The New York Forward program will "invigorate and enliven downtowns in New York’s smaller and rural communities—the type of downtowns found in villages, hamlets and other small, neighborhood-scale municipal centers." It builds on the success of the Downtown Revitalization Initiative (DRI) by adopting the same “Plan-then-Act” strategy as the DRI. The State has allocated $100 million for the first round of NY Forward. Each of the State’s ten Regional Economic Development Councils (REDCs) will have the option of recommending two communities for $4.5 million awards or three communities, one of which will receive $4.5 million and two that will receive $2.25 million.

NY Forward's goal is to boost local economies by transforming neighborhoods into vibrant places where the next generation of New Yorkers will want to live, work and raise a family. The Capital Region Economic Development Council (CREDC) will choose the downtowns in our county that are ripe for revitalization. We want to hear from you about your passion for our town and ready-to-go projects including public infrastructure that will help us reach our full potential. Opportunities that attract residents, workers and visitors and address needed public improvements like flood mitigation and municipal services may be identified in our proposal, which is due on September 29, 2023. Read more about the NYF program at 

https://www.ny.gov/programs/ny-forward

Help us tell Copake’s great story.

To be competitive we MUST document community interest and support. We are building on Copake's 2022 New York Forward application, the 2016 Copake Downtown Design and Development Plan and the 2021 Town of Copake Waterfront and Community Revitalization Plan but we need your input focusing on downtown Copake. Please take the brief NY Forward Survey and write a letter of support for Copake's proposal (see side bar). Please contact us at CopakeNYForward@gmail.com with any questions or comments.

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