Jefferson Community College
Watertown, NY 13601
A free workshop for local planning officials and the public will be offered from 6:30 – 8:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 20th, in the Jules Center Amphitheater (Room 6-002) at Jefferson Community College in Watertown. The topic will be “The Fort Drum Story: The Scope and Potential Impact of Base-Related Growth”. The session is targeted at planning officials in the Jefferson, Lewis, and St. Lawrence counties. If approved by the municipality, this workshop can count as 2 hours of training to meet the New York State Municipal Training requirement for planning board members. An RSVP by February 18 is requested by calling the Center for Community Studies at (315) 786-2489 or via an email to lirwin@sunyjefferson.edu.
The purpose of the workshop is to explain the significance, size, and scope of Fort Drum’s transformation and its implications for decision makers at the community level. Highlights will include key Fort Drum activities influencing adjacent and nearby communities, (such as training operations, airfield activity, and housing projects); changes in area population numbers and demographics; off-base commercial and residential development patterns; key infrastructure investments planned or underway; and relevant before-and-after examples (lessons learned) from communities that have experienced similar military-related growth.
The information presented in this session is the first of four components of a Fort Drum Growth Management Strategy, being prepared by Behan Planning and EDAW, Inc. under contract with the Fort Drum Regional Liaison Organization with grant funding from the U.S. Office of Economic Adjustment. Additional components will include the projection of alternative growth scenarios, public engagement, and, finally, a “toolbox” of recommended strategies to guide local communities in managing growth in order to achieve the public’s preferred development scenarios.
The February 20th workshop is part of the Growth Management Series of planning and zoning workshops being offered by the Fort Drum Regional Liaison Organization, in collaboration with the Center for Community Studies at JCC, Jefferson County Department of Planning, Lewis County Department of Economic Development, St. Lawrence County Department of Planning and Community Development, and the NYS Tug Hill Commission. Funding for the workshop series is also provided by the U.S. Office of Economic Adjustment. The next session in the series will be held on April 16, 2008. For information, please contact Richard R. LeClerc, director of the Center for Community Studies, 315-786-2488.
A number of planning and zoning workshops will also be offered at the March 27th annual Local Government Conference, hosted at JCC by the New York State Tug Hill Commission. For more information on that event, visit www.tughill.org or call the Commission office at 785-2380.