By Hayleigh Gowans

Staff Writer

Dozens of residents went to the Jamesville Fire Station last week to be updated on the Master Plan project, which is a document that will create a blueprint to improve and sustain the quality of life in the hamlet.

The Jamesville Master Plan Working Committee has been working for more than one year on identifying issues and suggestions from Jamesville residents and possible solutions and projects to include in the master plan.

The master plan committee is made up of seven residents, with three alternate members. The members include people with diverse backgrounds, such a business owners, historians, architects and chamber representatives.

At the Oct. 19 meeting, attendees had the opportunity to view informational boards and documents which showed the work the committee has done so far, as well as view some ideas for future projects, including possible nature trail development, the installation of bike lanes on roads, ideas for a village gateway and ways to address traffic concerns. All of these presentations were based on a survey which was administered in September 2015 when the committee was first beginning the project.

“I’ve been interested in this project since it started a year or so ago,” said Jamesville resident Bob Catmull. “It’s very impressive and I think [the committee has] done a great job so far.”

Attendees also had the opportunity to write suggestions or critiques of the possible projects on post-it notes for the committee to consider for the final recommendations.

“I think it’s great so many people seem to be interested in what we’re doing,” said Jeanie Gleisner, a program manager of community development and comprehensive planning with the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board, who has been working with the Master Plan Committee since 2015. “The committee has been working hard to take in all of the ideas the community has suggested.”

Some of the focus areas the Master Plan Working Committee has identified are the slowing down of traffic through the community, adding additional parking, alleviating traffic conditions, improving the connectivity of the hamlet to neighboring areas, repurposing historic areas, protecting parks, adding a visitor center, promoting wellness, using green resources, improving the community well being and looking into business partnerships that can benefit the hamlet,

“We want to be able to give recommendations of things that the community can do themselves … and things that the town can do, such as finding funding for projects, in order to set up the hamlet for the future,” said Sam Gordon, director of planning in DeWitt.

In 2015, the town of DeWitt received a grant from the Central New York Regional Planning and Development Board and chose to focus the planning effort on Jamesville because of its historic, residential and commercial values to DeWitt, Gordon said.

Recently, the project was awarded a grant from the Syracuse Metropolitan Transportation Council to have a traffic study done on the area, which will hopefully be finished by the end of the year, said Gleisner, and the committee can make their final recommendations by April 2017.

For more information on the Jamesville Master Plan project, go to townofdewitt.com/JamesvilleHamletMasterPlan.aspx.