I didn't get to covering yesterday's Ithaca Journal - it was just too busy a day!
There was an article exploring how the Town of Dryden plans to coordinate its many stakeholding boards for the zoning process. The current plan is to create a "law policy commission"
comprised of select members from the town, conservation, planning and zoning appeals boards. As the laws are developed by the individual boards, they would come before the joint workgroup for review. The proposed laws would then go back to the sponsoring board for further work or move on to the town board for approval.
Zoning is going to be a hugely complex conversation, and it's good to see them working on a means of connecting groups with different perspectives. Environmental Planner Dan Kwasnowski's comments suggest that they're aiming for transparency, and hopefully the public will have a clearer view of what's happening and better chance to contribute this way as well.
There's a report on village caucus results which notes that the Village of Dryden will have some choices to make on March 20th. For Mayor, incumbent Republican Reba Taylor is the only nominated candidate, while there is a contest for trustee. The Republicans have nominated incumbents Bob Witty and Randy Sterling, while the Democrats have nominated Elizabeth Gutchess and Lisa Valentinelli.
The editorial called for a new look at the county jail, and supported County Legislator Mike Hattery's call for more study of the results of Alternatives to Incarceration. There's also a letter from Maureen Brull of Dryden calling for reduced interest on student loans to those making timely payments.
Posted by simon at February 3, 2007 10:36 AM in Ithaca Journal , planning and zoning , politics (local)