A map highlighting the focus areas of the Urban Design Plan 2.0, approved by the Jamestown City Council during its May 2019 meeting.

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council has approved a plan that will help chart the course for future development in the downtown area of the city, but it wasn’t unanimous.

During Monday’s city council meeting, lawmakers voted 8 to 1 in favor of adopting the city’s Urban Design Plan 2.0 – put together by the consulting firm Goody Clancy with oversight from the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation (JRC).

Funding for the new plan came from City of Jamestown, New York State Downtown Revitalization Initiative and the Gebbie Foundation.

The guiding themes of our new plan focusing on four areas:

• Continue the renewal of the Chadakoin Riverfront;
• Make downtown more walkable and better connected;
• Expand on the programs and events that draw people downtown, and;
• Recognizing the potential of a growing a Health and Wellness medical corridor in the areas of Foote Avenue and Harrison and Institute Street.

The plan was more than a year in the making with community input sessions taking place in 2018, along with a roll-out and approval by the City Planning Commission earlier this year. The plan was also presented to the city council’s Public Safety Committee and full council in March and two public hearings on it were held in April to allow for final input before being adopted this month by the council.

However, despite the numerous opportunities offer input and also learn details about the plan, city councilman Andrew Liuzzo (R-At Large) voiced his concern about the plan, saying prior to the vote that he didn’t feel enough was done to seek input from the residents and businesses that might be impacted by any future development, specifically in the medical corridor, that stems from recommendations with the plan. As a result, he voted against adopting the document.

Following the meeting Liuzzo reiterated his thoughts to WRFA.

“I’m pretty sure that people on Maple Street and Arnold Street and Institute Street – that whole area – I’m pretty sure that they didn’t have any input on this,” Liuzzo explained. “I think that if you are going to plan Urban Planning, yeah, you can have your meeting and you can call for a public hearing but you see how well they [are attended]… You really have to walk the neighborhoods and ask, ‘This is what our plan is. How do you feel about that?’ That’s why in good conscious I voted ‘no.'”

JRC Executive director Peter Miraglia was in attendance during Monday’s meeting and afterward he spoke with us in response to Liuzzo’s concerns about a lack of effort in reaching out to residents and businesses.

“We did have two public hearings after the planning commission and the Public Safety Committee reviewed it. Yes, I would love to have the time to go door-to-door to talk with everyone about it. I don’t want to make excuses but it would have been impracticable at that time. We did get a pretty good input at the start of the process and we did have smaller groups during the public hearing but they did provide input. And my office is always open for anyone who has questions,” Miraglia said.

Both Miraglia and Mayor Sam Teresi also remind the public that the Urban Design Plan is designed to be a general vision and recommendation on the focus of future development efforts in the city, including making recommendations, but it is not intended to be a specific action plan.  Any recommended projects that do move forward will still have to be discussed by the council and other stakeholders and will likely have opportunities for the public to weigh in on them prior to any permitting or funding applications that may take place.

The plan can be viewed at the JRC’s website.

The Jamestown City Council’s Public Safety Committee reviews the draft Urban Design Plan 2.0 with city Planner Cyrstal Surdyk and JRC executive director Peter Miraglia.

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council was given its first glimpse of a newly drafted Urban Design Plan on Monday night.

During the council’ Public Safety Committee meeting as well as the full council work session, city Planner Crystal Surdyk walked officials through the plan and highlighted some of the key components of the Jamestown Urban Design Plan 2.0. During the Public Safety meeting Surdyk was also joined by Jamestown Renaissance Corporation director Peter Miraglia. The JRC was the sponsor of the plan.

• READ DRAFT JAMESTOWN URBAN DESIGN PLAN 2.0

The Urban Design Plan 2.0 was once again drafted by Goody Clancy – who helped with the previous Urban Design Plan that was implemented in 2006 and which won both state and national awards.

Maraglia said the focus of the new UDP is similar to what the old one initiated a dozen years earlier.

“This new plan is an update to first plan and continues some of the themes, such as the Riverwalk development, making downtown more walkable, and expanding activities and events,” Maraglia said. “A major new focus in the new plan is including the Health and Wellness District were UPMC is, and with the Chautauqua Health Network Building that is being built, Western New York Urology, and that sort of thing.”

Maraglia said another new component of the plan is to work on creating another pedestrian access corridor from the Downtown to the Medical district, via Institute Street.

“One of the suggestions that may be of interest to the Public Safety Committee is they suggested opening up pedestrian access from downtown, near the High School down Institute Street through or above the railroad tracks to that new wellness district. That’s in this plan,” Maraglia noted.

And Maraglia added that the plan is useful for a number of reasons, primarily because it offers focus in what projects should be pursued in the coming years, while also helping to leverage money to make those projects a reality.

“These kinds of plans are really good for leveraging future grants and stuff. Because when you apply for things to try and help getting businesses get going, you can reference this and say, ‘Look. It’s in line with what we’ve planned’,” Maraglia said.

The plan was already reviewed and approved by the city planning commission but before it can be put in place it must also be acted on by the full city council. The council will likely have a public hearing on the plan before it votes on it later this spring.

Copies of the plan will be on the city’s website – jamestownny.net.

Goody Clancy, the Boston-based consulting firm which created the original Urban Design Plan in 2006 and which has been hired to update the plan, hosted an input session at the Tarmac Café on Cherry Street.

According to the Post-Journal, the presenters recapped the previous 10 years of improvements to downtown Jamestown, which were guided by the Urban Design Plan, as well as asked for direction on development should continue during the next ten years.

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi says the Urban Design Plan is an essential component to developing an economic development strategy for the city.

“The notion is to build upon not only the general direction of the 2006 plan and what we’ve been able to implement, but also there’s a community process that we’re going through to get input, just like we did with the first plan. Who knows, there may be some bold new ideas that get thrown into the mix, some that might be implemented and others that we may pursue and not be able to implement,” Teresi explained to WRFA during a recent interview that will be broadcast Thursday at 5 p.m.

The 2006 Jamestown Urban Design Plan was so successful that it won the National Planning Achievement Award for Implementation, beating out other larger cities that had also been nominated for their plan.

“We won at the ‘gold level’ – which is the highest level – for the Best Implementation of a community plan,” Teresi said. “It was rewarding, number one, when the plan was first put together. It received a state recognition award for the design of the plan and how we went about putting it together. Ten years later, we received a national award for the best implemented plan in the country.”

Officials are hoping the updated Urban Design Plan will offer development guidance that builds off of previous successes, but also offers a strategy for new development that is inclusive for all residents and visitors alike.

The effort to update the plan is being coordinated by the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation, which received an $87,500 state grant through the Regional Economic Development Council program to fund the project.

Commission Chair Jennifer Satalino said that job creation and retention continue to be a main priority for the commission in 2013.  That includes an effort to recruit new physicians into the area. And while some progress is being made on that front, commission Member and retired physician Dr. Lillian Ney admitted it is a challenge.

“It’s been slow,” Ney said. “Our basic obstacle is competitiveness out there in the marketplace. People are offering very large incentives to young physicians who are really laden with student loans approximating $200,000-250,000. This make it really tough.”

Dr. Ney did add, however, that the local foundations and the hospital and other medical offices have been working to develop a plan that would attract more physicians into the area.

In addition to the physician recruitment goal, the commission also updated the council on other initiatives including the Brian Gain initiative which is aimed at bringing young professionals into the Jamestown area. The commission also continues to work with other groups, such as the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation, to get updates on the implementation the city’s Urban Design Plan.

City Council President Greg Rabb says it appears the commission is continuing to make good progress not only developing various long term goals, but also working with other groups and officials to help move toward meeting them.

ABOUT SPPC
The Strategic Planning and Partnerships Commission was created to continuously consider, develop and make recommendations for strategic initiatives to the Jamestown City Council and other organizations within the greater Jamestown area with respect to issues involving economics, the quality-of-life, equity and opportunity and to develop and establish community-wide goals and objectives for the future. In the development and making of its recommendations, the Strategic Planning and Partnerships Commission shall utilize as resources the departments of the City of Jamestown, the Chautauqua County Industrial Development Agency, public and private housing and development organizations, private enterprise and the Metro Six which is comprise of the City of Jamestown, Town of Ellicott, Town of Busti, Village of Falconer, Village of Celoron and Village of Lakewood.