Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 7/25/2023
CHICOPEE — The final draft of Chicopee’s first comprehensive plan, “Envision Our Chicopee: 2040,” is open for public comment, before the Planning Board votes to adopt it.
The final draft was released on July 13 and will remain open for 30 days.
Mayor John Vieau shared that the comprehensive plan is a long-term vision for the city of Chicopee and will serve as a guide over the next two decades.
“In Massachusetts, the state level Zoning Enabling Act requires cities within the commonwealth to adopt the long-term comprehensive plan. The goal of that plan is really to develop a long-term vision for how the city should develop over a 20-year time frame,” Planning Department Director Lee Pouliot explained.
Pouliot said a comprehensive Plan has some standard topics that need to be addressed.
“As ours developed particularly because of the pandemic, a number of additional topics were added as critical elements for our work with the community Steering Committee,” he shared.
A comprehensive plan addresses everything from land use priorities, the regulations that support them, how to prioritize investment moving forward, the city’s existing housing stock, transportation networks and more.
“It’s very broad and it’s meant to set a framework — a vision — that we strive to move toward,” Pouliot said.
In this plan, it was broken down into chapters that deal with different topics including neighborhood centers and programming, governing, transportation, entrepreneurship, workforce development and promoting health and wellness, to name a few.
Vieau noted that many of these topics are already being worked on such as innovation, retaining workforce and safe and complete streets.
“It’s pretty exciting to see, even without having the plan in place yet, some of those things we’re already fostering,” he added.
Pouliot said residents can submit feedback in many ways, such as visiting envisionourchicopee2040.com. The submissions go directly to the planning consultants, Horsley Witten Group. Residents can also call, email or send a letter to the Planning Department and the feedback will be incorporated into the final comments.
At press time, Pouliot said a few residents had sent in comments.
At the close of the public comment period, Pouliot’s staff will develop a report with all the comments received. At the Sept. 7 Planning Board meeting, comments will be reviewed, and members will determine if they need to make any final edits to the final draft and upon that review and any suggested edits, they will move to adopt the plan so that the city can move it forward and use it as the basis of their work, Pouliot explained.
Pouliot shared that this planning process launched in fall 2019, but “slowed” a little bit when COVID-19 started. However, he said they were able to pivot and get everything back up and running at a slower pace.
Vieau said, “I want to thank [Pouliot] and his team for really realizing that Chicopee doesn’t have a comprehensive plan until now.”
Chicopee is one of the last remaining municipalities in Massachusetts that does not have a comprehensive plan. Pouliot said the city is in a race with Revere to adopt one.
Prior to creating the comprehensive plan, over 1,000 people responded to the survey portion and several other people took part in virtual open houses, meetings and more to share their ideas for the vision of Chicopee.
“There was significant community involvement in this process which is really exciting for us,” Pouliot said.
He noted that there was also a Steering Committee made up of community volunteers including residents and business representatives, along with other entities that assisted in this process.
The most important goal of “Envision Our Chicopee: 2040,” as noted by city officials, is to protect and enhance the characteristics in Chicopee that make it a great place to live — both for today’s residents and future generations.