Since 2024 the Jamestown Department of Development has been working to make updates to the city’s comprehensive plan, which has not been updated since 1998.

The work on the comprehensive plan update continues, including most recently at the November Planning Commission meeting, where city planner Jason Kulaszewski discussed the most recent strategic planning committee meeting — held back in September — with the commission.

So far there have been community meetings, an existing conditions analysis, which Kulaszewski said is the vendor, C&S, reviewing some of the existing plans and things that have been going on, along with different kinds of community outreach. These were put together to create a vision statement, and from that statement different goals were identified, and strategies for how to meet those goals were identified through the planning process.

“All this will go into a future land use plan that will then inform the zoning update that is going to come after the comprehensive planning process,” Kulaszewski said.

A number of community engagements have already happened, including workshops, online tours and site tours. One site tour was a kayak tour, and Kulaszewski briefly discussed that with the commission.

Community feedback for the comprehensive plan update has included establishing stronger communication between the city and community, continuing to grow programs and support family services and build stronger neighborhoods, having high value for art, inclusivity and sustainability, increased access and availability of public transportation, and concerns related to employment opportunities and living situations.

Kulaszewski then shared the vision statement with the commission, which he said then influenced the goals that were developed from there. Goals include; creating an affirming and recognizable community identity, supporting safe, vibrant and walkable mixed-use neighborhoods, strengthening and enhancing housing stability, improving transportation safety and connectivity, restoring, preserving and enhancing natural resources, expanding and diversifying economic opportunities, committing to resilient and stable infrastructure, and promoting inclusive and collaborative planning.

When discussing these goals, Kulaszewski took a moment when addressing transportation safety to mention four-year-old Leanna Herrera who was struck and killed by a school bus last week, the day before the Planning Commission meeting, noting the importance of transportation safety.

“It’s paramount that we continue to address transportation safety and the safety of pedestrians in the community,” Kulaszewski said. “My understanding is this is not the first time, so clearly something we need to address here.”

All of this information then feeds into the future Land Use Plan, which Kulaszewski said is basically a map similar to a zoning map but is not zoning with no legal regulations that adhere to it. It is a way to look at where development is happening now in the city, and will inform the zoning so the city can look at how land is being used now to see what it can do in the future.

Kulaszewski then discussed site plan approval, SEQR reviews, and zonings, all of which will be affected by the land use plan, adding that the zoning itself has also not been updated since the 1990s. Following that, Kulaszewski looked at current versus proposed land uses for zoning, which are set to be narrowed down into a few categories, neighborhood goals when it comes to zoning, and a few planned maps, including the future land use map. The new map remains similar to the current zoning map, with the plan to make things less confusing and to help people better understand what types of zoning can happen where, while also keeping the character of the neighborhoods.

Kulaszewski added that the current C&S contractor working with the city on the comprehensive plan will also be the contractor when they reach the zoning work, meaning they will already have the idea of what went into the comprehensive plan when the zoning work begins. The hope is to have a final draft for the comprehensive plan to give to the board for a vote by early next year.