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About the Comprehensive Plan Update

One of the most important powers and duties granted to a Town is the responsibility to prepare and update a Comprehensive Plan for their community. In order for a Comprehensive Plan to be an effective decision-making tool and successful development guide, it must be continuously monitored and periodically evaluated and updated. Without this, as circumstances and conditions change within the community the Plan will become less valuable as a town planning guide, and eventually will become obsolete. The Plan should not be considered a static document, but a dynamic tool capable of adapting to changing conditions.

Comprehensive Plan 2000, although a good starting point relating to sustainability, and open space and environmental preservation, could not fully prepare and plan for some of the current challenges the community now faces in these areas today. The Town of Brighton has undertaken a commitment to update its Comprehensive Plan in order to stay current with development trends and the needs of the community. It is important that the Plan include a strategy for acquired parkland and sustainability and smart growth principles. Therefore, the Town applied for and received a Cleaner Greener Communities (CGC), Phase II Implementation Grants, Category 2: Comprehensive Planning funding from New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).

NYSERDA's Cleaner, Greener Communities Program Sustainability Indicators

Sustainability permeates every design and planning decision and leads to an enhanced quality of life - locally and globally - now and in the future. The update to the Town's Comprehensive Plan is rooted in a deep understanding that this work must recognize and balance human activity with natural cycles and environmental systems to be truly sustainable. Through the planning process, the Town of Brighton will:

  • gain a detailed understanding of the Town's physical and environmental characteristics and its cultural context;
  • bringing forward high quality, innovative, and sustainable new development in accordance with current best practices
  • Promote land use patterns that encourage alternate modes of transportation and pedestrian activity; and
  • advance sustainability and minimize impacts to natural resources through protection, conservation, and mitigation
Steps for Preparing YOUR Comprehensive Plan

1. Focusing: Identifying the primary issues and opportunities

2. Community Inventory & Analysis

3. Visioning: What do YOU want Brighton to be like in 10, 15, and 25 years?

4. Sustainability goals and recommendations

5. Park Master Plan

6. Develop draft plan

7. Final plan document

8. Implementation

9. State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA); Generic Environmental Impact Statement (GEIS)