WESTFIELD — While unable to be in the office over the past months due to the current circumstances, County Planning staff have been busy working on a number of projects to improve our local communities.

One of these projects has been finding ways to improve the municipal referral process, and the product of these efforts is an updated referral form and website.

The municipal referral process – also known as 239 review – is required by state law and designed to ensure that county-wide or inter-municipal concerns are taken into consideration in the local planning process. For example, it would be important for the county to review a new housing development on the border of a town to ensure that potential impacts would not spill into neighboring towns.

As part of this referral process, municipalities are required to submit a form to the County Planning Division with basic information about a given project.

The updated referral form is half the length of the old form and will take much less effort to fill out.

In addition to the form being simplified, it can now be completed and submitted electronically, eliminating the need to print, fill by hand, and mail the form. Being able to submit the form to a single, user-friendly email address – chautauquaplanning@chqgov.com – will further simplify the process.

“Our goal in creating this new form was to ease the burden of the referral process on our local municipalities by streamlining it,” said Planning and Community Development Director Don McCord. “Much of the information collected in the old form our staff would already look up to confirm, and the duplication of effort was unnecessary.”

McCord also highlighted the importance of the review process.

“We firmly believe that municipal referral reviews offer the opportunity for the County and municipalities to work together to improve projects and thereby improve our communities for all residents,” said McCord.

The new Division website contains a series of frequently asked questions to guide municipal officials through the referral process, as well as links to other relevant forms and information.

These FAQs may be helpful for municipal clerks, mayors and supervisors, planning and zoning board members, developers, or any other individual involved with the referral process. The municipal referral website can be accessed through the following link: bit.ly/239review.

The mission of the Division of Planning and Community Development is to improve the quality of life for all of Chautauqua County through the promotion of sound physical and economic growth; the support of intelligent and responsible allocation of our County’s limited resources; and protection and enhancement of the environment.

Current Division projects include the development of a multi-use trail connecting Barcelona to the Chautauqua Institution and updating the County’s Farmland Protection Plan.

More information about the Division of Planning and Community Development can be found at the updated website, planningchautauqua.com. Follow County Planning on Facebook and Twitter (@PlanChautauqua).