Yorktown to update comprehensive plan

Yorktown officials will review the town’s comprehensive plan and update it to reflect current trends, technologies and development pressures that, they say, have emerged since the 2010 plan was adopted.

The Yorktown Town Board approved a resolution to create a steering committee that will set the review in motion at its March 10 meeting.

Steering committee members include representatives from the town’s planning and engineering departments, two Planning Board members and John Tegeder, who retired after 28 years as Director of Planning on March 20. Other members include Richard Fon, Planning Board chairman; Aaron Bock, Planning Board vice chairman; Robyn Steinberg, planner; Ian Richey, assistant planner; Dan Ciarcia, town engineer; and Heather McVeigh, deputy town engineer.

The committee will identify outdated sections of the 2010 plan, remove content it deems irrelevant and revise portions of the plan to guide future growth. While committee meetings will be closed to the public, stakeholders may be invited to discuss specific issues.

Supervisor Ed Lachterman said a comprehensive plan is not tied to one supervisor or one board, but rather is a collaborative effort meant to endure. He told Yorktown News the committee was created to move the process forward and will determine timelines and priorities for the plan.

Tegeder said the plan’s breadth is part of what makes updating it such a significant undertaking.

“There’s so much in that plan, it definitely lives up to the word ‘comprehensive,’” Tegeder said.

He said a lot of work went into formulating the 2010 plan and expects the update will also involve some heavy lifting.

“It took a long time and a lot of effort to get that plan done and finally adopt it permanently, including some lawsuits,” Tegeder told Yorktown News.

Councilwoman Susan Siegel, who was supervisor when the previous plan was adopted, said the committee should focus on what needs to change without scrapping what still works about the 2010 plan and create a schedule for each step of the process.

“As many goals of the comprehensive plan are still relevant and only some sections need tweaking, updating the plan need not be a long drawn out process,” Siegel said. “But to keep the process on track, I suggest the board set up a timeline for the Steering Committee to reach certain milestones, such as public presentations on proposed changes and when draft text will be submitted.”

“Keeping to a timeline worked in 2010,” she added. “It can work again in 2026.”