One White Plains: The City of White Plains Launches Process to Create a New Comprehensive Plan
New Plan Will Seek to Create a Community-wide Vision for City
The City of White Plains has begun the process of updating its Comprehensive Plan, which serves as a guiding document for land use regulations, such as zoning code updates, and capital improvements.
The current plan was prepared in 1997 and updated in 2006, with subsequent amendments in 2012. The new plan will respond to current economic and demographic trends, while also reflecting changing priorities among the White Plains community.
The Comprehensive Plan, together with other planning and land use documents that are regularly updated by the City, including the 5-year Consolidated Plan and Annual Action Plan, Analysis of Impediments to Fair Housing, White Plains Transit District Strategic Plan, open space inventory planning, and comprehensive affordable housing regulations, provides City decision-makers with a framework to guide sound planning and development decisions.
The Planning Department will work with its consultant, BFJ Planning, on this effort. BFJ has provided professional expertise in planning and related fields since 1980. The firm has extensive experience with community engagement and consensus building throughout the New York Metro region and the Hudson Valley.
Mayor Tom Roach said, “The theme of the Comprehensive Plan, One White Plains, is intended to convey the vision that the plan can and should serve as a means of further bonding us together as one community. With One White Plains, we are looking forward together and thinking holistically about how to ensure the continued vitality of our city.”
One White Plains will investigate a wide range of themes with a goal of strengthening the connections that exist within our community, including: housing, future development, economic opportunities, transportation infrastructure, public health, parks and natural resources, equity and inclusivity, sustainability and climate change.
The process for creating the framework and developing policy recommendations for One White Plains will be guided by a Steering Committee with assistance from City staff and its consultants. The process will also include extensive community engagement to create a sustainable long term vision for the future of the City of White Plains.
The One White Plains process will consist of three phases:
- Phase 1: Imagine (2021)
- Phase 2: Plan (2022-2023)
- Phase 3: Implement (Ongoing)
Phase I: Imagine One White Plains (2021)
As an initial phase, Imagine One White Plains will create the framework for a successful Comprehensive Plan Update, with a focus on the following key outcomes:
- An inclusive community outreach strategy informed by initial outreach to representative stakeholders.
- An analysis of existing conditions based on review of the previous Comprehensive Plan, recent planning documents, policies, and demographic data.
- A defined scope for One White Plains, including a preliminary Vision Statement and Planning Goals based on public input.
- A vision survey and community workshop to help guide the Vision Statement, Planning Goals, and Themes of One White Plains.
Phase II: Plan One White Plains (2022-2023)
Phase II: Plan will kick off in 2022. The second phase of the process will consist of inclusive community engagement strategies to help develop the content of the Plan. Phase II will lead to
creation of a planning document with strategic recommendations to achieve the Vision Statement and Planning Goals to create One White Plains.
The City has created a webpage dedicated to the Comprehensive Plan, www.onewhiteplains.com that will be updated regularly throughout the planning process. The City has also created a kick-off vision survey question to which we are inviting residents to respond, as well as a generic email address: onewp@whiteplainsny.gov to collect general community comments. Both the vision survey question and general comment portal may be accessed through the Comprehensive Plan webpage. Participation is quick and easy.