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City launches comprehensive plan on September 10 | News, Sports, Jobs

City launches comprehensive plan on September 10 | News, Sports, Jobs

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Crystal Surdyk, city development director, answers a question during a recent City Council Housing Committee meeting. PJ photo by John Whittaker

City resident Doug Champ urged city officials to ensure the public’s views are included in the upcoming comprehensive plan and zoning ordinance updates.

His wish was granted – in less than 15 seconds. City officials said during this week’s housing committee meeting that the public kickoff event for public input on the two plans will be held on Sept. 10 from 6 to 8 p.m. at Wicked Warren’s on Third Street.

“I know there’s been some internal stuff going on for the so-called autonomous stakeholders, but the real stakeholders are the community, the people of Jamestown,” Champ said. “They are the stakeholders of the comprehensive plan.”

Crystal Surdyk, city development director, responded that an event had been announced on the city’s website and Facebook pages with a request for a date, but the location was not finalized until earlier this week.

Champ also asked about the establishment of a citizens’ advisory committee for the overall plan, which Surdyk said is also likely.

The Jamestown City Council earlier this year approved a $200,000 contract with C&S Companies to create and deliver both updates. The money comes from a $100,000 grant from the State Department and $100,000 from the city’s American Rescue Plan Act allocation.

The last comprehensive plan and comprehensive update of the city’s zoning ordinance both occurred in 1998.

“There’s going to be a long and strong community engagement component to this,” Surdyk said. “We were very meticulous when we looked at the teams that submitted proposals for these plans. We wanted community engagement to be a very high priority.”

In addition to the private meetings, C&S Companies put up a board at a downtown store so the public could provide early comments on things they would like to see in the comprehensive plan. That board was sharply criticized by some city residents who mistakenly thought the board was a substitute for public comments on the city’s Facebook page.

The city’s last comprehensive plan was launched in 1994 under the direction of the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency. That plan highlighted the underutilization of the Chadakoin River, considered “one of Jamestown’s most valuable assets.” It was finally published in 1998 and recommended improvements to the river to increase its recreational, aesthetic and other public benefits. The most recent plan also recognized the weakening of the downtown shopping corridor due to the loss of retailers. The gradual loss of once-significant department stores and the replacement of smaller specialty stores with big-box stores “has caused a generational shift in the use of downtown,” the plan states.

A recommendation in the 1998 comprehensive plan called for the redevelopment of the downtown area with a mixed use of offices, housing, government, entertainment, recreation and tourism.

“Parts of the master plan have been very successful,” Surdyk told the Post-Journal earlier this year. “We’ve made quite a bit of progress with the Riverwalk itself. The Urban Design Plan and the subsequent update to the Urban Design Plan, which I think built on that outdated master plan, have gotten us to where we are today.”



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