Because our home is worth fighting for.
FOTOW APPLAUDS ZONING UPDATE REPORT
Community Effort Puts Final Stop to Misguided Migdale Resort Development
The Friends of the Town of Washington (FOTOW) today released a statement applauding the work of the Town of Washington Comprehensive Plan Review Committee (CPRC) and its recently released report on hospitality in the Town of Washington (TOW). The community-driven effort to update the 2015 zoning regulations in the town came about as a result of public outcry in opposition to a plan for a massive resort development at Migdale Castle.
“Everyone who shares our vision of preserving our quality of life and protecting our home from selfish developers can rest assured, with this report we are on a path that ensures smart planning for the future. Most importantly it also closes the door for good on any resort development at Migdale,” said the FOTOW Board in response to the release of the study.
In the fall of 2021, in response to the Migdale proposal, the TOW Town Board charged the CPRC with developing and executing the research project that culminated with the release of the Hospitality Evaluation Report on July 1st. The report entailed a review of the current Town of Washington 2015 Comprehensive Plan with ample opportunities for the community to engage and share their views about local hospitality and zoning. Hundreds of town residents participated in focus groups, an Open House meeting, and a town-wide survey. This data was augmented by analyses of other factors impacting zoning like hospitality options, local economics and taxation, geographic and location considerations, and environmental mapping.
“This report will stand up for years to come because of unprecedented grassroots involvement,” the FOTOW Board statement continued. “The community threw off partisan politics and joined together around the shared goal of protecting the land we love. We applaud the Review Committee and their team of consultants for the delivering to the Town Board a report that placed such a high value on community engagement to inform their work.”
The next step in the zoning update process involves the Comprehensive Plan Review Committee and the Town Board incorporating the recommendations of the report as an update to the 2015 Comprehensive Plan.
Highlights of the Hospitality Evaluation Report include: specific guidance from the public consensus regarding the desired size; architectural scale; location and other factors for any future development; limits on inns to 20 rooms; site design standards for architectural continuity; an Environmental Protection Overlay; aquifer protections, short-term rental rules; and other zoning regulations and protections.
“The exceptional participation of the community is testament to how much we and our neighbors care about how future development will impact our community,” the FOTOW Board statement concluded. “The effort that started as intense public opposition to the ill-conceived and massive Migdale resort proposal ended with a comprehensive report that, once adopted, can guide development and protect our region for decades to come. With such an overwhelming response from so many people from all areas of our town , we look forward to the Town Board following the suggestion of the study to incorporate the recommendations to make needed updates to the 2015 plan.”
Public engagement was an integral part of the hospitality study. With close to 700 respondents for the public survey and over 220 participants in the Town Meeting, the report makes numerous references to how public engagement shows the “community prioritizes environmental protection”, “is very supportive of architectural standards for hospitality uses”, and “showed that people were supportive of small to medium-sized inns” instead of large and branded hotels.
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Background
In the fall of 2021, the Town of Washington Comprehensive Plan Review Committee (CRPC) was charged buy the Town of Washington Board with engaging a team of consultants to assist with the evaluation of the 2015 Town Comprehensive Plan as it relates to hospitality uses. The team was led by Nan Stolzenburg of Community Planning & Environmental Associates and with assistance and support from ReGrowth Planning, Upstate GIS, E.M. Pemrick & Company and Place Dynamics.
The Hospitality Evaluation Report can be found at:
The Appendices for the Hospitality Evaluation Report can be found at: