> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://websterledger.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Where the Webster Comprehensive Plan stands - URL: https://websterledger.com/where-the-webster-comprehensive-plan-stands/ - Published: 2026-07-28T14:48:46.000Z - Updated: 2026-07-28T14:48:46.000Z - Description: The town's draft Comprehensive Plan is still taking public input, with hearings and formal adoption ahead. Here's what's in it and what residents said. - Author: Morgan VanDerLeest - Tags: Planning & development The Town of Webster's draft Comprehensive Plan took in another round of public input Monday night, when roughly a dozen residents used a three-minute public comment period during an open house and public forum at the Justice Court Building to weigh in on the 2040-horizon planning document. A handful more added written comments during the interactive style open house with poster board slides (some examples are included at the bottom of this article). The draft, released at the end of June, is not close to final. It still has to be compiled with all other public input, reviewed by the town's planning committee, and carried through a multi-step adoption process at the Town Board before it becomes official policy. ## What's in the draft plan The document, branded the "Bicentennial Plan," carries the tagline "Rooted in History, Growing with Purpose," a reference to the Town's 200th anniversary of its 1840 founding, which the plan's 2040 horizon year approaches. It is Webster's first Comprehensive Plan update since 2008\. The Town hired Colliers Engineering & Design to prepare it, with funding assistance from the New York State Department of State's Environmental Protection Fund. The update is structured as a "Smart Growth Comprehensive Plan Update," built around principles such as mixed-use neighborhoods, infill development, resource preservation and multi-modal transportation. The Comprehensive Plan Committee, whose membership represents bodies including the Planning Board, Conservation Board, Zoning Board, Town Board, the school district, the Chamber of Commerce and a local trails group, has guided roughly 18 months of engagement since the project's winter 2024-2025 kickoff: stakeholder meetings, a public workshop in spring 2025, pop-up events, committee meetings with public comment, and ongoing survey, email and website input. New York State law requires only two public hearings for a comprehensive plan update, one before the committee and one before the Town Board. The town's outreach has already gone well beyond that minimum, according to the consultant team's framing at Monday's meeting. The plan's vision statement rests on five pillars: a connected and safe transportation network, enhanced parks and recreation, a vibrant local economy, expanded housing options under a "Neighborhood Living" heading, and protection of natural resources with increased resiliency. Those translate into six formal policy goals covering Transportation, Parks & Recreation, Local Economy, Neighborhood Living, Natural Resources & Resiliency, and an integrating Community Development Strategy. Environmental and resiliency measures account for the largest share of proposed action items, 25, followed by transportation, 23, economic development, 16, and housing, 10. Rather than proposing a new zoning map, the plan lays out 11 "future land use character areas" describing the intended look and feel of different parts of town, from established single-family neighborhoods to shoreline areas and mixed-use commercial corridors. It generally treats the town as built-out, steering future growth toward infill and redevelopment of existing commercial and industrial land. The plan does not specify density numbers for most of these areas, meaning the zoning changes needed to implement it have yet to be written. A Priority Action Plan narrows the longer list down to 16 near-term priorities. Three-quarters are slated for completion within one to two years, and about half are low-cost studies or zoning-code amendments rather than capital projects. They include developing an Active Transportation Plan and expanding sidewalks, reviewing commercial zoning to encourage mixed-use and infill redevelopment in underused shopping plazas, commissioning a townwide housing market study, updating zoning around tree preservation and cluster subdivision design, and open-space planning tools including a conservation overlay district and a digitized update of the town's environmental protection maps. Town-wide, Webster's population has been essentially flat in recent years (39,696 at the 2020 Census, an estimated 39,272 in 2024) after 5.2 percent growth the prior decade. The median age, 47.3, is notably older than Monroe County (40.1) and New York State (39.6), and residents 65 and older make up about a quarter of the population. Median household income, at $87,153, runs above both the county and state figures. About 83 percent of the town's housing stock is single-family, and the plan describes multi-family and affordable housing options as "limited." An estimated 49 percent of renter households are considered cost-burdened, including 18 percent severely burdened, while the rental vacancy rate, around 4 percent, is tighter than the county's or the state's. Earlier this year, the town enacted a temporary development moratorium, timed to align near-term development activity with the plan update and anticipated zoning changes. The town's wastewater treatment plant is also undergoing an $80 million expansion, from 5 million to 7.1 million gallons of daily capacity, to accommodate future growth. Monday's session opened an interactive open house then shifted into a roll call of the Comprehensive Plan Committee, brief remarks from Supervisor Alexander Scialdone and the project manager from Colliers Engineering & Design, and then the public comment period. ## What residents raised **Process and implementation.** One resident, citing what she described as roughly 100 policy action items in the plan, asked who would be responsible for implementing and delegating them across the Town Board, Planning Board, Zoning Board and Conservation Board. **Climate and sustainability language.** A resident who has previously been active on sustainability issues asked for more specific, actionable language tying the plan's environmental objectives to New York State's Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act and to Monroe County's goal of an 80 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. **Housing attainability.** A resident in her 30s said homeownership in Webster is currently unattainable for her generation, describing peers who have moved back in with their parents. She suggested the town consider starter-home alternatives such as tiny-home communities, and said she wished the plan's surveys had done more to capture input from young adults who have had to move back home. **Ownership, schools and the tax base.** Another resident argued the plan should prioritize homeownership specifically, citing an analysis of the town's assessment roll estimating that about 62 percent of existing single-family homes, including the median home, sit on lots smaller than current zoning would allow. He argued that more ownership options, including for residents looking to downsize, would do more for the tax base and school enrollment than continued rental growth. **Sandbar Park.** A resident praised recent improvements at Sandbar Park but said the absence of a restaurant there has removed what had been a major community gathering draw, estimating the site once drew 300 to 400 visitors on a good summer night. He asked the town to keep pursuing a way to restore a comparable amenity. **Green space and natural resource protection.** A resident speaking on behalf of the Webster Open Space Committee asked the plan to more explicitly protect existing vegetation in buffer areas and outside of lot-coverage maximums, not just preserve whole parcels; sharpen the definition of infill development to distinguish previously disturbed sites from undeveloped green space; present overlay districts as tools that still require future code updates rather than as already achieving their intended protections; and add Friends of Webster Trails and Webster Open Space Committee priority parcels to future land-use and open-space maps. A second resident echoed those points, citing the volunteer capacity of local conservation groups and the town's Conservation Board to help implement them once adopted, and offered general praise for the scale and organization of the planning effort. **Individual sustainability action.** Another resident welcomed the plan's sustainability framework but asked that it also empower individual homeowners to act, citing current code restrictions, such as lawn-height rules that prevent wildflower meadows, as an example of regulations that could be loosened to support resident-level environmental stewardship. In closing remarks, the Comprehensive Plan Committee acknowledged the broad range of issues raised over the course of the process, including affordable and attainable housing and zoning changes, as still needing to be compiled and resolved. Committee members reiterated that public feedback remains wanted through the compilation cutoff, regardless of whether it aligns with the committee's own views. ## Examples of the written comments during the interactive open house ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0a/d7/0ad798a9-031b-4af0-9b94-a1e17a03aa5a/content/images/2026/07/IMG_8008.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0a/d7/0ad798a9-031b-4af0-9b94-a1e17a03aa5a/content/images/2026/07/IMG_8009.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0a/d7/0ad798a9-031b-4af0-9b94-a1e17a03aa5a/content/images/2026/07/IMG_8010.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0a/d7/0ad798a9-031b-4af0-9b94-a1e17a03aa5a/content/images/2026/07/IMG_8011.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0a/d7/0ad798a9-031b-4af0-9b94-a1e17a03aa5a/content/images/2026/07/IMG_8012.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0a/d7/0ad798a9-031b-4af0-9b94-a1e17a03aa5a/content/images/2026/07/IMG_8013.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0a/d7/0ad798a9-031b-4af0-9b94-a1e17a03aa5a/content/images/2026/07/IMG_8014.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0a/d7/0ad798a9-031b-4af0-9b94-a1e17a03aa5a/content/images/2026/07/IMG_8015.jpeg) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0a/d7/0ad798a9-031b-4af0-9b94-a1e17a03aa5a/content/images/2026/07/IMG_8018.jpeg) Some of the poster board slides and the associated comments ## What happens next Monday's forum was not the final step in the process, the project manager from Colliers Engineering & Design told attendees. Public comment submitted through the town's planning website, webster2040.com, remains open; a committee member raised the question of a cutoff date for compiling input, but no date has been set. If you are interested, you should submit written comments as soon as possible (likely within 1-2 days to include with this round of revision). From here, town staff and the consultant team will compile all input received to date, including Monday's comments and website submissions, for the Comprehensive Plan Committee. The Committee will then hold its own formal public hearing and issue a recommendation on the draft plan to the Town Board. Final adoption runs through the Town Board, which will manage a State Environmental Quality Review, a referral to Monroe County, its own public hearing, and a final adoption resolution. ## Sign up for Webster Ledger Independent local journalism for Webster, NY. Subscribe Email sent! Check your inbox to complete your signup. No spam. 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