Contact:
Mike Baden, Town of Rochester Supervisor
mbaden@townofrochester.ny.gov
(845) 626-3043
Terry Houck, Town of Wawarsing Supervisor
wawsupervisor@hvc.rr.com
(845) 647-7800 x6
***For Immediate Release***
Kerhonkson residents, business and property owners, community groups – We want you!
Mike Baden, Supervisor of the Town of Rochester, and Terry Houck, Supervisor of the Town of Wawarsing, in concert with the Ulster County Planning Department, are proud to announce an open community forum to be held April 18th at the Kerhonkson Firehouse, 333 Main Street from 6pm – 8pm.
Kerhonkson area residents, business and property owners and community groups are invited to attend and share their ideas to identify revitalization targets and strategies that could bring new funding and financing incentives to the Hamlet of Kerhonkson. This forum is being held to further the New York Department of State BOA Pre-nomination Study funding received by the Ulster County Planning Department in 2016-2017.
The Department of State’s BOA Program provides communities with guidance, expertise and financial assistance to complete Nomination Plans, which are revitalization strategies for neighborhoods or areas affected by economic distress. Through the BOA Program, these areas are transformed from liabilities to community assets that generate businesses, jobs and revenues for local economies. The program provides a neighborhood or area-wide approach, rather than the traditional site-by-site approach, to the assessment and redevelopment of vacant or abandoned properties. The neighborhood approach enables communities to comprehensively assess existing economic and environmental conditions associated with blight and impacted areas, identify and prioritize community supported redevelopment opportunities, and attract public and private investment.
The goals of the forum are to assist communities:
• Assess the full range of community redevelopment opportunities posed by a concentration of brownfields or economic distress
• Build a shared community vision and consensus on the reuse and redevelopment of strategic sites and actions to achieve community revitalization
• Coordinate and collaborate with local, state, and federal agencies, community groups and private-sector partners to identify and implement solutions to improve communities
• Develop public-private sector partnerships necessary to leverage investment to advance and implement development projects that can revitalize diverse local neighborhoods.
Through a community-driven process, primary outcomes include:
• Effective strategies to achieve revitalization – BOA Plans establish clear and effective community neighborhood and site specific redevelopment strategies that specify how areas and sites can be cleaned-up and redeveloped more quickly so development impacts the community in a positive way.
• Informing site clean-ups – By conducting site assessments, to better understand contamination issues, clean-up options and costs are better understood.
• Shovel ready sites – A portfolio of sites that are or near shovel ready and ripe for redevelopment and investment for a range of businesses and uses.
• Priorities for investment – Priorities for public and private investment are established that lead to redevelopment and other actions for community renewal.
• Environmental justice – Environmental justice issues and concerns related to negative environmental consequences are addressed and countered.
• Marketing to attract investors – Marketing materials are generated, such as site renderings to illustrate redevelopment potential, descriptive brochures, web displays, requests for developer proposals and others to attract interest and investment.
• Public and private partnerships – Multi-agency and private-sector partnerships are established to leverage investments to redevelop sites, improve supporting infrastructure, and provide needed community facilities.