HomeMy WebLinkAboutMN-CAC-2014-01-13City of Ithaca Conservation Advisory Council Minutes
January 13, 2014,
7:30 – 9pm, Second Floor Meeting Room, City Hall, 108 East Green Street
Present: Jesse Hill, chair; Tom Shelley, co-chair; Noah Demarest, Matt Yarrow, Maureen Bolton,
Augusta Christensen, Michael Culotta, George McGonigal
Absent: C.J. Randall
Introductions. George McGonigal introduced himself. Brief personal history. New liaison to
Common Council.
Hill: Site plan review. Rima Shamieh and Jesse Hill were the only two people on site plan review
sub-committee. Idea was to filter site plans to streamline process in CAC meetings. Meet one
week before CAC meeting to review materials.
Schelley: Interested in site plan review sub-committee.
Hill: We were picking up materials at City Hall one week early – this worked well. Schelley and
Hill will be on sub-committee – others can join later if desired.
Hill: Current site plans: subdivision of parcel in Fall Creek. Flooding issues?
Demarest: That comes into play when buildings are proposed. Buildings will be above flood
zone.
Discussion about lot sizes and configurations. No space for off-street parking.
Demarest: The precedent would be no parking here. All B and CBD zones will not require
parking. Some members of parking working group would like to retain parking in R zone. The
current parcel under discussion would have no off-street parking – and it is in a R zone.
Discussion about effects of parking requirements. Culotta: we have come around to the
perspective that if you don’t require parking with new development, it opens space for more
creativity, lower-income options, less incentive to have a car in town.
Christensen: Because Ithaca is kind of isolated, many people require car to travel regionally.
Demarest: I live on a block with no off-street parking – there is no real problem with parking as a
consequence. NYS fire code requires 10ft between buildings.
Hill: Segue into parking lot design controls. Since Hill has been on CAC – about 300 parking
lots approved. We were asked to work on parking lot design and steep slopes ordinance.
Currently, our comments on site plans have no teeth. Need to get momentum going again. South
end of Cayuga Lake is designated as impaired by DEC. Parking lots – adding to this issue.
Schelley: Can you create a requirement to upgrade parking lots that already exist?
Hill: Answer is mostly “no”, but there are ways forward, such as connecting it to stormwater.
Nina Bassuk, Director, Urban Horticulture Institute, Cornell University says that the old
requirements are now out-of-date.
McGonigal: what about light pollution?
Cullota: Sharp cut-offs in town code, not in city’s code. We have guidelines – no teeth. We tried
to deal with this issue when Home Depot went up.
Schelley: Light enforcement should be part of new ordinance.
Hill: Goals for parking lot work – contact shade tree (STAC) to get specs to add to requirements
(species list, sizes of root ball, volume of structural soil). Contact Scott Gibson to talk about
stormwater. Also planning and Tim Logue – city engineer.
Demarest: Developers and landscape architects should sign off on plans and prove that the lot
design is good; includes shade. A professional needs to stamp plans and guarantee that tree
should survive.
Cullota: What happens when tree dies? Should retrofit stuff go into this work?
Christensen: By year X after tree planting, Common Council should look to see that trees are still
there.
Hill: Maybe STAC should look at trees after certain time period. Sidewalks provide example of
how this might work.
Schelley: Organization in Syracuse – grants for rain gardens/ rain barrels, etc. Could give a talk
here.
Cullota: No one getting money for watershed improvement work right now.
Schelley: Hillary Lambert and Roxanne Johnson working with water resources in area. Could
talk to them.
Christensen: Should we form sub-committees for the different ordinances now?
Hill: Yes, that is one objective of this meeting. I would like to touch on the steep slopes stuff
first. Steep slopes… we made some maps, discussions about where development can or should
happen. I got out of last meeting – protections don’t have to be tied to steep slopes. UNA and
CEA – can be tools. UNA – no teeth. CEA – triggers SEQR process.
Bolton – Cayuga Land trust for buffers.
Cullota: I am not sure it makes sense to change project from steep slopes, the CEAs could be a
taking and would not be palatable politically.
Demarest: Building on slopes is possible. So what are we really trying to protect? Gorges,
streams, natural areas.
Cullota: We going to look at other municipalites and what they had done. Then we were going to
show Ithaca with overlays to show slopes. Then perhaps use UNA and CEA to frame issue. We
maybe should submit sections A and B (the background) and then a few ways forward.
Yarrow: If we focus on just steep slopes, there appears a need to integrate other factors and this
leads to the idea of overlay districts. I second Cullota’s idea to produce something on steep
slopes soon.
Sub-committees:
Steep Slopes: Yarrow, CJ, Demarest and Christensen
Parking Design: Bolton, Demarest, McGonigal, Hill
Stormwater: Schelley and Culotta and potentially Yarrow
Organizational sub-committee: Christensen and Hill and Schelley
Hill: Nick Goldsmith is sustainability coordinator for city. Implement Energy Action plan for
Town and City.
Hill: Megan Wilson: UNA and Slope Map came out recently.
Meeting adjourned: 9:00pm