Delaware County

Town of Tompkins, NY: zoning for new construction

Town of Tompkins has no zoning ordinance at all. There are no districts, no minimum lot sizes and no setbacks to look up here — but that is not the same as no rules, and it does not mean a project is unconstrained.

What we know

The Town of Tompkins has no zoning ordinance — there are no districts, no minimum lot sizes and no setbacks to look up. Three independent findings agree. (1) THE TOWN BOARD SAYS SO IN ITS OWN MINUTES: asked in January 2024 what a property owner needed to do to open a business, the Board recorded that "regardless of the products she wishes to sell, the Town does not have any zoning regulations against commercial property and she can open any type of business providing all NYS laws are followed with the business." (2) The Town’s own Town Laws page is a positive list of what IS in force and zoning is not on it — it carries the Town of Tompkins Land Subdivision Regulations (adopted by the Town Board 2012-12-10, adopted as Local Law No. 1-2013 on 2013-01-14 and filed with New York State as the Amended Town of Tompkins Land Subdivision Regulations) and the Town of Tompkins Sewer Use Law of 2011, and nothing else land-use related. (3) The Town has NO Zoning Board of Appeals and no zoning officer: its Elected & Appointed Officials page enumerates the Clerk, Deputy Clerk, five Board members, Highway Superintendent, Justice, Court Clerk, Planning Board, Code Enforcement Officer, Assessor, Board of Assessment Review, Dog Control Officer, Historian, Health Officer, Payroll Clerk, Bookkeeper, FEMA Administrators and the Trout Creek Sewer District staff — the words "zoning" and "appeals" do not appear on that page at all. New York Town Law § 267 requires a Zoning Board of Appeals wherever a zoning ordinance is in effect. It is not Tompkins County, New York, and not the Town of Ithaca within it — the Town’s own website prints that disclaimer at the top of its officials page, and a search for "Tompkins zoning" returns Tompkins County material almost exclusively.

How building actually works here

The absence of zoning is not the absence of review, and in this town the two laws that DO exist are the ones that will shape a project. The Land Subdivision Regulations run through the Planning Board and govern any division of land. The Sewer Use Law of 2011 matters more than its name suggests: Tompkins runs a TROUT CREEK SEWER DISTRICT with its own bookkeeper and operations staff, so whether a parcel is inside or outside that district is a real question with real consequences, and it is the first thing to establish before designing anything in or near the hamlet. Outside it, the Delaware County health department’s well and septic separation distances are usually what actually sizes a rural lot, and much of this corner of the county drains toward the Cannonsville Reservoir, so NYC DEP septic and stormwater rules can bind on top. The State Uniform Fire Prevention and Building Code applies regardless and is administered by the Code Enforcement Officer, who issues building permits and is the right first call — with no zoning schedule to read, that conversation is the standard. One caveat on the Board’s own statement: the January 2024 minute answers a question about COMMERCIAL use specifically, so read it as strong evidence rather than as a formal declaration covering every use. Nothing else found contradicts it, and the missing Zoning Board of Appeals is close to decisive on its own, but a single phone call to the Code Enforcement Officer settles it for free. Finally, treat this entry as re-checkable rather than permanent: Delaware County’s TPAS service gives member towns free professional planning help and Tompkins is a member, which is exactly the route by which a small town of this size adopts zoning for the first time.

Who to call

(607) 865-8341 — confirm the current position before relying on the absence of zoning. Ask specifically what does apply: subdivision, site plan review and the state building code usually still do.

Whatever you are told, do not assume a neighbouring municipality's standards apply here. Adjoining jurisdictions in Delaware County routinely differ by several acres of minimum lot, and a nearby town's schedule is not evidence of anything on this side of the line.

Zoning in nearby Delaware County municipalities

These do publish their codes, and we hold the full district tables for them:

See every municipality in Delaware County →