Penn Yan — The 2020 Vision committee’s community planning charrette last weekend at the Penn Yan Middle School was not only productive, it was an unqualified success and stands as an exemple of what such community planning sessions are supposed to be, say the event’s organizers.
One of the charrette organizers was Sampson Theatre representative Grace Knapton who says, “As we were leaving, one of the facilitators came to me and said it was the best charrette she had ever participated in!”
Committee member Gary Pinneo describes a charrette as “an intensive planning session where citizens, designers, and other contributors can collaborate on a vision for development. Some of the solutions to problems can be simple, but many issues are very complex and need creativity to be solved.”
By the last count, 150 local people participated the charrette. 2020 Vision organizer Brian Zerges says “These seemed to be mostly motivated and intelligent participants all committed, like us, to see the Penn Yan area become a better place. Ideas that came from the groups were surprising, creative, valuable and worth incorporating into the Vision Plan.”
The 2020 Vision group, an ad hoc committee made up of interested citizens with different backgrounds and interests, enlisted the help of the Rochester Regional Community Design Center, a non-profit organization that promotes development of healthy, sustainable communities by encouraging quality design and thoughtful use of natural resources. They have been meeting with Joni Monroe, the Executive Director of the RRCDC, and Roger Brown, the Creative Consultant, for over a year, discussing the Penn Yan area’s future and what needs to be done to prepare for the changes coming in the years ahead.
They proposed hosting a “Community Charrette” to invite all of the community members to participate and voice their thoughts and ideas.
The charrette began the night before with a presentation by Tom Hylton, a small town and open land preservationist from Pennsylvania and author of the book “Save Our Land, Save Our Towns.” Citing examples of small communities that have turned back the tide of economic blight and commercial sprawl, Hylton showed photographic proof of their success. Rethinking how traffic patterns work and the atmosphere of downtown streets to make them inviting to both residents and visitors is essential to the success Hylton has seen. The example of Hershey, Pa. was of special interest, having many parallels to Penn Yan.
Saturday morning, committee member Ryan Hallings of Lyons National Bank welcomed those 150 people to bring the community’s ideas together with facilitators from the RRCDC, specialist professionals in community planning, architecture, and design. “Their multiple skills at one table with a wealth of experience from other communities’ successes and failures are a key benefit,” says Zerges.
Breaking into seven specialized focus groups, facilitators worked with the community residents, business leaders, developers, non-profit leaders and activists, government officials, and anyone with an interest and love of the community. Participants included Mayor Robert Church, School Superintendent David Hamilton, County Legislator Mark Morris, Penn Yan Trustees Dave Reeve and Rich Stewart, Don Naetzker of the Finger Lakes Museum, Kathy Waye from Keuka College, and developer Chris Iversen.
Each group had a particular area to examine, plan, and then report on by the end of the day. Previous planning efforts, some going back to the 1940s, were closely examined in this process to coordinate them with new developments like the Finger Lakes Museum, waterfront development plans, the growth of Keuka College, the Route 54A Corridor, and the Branchport Hamlet Plan.
Specific ideas for Penn Yan included the planting of new trees downtown that would grow to provide shade and not obstruct business fronts, new on-street parking strategies, directional and business signage, improved municipal parking both with better signs and landscaping, more direct connection between the downtown area and the waterfront, and improvement of the parks for residential and visitors use.
The enthusiasm of the participants was evident, and their willingness to give eight hours on a Saturday to that effort was proof of the community’s willingness to work together for a coordinated improvement plan. The RRCDC will be processing the results of from the charrette and present them at the committe’s meeting in December. A public presentation will follow.
On behalf of the 2020 Vision Committee, Zerges thanks everyone for working so hard to make the charrette a success, saying, “It was truly amazing to see us all work so well together and to see our effort and time we spent in many meetings pay off.”
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