HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-11-15 - CPC Town of Ulysses
Comprehensive Plan Committee
11 /15/07
Approved 01/10/08 with corrections
Present : Doug Austic-Town Supervisor, Bob Brown-CPC , Dick Coogan-Deputy
Supervisor, Don Ellis-TB , Rod Hawkes-CPC , David Kerness-PB/CPC,
Roxanne Marino-TB , Sue Poelvoorde-Chairperson CPC , Sue Ritter-CPC ,
Rebecca Schneider-PB , Liz Thomas-CPC , David Tyler-CPC, Lucia Tyler-PB, John
Wertis-PB/CPC, Bergman Associates-Andy Raus , Kimberly Baptiste.
Ms . Poelvoorde called the meeting to order at 7 : 30 pm . She stated members of the
Comprehensive Plan Committee, Town Board, and Planning Board are present. She
asked the members to introduce themselves . She turned the meeting over to Mr. Raus .
Mr. Raus introduced himself stating he is the Principal Planner for Bergman Associates,
he is very glad they selected his firm to be part of this project. They are looking forward
to working with the Town to identify a vision for the community and a path for getting
there. He introduced Kimberly Baptiste, she is the day-to -day liaison for the project .
He stated on their team they have a GIS Specialist-Kevin Kelly, a Landscape Architect-
Mark Johns, they have a slew of civil engineers at the ready if needed. The company is
large they have about 280 employees . The main office is in Rochester, they have offices
in Buffalo , Albany, Rochester, Syracuse, Elmira, they are also located in Philadelphia,
Florida and Michigan. They are doing work all across the state, with clients similar to
Ulysses as their client base . They did do work in North Tonawanda which is about
35 ,000 people but getting into the larger cities is a different game. He asked the members
if they had any questions , no responses were made .
He asked the members to list any committees or boards within the Town or
intermunicipal they are on, the following list was provided by the members .
Committees/Board
Comprehensive Plan Committee
Council of Governments
County Planning Advisory Board
County Stormwater Committee
Jacksonville Community Association
Planning Board
Recreation Partnership
Route 96 Corridor Plan Committee
Ithaca Tompkins County Transportation Council
Tompkins Youth Board
Ulysses Stormwater Committee
West Shore Homeowners Association
Zoning Board of Appeals
Mr. Raus stated it was a good cross section of people, The question that comes to his
mind is are these the handful of people that volunteer for every committee or is this a
philosophy that runs through the community with a lot of people that like to volunteer
their time.
The members agreed the community is very active with events and festivals that are
predominantly done by volunteers . The library was a great achievement the community
came together and built a new library. Other communities are staggered by what was
accomplished with our new library. We had a committee that worked and completed the
Main Street Project. The West Shore Homeowners Association has grown and is very
active. This is a very active and caring community. The volunteer base is used very
effectively in this community.
Mr. Raus stated he has noticed that Ulysses is very different from many communities this
size and in similar locations around the Finger Lakes . Having worked with many
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communities in the Finger Lakes region this Town seems to have its act together. Having
driven through here today they noted the village, it is a great little village, it seems to be a
vibrant little village. He actually proposed to his wife at the base of Taughannock Falls,
he received hi's scolding already from Sue . But it seemed to be different from the last visit
12 years ago .
Ms . Marino asked if he was aware the Village is doing a Comprehensive Plan currently.
Mr. Raus replied he was, he asked if anyone was serving as a liaison between the two .
Ms . Thomas stated she was not an official liaison but she has been communicating with
both, Mr. Ellis is on the Village Comprehensive Plan Committee and Mr. Brown is a
Village resident on our Comprehensive Plan Committee and the Village Planning Board .
They are interested in getting involved in this process .
Mr. Ellis stated it is in the second round of the draft, they will have community meetings
this Saturday. They will then go back and review .
Mr. Raus turned the meeting over to Ms . Baptiste, she gave a quick overview of what a
Comprehensi'e Plan will look like. The plan is a snapshot of the community today and a
blue print for future land use of the community. Ultimately, the comp plan will be used
to develop a future land use plan for the Town. This will help in guiding future decisions '
as they relatePto land use as the Town evolves over the next five to ten years or 15 years .
A typical table of contents will contain the existing conditions, these include physical,
economic , social areas to get an idea of how everything is functioning today. They will
look at things like where is water service-what is needed, what is the market for
commercial business, they will look at agricultural land-what is that plan. Based on these
decisions through the committee and as a Town via public meetings they will determine
other areas they want to preserve and/or change . She asked if there were any questions .
Mr. Raus stated they typically put all the existing conditions in the back of the document .
They do this because it is more of a reference . Most people want to see the vision of the
Town, what are the policies driving their decision and what is the land use plan. The
characteristics can and should be updated as new information is available, such as
updated Census data, demographic data. They generally use a binder format so pages can
be revised easily. He asked if this was an appropriate layout. The members agreed this
would be acceptable .
Ms . Baptiste stated she would like to obtain background information, she asked the
members for a list of items she could access for this . The following was offered.
Historical information :
Tompkins County Historical Society
Ulysses Town Historian
Zoning Regulations
Comprehensive Plan 1999
Ulysses History by Lydia Sears
Mapping information :
Tompkins County GIS
List/Locations of Parks
Taughannock Falls State Park
Smith Woods
Village Park ;
Close to Hector National Forest
Youth Programming/Activities :
Ulysses Youth Commission
Land use, resources, etc :
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Tompkins County Agricultural Board
Finger Lakes Land Trust (Andy Zepp)
Cayuga Lake Watershed Network
Cooperative Extension-farmland issues (Monika Roth, Debbie Teeter)
Unique Natural Areas Book
Scenic Views Network
Infrared Flyover done for shoreline study
Municipal Water District maps
Mr. Raus stated they are licensed to have access to pictometry. These are bird ' s eye view
images of the Town in high resolution . The detail looking at a hamlet, shoreline and
natural area is fantastic . It is very helpful for planning and sketching. He is not sure how
much it would cost for them to access Ulysses but he will find out. He told the members
how to access this type of imagery using Microsoft Live Search.
Ms . Ritter stated this is available it was provided through Homeland Security, however
the data takes up a lot of space.
Mr. Raus stated before he got too much further he wanted to discuss a question Mr.
Austic had contacted him about .
Mr. Austic stated Tompkins County Economic Development Collaborative is updating
their 1994 sewer and water infrastructure for Tompkins County. They are asking all the
municipalities to supply information . The Town has been talking about a water survey for
a year or more, they thought they would be better to tell them where they feel they have
water problems vs . having a County Planner telling the Town where to put water.
Mr. Raus asked the committee if they thought this was something they would like to do,
he is not sure how they would do it at this point in time, but if interested he will go back
and speak to the other associates for suggestions .
Ms . Poelvoorde asked what the increased service would cost, they have been allocated a
specific amount .
Mr. Raus stated he did not know, it would depend on if it is a complex process if it is
only a day of analyzing data and incorporating it into the plan it could be included. It also
might entail the Town doing much of the work and that could be evaluated as well. Until
he has a better idea it is very difficult to estimate costs . He stated he would get back to
the Town with an answer as soon as possible .
Ms . Poelvoorde stated she had thought if this is an issue area it could be addressed as an
action strategy.
A discussion was held regarding different feelings related to water issues and how to
handle survey, problems in preparing and getting the comp plan survey out. The Town
felt they could offer assistance in getting the survey prepared and out on a timely basis .
The estimate of a 1 ,000 households outside of village and town water system was
presented . The depth of the survey could be an issue relating to what the water problems
are, i . e. quality, quantity, etc . Mr. Raus will sit down with a water engineer and review
the question and establish a plan to come back to the Town with.
Ms . Baptiste reviewed the schedule she prepared for their scope of work. She asked when
the various boards meet. The members gave her the schedule . She stated in the handout
was a packet of information with an outline of the process . This meeting is the project
initiation meeting. At their office they are starting the data collection process . They will
continue to collect information from the content of tonight ' s meeting as well as the
documents Sue is gathering for them . They will take all this information and over the
next month or so they will compile the inventory. At the same time they will review in
further detail the community survey done, they will develop graphics and tables . The
schedule started with November' s meeting, with the holidays they have tentatively
scheduled the next steering committee meeting and the first public meeting in January.
Hopefully through brainstorming tonight and the findings of the inventory as well as the
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survey they hope to develop some visions, policies, goals and objectives . She will present
these back to the steering committee, this will hopefully be done by March/April . Once
these are done they will get into looking at the map and draft a plan for future land use .
The plan will be based on goals and long-term visions .
They will start to incorporate more public input at this point. She noted they scheduled
the Village meeting for Saturday, if a Saturday morning charette session works best for
the community they could do that. She explained a charette is a public interactive
workshop . The public will have hands-on involvement in the planning process . They will
break into small groups of community members with a Bergman associate or a steering
committee member acting as facilitator.
In the Spring,j they will plan on having two land use workshops with the public one to
define the original vision and the other once they flush out recommendations from the
community and from the steering committee and develop a draft land use plan. They will
present this to the community for further refinements and revisions . After that it is really
moving onto general plan recommendations, identifying implementation strategies,
developing long-term and short-term goals, cost estimates and funding opportunities . All
of this information will ultimately be compiled into the Comprehensive Plan update.
They are estimating a 10- 11 month process from start to finish, there is some flexibility
depending one how often the meetings are held, etc . but typically they like to finish within
a year to keep the momentum and interest going.
Mr. Raus stated related to the water survey the goal would probably be March or April in
the timeline.
Ms. Baptiste asked if there were any questions .
Ms . Schneider asked how they would get fair representation, she asked what the return
rate on the survey was and did they send a notice out a second time?
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Ms . Poelvoorde stated they had a 35 % return rate, they sent out 2200 and had 700
returned. They were very pleased; it was a very high return rate for a survey.
Mr. Raus stated this is a very important part of the steering committee ' s role, getting a
cross section of different people. The committee need to get the word out, knock on
neighbor' s doors, email, typically in a town this size they can get 50-60 people . With
extended effort they can get 100 people and that is still a workable number for these
meetings .
Ms . Tyler asked what the most important meeting to have the public attend would be.
Mr. Raus stated the land use workshops are usually the best attended. The first is usually
the most important for initial involvement, the second is input for refinements . The
second one is there for backup and it is generally if people come to the first they figure
they have already gone and do not need to go to the second. He stated these are 3 -4 hours
meetings, they keep them fairly lively and usually 90% of the people are still there at the
end of the meeting.
Mr. Ellis stated the initial meetings on Thursday night were well attended, Saturday was
as good on the first round. The second round did not go as well, it was held in July and
there was a Memorial service for a member of the community.
Ms . Baptiste ;stated the next focus is the heart and soul of the meeting. They will be doing
SWOT ' s which are Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . She stated she had
handed out a sheet for each member to complete with their thoughts for each area. Later
they will gather them for an overall list.
The lists were compiled as such :
STRENGTHS :
Lack of money kept Upstate New York lack of changes
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Strong visible and historical Town center
Viable agriculture, open space, economic base and jobs
High education level
Tourism-clean economic activity
Exceptional interne connectivity
State Parks, National Forest
Good school district
Community involvement
Outdoor recreation, golf course, camping, hunting, fishing, nature
Winery economy
Lake-birding and wildlife watching
Creative people, artists, woodworkers
Historical buildings, strip malls
Quality of life
Organizational ability
Sense of community-kids are safe
Convenient to home, we have stores, we have resources within the town
WEAKNESSES :
Shift to a bedroom suburb
Housing options, income and range not available
Two different school districts, Town is split into Ithaca/Trumansburg
School Tax Base, gentrification, driven out of local homes
Location under pressure to become a major corridor due to proximity to Ithaca
Location around the lake is limiting .
No community center, more places for youth
WEAKNESSES : (Continued)
Historic and Unique Natural Areas preservation
Town is lopsided-the Village is not the center of the Town, adjacent to Ithaca do not
relate to Tburg
Not enough for adolescent ' s (teen ' s) to keep busy
Minimum commercial zoning
Oversensitive, small town, find people connections
Well water sources
Development in the city killed retail in Ulysses
Limited opportunity for youth employment
Lack of labor, wineries have found for unskilled labor others for skilled labor
Diversity-racial and ethnic
OPPORTUNITIES :
Tburg, NW area of county lives by itself', many people commute to Seneca Falls,
Corning, etc . for work.
Have time to change
Power opportunities-hydro and wind, factor in favor is Tburg grew because of the mill
Consult with Seneca/Schuyler about wind power
Natural gas
Growth from Ithaca
Tourism niche for specialized foods, restaurants
Desirable place to live
Growth
THREATS :
Fear-growth, clashing views, commercial vs . individual
Increased polarization towards local government
Energy costs
Protecting water resources
Generations of residents seeing others move in, different viewpoints
Misinformation
Garbage trucks-Seneca Meadows
Preserve aesthetic appeal
No clear vision-prioritize
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Scaling regulation is difficult
Ms . Baptiste stated it was about time to wrap up tonight ' s meeting. She asked when the
steering committee members would be meeting next.
Ms . Poelvooide stated the next scheduled meeting would be November 27th . She asked
the members; if when they wanted to meet again.
A discussions led to the decision to postpone the next meeting until January 10th, 2008 ,
due to the meeting day falling on a holiday.
Ms . Baptiste and Mr. Raus thanked the members for attending, they stated they would be
in contact with the Town regarding documents, water survey, etc .
The meeting was adjourned at 9 : 15 pm .
Respectfully submitted,
Robin Carlisle Peck
Administrative Assistant
01 / 12/08
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