CHICOPEE — After Planning Director Lee Pouliot presented Envision Our Chicopee: 2040 during a special meeting on July 17, the City Council voted to endorse the plan.
During the June 4 City Council meeting, the council voted to refer the plan back to Mayor John Vieau so that he can set a special meeting for the public to view the plan.
Multiple departments and stakeholders within Chicopee have been working on developing its first-ever citywide comprehensive plan called Envision Our Chicopee: 2040.
The nearly 70-page document is a shared vision for Chicopee’s future and a roadmap that guides everyone into getting to where they want together. It includes what new development looks like and where it can happen, how the city can protect environmentally sensitive areas and historic sites, prioritize future investments in community services and better support local business development.
The coronavirus pandemic stalled and slowed down the process of completing the plan for a little while, but Pouliot said they were able to adapt to the situation and interact with over 4,000 residents in various ways to receive feedback.
Over thousands of survey responses helped put together the eight chapters of the plan that focus on governing, traveling, safe streets, green infrastructure, economic development, creating staff positions, promoting health and wellness and more.
Envision Our Chicopee: 2040 includes an action plan and an implementation committee will be put together to help enhance the plan and put it into action.
The action plan breaks down priority tasks for each topic area into high, medium and low priorities to tackle over the next 20 years.
Vieau added that although this is a milestone for the city, he wanted the City Council to officially adopt the plan.
He said, “To showcase our commitment to utilizing the plan as a tool moving forward, we thought it was appropriate and necessary to have the City Council review and endorse the plan. There’s just so much in this plan. I highly recommend you all read it and certainly I’m a very strong proponent for the endorsement of it by the City Council because once that happens, we can implement it.”
Pouliot said that the City Council endorsing the plan is the first step on the path for implementation.
He added, “There’s no funding request with this endorsement request. This just gives it the power of the council’s voice that this in fact a viable plan to move forward with and then as we begin implementation and projects arise, if funding is necessary, the relevant chair or leader for a specific task will task that on and approach as needed.”
The plan was available to the public for comment for 30 days and the Planning Department tweaked the plan based on feedback.
The Planning Department adopted the plan in September 2023.
The full plan can be found at envisionourchicopee2040.com or under the Planning Department tab on chicopeema.gov.
According to Pouliot, the state zoning law requires all cities in Massachusetts to have an adopted comprehensive plan. When Chicopee started working on this in 2019, they were one of only two cities that had not adopted a comprehensive plan.
Ward 8 City Councilor Gary Labrie was vocal about his support for the project and talked about parts he liked.
He said, “I want to thank Lee [Pouliot] and his team for a great presentation, very informative. The infrastructure was built for low traffic volume and nowadays you see families with three and four cars. As we implement more things an get more businesses going, traffic is congested and I am glad they started thinking about those roundabouts on Granby Road and Montgomery Street. If we all work together, this plan can get done.”
