For additional information, contact Elizabethtown Supervisor Noel Merrihew at 873-6555 or go to the Web site www.adkhamlets.org.
ELIZABETHTOWN — Town and county officials, business owners and citizens have been meeting with planning consultants to map out a potential growth template for communities in the Adirondack Park.
A group of local hamlets — Elizabethtown, Lewis, and Keene, Keene Valley and New Russia — has been selected as one of three clusters for the Hamlets 3 project.
The other areas being studied are around Star Lake and Old Forge.
The Adirondack Hamlets is a project through Adirondack Community Housing Trust to create opportunities for economic development and physical improvement of the Adirondack region through smart expansion.
The project will be completed through mapping, analysis and interaction with the community.
POWER OF IDEAS
Roger Trancik, professor emeritus from Cornell University and an urban design consultant, chaired a recent meeting of the group, held in Elizabethtown.
"We believe in the power of ideas to have communities move forward into the future. This is a parkwide emphasis, not specifically for Elizabethtown."
The Smart Growth summary indicates that many communities have expressed a need for additional areas for residential and commercial growth.
This enables the community to integrate land suitable for development into the fabric of the existing community, availing itself of the benefits of "smart" and "green" growth, according to the Web site.
In addition, it complements the protection of forests, farmland and other forms of open space by avoiding visually unappealing and resource-inefficient sprawl and strip development.
STAGES
Stage 1, which has already been completed, involved regional surveys that incorporated presentations, feedback and defining problems.
The project is now in Stage 2, which involves assimilating hamlet case studies that include analysis, mapping, workshops and strategies.
Stage 3 will create models and guidelines that will synthesize, present approaches, a how-to chart and mechanisms for hamlet growth.
Stage 4, scheduled for March 2011, will include production of a handbook, CD-Rom and Web site on the process, tools and guidelines for Adirondack expansion.
HAMLET IDEAS
From information garnered from surveys, the needs of the hamlets will be ascertained.
Among the ideas from Elizabethtown are the re-using of vacant buildings (Sunoco, corner store, the old Essex County Jail), a Boquet River walking trail and affordable housing.
Lewis ideas are overnight accommodations near Northway Exit 32, biomass heating for town buildings, cell-phone service and senior transportation.
Keene/Keene Valley ideas are housing and commercial ventures on sites that are not utilized, sidewalk curbs, a band shell and a private school for art/music.
"Whether you like the APA plan or not, it's the law," Trancik said. "There are creative ways to work with it. We are looking for opportunities in the APA plan and to come up with a set of guidelines for the whole park."
Essex County Community Development and Planning Director Vic Putnam indicated that this process should be an economic-development tool.
"This is a critical-mass issue. What does it take to support a grocery store?"
The committee is requesting additional input from individuals and groups to incorporate into the overall planning process.
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