CHICOPEE — During the Feb. 4 City Council meeting, the council approved an order to establish an Envision Our Chicopee: 2040 implementation committee to oversee the implementation of the items delineated in the comprehensive plan and conduct activities as described in the action plan.
Multiple departments and stakeholders within Chicopee have been working on developing its first 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 to getting to where they want to be, 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.
Planning Director Lee Pouliot presented Envision Our Chicopee: 2040 in July 2024, and the City Council voted to endorse it.
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.
Mayor John Vieau explained that there is an ordinance attached that encourages the city and City Council to have a first reading and send it to the Ordinance Committee for a public hearing.
Vieau also said anyone interested in serving on the implementation committee can reach out to his office.
Pouliot explained this is one of the early formal steps in beginning the implementation project and added, “We’re excited to see this move forward. I would like to get this committee established so we can start working on actual implementation efforts.”
City Councilor At-Large Timothy Wagner was curious what has been happening with the plan since the City Council’s endorsement and if there would be appropriations coming.
Pouliot said there has been a delay with this process and other pieces of the plan due to him being out on family leave after the birth of his son and his staff focused on other priorities in the office that needed to be done.
He also explained, “In the meantime, with my last budget request for the Planning Department, we did submit a capital request to fund zoning reforms so a review of the city’s zoning ordinances so we can, one, update those ordinances to now support and advance the priorities in the comprehensive plan.”
Based on conversations with the planning consultant and other communities, Pouliot said they believe they have requested enough funding to also begin the process of updating its site plan, its subdivision regulations, along with the local wetlands ordinance.
The city has also begun an early draft of an RFQ, looking for professional services outside the city from a consultant team that will help Chicopee with what Pouliot described as “a very lengthy process to update those regulations.”
There are also a lot of projects that are identified in the comprehensive plan that were already in the works throughout the city. Pouliot explained that one of the implementation committee’s actions will be assisting with documenting them in the annual report, recommended by the plan that is shared with the city’s officials, departments and the public.
Wagner also recommended that since this seems to be a “fairly intensive” committee, he would like to possibly see a small stipend for those serving on this committee.
Vieau said the idea of a stipend has not been brought to his attention yet but stated, “I’m open-minded [to] just about anything so thank you for bringing that to my attention.”
The City Council unanimously approved sending the order to the Ordinance Committee.
The Planning Department adopted the plan in September 2023 and the full plan can be found at envisionourchicopee2040.com or under the Planning Department tab on chicopeema.gov.
