Reporter Editorial: Comp Plan must be a priority — Jan. 26, 2026

We were pleased to see completion of an updated Comprehensive Plan placed high on the Town Board’s list of priorities for this year.

A municipality’s Comprehensive Plan dictates policy on multiple fronts, including development, land use, zoning code changes, transportation and housing. In 1994, a Comprehensive Plan was adopted by a Town Board resolution. A seven-month effort of discussion and research in 2008 produced an update to that plan, but the board rejected it. The current work on a Comprehensive Plan has been going on for years. 

There have been unavoidable delays. The COVID-19 pandemic was a factor. Changes in consultants and questions about whether ongoing advice at additional cost for Manhattan-based BFJ Planning was needed.

And then something completely avoidable occurred — a strategy, put in place to consolidate political power by one political party, muddied already troubled waters.

With the election of Amber Brach-Williams — who had been serving as a councilwoman — as supervisor in November 2023, there was an empty seat at the table. But with 11 competent candidates stepping forward to be selected for appointment, the four sitting Board members couldn’t agree on someone to take the seat. We reported about the proceedings, with the Democrats slow-walking or even bringing the process to a standstill to keep the seat open until fellow Dem Gordon Gooding was elected to the empty seat in November 2024. He was finally sworn in at the first meeting in January 2025. Rather than seeking a full four-year term as a councilman in November 2025, he opted to run against Supervisor Amber Brach-Williams in what proved to be a failing effort.

We reported on candidates going before the Board to try to fill the empty seat Ms. Brach Williams held before her election as supervisor and learned the Democrats on the Town Board had not raised a single question of any of the 11 applicants for the seat.

That left the Town Board hamstrung in the first year of the new administration, so work that needed attention was left hanging.

The first two years of this administration has been limited in scope and success. Now a full five-member Town Board will challenge every member to make up for lost time.

It’s vital that another year without a new Comp Plan can’t go by without being finalized, and hopefully, politics will be left outside the doors of the Town Hall meeting room.