The
Springwater
Preservation Committee
Springwater Preservation Committee |
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Leadership Requires Vision... A community without vision has no direction, and going
nowhere is to go backward. There are good reasons why nearly all towns,
villages and cities in New York have a comprehensive plan (sometimes called a
master plan). What is such a plan? In short, it is a document which looks at and identifies all the existing characteristics of a community, both good and bad, its strengths and weaknesses; it then looks at these characteristics and, based on the input from its citizens of the community, it attempts to develop a vision of what we would like the community to be in the future; it identifies what needs to be preserved, what strengths need to be further strengthened and what problems or weaknesses need to be addressed. The draft develops a specific list of concrete goals, establishes priorities, identifies who is responsible for each goal and sets a realistic target for meeting each goal. After additional citizen input the plan is revised as necessary and approved.
The SPC strongly supports the establishment of a comprehensive plan committee of 15 to 20 volunteers, representing as many interests of the Town as possible, to work with the assistance of the County Planning Office and an experienced professional planner to develop a community with vision and specific goals.
Why do this? There are many reasons but some of the more important and obvious are:
1. The process of doing this kind of planning brings the community closer together and creates a generally shared focus and results in a stronger community.
2. We have an obligation to those who will come after us to be good stewards of our resources and, hopefully, leave things better than the way we found them.
3. As any good business person or successful man or woman will acknowledge it is essential to set specific goals, work toward those goals and periodically stop to reevaluate as conditions change.
4. Communities with a good comprehensive plan are seen as more desirable than communities with no vision, plan or goals; this desirability increases property values for everyone.
5. Communities that can cite a good comprehensive plan and goals have an advantage when trying to obtain State, Federal and private foundation, assistance for its projects.
No community will ever be perfect, but without some intelligent planning there will never be any real progress. Progress seldom happens by accident.
It is time for Springwater and the Town Board to provide leadership and to give every member of our Town a voice in our future.
The Springwater Preservation Committee |