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Westfield-Ripley Waterfront Opportunity Plan

The Town of Westfield, the Town of Ripley, and their joint Waterfront Committee, welcome you to the Westfield-Ripley Waterfront Opportunity Plan webpage! This page will be continually updated throughout the course of this project to provide important information such as the dates of public meetings, work products and project updates.

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Workshop Overview

The third and final public workshops, hosted by the Westfield-Ripley Waterfront Committee, occurred on May 6, 2008 at ZeBro’s Harbor House in Barcelona Harbor. The main focus of the workshop was to present the key concepts and ideas contained in the final draft Westfield-Ripley Waterfront Opportunity Plan to the public. A special focus was placed on discussing future catalyst projects and priorities.

Approximately 55 people attended the meeting, filling the private dining room that served as the meeting space. Beautiful lake views, a picture perfect sunset, and a recently completed outdoor patio, combined to provide the ideal backdrop for a discussion of the waterfront plan. A special thanks to ZeBro’s for hosting the final public meeting!

A gift certificate for dinner at ZeBro’s was raffled off to a lucky winner at the close of the meeting. Bon appetite!

Workshop Summary

The first part of the workshop consisted of an overview presentation of the draft waterfront plan by the consultant. The presentation concluded with a summary of key catalyst projects and ideas for moving forward and applying for available state grant money. Martha Bills, Supervisor of the Town of Westfield, also briefed the audience on a number of on-going town efforts to improve the waterfront, such as pulling together a grant application to receive funding support for expanded infrastructure (water, sewer) in the town, including in the Barcelona Harbor area. Renee Parsons and Amy DeGaetano of NYSDOS, Division of Coastal Resources also participated in the meeting and were on hand to field questions and offer their own experience in working with communities and seeing concepts and visions turn into actual projects.

The presentation was followed by an open question-and-answer session. Similar to the previous public workshop, plan ideas and concepts were well received. As with previous workshops, the importance of two issues rose to the surface as most critical: 1) The need to dredge the harbor; and 2) The importance of providing adequate sewer and water infrastructure in the Barcelona Harbor area.

In addition to the above, the following ideas were also suggested for inclusion in the final plan:

  • The need for marketing efforts to address public perceptions of pollution in Lake Erie, and to highlight clean up efforts and improving trends in water quality; and
  • The importance of the Portage Trail throughout the inhabited history of the Town of Westfield, and the upcoming 200-year anniversary of the War of 1812;
  • The importance of signage to point people to Westfield and Ripley and their attractions.
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Workshop Presentation

A PDF version of the slide presentation shown at the workshop can be viewed here (note this file is 6.4 MB and some features of the presentation, such as animations, will not be viewable in PDF format).

The Westfield-Ripley Waterfront Opportunity Plan is complete, with the exception of some revisions generated from comments received at the final public meeting. The final Westfield-Ripley Waterfront Opportunity Plan will be posted on this project website when it is available and hard copies of the plan will be delivered to the towns.

The next step, in addition to adoption of the plan by the Town of Westfield and the Town of Ripley, is to take the vision and concepts contained in the plan to the next level of detail. This may include engineering, planning and feasibility studies for some of the plan’s more ambitious projects, as well as relatively simple plans to implement smaller scale projects, such as a landscaping plan for municipally owned lands adjacent to the Barcelona pier. The Department of State also offers competitive grants for implementing ideas contained in the waterfront plan, which the towns should pursue. Lastly, a full harbor dredging is the number one priority. The Town of Westfield should continue its efforts to meet with stakeholders, the Army Corps of Engineers, and local government representatives to ensure that this all important project is implemented.

Photo courtesy of ZeBro's Harbor House
ZeBro’s Harbor House provided a festive atmosphere for the third and final public meeting
Lawrence Bice, of Behan Planning Associates gears up for the presentation
Project partners Christine Kinn and Don McCord, from the Chautauqua County Department of Planning
Many people lingered after the “official” conclusion of the meeting to chat about the plan