BY JIMMY LAWTON
North Country This Week

OGDENSBURG — Ogdensburg Interim City Manager Andrea Smith says county planners say the city needs to prioritize implementation prior to moving forward with its community development plan.

Last week Deputy Mayor Stephen Fisher and Councilor John Rishe, who was the architect of the plan, called on Smith to move the long stalled plan forward.

In her update provided to the public on the city’s website, Smith said the draft comprehensive development plan was submitted for review by the St. Lawrence County Planning Office in October 2021.

She said county planners “approved it with conditions.”

According to Smith, planners said the city needed to create and implement a prioritization matrix.

Additionally, planners called for the addition of a map or series of maps that show where the areas of interest are located.

Smith said staff was assigned to work on these revisions.

Smith also said that in the fall of 2022 staff reported that next steps in implementing the community development plan would require compliance with the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA).

She said the next step is the notification to all potentially involved agencies for the purpose of declaring a Lead Agency.

Following the completion of the SEQRA process the document can be submitted for legal review, simultaneously a public comment period on the final draft can be established to accept public comment prior to adoption.

The draft plan was accepted unanimously by council in April of 2021, but the final plan remains unadopted.

The plan includes a vision for economic development, waterfront development, downtown development, tourism, housing, historic preservation, recreation, transportation, education as well as arts and culture.

It also includes ideas to deal with the defunct and idle state facilities which rest on prime real estate, but remain untaxed.