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Planning Tools

The Tompkins County Planning Department strives to provide the community with up-to-date professional planning guidance and tools to help accomplish the goals of each community.  To that end, staff has developed the following toolbox to facilitate discussion and forward movement on planning issues.

Vital Communities Toolbox
The Vital Communities Toolbox provides easy-to-understand descriptions of over 150 planning tools ranging from tips on creating bicycle-friendly transportation systems to explanations of how zoning can be used to address community goals.  The Toolbox was created to assist interested municipal governments, businesses, non-profit groups, and local citizens by providing definitions of common planning terms and tools, examples of how tools can be used, and suggestions on tools that could be used to achieve a variety of community goals.  The Toolbox was selected as an Outstanding Planning Project by the New York Upstate Chapter of the American Planning Assciation.

Tompkins County
Planning Department

121 E. Court Street
Ithaca, New York 14850

Phone: (607) 274-5560  
Fax: (607) 274-5578