I, Nelson A. Rockefeller, Governor of the State of New York, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and Laws of the State of New York, do hereby issue this Executive Order to further the coordination of the comprehensive and functional regional planning activities of the State departments and agencies with one another and with those of the Federal and local governments and of the private sector.

In the last decade, New York State has commenced a coordinated effort to develop the State on a balanced regional basis. As part of this effort, comprehensive planning and development regions were developed for the State based upon area-wide groupings of counties reflecting their physical, economic and human resource relationships.

The design of these regions, which were delineated after study and consultation with the various State departments and agencies and local governments, is such as will promote the efficient and effective accomplishment of Federal, State and local development programs.

There now exists a comprehensive planning agency servicing each of these planning and development regions.

Moreover, the Federal government, in its efforts to improve intergovernmental coordination, has been recently requiring the use, insofar as possible, of coterminous boundaries for planning the various federally assisted development programs within the states.

Accordingly, the eleven comprehensive planning and development regions as now constituted and represented on the annexed map [below], and as such regions may from time to time be modified by the Governor, are hereby declared to be the official comprehensive planning and development regions of New York State.

Further, I hereby direct the heads of the several State departments and agencies to adopt and utilize the official comprehensive planning and development regions for all comprehensive and functional planning activities, and to submit a written report, no later than July 1, 1971, to the Director of the State Office of Planning Coordination indicating the measures taken to comply with this Order. Where the head of any department or agency deems it not feasible for his department or agency to conform to these official regional boundaries for planning purposes, he shall detail in the report the reasons for this infeasibility, and shall propose alternative regional boundaries which shall adhere to the official boundaries insofar as possible. The Director of the State Office of Planning Coordination may approve the use of alternative regional boundaries if he shall determine that such an alternative is clearly justified.

In addition, I hereby direct the heads of the several State departments and agencies to review their field services and operations, and submit a written report to the Governor no later than July 1, 1971, detailing the extent to which it would be desirable and possible to administer these services and operations on the basis of the regions established by this Order.