ECDEP’s Municipal Planning Grant Program Garners Award
ERIE COUNTY, NY— The Erie County Department of Environment and Planning (“ECDEP”) has received the 2024 Best Practices Award from the WNY Section of the American Planning Association for the implementation of its Municipal Planning Grant Program (“the Program”), which has invested $1 million in municipal planning countywide over the past four years. These investments have paired $670,000 in county funding with $330,000 in matching funding from municipalities, powering the Program’s engagement in seventeen towns and nine villages across Erie County.
“The Municipal Planning Grant Program helps local governments make better land use decisions, which in turn makes our towns, villages, and cities better prepared for future growth,” said Erie County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz. “This award is great recognition for the program, and I thank Commissioner Castle and the team in ECDEP for the work they are doing to help communities grow and plan for the future.”
“The preparation of Comprehensive Plans, Zoning Ordinances, and Farmland Protection Plans often relies on discretionary funds which can be a challenge for municipalities to set aside,” said Commissioner of Environment and Planning Dan Castle. “What sets this program apart is that it allows Erie County to allocate funding aligned with what the municipality can provide, so the available funds go farther, and these Plans actually get completed.”
The program began in 2020 as the Agricultural Planning Grant Program with a focus was on assisting rural municipalities complete updates to their land use planning documents aimed at promoting and protecting agriculture. In 2022, the program was renamed the Erie County Municipal Planning Grant Program and expanded to include assistance to all Erie County villages, towns, and cities with updates to their municipal level planning documents.
The program seeks to proactively encourage municipal initiatives to adequately plan through the creation of up-to-date land use planning documents, including comprehensive plans, zoning codes, transportation plans, and parks and recreation plans, among others. These updated planning documents, some of which have not seen significant changes in decades, guide each municipality in addressing contemporary issues and creating an achievable vision for the future. The program seeks to balance municipal interests with county and regional planning priorities through cooperative planning efforts implemented at the municipal level.
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