this plan we mean the average citizen in Greenville should be able to own a home, take care of a home, retire in a home and it should not cost every penny they have.”

The plan calls for improvements and expansion of public water and sewer systems, state of the art telecommunications and well-maintained roads and trails. Safe routes for children to walk to school and for people to walk or bicycle to services are important. Creation of a complete, connected set of sidewalks is part of this goal.

The plan also calls for developing solar and wind energy and keeping utility lines underground as much as possible. Irwin warned against privatizing public utilities, as some communities have done.

Community facilities and recreation includes developing community gathering spaces and developing a long-term recreation plan. Sharing facilities with the school district can help meet this goal, said committee member Genevieve Hagan. The school can serve not only the needs of the children, but also the adults of the community, she said.

Protection of environmental resources includes the development of a conservation advisory committee. The town should develop a strategy for preserving wetlands and should consider purchase of development rights and partnership with the Greene County land trust.

“We must preserve the fields, the farms and if possible the waterways,” said Otto Suwara. “As much as possible we should preserve farming, and even encourage development (of farms) because the closer we produce the fruits and vegetables to where we live, the better they taste and the cheaper it is to transport and the more money we can keep in our community.”

Green power, including solar and wind power, could be part of an economic base. The plan specifies that Greenville will “encourage a knowledge based, green economy.”

This can include niche retail and specialty farming, and home-based industries, Irwin said.

“Agriculture is not the economic driver it once was in Greenville, but there are still a lot of lands in use for agriculture. Some are niche farming; maybe they are just growing the best basil the world has ever seen and exporting it to restaurants in New York City.”

New industries, such as solar and wind, are part of a “green” economy, said Reggie Ratcliffe, but farming and livestock are also part of it. “We have an opportunity to preserve our open space and help our farmers at the same time,” he said.

The town could also develop “shovel-ready” sites by identifying areas where it wants commercial and industrial development to go, he said. Economic incubators - buildings where a small business could start, then move out as they grow and open the building to another business, could also encourage development.

Zoning is the vehicle for balancing the need to bring in new business and protection of the existing environmental and historical values, Irwin said. “Zoning should make it easy for the right project to be done easily.”

While the plan has been submitted to the planning board, and is now before the town board, it is still a draft, O’Hara said. People can still offer suggestions or comments. There’s a section of the web site for feedback.

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