Glen Cove Mayor Ralph V. Suozzi has initiated the formation of a Master Plan for the City, the revamping of the City's Zoning Ordinance and the requisite environmental review (or SEQRA) process.

Mayor Suozzi said, "The city has not updated its Master Plan in decades and the existing zoning regulations do not adequately address the city's present challenges and trends. Glen Cove is in need of a unified framework for its future development. The city's current context makes it particularly ripe for planning: strong development pressures, a declining industrial base, a need to preserve neighborhood and community character, and a moratorium on development. The public - residents and other stakeholders - will play a major role in what will be an open and transparent planning process."

To accomplish the formation of a Master Plan, the city has retained the services of Phillips Preiss Shapiro Associates (PPSA), an award-winning planning and real estate consultancy based in New York City, to lead the process with a fresh outlook. PPSA is working in conjunction with Stuart Turner and Associates (STA), long-standing planning consultants to the city, bringing continuity and institutional memory to the effort.

The Master Plan is a consensus plan for the future development of Glen Cove, setting the major goals for the city with a 20-year horizon. The objectives outlined in the Master Plan will serve as an instrument for land use and zoning decisions going forward. Although land use will be the central component, the plan will also address other broader-reaching objectives in the areas of housing, transportation, recreation, economic development, conservation, etc. Taking a problem-solving approach, the plan will maintain optimism about the future of the city.

The City of Glen Cove's Zoning Ordinance is also in need of a major overhaul. Zoning is the regulatory tool for implementing land use and urban design objectives of the Master Plan. Therefore, once the Master Plan is complete, the zoning ordinance will be redrafted to reflect the city's goals, taking advantage of a full range of innovative zoning techniques that have developed in recent years, such as, incentive zoning, performance zoning, neo-traditional formats, and form-based zoning. On the heels of new zoning, the city will then go through the formal state-regulated environmental review process.

The plan will be developed in a collaborative way with the involvement of all stakeholders: Master Plan Task Force, City of Glen Cove, Planning Board, Zoning Board, public officials, community groups, the BID, unions, businesses, property owners, religious leaders, and of course, residents. To oversee the process, the city has set up a Master Plan Task Force, comprised of a diverse array of stakeholders within the city, who will play an advisory role in plan formation. In addition, stakeholder interviews, comprehensive surveys and public meetings will be conducted to gather more information. The city is also currently developing a special website for the plan to improve public access to plan data and allow ample opportunity for feedback. The cornerstone of the planning effort will be three public workshops, each focused on a different topic: Neighborhoods, Downtown and the Waterfront. All are welcome and encouraged to join, The schedule is as follows:

Date:		Topic:
Wednesday, Nov. 29		Quality of life / Neighborhoods
Monday, Dec. 18		Downtown visioning
Wednesday, Jan. 17, 2007		All of the waterfront visioning

Each workshop will take place in the main chambers of city hall at 9 Glen Street, and will start promptly at 6:3 0p.m. with an orientation to the plan, followed at 7 p.m. with a two-hour workshop focused on the designated topic. Additionally, an open house for the plan will take place in February, at which the public will be invited to review the major plan recommendations and provide feedback. The entire process, inclusive of the Master Plan, Zoning Ordinance and Environmental Review, is expected to be completed by September 2007.