HomeMy WebLinkAbout11.11.2009 Planning Board Minutes1
Planning Board
Village of Cayuga Heights
Marcham Hall
November 11, 2009
7:00 PM
Present: Chairman Martin Harms, Henry Richardson, Graham Gillespie, Janet Shure, Sean
Cunningham.
Absent: Mark Morris
Others: Fred Cowett, Trustee Bea Szekely, George Franz
Martin Harms, Chairman of the Planning Board of the Village of Cayuga Heights, called the
meeting to order at 7:05 PM and welcomed everyone to the meeting.
Chairman Harms requested a moment of silence in recognition of it being Veterans Day.
Motion by PB Member Gillespie
Seconded by PB Member Richardson.
Motion to allow Alternate PB member vote during today’s meeting.
Planning members Harms, Richardson, Gillespie and Shure voted Yes.
Motion by PB Member Shure
Seconded by PB Member Richardson.
Motion to approve the revised minutes of October 14, 2009
Planning Members Harms, Richardson, Gillespie, Shure and Cunningham voted YES.
Chrmn. Harms reviewed the agenda as presented.
Public Comment - None
Invited Guests 7:15pm
Fred Cowett – Landscape Architect/ Member of ZBA/Resident of CH. Fred presented slideshow
showing problems related to kids walking to Boynton Middle and Ithaca High School. Fred
outlined poor walking paths, lack of sidewalks and dangerous traffic conditions along Wyckoff
Rd., Kline Rd., Sunset Rd., and Remington Sreet. He alerted the board that he had met with a rep
from the Town of Ithaca and explained that they were receptive to making improvements along
these routes. Fred suggested possible remedies of:
1. Adding crosswalk to Remington Rd.
2. Providing better sidewalk access to allow Lakeview Cemetery to be used as a walkway.
3. Adding sidewalks or alternate pathways to provide safer walking along Wyckoff Rd.
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Fred explained that the Town of Ithaca requested a traffic count be done along some of our
routes and that some estimate of walking traffic be completed.
PB Member asked about rite of way distances (25ft from center of rd, 33ft on certain streets).
PB Member Richardson mentioned the possibility of routing some walking paths through
backyards of homeowners.
Chairman Harms vocalized the need to include walk ability in final comp plan.
ACTION ITEM:
• PB Member Cunningham will work with Fred to acquire traffic counter from T.O.I.
(encouraged to make request through Brent Cross and Tom Boyce).
• Fred will prepare a comprehensive sidewalk and walking path map.
• Cunningham will gather info on number of people walking down problem area streets.
Fred gave a description of his work on a “tree count” for VCH. He is taking inventory of existing
trees and their apparent condition. He hopes to make recommendations as to the future plans for
trees within the village. He detailed the lack of formal planting currently being undertaken.
End Fred Cowett 8:05pm
Begin George Frantz 8:10pm
George Frantz – Planner/ Lecturer for CU CRP department.
George provide the board with an overview of his plans for a CU class during spring semester
using a specific community (possibly Cayuga Heights) as a research project focusing on
understanding land use and land cover maps. This project would gather information on;
residences, businesses, plant life, public infrastructure, streets, open space, woodlands,
demographics, population, family makeup, public transportation, sidewalks and more pertinent
information. The activities of this class might include a possible resident survey and a state of the
village report.
PB Member Richardson asked if report would be entirely factual? Frantz answered, “yes”.
PB Member Shure asked if the report would include historic preservation info. Frantz answered,
“possibly, depending on quality of info”.
Frantz proposed that commitment would be needed by mid-December if VCH wished to be
included as the study community. Cost to be included would be $12,000. This is a “not-to-
exceed” estimate of costs.
End George Frantz 8:40pm
Begin Sub-Committee reports
• Village Tour (Morris, absent). Several PB members expressed interest in taking part in a
village tour. Gillespie suggested a “virtual tour” prior to physical tour, including looking
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over maps and speaking with Brent Cross. Cunningham suggested that the logistics of
taking entire PB and BOT on physical tour would be exorbitant. He suggested that a
group of three members attend the tour and use a videocamera to document the tour and
make it available to the remaining members as well as the rest of the village residents.
Action Item: Harms to email Morris to determine progress and relay interests.
• Consultants (Richardson/Shure). Richardson expressed need to have a more specific
outline of comp plan actions in order to approach a consultant and get accurate info.
Shure explained that Tyle VanCort (sp?) has a list of planners who responded to city
RFQ. This person suggested that for C.O.I the resident survey was most expensive / least
useful portion of their research. Suggested that a focused survey of key stakeholders was
more effective. No info on grants.
• TCPB Liaison (Gillespie/Harms) – Meeting with Joan Jurkevich helpful. She alluded
that TCnty was a good resource for statistical info but that any analysis would be
difficult due to lack of staff. The info dump would likely be less than $1,000.
• CU Planning liaison (Richardson) – Will be obtaining the details of a CU long range
plan very soon.
• Website (Cunningham) – Site is live and active. Content will be added continuously as it
becomes available.
• CU Class liaison (Cunningham) – Harms was contacted by class T.A. Pendall trying to
schedule presentation for class projects. Harms will contact Pendall to coordinate.
Members agree to hold short meeting, adjourn and then allow class to present their
work. Communication will yield schedule TBD. Encourage to invite all VCH officers.
Any other business
o Harms - Downtown Ithaca Alliance has applied for Sustainable Development grant
we had considered.
o Cunningham – Brief synopsis of 4 hour training class. Passed on materials from class
for any to view.
Comprehensive Plan Budget
o Working toward developing a dollar figure for expected costs. Spreadsheet completed for
purpose of laying out amounts for different types of expenditures.
Action Item: Harms requested that each PB member fill out a copy of the spreadsheet in order to
get a consensus on cost items by next meeting.
Discussion on Workshop dates
Suggested we meet on 11/18 at 7pm at Marcham Hall for workshop.
Motion by Richardson to adjourn at 10:39 p.m.
Seconded by Shure
Planning Members Harms, Richardson, Gillespie, Shure and Cunningham voted YES.
Respectfully submitted,
Sean Cunningham
Substitute for Norma Manning, Village Clerk