RIVER STREET PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT
Lead Planner. Margaret Irwin, Principal
River Street Planning and Development is a professional planning firm that focuses on consensus and capacity building, comprehensive planning, community and economic development and resilience. River Street will conduct comprehensive public outreach to ensure extensive community feedback is gathered and heard.
RIVER STREET PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT
Lead Planner. Margaret Irwin, Principal
River Street Planning and Development is a professional planning firm that focuses on consensus and capacity building, comprehensive planning, community and economic development and resilience. River Street will conduct comprehensive public outreach to ensure extensive community feedback is gathered and heard.
UPCOMING EVENTS.
STAY ENGAGED
The Comprehensive Review Plan Committee is tasked with guiding the development of this new plan, and will support community engagement efforts to ensure your ideas are represented. We need your help to envision what Copake will be like ten to fifteen years from now - and to propose a roadmap for how we can get there.
Help us understand your vision for the town's growth in the next decade. The Committee seeks your opinion on a range of critical planning issues including smart growth principles, economic development, the growth of Copake's hamlets, housing choice and accessibility, community facilities and recreation, agriculture, open space and the environment, arts and culture, infrastructure, historic preservation, and town government.
Please take the new survey by June 5, 2026. Don’t miss this chance to share your input on a second townwide survey on the emerging actions that will help Copake achieve the goals of our new Smart Growth Comp Plan.
We’re creating a clear, practical Action Plan—a roadmap for the next 10 years that turns ideas into achievable steps for strengthening our community. Building on the 2011 plan, this update aims to balance thoughtful growth with the qualities that make Copake special: our rural landscape, local businesses, housing, parks, and town and hamlet centers.
This new survey includes preliminary goals and actions, drawn up based on community feedback from a variety of forums. We hope this survey continues that conversation and gives all residents an opportunity to share priorities, comments, and ideas for actions that will help Copake achieve its goals.
Thank you to everyone who joined our Community Workshop on May 16. Your participation and insights are invaluable. If you attended our workshop — you will see the same list of goals and actions on this survey as in person. We are still compiling everyone’s feedback, so this does not yet include everything. Please feel free to add new thoughts or suggestions in the survey.
Many thanks to those who took the first Comp Plan Survey.
See a summary of 2025 survey responses compared to the 2011 survey here.
The Town has held a series of focus groups to help inform development of the Smart Growth Comprehensive Plan. Different stakeholder groups had a chance to discuss their vision for the Town and share input and feedback on elements of the plan. This included a focus group for each of the Town's hamlets. Focus groups took place directly after the monthly Copake Comprehensive Plan Review Committee meetings at the Copake Town Hall. A summary of each focus group can be found in the minutes from Comp Plan Review Committee meetings. Focus groups were open to the public:
Schedule for Comp Plan Review Focus Groups
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Copake Falls: June 2, 2025 (Complete)
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Copake Hamlet: July 7, 2025, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm (Complete)
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Copake Lake and West Copake: August 4, 2025, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm (Complete)
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Businesses/Employers: September 2, 2025, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm (Complete)
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Craryville: October 6, 2025, 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm (Complete)
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Not-for-Profit/Churches/Organizations: November 3, 2025 , 6:00 pm – 7:00 pm (Complete)
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First Responder and Health Care: December 1, 2025 , 6:00 - 7:00 pm (Complete)
The first townwide, well-attended community workshop was held at Town Hall from 10am-noon on Saturday, June 28, 2025 to discuss the Town of Copake's project to develop the new Smart Growth Comprehensive Plan, funded by a recent NYS DOS award. If you were unable to attend, you may review the presentation from the workshop below.
