Dryden’s new comprehensive plan close to becoming official

The proposed Dryden 2045 Comprehensive Plan is in the final stages of becoming official, said town Planning Director Ray Burger.

Burger noted the town’s new plan, which is an update to the 2005 version, could be adopted by the Town Board as early as July.

While the 2005 version was “well-written” and a “visionary plan that served our community well,” Burger said some areas were “silent” and “not as robust as we would like it to be.”

The proposed Dryden 2045 plan, a project the town has worked on for the past three years, includes updates to the outlook of affordable housing, transportation and climate change in the town.

“[The new comp plan] focuses on those areas and what we can do to address those community concerns,” Burger said.

A public hearing on the proposed plan will be held at the Town Board business meeting June 16, which Burger hopes will rake in further comments on the plan.

The proposed comprehensive plan was recently moved on from the town’s Steering Committee and passed by the Planning Board, giving the Town Board the final stamp of approval.

“People have been commenting all along in this process, but now, people get to appeal directly [to the Town Board],” Burger said.

A few weeks ago, the town made the comp plan review draft a public document. The 181-page document can be viewed at tinyurl.com/29n8534a.

“I think what we’ve come up with is a supplement to the 2005 comp plan,” Burger said.

Burger noted how “proud” he was of the community engagement in the plan, prior to the recent public release of the comp plan’s review draft.

“Especially during [the COVID-19 pandemic],” he added. “Some were not used to getting on Zoom meetings, but it was the card that we were dealt.”

“A dozen people” spoke at the public hearing for the review draft, which Burger said is “a fairly polished draft.” Since then, the town has received a few letters that provided comments on the proposed plan.

Chuck Geisler, a town resident, praised the town’s Steering Committee and Planning Board’s work on the proposed plan. This came after Geisler initially had doubts “about the [impending] quality and comprehensiveness” of the proposed plan.

“The revised plan focuses on specific areas which the Planning Board and Town Board felt were insufficiently addressed in 2005,” Geisler said via a letter. “Other areas that were addressed required updating in light of changes in Dryden over the last 17 years (traffic, cost of housing, water quality changes, greenhouse gas generation and more).”

Geisler said in his letter that the new plan “displays flexible thinking, improved databases, and many insights for integrating a rural town nestled between Ithaca and Cortland.”

“It is an inclusive document, shaped and sharpened by multiple public sessions before Covid and Zoom engagements thereafter,” he said. “My view today is that Dryden2045 is a credit to our town and, along with its Appendices, a much-need[ed] road map for our future.”

Judy Pierpont, another town resident, is eager to see the new plan adopted. She urged the Town Board to move forward with approving it.

“It lays out well-thought-out proposals for the future of Dryden and supplements the 2005 plan, addressing several issues that have become more urgent since that date: climate, in particular green-house-gas emissions, housing affordability and traffic,” Pierpont said. “The new plan has been widely circulated and commented upon, followed by thorough and responsive revisions. This plan has been through a long and much-debated process of creation and revision. I believe it is time that we adopted it.”

With a combination of comments over the past few years, Burger is expecting more from the hearing on June 16.

“The [new] comp plan gives us somewhat of a laundry list that the Town Board can move forward and execute as they see fit,” he added. “It’s been a building process. As we research more, more ideas have come out. It will serve us well for the next several years.”

Dryden Dispatch appears every Wednesday in Tompkins Weekly. Send story ideas to editorial@VizellaMedia.com.

In brief:

Dryden Town Historical Society, Southworth Library to co-sponsor snapshot event

The Dryden Town Historical Society and the Southworth Library will be co-sponsoring a snapshot event at 6:30 p.m. June 16 at the library on 24 W. Main St.

The snapshot event, which is called Uncovering the Stories of Rural Dryden Women at the Turn of the Century, gives an “exciting look back to the women who helped Dryden flourish,” said Historical Society President Deb Fisher via email. “Despite being largely forgotten by history, Dryden’s farm women were both invaluable to the functioning of the community and represented rich individual lives.”

Registration is recommended for this event. Go to southworthlibrary.org or call (607) 844-4782 to register.

The presentation that is part of the event will be a preview of an upcoming exhibit at the historical society. Details on the exhibit will be coming soon to the historical society’s website at drydennyhistory.org.