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Home My WebLink About12-13-18 EMC Final MinutesEMC Final Minutes 1 December 13, 2018 4:00 p.m. 2 Tompkins County Old Jail Conference Room, 125 E. Court St, Ithaca, NY 3 4 Attendance 5 Member Seat Member Seat Steve Bissen B Town of Dryden Regi Teasley P At-Large Maureen Bolton P Town of Enfield Jonathan Zisk P At-Large Cait Darfler P Town of Ulysses Amanda Champion P Legislative Liaison John Dennis P Village of Lansing Susan Allen-Gil P Associate Member Brian Eden P Village of Cayuga Heights Karen Edelstein P Associate Member Pegi Ficken P Town of Groton Bill Evans A Associate Member Michelle Henry P Town of Newfield Anna Kelles P Associate Member Anne Klingensmith P Town of Danby Dooley Kiefer P Associate Member James Knighton E At-Large Dan Klein P Associate Member Laurel Lynch P At-Large Jose Lozano E Associate Member Vladimir Micic P Town of Ithaca Osamu Tsuda A Associate Member Steve Nicholson P Town of Caroline David Weinstein P Associate Member Susan Riley P At-Large Robert Wesley P Associate Member Tom Shelley P City of Ithaca Roger Yonkin A Associate Member Genny Shipley E At-Large Scott Doyle P Planning Staff Don Smith A At-Large Kristin McCarthy P Planning Staff Ron Szymanski P Village of Freeville Guests – Joe Wilson, Shawna Black, Deborah Dawson, Anne Koreman, Martha Robertson, 6 Lee Yoke Lee, Mary McKean 7 8 Call to Order – Chair Brian Eden called the meeting to order at 4:07 p.m. 9 Privilege of the Floor – Joe W ilson commented that in his experience many elected officials 10 and other policymakers seem uncomfortable with their knowledge of energy efficiency and 11 greenhouse gas emissions in terms of building and other site developments and as a result 12 often don’t factor in those issues when making decisions on such initiatives. Joe queried how he 13 and others knowledgeable and actively engaged in the topic might help bridge this gap. 14 Agenda Review/Changes – All the presentations were rescheduled for before monthly 15 committee reports in case any County legislators or other guests needed to depart early. 16 Approval of the Minutes – A motion was made by Tom Shelley, seconded by Cait Darfler, to 17 approve the Nov. 8, 2018, minutes. Motion carried. 18 19 UNA Batch 4 Revisions/Review – Karen Edelstein & Robert Wesley 20 • Karen started the presentation by showing progression of UNA project over the years, 21 especially the improvements in GIS technology now available to consultants. She went over 22 previous versus current boundaries in her PowerPoint slide deck and shared guidelines for 23 making boundary updates. 24 • Committee proposes changes to 38 UNAs in this round of boundary revisions, which would 25 increase total acreage by 13.5% (4,174 to 4,739 acres). 26 • Any changes made are keyed to the legend. This is a departure from project workflow in the 27 past as it shows why amendments were made and will help ensure institutional knowledge 28 moving forward. 29 • Salmon Creek Road Marl Springs UNA-021 will be deleted from the inventory as the marl 30 springs no longer exists. 31 • Property owners will receive postcards from County alerting them to the boundary changes. 32 • County Legislature approved consultant funding for revisions to the fifth and final batch of 33 UNAs (roughly 40 sites) as part of the 2019 budget. 34 35 Resolution: Amending the UNA Inventory Document 36 37 Action: Steve Nicholson moved, and Regi Teasley seconded, the approval of EMC Resolution 38 2018-03 recommending an amendment to the UNA Inventory consisting of boundary revisions 39 to 38 UNAs. Motion carried, 14-0, with minor edits and no abstentions. 40 Freese Road Bridge Replacement – David Weinstein 41 • David gave a presentation on the potential environmental impact if the Town of Dryden 42 proceeds with its decision to replace the Freese Road Bridge with a two-lane structure. 43 • Remarking that the cost to rehabilitate the bridge is comparable to replacing it, he 44 referenced such negative effects as the increased risk for back-up of stream flow with 45 consequential flooding upstream, filling in of federally designated wetlands beneath the 46 bridge, and a decrease in the capacity of the flood channel by 20%. 47 • He also touched upon the historical significance of the bridge, one of only two remaining 48 pre-1900 continuous truss in the state. His presentation is posted to the EMC website. 49 50 Potential for Old Growth on County-owned Forested Lands – Dan Klein 51 • Dan presented a counter-proposal to the Tompkins County Forest Management Plan, 52 which includes sustainable harvesting of trees on 550 acres of forested land owned by 53 the County in Newfield. Under this proposal, which he put forth on behalf of himself and 54 Amanda Champion, the area would be conserved for old growth. 55 • Scott outlined some of the actions recommended for sustainable forest management of 56 County forest lands as a part of the 2007 Tompkins County Forest Management Plan 57 and indicated he will provide added detail on the recommended timber harvest at the 58 Dec. 18th PDEQ meeting. 59 • As part of his work as a forest ecologist, David Weinstein is responsible for assessing 60 potential for carbon sequestration at the 4,000-acre Arnot Forest preserve. He offered 61 his experience and expertise to evaluate carbon sequestration vis-à-vis different 62 management techniques on the County forest lands. 63 64 Committee Reports 65 66 Climate Adaptation: Regi Teasley 67 • Committee continues exploring intersection of flooding, soil, and carbon sequestration, with 68 goal of moving toward policy implications and making recommendations for positive change. 69 • Michelle Henry and Scott met briefly to discuss how the flooding survey results might be 70 used as a database of sorts going forward. 71 • Scott met with staff from the County Department of Emergency Response, who were 72 interested in possibly dovetailing survey data with Swift911 initiative. 73 74 Environmental Review: Brian Eden 75 • EMC will determine committee’s status for 2019 at January organizational meeting. 76 • City of Ithaca Urban Renewal Agency selected the Vecino Group as the preferred developer 77 for the Green Street Garage redevelopment project. 78 • Efforts are underway to help crowdsource a feasibility study for the use of heat pumps at the 79 new GreenStar West End site. 80 • Court hearing was well attended for Article 78 litigation filed by Cayuga Lake Environmental 81 Action Now against the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) for not 82 requiring an environmental impact statement for Cargill’s proposed salt mine expansion. 83 Judge Rowley reserved his decision, which he will likely render within the next 60 days. 84 • Nine municipalities plan to convert their street lighting systems to LEDs and have met with 85 New York Power Authority representatives regarding potential funding to reduce the cost of 86 transition. Tom relayed that Nick Goldsmith told him that the City intends to follow EMC 87 recommendations for LED street lights. 88 • NexAmp has submitted a proposal for a 5MW solar farm in Town of Lansing. 89 • Co. Legislature voted 12-2 to oppose the Cayuga Operating Company’s proposal to convert 90 the Cayuga Power Plant to natural gas. Fifty people spoke during Privilege of the Floor. 91 • Pegi Ficken asked if ERC would submit comments on Bergen Farms’ request to DEC for a 92 permit to withdraw roughly 500,000 gallons from groundwater and surface water sources. 93 • Updates were given on Cornell’s North Campus Residential Expansion, Lansing Rod & Gun 94 Club, Old Library demolition site, and Town and City of Ithaca Green Building Policy. 95 96 UNA 97 • The Town of Caroline Planning Board will hold a workshop on protecting natural resources 98 etc. to generate action items for the Town to implement. 99 • Steve will bring educational UNA materials (e.g. brochures, a map) for distribution. 100 101 Waste Reduction: Tom Shelley 102 • To include as many perspectives as possible in the process, County Administration plans to 103 confer with various departments and other community stakeholders to obtain their input on 104 the proposed ban on single-use, thin-film plastic bags. 105 • Ithaca Times may interview Susan Allen-Gil and others on their involvement with ban. 106 • Susan reported that students from Ithaca College recently created a simple survey to 107 assess public attitudes toward a potential plastic bag ban. 108 • Martha Robertson provided some added detail on the County’s approach to the proposed 109 ban in 2019 and encouraged the EMC to explore potential outreach efforts like personalized 110 reusable bags. 111 112 Water Resources Council Liaison/HABs Action Plan Update: Michelle Henry 113 • Starting with the Ithaca typhoid epidemic of 1903, WRC vice chair Liz Cameron spoke on 114 the history and current undertakings of the County Department of Environmental Health. 115 • Council approved the 2019-2021 Water Quality Strategy. 116 • Hydrilla treatment at Stewart Park was not completely successful; there are still a few small 117 patches. Monitoring Partnership had to reschedule meeting with U.S. Army Corps to Nov. 118 28th and will discuss next steps. 119 • DEC is still working on TMDL for Cayuga Lake; comments on HABs action plans should be 120 out end of this month. 121 • Rules & Regulations Committee will be re-mapping the Six Mile Creek watershed. 122 Executive: Brian Eden 123 EMC will hold its annual organizational meeting in January. 124 125 Staff Report: Scott Doyle 126 • City of Ithaca and consultants from engineering firm Barton & Loguidice presented 127 their initial local flood hazard analysis report to the Planning and Economic 128 Development Committee of the Common Council. Scott was impressed with the 129 presentation, which laid out concrete steps in terms of moving forward with mitigation 130 and resiliency efforts. The City will hold additional public meetings. 131 • Old Jail will be closed for renovations May through December 2019. Members should 132 consider alternate meeting space. TCAT is tentatively reserved. 133 134 Trinitas Housing Development 135 • Between now and the next EMC meeting, the ERC will likely submit comments to Town of 136 Dryden regarding the SEQR for the Trinitas site. Brian will keep everyone updated. 137 138 2019 Officer Nominating Committee 139 • Tom Shelley, Regi Teasley, and Steve Nicholson volunteered to serve on the committee. 140 Officers will be elected at January meeting. 141 142 Municipal Reports and Member Announcements 143 144 None 145 146 Chair Brian Eden adjourned the meeting at 5:36 p.m. 147