HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-02-14 CAC MinutesTown of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 1 of 5
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council (CAC)
Minutes of In-person Meeting in Town Hall
Tuesday, February 14, 2023
Danby, New York
Council Members present: Margaret Corbit (Acting Chair), Jonathan Zisk, Joel
Gagnon, Katharine Hunter, Don Schaufler (via Zoom),
Council Members absent: Brittany Lagaly, Renee Owens,
Others present: Elizabeth Keokosky (Secretary), Ronda Roaring (Danby resident –
via Zoom)
Zoom Meeting was officially called to order at 7:19 (again held up by technical
difficulties).
Privilege of the Floor (PoF): none
Deletions or Additions to Agenda: none
Approval of January 10, 2022 minutes
Gagnon moved to approve
Zisk seconded
Approval unanimous.
REPORTS AND UPDATES (from the agenda)
1. New CAC Member Search, Annual Report, and other CAC specific issues -
Margaret Corbit
New members: It was reported that Marie Monroe wanted to come to one
more meeting before deciding to join CAC, and Anne Klingensmith is
reported as thinking of joining, but perhaps needs encouragement.
Annual report: Corbit needs comments from members to finish her already
amended annual report, which then requires approval by the group at the
next meeting (March 14) and a motion to send it to the town board.
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 2 of 5
Temporary Conservation Easement subcommittee (Zisk, Gagnon, Lagaly,
West (Planner)): Discussion of temporary conservation easements and their
tax abatements is on hold but committee is going ahead with town-level tax
abatements for permanent easements. Committee met and will only vote
on whether to approve Town of Danby tax abatement that State has
enabled for permanent Danby conservation easements. This abatement is
a 90% reduction in taxes paid for the land only (not the buildings) in the
easement. (County deduction under discussion is a 50% and still needs
approval by County Legislature. School tax deduction negotiations are still
on-going).
2. Status of town board approval of Timber Harvesting law – Gagnon
The current document is now going from Town Board to follow up on
linkages that need to be done to integrate the complexities of this bill
within existing state and town law. It was sent to Town Lawyer, Guy Krogh
for decision on whether to make it part of zoning regulations or free-
standing. It was sent to Town Planner, David West, who thought that
integrating it with road-use law could be problematic. He is going to take
these questionable parts out before contacting DEC. A conversation has
been begun between Planner West and the Highway Department to better
understand some of these problems.
3. Status of monitoring letter – Hunter and Zisk
Hunter and Zisk are working on an annual monitoring letter to be sent to
owners of easement-protected properties, but not much progress has been
made since last meeting.
Corbit suggested that after new members come onboard for this year that
CAC put together a committee to expand this goal into revamping the
whole annual monitoring organization and timing, along with a clear letter
setting a date for the annual monitoring. The goal is to make monitoring
more efficient for CAC members, and make conservation easement
property owners understand the limitations of bad weather, hunting
season, and tramping through tick infested areas. Also to clarify from the
onset that this annual monitoring is a requirement.
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 3 of 5
Part of the problem is complications around the transition to the next
owner of the property. The necessity of monitoring as part of easement
protocol and the requirements of different easement zones may need to be
made clear (such as prohibition of harvesting trees in an environmental
protection zone). Zisk said that the lawyer who is working on the deed is
remiss if he doesn’t make easement obligations clear, but, as various
people noted, surprises happen and the preamble of the monitoring letter
being worked on should make sure that owners realize monitoring is not an
option but an obligation.
4. Any important updates on Easements that need input from other
members.
Butje Easement: no progress to report. A 3 1/2 acre lot is up for sale on the
property – a residence and two other buildings. Property is already in
different lots. This sale would not be good and kill the deal for the
particular easement being negotiated.
5. A brief discussion of the email from Cait Darfler about this year's NYSACC
meeting – Jonathan Zisk
Evidently it is Tompkins County’s turn to host the 2023 New York State
Association of Conservation Commissions (NYSACC) annual conference,
This will occur sometime in the fall. Cait Darfler, Chair ofthe Tompkins
County Environmental Management Council (EMC), is coordinating the
Conservation Advisory Councils and Boards in Tompkins County to get them
involved with the planning and execution. She was also connecting with
some NYSACC Board members to find out exactly what "hosting" means.
Since the TC CACs and EMC evidently have full control over planning the
conference, the EMC would like to hold a joint EMC /CACs meeting at
Stewart Park on Thursday, May 11, at 4PM, which is also the EMC’s normal
meeting time.
She requested that if anyone in the Danby CAC has thoughts about what
they would like to see for a Tompkins County NYSACC conference, or how
we can support this event, let her know.
Just what this means no one is quite sure. Looking at what was done
previously was suggested as a good starting place.
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 4 of 5
6. Update on Cayuga (Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼ of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy)
Nation workshop – Corbit
Steve Nighthawk was speaker at the workshop Corbit attended. Ben
Altman on Comfort Road is offering the use of his land (or their land
depending on how you think about it) to the Cayuga/Gayogo̱hó꞉nǫʼfor
maple syruping. They will take a Six nation approach that includes all
people of Confederacy and make a ceremony out of slashing the trees and
the collection of sap.
7. A special session on revisioning of CAC mission and message and how to
strategize Danby conservation easement outreach for the CAC web page
The goal was to find words that captured the imagination more than the
current mission statement of “preserving open space in Danby” - for both
CAC members and the public – and to present these on the CAC webpage.
The group looked at other conservation websites for examples, like the
• Finger Lakes Land Trust, “To conserve forever the lands and waters
of the Finger Lakes region, ensuring scenic vistas, local foods, clean
water, and wild places for everyone.”
• Or, the Audubon website mission statement “to conserve and
restore natural ecosystems, focusing on birds, other wildlife, and
their habitats for the benefit of humanity and the earth's biological
diversity” It uses pictures to help convey the message.
The Danby CAC is also trying to preserve the land in ways that preserve
habitat, a historical legacy, and other specifics – for people and other
species. How can we distinguish ourselves? Do we need a statement and
bullets beneath it? Pictures to give emotional power?
The end result of this discussion was a request to bring ideas to transfer to
yellow stickys at the next meeting in order to organize ideas by moving
them around on a white board. So the assignment was to bring words and
phrases of two ideas to transfer yellow sticky pages for a brainstorming
session around creating a CAC mission statement and a message to
illustrate it.
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 5 of 5
The inspiration was not just for the environment but also to make people
think, or rethink the financial side. One example mentioned: it makes sense
to decrease the taxes of a property owner who puts land in a conservation
easement since then fellow citizens help share the cost of maintaining the
rural view. Lowered taxes allow him or her to afford not replacing open
space with developed land.
There was no Executive session
Next Meeting is on March 14, 2023 at 7p.m.
Adjournment at 8:23pm
_____________________________________________
Submitted by Elizabeth Keokosky (Secretary)