HomeMy WebLinkAbout05-18-11 Planning & EDC Meeting Agenda
MEETING NOTICE
City of Ithaca
Planning & Economic Development Committee
Wednesday, May 18, 2011 – 7:00 p.m.
Common Council Chambers, City Hall, 108 East Green Street
A. Agenda Review
B. Special Order of Business
C. Public Comment and Response from Committee Members
D. Announcements, Updates and Reports
1. Workforce Diversity Report – Ithaca Youth Bureau
2. Energy Sustainability Project Manager
3. Means Restriction on Bridges
4. Commons Redesign
E. Action Items
1. Implementation of 2009 Collegetown Urban Plan and Conceptual Design
Guidelines – Follow Up
F. Discussion Items
1. Amendment to Waterfront Zoning – Concept Memo
2. Possible Changes to Smoking Regulation Ordinance
(materials to be distributed separately)
G. Approval of Minutes
H. Adjournment
Questions about the agenda should be directed to Jennifer Dotson, Chairperson,
(jdotson@cityofithaca.org or 351-5458) or to the appropriate staff person at the Department
of Planning & Development (274-6550). Back-up material is available in the office of the
Department of Planning & Development. Please note that the order of agenda items is
tentative and subject to change.
If you have a disability and require accommodations in order to fully participate, please
contact the City Clerk at 274-6570 by 12:00 noon on Tuesday, May 17, 2011.
# D1
Ithaca Youth Bureau 2010 Diversity Report
The Ithaca Youth Bureau is committed to fostering a community and workforce
that values, respects and includes all people.
IYB Mission: The mission of the Ithaca Youth Bureau is to provide a broad cross
section of recreation programs and youth services to promote the health,
happiness and well-being of all residents in the greater Ithaca area.
Number of Current Employees: 43 (roster)
Employee Demographics: See attached
Efforts to Recruit a Diverse Applicant Pool: In early 2010, the Ithaca Youth
Bureau invited Schelley Michell-Nunn , Director of Human Resources
Department to help us develop strategic recruitment plans to increase the
representation of Asian/Pacific Islander, Black, Hispanic and Native American
employees. We developed a list of specific actions we would take including:
1. Increasing the number of Youth Bureau staff who have on-going
relationships with key community leaders who are connected with target
groups.
2. Identifying barriers to participation by target groups.
3. Improving the Youth Bureau “brand” relating to diversity and inclusion;
inform the community of the good work we are doing.
4. Use existing networks to advertise job and volunteer opportunities to
targeted populations.
5. “Grow our Own” youth workers; encourage program participants to
consider job opportunities at the Youth Bureau.
Youth Bureau staff has attended recruitment events with HR at Cornell and
Ithaca College. HR has provided assistance in reaching out to the local and
regional areas with postings of job announcements. With the help of HR we were
able to add two Program Assistant positions to our roster that allow us to provide
on the job training for employees who need more experience and training in
order to meet Civil Service requirements. We were also able to create a
Recreation leader position (vs. Recreation Specialist) to do the same in our
Recreation Support Services (RSS) Program. RSS is in the process of creating
Inclusion Assistants positions in concert with the Youth Employment Service
(YES.)
Targeted recruitment has been done through Black and Latino student
organizations on the college campuses, through the Latino Civic Association
listserve, etc.
IYB staff from a number of programs is working more closely with staff from
# D1
Southside Community Center, GIAC and Multicultural Resource Center and are
developing on-going relationships that can be used for recruitment and referral of
potential job applicants.
IYB staff has devoted time to serving on committees such as the ICSD Equity &
Inclusion Leadership Council, City of Ithaca Safe Communities Committee,
Workforce Diversity Advisory Committee and the Diversity Consortium of
Tompkins County.
Program alumnae of color who have demonstrated an interest in working with
children have been recruited for summer positions; several have successfully
been hired into roster positions.
It seems our efforts have begun to pay off. We have had a diverse pool of
applicants for all vacancies that did not require us to hire off the Civil Service list.
Workforce Diversity Selection Review Committee meetings: We have
received approval to fill 5 positions during the past 12 months. We have filled 4 of
these and are in the process of filling the 5th. During this time period we have
appeared before the Workforce Diversity Selection Review Committee twice.
Workforce Diversity Plan Goal: Since 2004, when the Workforce Diversity Plan
was adopted, the Youth Bureau has worked diligently to make the vision
embodied in the Workforce Diversity Plan a reality. In 2006 the Youth Bureau
chose Attribute 6, Development and implementation of programs to promote
diversity and inclusion: Recruitment of a diverse workforce; and 7, Demonstrated
commitment to continuous learning: Education and training programs to build
effective working relationships from the Workforce Diversity Plan as focus areas.
These attributes were chosen as a result of a needs based assessment done at
a Senior Staff training (triangle exercise.) In April 2009, at a Youth Bureau
training on inclusion and belonging, Youth Bureau staff envisioned a Youth
Bureau with full inclusion for all staff, volunteers and program participants.
In 2010, the Ithaca Youth Bureau adopted the following diversity goal:
Train staff, volunteers and program participants on equity, inclusion, roots of
historical racism, and how to interrupt biased behavior and harassment, conflict
resolution/problem solving and giving feedback.
Activities Undertaken: The IYB Diversity Committee has met regularly since
2007, to develop and implement a series of training sessions for IYB staff
designed to enhance employee understanding of the City of Ithaca’s Diversity
statement and to move the IYB forward in terms of the attributes described in the
statement.
# D1
Indicators of Success:
To date:
•Nine IYB staff have taken Undoing Racism Workshops and 5 more are
signed up for the upcoming Spring Workshop.
•All program staff have had training on how to interrupt biased behavior,
strength-based approaches to conflict resolution/problem solving and
giving feedback.
• All IYB Staff attended Interrupting Bias Training - December 6th, 2010
• Giving Feedback Training (open to all staff) - February 7th, 2011
• Youth Leadership Training Series- Understanding Conflict offered
Jan.13, 2011
• Race and Racism 101 offered February 16, 2011
• Mentor Training Series - Circle of Courage and Positive Youth Dev - Jan
24, 2011
• All Youth Bureau staff attended Level II Training on Intervention and
Conflict Resolution with Holly Adams and Tools for Managing Problems
and Conflicts with Alice Green- April 4, 2011
• All staff have received written materials on how to interrupt biased
behavior, strength-based approaches to conflict resolution/problem solving
and giving feedback.
• Some staff have attended training on working with families of
immigrants/immigrants rights and training on Cornell’s
translator/interpreter program.
• We have abundant information related to these topics in our staff
resource libraries (physical materials and electronic).
• All staff have been regularly informed of and encouraged to attend
Talking Circles on Race; to date 10 staff members have participated in a
Talking Circle and more are on the waiting list.
• Inclusion training for seasonal staff who assist youth with disabilities at
summer day camp and for all day camp staff (during orientation.)
To date nine staff members attended the Dorothy Cotton Institute on
Human Rights Leadership Training.
# D1
Proactively reaching out to meet the needs of underrepresented
populations
· Youth Development staff has worked to close the school achievement
gap by:
providing intensive advocacy, mentoring and support for one hundred 5th-
12th grade youth in the Ithaca City School District students who are from
groups (Black, Latino, or from a low -income or refugee family) that are
underrepresented in the most challenging classes in school. Staff has
worked closely with school district staff to expose and eliminate systemic
barriers to school success.
· IYB partnered with Village at Ithaca and the Cornell Public Service
Center to provide Let's Get Ready (free SAT prep classes) for 59 ICSD
students.
· Cass Park staff developed a mechanism to be able to process
scholarship requests in order to make Cass programs more accessible to
low-income families. Previously Cass scholarships had to be processed at
the IYB building.
· Recreation staff have worked to streamline the registration process and
to make scholarships more accessible in order to remove barriers to
participation.
· Recreation staff developed sports samplers, traveling to
underrepresented sites to promote sports/rec programs and encourage
participation.
· Big Brothers Big Sisters (BBBS) staff have developed a newsletter for
waiting families that includes a short survey so that families can share
their opinions about how we can improve the program. BBBS staff has
also reached out to the Burmese community to get more of the children
involved with the program.
· Recreation staff coordinates with RSS staff to assure that children and
adults with disabilities have access to the recreation programs and to
assure a successful experience.
Barriers to Achieving Goals: We still need to work on diversifying candidates
on Civil Service list. The Civil Service system can be a barrier for candidates
whose strengths may not be identified by a test. It would be very helpful to have
complete study materials for our Civil Service Titles.
2009
Camp Counselor DataCPDC: Cass Park Day Camp
SPDC: Stewart Park Day Camp
YES: Youth Employment Service
All Counselors- SPDC, CPDC and CPDC-YES
White41
African-American14
Asian1
Latino4
Multi-racial7
Did not answer1
Total68
% who did not list race:1%
SPDC
White29
African-American6
Asian0
Latino2
Multi-racial0
Did not answer0
Total37
% who did not list race:0%
CPDC- YES and other counselors
White12
African-American8
Asian1
Latino2
Multi-racial7
Did not answer1
Total31
% who did not list race:3%
Did not answer
1%
African-
American
21%
Asian
1%
Latino
6%
Multi-racial
10%
White
61%
Latino
6%Asian
0%
African-American
17%
Multi-racial
0%
White
77%
Did not answer
3%
African-American
26%
White
39%
Multi-racial
23%
Latino
6%
Asian
3%
TOTALNUMBER OF%NUMBER OF%
EMPLOYEES FEMALES FEMALES MINORITIES MINORITY
382361%821%
5240%120%
000%00%
432558%921%
TOTALNUMBER OF%NUMBER OF%
EMPLOYEES FEMALES FEMALES MINORITIES MINORITY
5360%00%
12758%18%
Para-Professionals181372%633%
3267%133%
Skilled Craft200%00%
300%133%
432558%921%
YOUTH BUREAU
Employment Data: December 31, 2010
Full-Time
Permanent
Permanent
I. PERMENANT EMPLOYEES
Administrators
Professionals
Part-Time
Temporary/
Seasonal
TOTAL
EMPLOYMENT:
II. PERMANENT EMPLOYEES BY JOB CATEGORY
Job Category
Officials and
TOTAL
EMPLOYMENT:
Administrative
Support
Service and
Maintenance
Page 15/13/2011
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# F1
CITY OF ITHACA
108 East Green Street — 3rd Floor Ithaca, New York 14850-5690
DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING AND DEVELOPMENT
JOANN CORNISH, DIRECTOR OF PLANNING & DEVELOPMENT
PHYLLISA A. DeSARNO, DEPUTY DIRECTOR FOR ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
Telephone: Planning & Development – 607-274-6550 Community Development/IURA – 607-274-6559
Email: planning@cityofithaca.org Email: iura@cityofithaca.org
Fax: 607-274-6558 Fax: 607-274-6558
To: Planning and Economic Development Committee
From: Jennifer Kusznir, Economic Development Planner
Date: May 11, 2011
Re: Proposal to Revise the Waterfront Zoning Districts
At the March Planning Committee meeting a public hearing was held in order to discuss
the proposal to revise the City waterfront district. The proposal, as was previously
discussed, includes a consolidation of the WF-1a, WF-1b, WF-1c, WF-1d zones, the M-1
zoning district, and a portion of the I-1 and WEDZ-1a zoning districts, in order to create a
new waterfront zoning district (WF). The proposal for the new WF district called for a
minimum building height of 3 stories and a maximum of 5 stories, and also included a 15
foot ground-level waterfront-side “setback” for lots adjacent to the water, as well as a 10
foot waterfront-side “stepback” of upper stories, to address concerns about a potential
canyon effect along narrow waterways like Cayuga Inlet.
At the public hearing, concerns were raised regarding the disproportionate impact of the
proposed setback and stepback regulations on some of the more narrow lots along the
Inlet. In order to address the concerns that were raised, staff recommends modifying the
ordinance to address the special circumstances of properties that are less than 60 feet in
depth (measured back from the waterfront). For such properties, an exception would be
added to the ordinance to remove the upper story stepback requirement, reduce the
ground-level setback requirement to 10 feet rather than 15 feet, and reduce the minimum
building height to 2 stories. The ordinance would also include language that does not
allow new lots to be subdivided to be less than 60’ in depth. The 3 story minimum
building height, as well as the upper story stepback and larger ground-level setback
requirements would remain for all other properties in the area proposed to be rezoned.
If the committee is in agreement, staff will draft these changes, circulate it along with the
environmental review, and return next month with any comments that are received. If
you have any concerns or questions regarding any of this information, feel free to contact
me at 274-6410.