Voorheesville’s village board has made the right choice. Faced in several recent sessions with unhappy citizens, the board decided it is time to draft a comprehensive land-use plan.

Six years ago, as 40 new homes were proposed for the edge of the village, we urged Voorheesville to draft such a plan. This past August, we renewed our plea.

“We get the message loud and clear,” Trustee Richard Straut said at last week’s village board meeting, “that the community feels we should move ahead with a comprehensive plan.”

Two issues have recently riled Voorheesville citizens. Stewart’s Shops wants to build a convenience store and gas station where a popular community meeting place, Smith’s Tavern, now stands. The village deferred action on a six-month moratorium that would have suspended the building of a new gas station while the village searched for a site for a new well. Stewart’s is proceeding with its application before the village’s planning commission.

A crowd of 30 people packed the village meeting room for the September hearing on the moratorium. The speakers were divided, with some supporting Stewart’s — including its employees — and others in opposition to a second gas station in the village. Susan Patterson presented the board with a petition signed by 823 people, opposing Stewart’s building at the Smith’s Tavern site.

Patterson said people have concerns about increased traffic, a trout stream that runs behind the property, and having two gas stations in the village. She said Voorheesville had “no charm left.”

“It’s very spineless,” said James Linnan, an attorney representing Smith’s Tavern, of the board’s decision. “A six-month moratorium is finite,” Linnan told The Enterprise after the hearing. “This is a never-ending narrative. “ He said the board’s message is: “Invest what you want. We can pull the rug out from under you any time.”

The other issue that brought out crowds for three phases of a public hearing was a proposal to adopt a planned unit development district. This would have allowed St. Matthew’s Church to build a 40-unit apartment complex on the seven-and-a-half vacant acres next to the church on Mountainview Street.

“For my family and other families, it’s the difference between staying and leaving,” Lynesta Osborne, whose property abuts the St. Matthew’s field, told the board last week.

On the other side of the issue, Peg O’Connor, an older woman whose children are grown and gone, told the board she loved Voorheesville. “I want to stay here till I die,” she said. She believed the complex proposed by St. Matthew’s could have accommodated her in her old age. “I don’t know if I can afford to stay if I have to sell my house,” she told the board.

In light of these differences, the board voted to start the process of creating a master plan.  “We haven’t taken a step back to look at all the village,” said Straut. He recommended forming a committee with a consultant to guide the process.

Mayor Robert Conway described a comprehensive plan as “a blueprint for village development.” Straut elaborated that the master plan would outline what kind of businesses were welcome in the village and where, and what sort of residences and where. “If we determine we are short on senior housing, how much and where would it be, Strout said. “The zoning would follow that.”

In our August editorial, we wrote, “A process to involve residents with different interests in the village — representing among other, the planning and zoning boards, the businesses, the schools, the churches, the library, residents of historic houses, and residents of newer developments — is essential.”

This week, we turned to the nearby village of Altamont for guidance on how best to proceed. Both villages grew with the train stations that put them on the map; both have many original Victorian homes as well as newer developments.

Dean Whalen, an architect who was elected an Altamont trustee in 2007 on a platform of developing a master plan, led the effort and shepherded the plan into zoning laws that would see it carried through.

“The village was laissez-faire,” he recalled this week. “Zoning was loosey-goosey. The only way to justify changes was to have a master plan. We needed a road map.”

Like Voorheesville, Altamont had been relying on its zoning ordinance to serve as a comprehensive plan. “It was dated, from the 1970s; there was nothing about clustering or sidewalks,” Whalen said of the zoning. “Some holes were so big you could drive a truck through.”

Starting the project, Whalen said, the most important thing was to let everyone in the village know about it. Businesses and residents were solicited for their ideas. “We hand-delivered surveys,” he recalled.

“The comments were discussed and reflected upon,” said Whalen with many of them shaping the master plan and ultimately the zoning ordinance.

A committee was formed that was small enough to be workable but large enough to be broad-based, he said. Openness was essential. “All committee meetings were open,” said Whalen.

A series of well-attended workshops were held to discuss major tenets of the plan. Halfway through the process, planning consultant Nan Stolzenburg was brought in. “She was our guide,” said Whalen. “We didn’t edit the old ordinance. We started from scratch in a more modern form.”

Developing the comprehensive plan took nearly a year, and then it took another six months to a year to approve new zoning, which was put in place in late 2009.

In theory, said Whalen, a master plan should be updated every five to 10 years. Seven years out from Altamont’s adoption of the new zoning, the plan is still holding up, he said. “People reference when they speak to the village board,” he said. “They are using it.”

In last year’s debate over whether the Stewart’s shop in Altamont should be allowed to tear down the house next to it to expand, Whalen noted, “The plan spoke to both sides.” The people favoring Stewart’s proposal noted that the comprehensive plan supports developing businesses while the residents opposed to the tear-down noted that the house was in a residential zone.

Because of the plan, Altamont has become more of a walking community, Whalen said. as $18,000 have been designated in each year’s budget to extend sidewalks in the village.

He said of the situation Voorheesville is now facing, “You don’t want to be caught with your pants down.” Having a clear plan, worked through by the citizenry before the board — elected representatives of the people — adopts it not only prevents lawsuits but informs and empowers citizens.

Whalen reiterated the importance of keeping the process open and inclusive. Some of the public, he noted, disagreed with his own ideas. For example, the original proposal designated proportions and placement on the street for new construction “so you wouldn’t have a Frank Lloyd Wright next to an American Foursquare,” he said of clashing architectural styles from different eras.

Residents did not want to be told what they could do or not do with their homes. “We took it out,” said Whalen.

Once the plan is in place and the new zoning is adopted, said Whalen, it is easier for the village’s zoning and planning boards. “You can say, ‘That’s what the constituency agreed to. If you disagree, go to the village board.’”

He concluded of the community, “There should be ownership,” while he said of the master-plan framers, “You can’t have an agenda.”

The planning process allows a community to look at itself, define its resources and needs, and decide the way to best meet them. We commend the Voorheesville board on taking this important first step and we plan to follow its journey.

We hope the advice from Altamont’s architect will be useful. We wholly support an open and inclusive process.

Whalen is irked by citizens who don’t bother to read their village’s plan. “That’s their job,” he said. “You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make him drink.”

We commend the Voorheesville citizens who have attended recent meetings and made their views known. We call on all village citizens to get involved and stay involved. Drink deeply at the trough. Voorheesville is where you live. Help shape its future to your liking.

— Melissa Hale-Spencer