City of Rye Comprehensive Plan 

Welcome to the City of Rye Comprehensive Plan website! This website will be the home base for any and everything involving the Comprehensive Plan update process, including engagement, background information, and project updates. This website will be revised as we move through the update process, so please check back periodically, and register to receive email updates!

 What is a Comprehensive Plan?

The City of Rye’s Comprehensive Plan update is a unified planning effort between the City, its Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee (the Committee), its Project Team, and the residents and businesses of the City of Rye. A Comprehensive Plan is essential to a community. It creates a blueprint for future development and preservation of a community.  A Comprehensive Plan, developed with citizen participation and through consensus, helps establish a viable plan for the future. 

A Comprehensive Plan does not produce any direct changes once adopted, but it will offer guidance and potential next steps, such as undergoing further studies to determine specific projects on sites identified in the Plan, or the Plan could suggest the City enter into public/private partnerships to achieve certain goals. Comprehensive Plans can touch on a variety of topics, which will be derived based on feedback from the Committee and community engagement. Topics could include sustainability, housing, downtown, natural resources, infrastructure, land use, etc.

Why are We Updating the Plan?

The City currently has a Comprehensive Plan that was developed in 1985. Not only has the City changed since then, but also the economy is vastly different, along with how we treat certain topics such as resiliency. A new plan will help identify new goals, opportunities, and challenges.

Hub-and-Spoke Model of Engagement

To harness the expertise, institutional knowledge, and lived experience of those who live and work in the City, the Comprehensive Plan will utilize a hub-and-spoke model of engagement. At the center of this model is the SC, which serves as the community's steering committee and provides direction throughout the planning process. Surrounding the SC are topic-based Technical Advisory Groups (TAGs) and neighborhood groups, creating multiple pathways for residents, businesses, community organizations, advisory boards, and subject matter experts to contribute to the Plan.

The City Council, SC, and Project Team will also be conducting direct outreach to many of the City's existing boards and commissions. They will meet with these groups during their regular meetings to hear their perspectives, leverage their institutional knowledge, and ensure their expertise is incorporated into the planning process. This targeted outreach complements the work of the TAGs and neighborhood groups to create a truly comprehensive community engagement effort.

A Seat for Everyone

The goal of the public engagement plan is clear: everyone has a seat at the table.

In addition to the formal hub-and-spoke engagement and reporting structure above, the Comprehensive Plan process will leverage many other existing networks throughout Rye. While everyone can participate in a TAG, the City Council, SC, Staff, and Project Team will engage boards, commissions, neighborhood and civic groups, non-profits, business owners, and many others.  There will also be opportunities for additional community-wide engagement workshops, as well as smaller, intimate kitchen table conversations. All these engagement efforts combined, ensure that everyone has a seat at the table.

As we move forward in the Comprehensive Plan process, there will be multiple opportunities to provide feedback to the project team, both in person, and here online. You can visit the Meetings and Events tab above to see upcoming events as they are scheduled, and you can also register to receive email updates!.

Timeline

See the timeline below to see the phases that will occur before a new plan is adopted.