City of Lockport
Welcome
Welcome to the website of the City of Lockport's Comprehensive Plan & Zoning Code Update. Here, you will find background information about these two projects and their progress. To learn about upcoming public events and participate in our online public engagement tools, please click on the "Public Input" tab in the above menu. Thank you for your engagement - your input matters!
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Project Background
The Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Code are two of the City of Lockport's most fundamental and critical planning documents. The Comprehensive Plan identifies the community's future vision and lays out a framework for guiding development and investments that will help achieve the community's goals. The Zoning Code, on the other hand, is a regulatory document that dictates the location of allowable land uses and the design of our built environment. The Zoning Code is a tool that can be used to compliment the Comprehensive Plan and assist in achieving its goals.
As you can imagine, communities evolve over time and their future vision and goals change. Because of this, communities must continually re-evaluate their conditions and update their Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Code to be reflective of their changing vision and development needs.
The City of Lockport's Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Code were adopted in 1998 and 1984, respectively. Although the Zoning Code has been amended on numerous occasions over the past decades, both documents have fallen out of sync with the current-day needs and goals of local stakeholders. Now, the City of Lockport is undertaking a monumental effort to update both the Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Code. The City will rely on stakeholder input (that's you!) to identify the current community's vision and goals, and develop a modern framework that will guide the community to its ideal future.
Project Goals
Comprehensive Plan
- Establish the community's future vision
- Identify the City's key opportunities, strengths, threats, and weaknesses
- Develop policies that reflect the City's existing conditions and work to achieve the community's vision
Zoning Code
- Improve the user-friendliness and legibility of the document
- Remove contradicting regulations and streamline administrative review procedures
- Ensure regulations work towards the community vision of the Comprehensive Plan and take into account the goals of other recent community planning initiatives
Project Progress
Comprehensive Plan
SEQR Compliance & County Referral
Final Comprehensive Plan
Zoning Code
Legal Review, Referrals, & SEQR
Council Public Hearing & Code Adoption
FAQs
What is a Comprehensive Plan?
A Comprehensive Plan is a planning document that identifies the community's vision and goals and establishes strategies and policies for achieving such goals. While Comprehensive Plans are not legally binding documents, they do guide development within a community. The typical lifespan of a Comprehensive Plan is 10-15 years, after which the Plan should be updated to reflect changing trends.
What is a Zoning Code?
A Zoning Code is a legally binding document that establishes which types of land uses are allowable in a community and where, outlines design guidelines for building projects, and establishes administrative procedures for variances and amendments to the Zoning Code.
