Comprehensive Plan Update

What is the Village of Briarcliff Manor Comprehensive Plan?

A Comprehensive Plan is a long-range strategy that offers policy guidance for the Village’s future growth, land use and development issues, infrastructure and transportation, and other services such as open space. The Plan sets goals and recommended actions to achieve community priorities. The Comprehensive Plan must be adopted by the Board of Trustees, and any future land use regulations must be consistent with the Plan. Such regulations would need to be adopted by the Board of Trustees in a separate process.

In general, New York State recommends that municipalities update their Comprehensive Plan every 10 years or so, to reflect current demographic trends, recent planning objectives, and the development context. The current Village of Briarcliff Manor Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 2007.

What ISN’T the Village of Briarcliff Manor Comprehensive Plan?

• A data book: The Plan is not intended to be an encyclopedic compilation of all information about Briarcliff. It should be accessible to the community and focused on key issues that primarily relate to the physical environment. BFJ Planning has the technical expertise to analyze the data and trends necessary to identify the Village’s vision, issues, and opportunities, while preparing a document with a compelling, public-facing narrative and graphics.

• A strategic plan: A Comprehensive Plan is a long-range policy document identifying where a community wants to go and laying out strategies on how to get there. A strategic plan deals more with the organizational and operational systems needed to achieve the broader vision. A Comprehensive Plan would not get into details on departmental staffing and budgeting.

• Zoning: While the Plan may make recommendations on potential zoning changes or approaches, such suggestions do not constitute regulations. Adopting zoning would need to be a future step undertaken by the Board of Trustees, based on further analysis (including environmental review) and possibly additional community engagement, depending on the nature and scale of the proposal.

How is the Comprehensive Plan Used?

The Village Manager and Village Staff use the Comprehensive Plan to identify or confirm priorities, policy direction, and determine how best to allocate staff time and resources.

The Board of Trustees uses the Comprehensive Plan when adopting new laws and ordinances, allocating budgets, and making spending decisions. For example, the decision to change the zoning code, fund new programs, build capital improvements, and fund property acquisitions, should be consistent with the Comprehensive Plan’s goals and objectives, or designed to effectuate its recommendations. As the body that adopts zoning ordinances, the Board should understand that the Comprehensive Plan is the foundation establishing the Zoning Map and Zoning Regulations.

The Planning Board and Zoning Boards use the Comprehensive Plan to guide their decisions when reviewing development applications. New development should be consistent with Briarcliff’s land use goals and objectives, and in particular, the land use recommendations of the Comprehensive Plan.

Other State, County and Local governmental agencies use Briarcliff’s Comprehensive Plan to understand the Village’s priorities and to coordinate projects that may impact each other’s borders.

Businesses and investors use the Comprehensive Plan to know how the Village will invest resources.

Residents can use the Plan to hold elected representatives accountable to the community-driven vision.

What is the Role of the Working Group?

The Working Group will be asked to take part in the following activities:

1. Participate in regular meetings with Consultants

The Working Group will meet monthly. These virtual meetings, which will last about one hour, are intended to be interactive discussions about the process and content of the plan. The consultant team will provide meeting agendas in advance of the meeting. Working Group meetings are tentatively scheduled for the 4th Fridays of the month at 10:00 AM. There will be approximately eight (8) Working Group meetings in 2025.

2. Review and comment on draft content of the plan:

The consultant team will provide draft sections of the Comprehensive Plan to the Working Group for review and comment. The Working Group will be asked to read through draft materials and provide comment to ensure that the team is accurately reflecting the priorities of the community in the plan.

3. Spread the word about opportunities for community engagement

Public participation is a necessary aspect of creating a Comprehensive Plan. The Working Group will be asked to help ensure the success of community engagement by posting about Comprehensive Plan update events on their own social networks, reaching out to their contacts in the community, and spreading the word via any community organizations that they are involved in.

4. Attend and assist at community meetings

Working Group members will be asked to attend public events held during the process, as available. Members may also be asked to help “staff” some of these events, such as workshops, pop-up events etc., by facilitating discussion among members of the public.