This Plan was completed to develop design strategies for landscape enhancements in the Town and Village of Westfield. The planning process was framed within a general interest to further promote tourism in the Town and Village and, as such, the study focused on those aspects of the landscape that strongly relate to visitors to the area. Examples of some of the issues considered include the visual quality of the interchange landscape at the NYS Thruway (at North Portage Street), signage issues at the interchange, the appeal or the attractiveness of the streetscape along the North Portage Street corridor, which connects visitors from the Thruway to the Village Westfield and other communities in the area, ways to enhance the Main Street landscape in the Village, and strategies to shore up the visual quality of the municipal parking lots.
The study was not, however, strictly limited to enhancements for tourism purposes. It also focused on the quality of village landscape for the people who reside there and for future residents who will choose to settle in the Westfield area. In this regard, issues such as streetscape design, parking, parks, and connections (especially pedestrian) to the beautiful landscape settings that lie in and around the village were explored. Of those settings, the Chautauqua Creek Gorge is a uniquely beautiful landscape as are the vineyards that blanket the region and the waters of Lake Erie and Chautauqua Lake. The work looked for ways to bring people closer to these places.