Workshop Purpose
The goal of these workshops was for interest groups to develop a map-based vision of future development in Tompkins County for the year 2050. Participants were asked to be futurists for the day and imagine what the world will be like in 50 years, and what they would like Tompkins County to look like then. In doing this, participants were asked to consider those aspects of life in Tompkins County that they valued and felt were important enough to preserve or improve upon in the future.

Mapping
Workshop participants worked in small groups to produce Future Land Use Maps that reflected their vision of where development should be located. Each group had a paper base map and several other transparent maps to overlay on the base map as needed. Using these maps, each group drew its own Future Land Use Map on a transparent sheet. Maps provided to participants were:

· current land use;
· municipal boundaries, roads, building footprints;
· topography;
· major streams, floodplains, aquifers, wetlands;
· watershed boundaries;
· state parks/forests/wildlife management areas and county reforestry lands;
· agricultural districts;
· agricultural soils;
· soil limitations for development;
· areas served by sewer and water lines;
· employment density;
· unique natural areas, critical environmental area, designated recreational river, designated national natural landmark, and railroad beds and converted trails.

Groups were asked to identify areas in Tompkins County where they imagined high, moderate and low intensity land uses would occur, where agriculture would be located, and where forest and brush covered lands would be located. The high, moderate and low intensity categories encompassed land uses that demand similar amounts of resources such as infrastructure, housing, services and impacts on the environment. These categories, along with agriculture and forest and brush covered lands, were chosen by planning staff for purposes of this workshop, and all groups used these same five categories to develop their Future Land Use Maps. These map categories are described on the next page.

Staffing
To assist each group, a facilitator from Interface of Community Dispute Resolution Center kept the group focused on the task and elicited the principles and criteria the group used to draw the map. A notetaker from the Planning Department was also assigned to each group to answer questions about the resources available and to record in detail the reasoning behind the development of the map. One week prior to the workshop, attendees received background materials to help familiarize them with the process and the resources available at the meeting.

Growth Projections
When drawing their maps, participants were asked to take into account the changes that staff determined might likely occur in fifty years. Modest growth projections for the county indicated that:
a) There will be 35,000 more people living in Tompkins County (roughly the current population of the City of Ithaca).
b) There will be 25,000 more dwelling units to house those people (there are currently approximately 25,000 housing units combined in the City of Ithaca (10,000), Town of Ithaca (6,000), Town of Dryden (5,000) and Town of Lansing (4,000)).
c) There will be an additional 460,000 sq. ft. of retail space serving the needs of those people (approximately 3/4 the size of the existing Pyramid Mall).
d) There will be 21,000 new jobs created.

The overarching questions that each table was asked to address were: "Assuming the growth statistics identified, how should this growth be distributed? What does each specific interest group want Tompkins County to look like in the year 2050?"

Interest Groups
There were twelve tables with interest groups:
October 2000
Agriculture
Economic Development
Environment
Land Development
Local Planning
Neighborhood Quality
January 2001
County Elected Officials and Education
Human Services
Local Elected Officials (2 groups)
Transportation and Infrastructure
Youth

Presentations
Speakers at each workshop presented interesting perspectives on managing development in other parts of the country. Professor Robert W. Burchell, Director of the Center for Urban Policy Research at Rutgers University, spoke at the October workshop. Dr. Burchell is an expert on fiscal impact analysis, land-use development and regulation, and housing policy. His presentation was entitled "The Costs Of Sprawl: The Benefits Of Smart Growth."

Johns Hopkins, Director of the Maryland Building Rehabilitation Code Program, spoke at the January workshop. Mr. Hopkins is a member of the Governor's staff responsible for implementing Maryland's Smart Growth and Neighborhood Conservation Program. Mr. Hopkins discussed planning concepts and strategies being used in Maryland's three-year-old program.

"Vital Communities Workshop Report, 2000-2001", prepared by TCPD & ITCTC, June 2001