The Climate Comprehensive Review & Recommendations
Project Overview
In summer 2020, the Town and Village received a grant from The New World Foundation to engage David Chernack, a Bard CEP graduate student, for a 6-month paid internship. David was tasked with researching the Rhinebeck Comprehensive Plan (2009), Village Master Plan (1993), and other Rhinebeck policies that relate to the climate and environment.
The goal of this work was to ascertain the degree to which these planning documents address issues ranging from public transportation to invasive species to alternative energy. The goal is not a wholesale redo of the Town or Village’s comprehensive plans. Rather, to look at these documents through the 2020 lens of climate and environmental policy.
David tracked down which environmental recommendations from the comprehensive plans were completed and which were not. Additionally, he looked to neighboring municipalities in the Hudson Valley and the work they’ve done over in recent years to reduce emissions, safeguard biodiversity, increase equity, and augment climate resiliency measures.
In addition to this work over the course of six months, David:
Reviewed the latest best environmental/climate practices in similar municipalities
Conducted a series of interviews with environmental and climate officials in neighboring municipalities
Prepared a ranked list of the climate and environmental projects the Town and Village should consider
Suggested sustainability and climate areas that could be added as an addendum to the Town’s 2009 the Comprehensive Plan
Developed a prioritization criteria for evaluating climate-facing projects in Rhinebeck’s future
David hosted a virtual Joint Village/Town Online Special Hearing December 17, at 7pm. Watch the video recording below. You can also access a PDF of his slides.
Prior to this information session, we put the word out for members of the Rhinebeck community to take this short, anonymous survey. Close to 50 people took the survey prior to the session and we decided to leave it open to gather more. Please take the survey: we want to hear what you feel Rhinebeck’s environmental priorities should be moving into 2021.
Tell us what you think!
What is a Comprehensive Plan, and why is it important?
The Village of Rhinebeck and the Town of Rhinebeck each have their own Comprehensive Plans: the Town’s most recent Plan is from 2009 while the Village’s most recent Plan is from 1993.
A Comprehensive Plan is a complex document designed to guide the actions a community takes towards its future, including its environmental, economic, and cultural goals and aspirations. A Comprehensive Plan presents a set of visions for the medium-term—typically ten to twenty years into the future—including goals and objectives for all aspects local community governance.
A Comprehensive Plan covers aspects of municipal life from public transportation, to economic development, to street tree management, and beyond. According to survey from the New York Department of State, about 70% of New York municipalities have a Comprehensive Plan.
Comprehensive plans use a body of research and community feedback about the place we live to inform a broad set of policy recommendations. From those recommendations, it is the job of the Boards to institute policies. According to NY State Climate Smart Communities recommendations, “A comprehensive plan also provides a vision for how a community wants to grow over a 10- to 20-year period and recommends steps for how to achieve that vision. As part of that vision, the comprehensive planning process offers an opportunity for communities to consider how to balance the three E’s of sustainability: environment, economy, and equity.”
The Town and Village had formed a Joint Environmental Committee (no longer existing) that worked with David. The end result of David’s project is a recommendation to the Town and Village Boards to add an addendum with sustainability elements to the Town Comprehensive Plan and the Village’s Master Plan. Pursuing this has many benefits:
An addendum with sustainability elements nets Rhinebeck some Climate Smart Community points, helping the Village on its path towards silver and the Town on its path towards bronze certification
It addresses the vision and mission of the environmental and climate work that has been done in Rhinebeck in the past decade
It prepares the Town and Village for a fully-fledged update of their Comprehensive Plans at a future date, when the time comes
Vision: a Rhinebeck where the government, committees, and the public are evolving to a more resilient Rhinebeck, both in climate and community, in the most financially prudent way possible.
Mission: to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to climate change, and become more socially connected and constructive, making Rhinebeck even more livable and enjoyable.
Major Reports: Researching the Comprehensive Plan’s Results
In order to understand the Comprehensive Plan’s aspirations and its outcomes, months of research was done. This research included a series of interviews, reviews of contemporary environmental policy from the Town and Village of Rhinebeck, and inquiries into other municipalities’ master plans.
One of the key takeaways from this research is the fact that climate change was not mentioned once in the entirety of the 2009 Comprehensive Plan. However, this is not totally unexpected—few plans until the mid-2010s recognized climate change and emissions reductions as critical aspects of local government’s work.
The Plan did say a lot of other things, however. Read on in these reports about what Rhinebeck’s Comprehensive Plan says—concerning the environment, transportation, and energy—and what it means for our community eleven years on.
Small-town Municipal Planning for Climate Change in the 2010s: A Review of the Literature on Programs and Policy Pathways
Small towns and villages play small individual roles in the climate conversation, but combined, they can have a sizable impact on emissions totals in the United States. This literature review examines the leading trends in climate policy in small towns and villages—setting forth the precedent that Rhinebeck can look to to support its future actions.
Report: The State of Rhinebeck’s Town and Village Resources in Anticipation of Crafting an NRI
A natural resource inventory (NRI) was called for in the Town of Rhinebeck’s 2009 Comprehensive Plan, but was never fully realized. However, the Town possesses reports and research collected over the past decade that—when refreshed with climate elements and public input—can come together to form this critical policy document.
Review: The Environmental Goals Set Forth by The Rhinebeck Plan (2009) and Their Results ca. 2020
This review focused on the environmental goals set forth by the Town’s 2009 Comprehensive Plan. It covers areas such as water conservation, agriculture, and invasive species—both what the Comprehensive Plan said about these issues, and what has been done regarding them in the last eleven years.
Now that we’ve analyzed the Comprehensive Plan and what has been accomplished in the 11 years since its release… where do we go from here?
Environmental Policy Prioritization Criteria: Choosing Impactful Projects
In order to balance Rhinebeck’s values—equity, progress, and preserving our rural character—when considering potentially time-consuming and expensive projects, a framework needed to be developed in order to balance Rhinebeck’s values with the costs and benefits of pursuing environmental actions.
That’s why we developed a policy prioritization criteria for our environmental projects. This framework scores a project on more than thirty different aspects in order to rank that project’s import to Rhinebeck’s broader policy conversation.
Those aspects—such as cost, potential impacts to water and air quality, maintenance implications, its benefits to Rhinebeck as a community etc.—are scored and then tabulated to reveal a project’s overall score. For example, an expensive rail trail would score poorly in the “cost” category, but it would do very well in the “benefits to Rhinebeck” category.
Click here to check out the policy prioritization criteria!
Comprehensive Plan Review Recommendations: Potential Projects
Using the prioritization framework above, these projects—some mentioned in the 2009 Comprehensive Plan, some new ideas—are some of the climate-facing actions David recommended pursuing in the near future.
Click on each fact sheet to read on!
About David Chernack
David is a graduate of Rhinebeck High School and Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He’s currently a second-year graduate student at Bard College’s Center for Environmental Policy. He is an avid birdwatcher, musician, and car enthusiast.