Buck Island – Simmonsville Neighborhood Plan

For almost one full year, residents and property owners in the Buck Island Simmonsville neighborhood (BIS) have worked with the Town to create a Neighborhood Plan to shape the vision for their community. The plan received approval from Town Council on April 24, 2009.

Purpose

In conjunction with the Comprehensive Plan, the BIS Neighborhood Plan serves as a long-term, comprehensive policy guide for the development of the BIS neighborhood. The Plan is a vision statement of how the community would like to see its neighborhood in the future. It will serve to:

• Enable the Town Council and Planning Commission to establish long-range development policies.
• Provide a basis for judging whether specific development proposals and public projects are in harmony with these policies.
• Guide public agencies and private developers in designing and funding projects that are consistent with Town policies.
• Provide a realistic and fiscally responsible direction for future change in the BIS community.
• Define the generic parameters for zoning ordinance amendments.
• Revitalize BIS by assisting current and future residents and other stakeholders to create a diverse, mixed-income residential neighborhood with peripheral commercial development at the southern boundary.
• Serve as an official publicly adopted guide to public and private investment in the neighborhood over the next decade.
• Demonstrate that a high level of consensus has been achieved in major policy areas.
• Clearly pronounce the collective desires of the BIS stakeholders concerning the quality of life issues affecting the community in the short and long term futures.
• Encourage existing and potential partners to make BIS a more caring and cohesive neighborhood of stakeholders sharing a common goal.
• Demonstrate the need for community development activities and programs.