By ADAM ATKINSON

CANTON -- The public has until Oct. 26 to comment on the recently revamped Canton Grasse River Waterfront Revitalization Plan.

The Canton Town Waterfront Revitalization Committee has revised the 170-page document, which lays outs rehabilitation and development along Canton's main water way, the Grasse River, under the stipulations of a waterfront grant the town received in 2005.

The committee, comprised of David Button, Canton town supervisor; Phil LaMarche, Canton town board member; Jill Savage, as a representative for the Village of Canton, and Tom Langen and Louis Tremaine, both of the Grasse River Heritage Area Development Corp, held a public hearing Sept. 26 to field comment on the changes. The public can continue to submit comment until Oct. 26.

“We have the document where we feel it needs to be,” Button said at the public hearing. “The plan in many respects looks like the original . . . It shows that we still have a real passion for our waterfront assets.”

Tremaine called the study an “active document,” pointing to what has been accomplished thus far. “This has not been a pro forma exercise.”

“I think it speaks to how much we all love and care for the river,” LaMarche said. Talking about the revision process, LaMarche said the updates had been a “great exercise.”

“It works as a plan that has moved forward and continues to move forward,” said Langen.

Seventeen members of the public were in attendance at the hearing to listen to a presentation of the revisions. Several issues were raised and discussion centered around how these issues would either influence the plan or if they should be incorporated into the document somehow. Among these were greater wildlife protection along the river, and road chemical usage near the waterfront and salt storage issues and how that may relate to the waterfront revitalization effort.

The waterfront revitalization plan was first approved in January 2010. At the September hearing on the latest revisons, Button said the committee is required to periodically update the plan in compliance with New York State Department of State Division of Coastal Resources Local Waterfront Revitalization Program. The town received a grant from that program in 2005, which required formation of the committee and a redevelopment plan.

This first revision comes after a seven-year period, said Button.

The latest draft of the plan, viewable online here, essentially removes one of the 2010 plan’s major goal categories, which largely has been achieved over the last 7 years by the committee working in a concert with the Grasse River Blueway Trail Project.

The updated revitalization plan focuses the following seven key goals:

• Enhance existing and develop new waterfront parks to provide for greater public access and enjoyment of the Grasse River;

• Expand and enhance the land trails network and pedestrian linkages within and to the waterfront area;

• Protect sensitive waterfront, open space, and agricultural resources;

• Revitalize and strengthen the local economy by encouraging the development and redevelopment of waterfront properties into an appropriate mix of uses and densities that are compatible with the waterfront and the historic Village of Canton;

• Increase cultural and heritage preservation activities.

• Ensure that planning documents and local laws support the protection of the Grasse River waterfront and its community character and that they encourage appropriate economic development; and

• Develop tourism as an economic engine.

Future proposals highlighted under these goals include the installation of a whitewater play park in the town for kayakers and whitewater rafters to draw tourism to the region, and additional kayak and canoe launch spots within the Canton community area which are more accessible than are currently available. New public-access boat launches proposed include dock sites at Taylor Park Beach, the village fire house on Riverside Drive, Bend in the River Park, Miner Street Bridge at the pump station, and at SUNY Canton.

Other specific ideas in the document include greater marketing of sport fishing on the Grasse River, conducting a tourism market study, updates to municipal zoning to protect the waterfront, restoration of the Morley Harison Grist Mill, establishment of design guidelines for the historic district to address building rehabilitation and development compatible with the river and promotion of Canton as the historical home of the Rushton Boatworks.

The newly revised plan also calls for remediation of any brownfield sites along the river, development of guidelines for residential development to protect viewsheds and protected wild areas, development of a National Complete Streets Coalition style plan, promotion of regional cycling activities, expansion of the trail network and construction of a pedestrian bridge from Bend in the River Park to the west bank of the river.

The plan also calls for improvement and reopening of the Pyrites playground, enhancement of the Willow Island parks, improvements and enhancements at Taylor and Bend in the River Parks, and creation of a new park on the village land on the river's west bank.

The public hearing on the updated waterfront redevelopment plan will remain open until Oct. 26. Comments can be sent to the town and village municipal offices at 60 Main St. The offices can be reached by phone at 315-386-2871, or online at http://www.cantonnewyork.us/.