By Ashley M. Casey
Staff Writer

The town of Cicero is continuing in its quest to update the town’s comprehensive plan. The town board announced at its July 27 meeting that it intends to vote on district zoning changes Aug. 24.

The town is seeking to re-zone certain properties in the following areas, which are largely commercial but are dotted with agricultural and residential properties:
• Route 11 from the North Syracuse village line north to Oswego County
• East Taft Road from the Clay line east to Taft Park Drive
• Route 31 from the Clay line east to South Bay Road

Supervisor Mark Venesky said he personally contacted residents who had questions after the town board’s special meeting July 18. The town board’s public hearing on the matter is now closed, but residents may speak at the planning board’s public hearing, which remains open. The planning board next meets at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Aug. 8.

“We came away with a good feeling and we made some updates,” Planning Board Chair Bob Smith said.
Smith said 82 parcels — about half a percent of Cicero’s roughly 14,000 properties — will be re-zoned.
“We’re not doing the whole town — that was a concern and a question,” Smith said.

Smith said the updated comprehensive plan should give the planning board more direction on creating buffers between residential and commercial zones. The town will also take traffic and aesthetic issues into consideration.

Smith said the goal is to eliminate nonconforming uses of properties, reduce spot zoning and maximize smart development opportunities.

Venesky said the town is “moving in the right direction with the changes. He added that residents in the affected areas have been notified and their taxes should not increase as a result of re-zoning.

The comprehensive plan accepted by the Cicero Town Board in 2006 is available online at ciceronewyork.net/comprehensive-plan.

“A bottle of wine, the comprehensive plan and a lot of time is a good read,” Smith said.