For immediate news release, 2-27-04
Contact:
- John Adams, Supervisor, Town of Beekman (845) 724-5300, ext. 239
- Werner Stiegler, Chairman, Town of Beekman Open Space Advisory Committee (914) 948-1998, ext. 1328
- John Behan, AICP, Principal, Behan Planning Associates, LLC (518) 583-4335
“Beekman plans for conserving local resources”
Facing continued growth and potential loss of some of the qualities that make the rural community so attractive to residents and businesses in the first place, the Town of Beekman is creating an open space plan for action. Creating an open space plan that is supported by the community will help Beekman be competitive in vying for the county, state, and federal programs for open space and farmland protection funding, as well as help focus efforts on what are priority open space resources.
The initial phase of the planning process to be performed this spring will include a visioning process of extensive outreach to the general public as well as to owners of large properties (10 acres or greater). The town’s open space committee will identify with its planning advisors what open space means to the community and what resources are important conservation priorities. One immediate proposed action is to select a pilot conservation project late this spring to advance this year.
The community is invited to participate, provide input and get involved in the planning process at meetings, by responding to a community survey, and by submitting ideas and comments in writing throughout the planning process.
The town’s planning advisors for this project, John J. Behan, AICP and Jennifer Viggiani, AICP of Behan Planning Associates, LLC, will make a public presentation about the town’s open space planning process at the town board’s regular meeting on Monday, March 1, 2004, 7:30 p.m. at the Beekman Town Hall at 4 Main Street in the hamlet of Poughquag. The public is invited to attend.
A meeting focused on large-acreage landowners will be held on Wednesday, March 10 from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Beekman Town Hall. At this meeting, landowners of 10-acres or greater are specifically invited to hear about the planning process, discuss growth and development patterns in the community, and find out about potential conservation tools and strategies.
Next, a public workshop for the entire community is slated for Saturday, April 24, 2004, 9 a.m. to noon at the Beekman Town Hall.
In addition, two surveys will be mailed to residents by the town’s open space committee this spring. One survey will be sent only to large-acreage landowners in early March to find out potential interest in voluntarily participating in some type of open space program yet to be developed. The second survey will be sent to every family and business to identify more broadly what types of open space are important to the community and whether the community is willing to financially contribute to conserving important local open space resources.
A seven-person open space advisory committee has been appointed by the town board: Werner Stiegler as chairman (a town board councilman); Eric Verhave (on the town recreation commission); Neal Townsend (on the planning board); Antonio Rivera (on the Beekman Conservation Advisory Commission); Gerry Hutchings (a county legislator); Joe Sinisi (resident); and, Doreen O’Connor (resident-farmland owner).
The community and land use planning firm, Behan Planning Associates, LLC, worked with the Town of Red Hook, Village of Red Hook and Village of Tivoli on their joint open space plan, and has extensive open space conservation experience with communities throughout the state.
Later steps in the planning process will involve refining priority conservation areas for the community, developing plan concepts, preparing an open space plan map, and identifying specific conservation tools and strategies for Beekman, developing recommendations and a set of comprehensive actions.
Creating an open space plan was called for in the Town of Beekman’s adopted 1999 comprehensive plan.
For more information
contact Werner Stiegler, Chairman of the Beekman Open Space Plan Advisory
Committee at (914) 948-1998, ext. 1328 or John Adams, Supervisor, Town
of Beekman at (845) 724-5300, ext. 239. Check the Town of Beekman’s
website for updates on the planning project at www.townofbeekman.com/