Comprehensive Plan

The Ulster County Planning Department is responsible for managing the County’s Comprehensive Plan Document. The department has and continues to accomplish this task through the adoption of individual Housing, Transportation, and Open Space Plans. 

Mobility 2050, the new Long Range Transportation Plan is currently in development. Learn more

The Ulster County Community Design Manual is not an element of the comprehensive plan, contains some of the policies of the Ulster County Planning Board and is, more importantly, an open-source tool for communities that focuses on place types and the integration of overarching policies at the land use/area and site design level.

Per General Municipal Law and the Ulster County Compact, the Ulster County Planning Board (UCPB) and its staff is the responsible for reviewing municipal county plans, law amendments, site plans and special permits, and area and use variances as it relates to having a countywide impact. The UCPB offers constructive criticism and technical advice to help communities achieve their long term planning goals as its response to these referred actions. The Department offers a Land Use Referral Guide and maintains a local land use library to aid communities in the referral process.

Comprehensive Plan Archive

Year 2045 Long Range Transportation Plan

Published on September 22, 2020

The Ulster County Transportation Council’s (UCTC) Long Range Transportaion Plan (LRTP) (or Metropolitain Transportation Plan (MTP)) looks twenty years into the future and sets a framework to promote the safe and efficient development, management, and operation of surface transportation systems. The plan is updated at no less than five-year intervals and covers the UCTC’s Metropolitan Planning Area

Housing Strategies Plan

Published on July 09, 2008

Priority Strategies to Support Housing Development in Ulster County(PDF, 2MB) (“Strategies”) was adopted as an element of the County's Comprehensive Plan by resolution of the Ulster County Legislature on July 9, 2008.

This study examines the trends in the county's housing costs, its economy and the relationship between these factors and household income-wage growth as it relates to affordability. This study found that despite signs of a turnaround in the county's economic fortunes, the ability to afford housing in nearly all of the county's communities has not kept pace with its rising costs. In addition, the study found that the gap between income and soaring housing prices has gotten dramatically worse in the last seven to eight years. As a result, many county residents are finding it harder and harder to obtain decent housing without paying an uncomfortably high and increasingly larger percentage of their earnings-income. This is true whether the housing choice involves homeownership or rental.

Strategies contain five (5) overarching recommendations:

  1. Undertake a “Full Court Press” Public Information-Education Campaign to Raise Public Official and Citizen Awareness About the importance of Housing Choice to the County's Economy and Livable Communities;
  2. Implement a Countywide “Housing-Friendly” Zoning Policy;
  3. Conduct a Feasibility Analysis of the Efficacy of Establishing a Community Housing Trust to Preserving Housing Affordability in the County;
  4. Develop Creative Approaches to Reward the County's Communities for Efficient Use and Expansion of Existing Regional Infrastructure to Support Higher Density Housing Development;
  5. Develop and Integrate a Comprehensive Set of County-Municipal Housing Targets Consistent with the Economic Development and “Smart Growth” Needs of the County and Individual Municipalities.

In arriving at the recommendations Strategies documents the increase in housing costs for both home ownership and rental units in relationship to growth in income utilizing a six (6) year data window from ending in 2004. Strategies also include information on barriers to housing development including nimbyism, and zoning densities that fail to take advantage of existing infrastructure.

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