Ogden unveils plan for the future of open space

About two dozen people attended the presentation of Ogden's Open Space plan on May 9.

"The meeting went well and I think as far as the plan goes, everyone seemed to be in agreement that it was a good one and that we need to move forward," Town of Ogden Supervisor Gay

Lenhard said that Ogden has 57 percent of its land as open space. "I think it's dangerous to start writing new codes before we complete our research," she said.

The next steps, now that the Open Space plan has been presented, will be to begin looking at the town's code books and find ways to incorporate the plan's findings. "We can't stop development but what we have to do is find ways in which everyone wins - the developers and the community," she said.

Town officials spent two years building Ogden's comprehensive plan, and another two on its open space plan, she said. "We will be lucky if we get everything meshed together in the next couple of years," she said, adding that their consultant told them some municipalities have taken up to 10 years to fully implement their plans.

"We have made a lot of progress," she said. "Right now, our backs are not against the walls (with pending development) and we feel we are implementing plans and looking at the make up of the community at a pace that is keeping us on track."

Gary Danielson, a member of the Southwest Ogden Neighborhood Association, said he was "disappointed" by the number of people who showed up at the meeting. "I also think there were a lot of people there who didn't enthusiastically embrace the plan," he said. "We heard it might take more than two years to get the plan enacted and that concerned many of us because that means that development could go unchecked during that time."

In the letter to the editor, Danielson raised concerns that because there are currently 13-single family and senior housing development projects underway that development right now is not under control. "I hope the Open Space and Comprehensive plans won't be put on a shelf to gather dust," he said.

Lenhard said that with this type of plan a municipality is never really finished. "These documents are living documents and will likely always remain works in progress," she said.

Town officials have some "tweaking" to do, Lenhard said. "There are several areas in the plan that need to be addressed, we need to do some minor revisions then do a SEQR (State Environmental Quality Review) before any resolutions can be made to adopt the plan."

When asked if the present Ogden Space committee will remain intact as the town move forward, Lenhard said she didn't know. "We might have to give those people a rest and look for a new committee," she said. "Once we get into the code books, we will require more technical expertise. We are engineering a legacy of planned growth the development for the town."

Public meetings and hearings will be conducted as the plan continues to evolve.

May 28, 2006