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Ulysses board approves multiple edits to draft comprehensive plan and schedules follow‑up hearings
Summary
The Town Board approved numerous targeted edits to the draft comprehensive plan — including stakeholder additions, removal of inaccurate dairy‑farm language, adding vineyards to farm typologies and multiple editorial and map/header fixes — and set follow-up hearings and a timeline for updated drafts and agency reviews.
Board members spent the bulk of the June 23 meeting reviewing and approving a long list of proposed changes to the draft Ulysses comprehensive plan.
The board approved motions to add Historic Ithaca and Tompkins County to the stakeholder list and to remove two inaccurate sentences that described dairy farms and identified a "largest farm" still operating in the town. "We don't have any dairy farms left," a board member said during discussion; the board removed the language to avoid reflecting outdated data. Members also voted to add vineyards to the agricultural typology list and to adjust emphasis in the farmland-protection sections so that goals about strengthening the agricultural economy are clearer.
Transportation- and format-related edits were also approved: the board removed two introductory paragraphs in the transportation chapter that members judged speculative and tightened several header and figure captions to avoid implying Tompkins County or state goals were the town's own. Several maps and tables were flagged for clarification, including commute-mode charts and lane-mile breakdowns; staff were directed to obtain clearer figures or add source citations. The town also directed MRB Group and staff to revise wetlands language to reflect recent legal changes (April 2026 State Supreme Court decision affecting 2025 DEC rules) and to expand the soils discussion to cite prime farmland and farmland of statewide importance.
Supervisor and staff said an updated draft incorporating the evening’s edits will be posted as soon as possible and supporting memos will be published alongside it. The board set a special meeting July 6 at noon to handle voucher approvals, and moved public hearings that had been scheduled for July 14 to July 28 to ensure a quorum and broader participation; the SEAF public hearing for Smith Woods remains set for July 14 and may be continued to the July 28 meeting.
Board members emphasized that many edits were editorial or clarifying; when subject-matter issues require more data the board asked staff to follow up with the county and relevant agencies and to provide updated citations in the appendix.
