When Poughkeepsie hired CZB in 2021 to update its comprehensive plan and zoning code, it had been more than 20 years since the city’s last citywide plan and over 40 years since its last zoning overhaul. The years in between had brought real accomplishments, but also a prevailing sense of stalled progress, a feeling that was especially strong in parts of the city that felt left out of prosperity touching other parts of Poughkeepsie and the broader region. Inequitable development and investment patterns stretching back over the past century continued to shape the city today, and were among the realities Poughkeepsie would have to contend with as it charted its course forward.
Getting to a shared vision meant naming the city’s real divisions honestly first, not smoothing them over with a single, generic citywide narrative. CZB and partner Ingalls Planning & Design facilitated a process that pinpointed these community fissures directly, and built an understanding of the city’s core priorities, values, and planning principles around that honest starting point rather than around it.
Getting to a shared vision meant naming the city’s real divisions honestly first, not smoothing them over with a single, generic citywide narrative. CZB and partner Ingalls Planning & Design facilitated a process that pinpointed these community fissures directly, and built an understanding of the city’s core priorities, values, and planning principles around that honest starting point rather than around it.
The PK4Keeps plan was finalized and adopted in September 2022, immediately followed by zoning updates to bring Poughkeepsie’s code, for the first time in over 40 years, into alignment with the city’s actual vision for its future.
Reach out for more information about this project or to see the final document.
