NEW PALESTINE — Officials working on the new Comprehensive Plan for the Town of New Palestine are asking community members to weigh-in on the next step.
That includes taking part in a community survey where the community’s feedback will be given consideration.
Sydnee Cseresznyes, President of Volt Strategies, is spearheading the major project of putting together a new comprehensive plan for the town. After holding a spearheading committee meeting in early June to kick the project off, Cseresznyes is now asking the community to add their views to the plan as the project team gathers as much information as it can.
Cseresznyes said they need the community feedback in the survey in an effort to gain insight on what exactly is important to community residents. Cseresznyes noted hearing from the different members of the project team was important, but so is hearing from the community who the plan will affect.
“We are very excited about driving public engagement to help better inform the overall plan,” Cseresznyes said.
Several members of the New Palestine Comprehensive Plan project team recently attended the town’s annual Summer-Fest in late June as part of their engagement strategy for the town’s future plan.
“We handed out community surveys and spoke with residents about various topics going on in the town,” Cseresznyes said.
While the survey does take about 10-15 minutes to complete, it’s time well spent, officials said.
“We wanted to ensure that we covered a wide range of topics in the survey to ensure that the final product is truly representative of what the people want for their community,” Cseresznyes said.
The survey asks questions like, what three words would you use to describe New Palestine? How would you rate the sense of community in New Pal? What uses of land should economic development and planning efforts focus on? Which topics are a priority for yourself and your community?
Some of the questions give insight into what the project team is thinking for the town’s comp plan. Others ask for community feedback such as the question, “When you think about a Comprehensive Plan for a community, elements like infrastructure, annexation of land and future land use, recreation and green space, corridors, and town center developments come to mind. What opportunities would you like to see the comprehensive plan address for the future of New Palestine?”
The community survey went live on June 21. So far they’ve had almost 180 responses, “which is a great start,” Cseresznyes said. “Ideally we would like to see 600 plus responses, which is about 20% of the population of the town.”
For those who live within the town’s boundaries or have a business within the town boundaries, the project team is asking those people to take the time, look over the question and give a well thought-out answer where it is needed. Although others are allowed to take the survey, just be prepared for a question about if you do or don’t live within the town’s boundaries.
The survey can be found by following the link at www.surveymonkey.com/r/NewPalCompPlan or reach out to town officials if there are further questions.
The project team plans to hold another meeting Tuesday, July 23. The survey closes out Friday, July 26.
