Comprehensive Plan seeks more public input: Workshop set for Thursday evening

It’s 2030 and you still live and/or work on Shelter Island. You’re here because it’s you’re ideal vision of a place to live. What makes that the case?

That’s what the Comprehensive Plan team wants to know and why the group is reaching out with a second virtual public workshop on Thursday, April 22,  between 6 and 9 p.m.

The plan’s committee members aren’t looking for a vision of utopia or even a fully developed vision of the Island. But have certain areas they want the public to weigh in.

The areas identified are

• Community character

• Housing

• Economy

• Environment

• Circulation focused on transportation and traffic

• Governance

Those six areas, identified from the first workshop and a survey conducted earlier, are meant to stimulate thinking among participants in the second workshop, but not confine them to only those themes, consultant Larissa Brown said.

The reason the committee has put forth those themes is not to lock people into comments, but to avoid the discussions from becoming too ethereal, the plan’s Project Director Edward Hindin said.

“Tell us what’s important” without trying to outline a developed vision, he added.

A “synthesis document” is to be posted on the town website (shelterislandtown.us) under the Comprehensive Plan tab in advance of the workshop.

Again, that is intended to stimulate thinking and won’t be the final opportunity for the public to weigh in on the development of a new Comprehensive Plan.

Besides future workshops, anyone can contact members of the plan’s Advisory Committee at any time. The group is hoping the more than 100 who attended the first workshop will ZOOM into the second, and would like to see the number of participants at least double.

The session will look at current trends and what the town might look like 10 or more years from now if nothing is done to change course.

Besides full opening and closing remarks, participants will be divided into smaller group meetings to give everyone opportunities to speak about their “preferred outcome that best fits their vision for the future of Shelter Island,” according to the posted announcement for the session on the town website.

Also, on the website is the update to the Shelter Island 2020 draft that looks at the Shelter Island that exists today. The committee hopes participants will take time to look through that document developed by the group with the assistance of those who responded to a survey, participated in the first workshop or spoke with members of the committee about how they view the town now.

Expanding this session from two to three hours is another effort to elicit more input, Mr. Hindin said.

You can participate by accessing the session using ZOOM on a computer or tablet; streaming the session; or by calling into the session on numbers that are posted on the website. Again, to access the directions for all three, login to the town website at shelterislandtown.us and click on the Comprehensive Plan tab. Then click on information for workshop number 2.

After input from this workshop is analyzed and incorporated into a draft, there will be other opportunities for public input.