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Home My WebLink About2024-01-09 CAC MinutesTown of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 1 of 6 Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council (CAC) Minutes of In-person Meeting in Town Hall and via videoconferencing (because of bad weather all attended via Zoom, except Gagnon, who performed the tech services at the town hall) Tuesday, January 9, 2024 Council Members present: Margaret Corbit (Meeting chair), Jonathan Zisk, Joel Gagnon, Don Schaufler, Renee Owens, Katharine Hunter, Anne Klingensmith Council Members absent: Brittany Stein (until near end of meeting) Others present: Elizabeth Keokosky (Secretary), Ronda Roaring (Danby resident) Meeting was officially called to order at 7:03 Deletions or Additions to Agenda: None Privilege of the Floor (PoF): Roaring was disappointed CAC had not put the proposed DEC wetlands law on the agenda. (https://planningchautauqua.com/2024/01/10/nysdec-seeks-input-on-proposed- freshwater-wetland-regulations/ )( https://dec.ny.gov/sites/default/files/2024- 01/wtlndpreprodraftregs.pdf ) Approval of November 14, 2023 and December 12, 2023 minutes Gagnon moved to approve  Zisk seconded  Approved by all, except for Stein who was absent REPORTS AND UPDATES (from the agenda, and additions) 1. Welcome of Anne Klingensmith as new 2024 CAC Member Anne commented that one of the reasons she had joined CAC was that she appreciated the group’s mission and unity. Before she retired from Cornell, she had worked at the Lab of Ornithology (Ivory Billed Woodpecker Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 2 of 6 acoustic analysis) and, previous to that, with Bill Evans, (a former CAC member), on nocturnal flight call acoustical analysis. 2. Discuss CAC Annual Report – Corbit Annual Report was approved and Gagnon moved to send CAC Annual Report to town board and DEC Hunter seconded  Approved by all, except for Stein 3. Continuing discussion on Conservation Easement Tax Abatement. Question raised by town board: Are property taxes on land a problem, and if so, what should we do about them? – Gagnon As decided in the CAC meeting last month, Gagnon had gone to town board and made a motion to approach state legislators about how best to address the tax burden resulting from land being assessed based on market value and not current use. He got push back from the board saying that was more than what the original consensus had been about. The town board then sent the matter back to the CAC for further consideration. Gagnon gave new CAC members a synopsis of the history of the tax abatement discussion by subcommittee during public discussion of Zoning several years ago and the application to NY State for enabling legislation for tax abatements in exchange for temporary or permanent conservation easements. Gagnon noted the State legislation had not been as helpful as we had hoped to solve the high tax problem for large landowners. So, he asked CAC members if we should stick with it – or go back and try to modify it or pursue something new. Zisk reminded him that there had been only two issues that CAC members had had problems with, but otherwise the legislation worked. They were: 1) the time bracket categories for temporary easements that defined the abatement percentage of Danby property tax (i.e. the longer the temporary easement was held, the greater the abatement- with a max of 99% for permanent). Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 3 of 6 2) the topic now under discussion, which was the unexpected outcome of the new law not allowing abatements to be grandfathered in for the permanent easements already established. Gagnon questioned whether the legislation addressed the whole need? Do we agree that the original goal was to provide tax relief for landowners? The current solution requires that you must have a conservation easement with the Town of Danby in order to get the benefits. Zisk said the fairness of property tax was an important issue on a larger scale, but our charge here is more limited. Corbit agreed – our goal was not to provide tax relief. Zisk said we should stick with what we have and just seek to get the enabling legislation modified so all Danby easement properties could participate not just new ones. To do more was in the town board’s purview, not ours. Secretary Keokosky commented that the property tax is intimately bound up with easements. She thought the question “Are property taxes a problem?” was not the right question. The right question was “When people pay taxes to keep land open, which is one of the town goals, why should the land owner pay the full amount when all of the community is benefiting? It is only fair that people share the tax responsibility. She saw the tax abatement as a recognition of the fact that the community should share the cost of maintaining Danby open space through easements. The problem was not taxes, but the fair sharing of the cost of open space. Schaufler asked what does the abatement affect – the appraisal or the taxes? Answer was the taxes, though only on the land, not the tax on the home or other buildings. Another question discussed was how the law should affect properties with conservation easements with other organizations such as the Finger Lakes Land Trust, etc. – pros and cons. Gagnon said that all easements hold in common that the owner gives up development rights, but Zisk argued that the differences are too great and would get us into a mess discussing it and trying to implement it. And Hunter noted that are decisions are complicated by political tensions right now. Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 4 of 6 Conclusion was to keep it simple and pursue a law that applies only to Danby town easements. The goal is only to add previously approved easements to the law. Gagnon was asked to convey that message to the town board. Easement monitoring: Status Report, file organization – Owens, Corbit, Klingensmith, Gagnon Corbit reported that the new committee had a great initial meeting on organizing the easement monitoring. Owens and Klingensmith are going to familiarize themselves with what is stored in the CAC Work Drive folder now, Owens in relation to monitoring, Klingensmith in relation to everything else. Owens’ goal is to standardize and simplify the monitoring work by getting all info for easement-related files organized together in one place. Corbit took on the job of writing up some “How to” papers on actual monitoring procedures. The group was interested in finding a logical file folder structure and hierarchy to allow monitors, whether volunteers or CAC members, to easily find related information. Owens is looking for a GPS mapping program, on which to standardize, that is free and easy to use from a cell phone, and provides accurate coordinates and lengths when walking the land. She plans to maintain a housekeeping schedule on multiple documents and drafts over time. Also, she has volunteered to take on the role of task master coordinating the annual monitoring schedule of people and tasks. 4. Status of Timber Harvesting law – Schaufler, Zisk No changes 5. Updates on on-going easements – from leads on each easement Ben Altman and Andi Gladstone – Zisk is working on them Brian Caldwell - nothing Holidays have interfered with progress on most easements. 6. Vote on sending checklist to “trigger CAC involvement in town planning of land use” to town board – Zisk No changes Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 5 of 6 7. Report on meeting with Crystal Buck in Caroline and in her CCE office concerning farm land preservation - Gagnon, Keokosky Gagnon reported that he and Planner Greg Hutnik had gone to the Caroline meeting that Buck had participated in, and Gagnon shared the history of what Danby was doing for land preservation. He said there was interest and a good back and forth conversation. Keokosky reported on her and Buck’s meeting at CCE, and said that Buck was interested in coming to Danby and talking to the CAC. (Buck is a Danby resident) Group discussed similarities and dissimilarities between Caroline and Danby agriculture. Conclusion with Crystal Buck was to add her to the agenda next month. and possibly recruit her for CAC membership. Gagnon mentioned that she used to be a Tompkins County Planning Department circuit rider and had worked with the Danby group to make changes to implement the town’s comprehensive plan and had a lot of expertise in the big picture options. The evening ended on a philosophical note. Schaufler spoke up for a broad-based perspective and the idea that money-making use of the land managing it in a conservation-based way could also be looked upon as a conservation effort and a win-win solution. Klingensmith said that she thought that land should be seen to exist-in-its-own-right, not just because it is of use to humans. Keokosky spoke for the importance of the methods and attitudes of regenerative farming, which put human economics – and humans - within earth’s ecology by using whole earth systems. Schaufler brought up two famous conservationists, Muir (who believed visiting wild places helped us grow as people, recharging minds, and bodies) and Pinchot (who was a forester and whose vision of managed conservation also included responsible use by industry, searching for a balance between human activity and nature) as examples of differing conservationist thought. Zisk referred to Aldo Leopold’s Land Ethic (finding community with the earth – “Think like a mountain”). Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 6 of 6 There was no Executive session Next Meeting is on February 13, 2024 at 7p.m. Adjournment at 8:15 pm _____________________________________________ Submitted by Elizabeth Keokosky (Secretary)