A sketch-style rendering of a road with a crosswalk adjacent to a bike path and a circular gathering space.

A sketch-style rendering of a road with a car and a tree-lined sidewalk with people walking.

A sketch-style rendering of a park with children playing. Playground is in the far background.

City of Corning Comprehensive Plan Update

Preserving Identity While Growing Forward

Situated in a valley surrounded by scenic hills, the City of Corning, New York, is the economic and cultural hub of the Southern Tier Central region. As a regional hub, Corning offers an attractive quality of life with walkable, well-maintained, and affordable neighborhoods, thriving commercial districts, advanced manufacturing, and abundant arts, cultural, educational, and recreational opportunities.

LaBella assisted the City of Corning in preparing an update to its 2002 Comprehensive Plan. This update provides the City with a strategic framework to guide land use, infrastructure, housing, economic development, government services, and quality-of-life investments well into the future. Designed to reflect community priorities and emerging opportunities, the plan includes detailed project profiles, outlining detailed scopes of work, renderings, and potential funding sources to ensure recommendations are actionable and achievable.

Keeping Community Central

Community engagement was central to the process. LaBella facilitated a variety of outreach efforts, including open houses, stakeholder interviews, and tours of the downtown and surrounding neighborhoods. These efforts were complemented by digital outreach, ensuring that a wide range of perspectives shaped the plan.

Early activities focused on identifying community values and priorities through existing conditions analysis and other exercises, while later workshops concentrated on future land use, community vision, goals, strategies, and projects.

Thousands of comments were provided by open house participants that influenced the direction of the plan’s vision, goals, strategies, and transformational projects.

A photograph of multiple groups of people spread across four tables. They are looking at a map.

Photograph of multiple people looking at posterboards on easels.

A photograph of a posterboard with the title, "Community Engagement Input Summary." There are bullet points associated with five topics. Multiple sticky notes with handwritten notes border the sign. The scope of work for the update included:

Identifying key issues and developing a Smart Growth vision statement supported by goals and strategies
Preparing a community profile with demographic, housing, infrastructure, and economic data
Analyzing opportunities for downtown revitalization, housing, transportation, utilities, parks, and resiliency
Reviewing relevant City, County, and regional plans and policies to ensure alignment.

The resulting process was the basis for the Draft Plan, which was revised based on public and committee feedback and submitted to the City for final adoption.

LaBella assisted the City with the State Environmental Quality Review Act (SEQRA) process and the formal adoption of the plan. Oversight was provided by a Steering Committee, which guided the process and reviewed drafts, while City officials and staff supported data gathering.

Ultimately, the new Comprehensive Plan Update will position Corning to strengthen its downtown and business districts, preserve neighborhood character while addressing housing needs, enhance infrastructure and transportation systems, expand parks and community services, safeguard natural and cultural resources, and support long-term economic growth and resiliency.

The resulting plan is a forward-looking, actionable roadmap that reflects Corning’s unique identity while charting a clear strategy for future development and investment.

An Award-Winning Project

New York Planning Federation Comprehensive Plan Award

In April 2026, the City of Corning was honored with the New York Planning Federation Comprehensive Plan Award at the 2026 Annual Conference in Cooperstown, New York.

The Comprehensive Plan Award is presented to a municipality or agency for an outstanding and/or innovative comprehensive plan or plan update adopted by the municipality’s legislative body within the past three years.

A photograph of three people standing. The person in the center is holding an award.

An Award-Winning Project

Silver Award in the Comprehensive Planning Category from APA NY Upstate Chapter

In October 2026, the City of Corning’s Comprehensive Plan received a silver award in the Comprehensive Planning category from the American Planning Association New York Upstate Chapter (APA NY Upstate Chapter)! The recognition was celebrated at the 2026 Upstate NY Planning Conference held in Albany, New York.

The APA NY Upstate Chapter Comprehensive Planning category celebrates a comprehensive plan that advances the science and art of planning, highlighting originality and innovation, engagement, the role of planners, implementation, and effectiveness.