Residents who turned out for a discussion of the Town of Callicoon’s draft comprehensive plan the other night must have been disappointed. Although the meeting was billed as a “public workshop,” and the entire comprehensive plan committee was present, no one on the committee answered a single question about the plan. Certified planner Nan Stolzenburg gave an excellent description of the planning process and how a plan should reflect the views of the entire community, but she readily admitted she could not explain why the committee had made some of its decisions.

Among the more troubling questions: Why does the draft plan “encourage” “a broad range of… industrial uses” when the vast majority of the residents have made it clear that they want to preserve the rural character of the town? And why does the plan suggest the town should zone for “transient housing developments” “that could accompany potential new large-scale industrial uses?”

Bruce Ferguson

Callicoon Center, NY