Clarkson ready to present comprehensive plan
Public invited to comment: Wednesday, April 27, 7:30 p.m., Clarkson Court House

The new Town of Clarkson Comprehensive Plan has been 30 years in the making and town councilperson Christa Filipowicz said the process has been a rewarding one.

"Pulling together information related to land use and the assets in the community to create a viable guideline as we move forward has been exciting," she said. "The current Comprehensive Plan is over 30 years old and in general, a comprehensive plan should be reviewed every 10 years."

Filipowicz said there was an attempt made to review the plan in the early 1990s but it was never adopted.

"The 90s also brought a period of huge population growth for Clarkson -- by 34 percent," she said. "During this period it became apparent we needed to reexamine portions of the plan to reduce our vulnerability and risk. We wanted to ask the community how they want to see Clarkson grow and the town board developed and distributed a Community Survey in the fall of 2003."

Town officials mailed 1,996 surveys and had 321 returned, a 16 percent return rate, which Filipowicz said was good. The Comprehensive Plan Committee began work in January 2004 using the data from the survey as a starting point for discussion.

The committee defined five goals for Clarkson that included:

• preserving the distinctive features of Clarkson's character, including its historic hamlet areas, rural road frontage and natural drainage systems;
• focus on development at existing nodes;
  omatch the location and capacity of infrastructure and community services to Clarkson's rural vision;
• diversify the tax base to improve community quality of life and municipal fiscal management; and
• designate neighborhoods and rural residential areas to accommodate a wide range of life-style preferences with regard to density, cost, size and type.

"The committee has been extremely dedicated and worked hard to focus on what is good for Clarkson as a whole," Filipowicz said.

The town hired consultant Linda Phillips, EDR to lead them through the cumbersome process and to help collect and compile the work of the committee and to aid them to lay out a process for distributing, collecting and interpreting the facts contained in the returned surveys. Filipowicz said that Phillips posed thought-provoking questions to validate and clarify the direction of the community.

"Clarkson has a very good vision of where they want to be," Phillips said "They just needed to get a more detailed plan for how they wanted to preserve what they value by planning ahead for both commercial and residential areas as well as retaining their rural character."

In addition to pulling together a committee, Filipowicz said there have been focus groups for contractors and engineers, senior citizens, farmers and teens in order to collect ideas for the plan.

The meeting, Filipowicz said, will provide an opportunity for the committee to present what has been developed so far, and provide an opportunity to get feedback from the community.

"The residents seem overwhelmingly in favor of maintaining the rural character and preserving the historical district. They indicated a preference for keeping the major commercial districts in Hamlin and Brockport rather than bringing it to Clarkson," she said. "The impact this could have on taxes has been offset by the planned development of existing hamlets within the town with 'neighborhood-type' commercial economic development. The plan is the culmination of what the residents have asked for and, when approved, will guide developers on what type of community Clarkson wants."

A public information meeting will be held at the Clarkson Court House on April 27 at 7:30 p.m. A second public hearing on the Comprehensive Plan will be held in the next two months in order to incorporate input and put forth a final plan.