About
Welcome to the Town of Aurora Comprehensive Plan Website!
What is a Comprehensive Plan?
A comprehensive plan is an official, long-range 'blueprint' for a municipality's future created by its local government. Comprehensive plans detail the community’s vision for the future, including development, land use, and community priorities. A comprehensive plan also provides strategies addressing housing needs, infrastructure improvements, the revitalization of the town’s various neighborhoods (such as hamlet centers), the needs for all modes of transportation, farmland preservation, climate resiliency, and natural resource preservation.
A well-crafted comprehensive plan should include topical items, supporting maps, and other graphics. It should also include an executive summary, a vision statement, goals and objectives, findings and recommendations, an implementation matrix, sustainability elements, and a climate vulnerability assessment.
Why does the Town of Aurora need a comprehensive plan?
Aurora has never formally enacted a comprehensive plan, although it has used the non-enacted Regional Comprehensive Plan developed in the early 2000s as a guide. Aurora, therefore, primarily retains the zoning first implemented several decades ago, with major updates introduced in the 2010s. More recently, the Aurora Town Board further updated residential and commercial zones to prevent uncontrolled residential growth and to preserve the nature of its commercial districts (including an overlay for the Hamlet of West Falls).
Even with these updates, the Town Board recognized the importance of having a well-crafted framework for guiding Aurora’s future growth and development over the next 10 to 20 years. The Aurora Town Board wishes to have a well-crafted plan that relies on robust community input to guide its decisions and get ahead of potential issues that may need legislative action now before it is too late.
How is the Town of Aurora paying for the comprehensive plan?
The County of Erie awarded the Town of Aurora funding to develop a comprehensive plan. Therefore, the Town of Aurora is paying only 10% of the project costs.
What geographic area will the Town of Aurora Comprehensive Plan cover?
The Town of Aurora Comprehensive Plan will cover the entire Town of Aurora outside of the Village of East Aurora. The East Aurora Village Board manages development decisions in the Village of East Aurora.
Who is responsible for creating a Town of Aurora Comprehensive Plan?
Ultimately, the Aurora Town Board is responsible for creating and passing a comprehensive plan. For these purposes, the Aurora Town Board has appointed a steering committee comprised of two board members and several engaged members from different sectors in the community. The Aurora Town Board also hired LaBella Associates to work as the Town of Aurora's planning consultant. LaBella Associates was chosen based on a competitive request for proposals.
The role of the Steering Committee is to provide perspectives on the information gathered and feedback on draft documents, policies, and implementation actions. The Steering Committee will also help plan for and publicize public engagement events. Please visit the Steering Committee tab at the top for a full list of committee members.
Project Breakdown
The objective of this plan will be to conduct a comprehensive inventory and analysis of the Town of Aurora, which will help identify actionable recommendations the Town of Aurora can take to accomplish the community’s long-range vision for how they want their town to be 20 years from now. This plan will accomplish this objective through the following tasks:
A comprehensive inventory and analysis of the existing conditions in the Town of Aurora, focusing on the following areas:
Land Use & Zoning
Housing & Neighborhoods
Infrastructure & Utilities
Transportation Systems
Agriculture & Natural Resources
Parks & Recreation
An extensive public engagement plan that will help the Town of Aurora understand current issues, gain information from the public, clarify its vision, goals, and priorities for the future, and inform recommendations and implementation strategies. Components of the public engagement plan include:
A public survey and tailored senior survey
Stakeholder interviews
Two Public Workshops
The development of a community vision statement and goals, which will identify priorities for the Town of Aurora and ensure that the Town of Aurora takes the proper actions to ensure that the plan’s recommendations are implemented in a consistent and coordinated effort.
The identification of implementation strategies and recommended actions needed to achieve the goals of the Town of Aurora. The implementation strategy will specify the relative priority, anticipated timeframe, order-of-magnitude costs, potential funding sources, and the entity or entities responsible for implementing each action.
