HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-12-14 CAC MinutesTown of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 1 of 6
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council (CAC)
Minutes of Video Conference (Zoom) Meeting on
Tuesday, December 14, 2021
Danby, New York
Council Members present: Clare Fewtrell (chair), Joel Gagnon, Margaret Corbit,
Mary Woodsen, Jonathan Zisk, Brittany Lagaly, Don Schaufler
Council Members absent: none, Schaufler experienced technical difficulties that
kept him from participating fully.
Others present: Elizabeth Keokosky (secretary), Ronda Roaring (Danby resident),
Katharine Hunter (prospective returning CAC member), Brad Rauch (a prospective
new CAC member)
Zoom Meeting was officially called to order at 7:08.
Deletions or Additions to Agenda:
Privilege of the Floor (PoF): Roaring: noted that CAC may have problems trying to
get an easement with her property, which is already in a trust and which may
require speaking to her attorney.
Rauch: has been reading minutes and is interested in becoming a CAC member.
He currently is a Dryden resident but will be moving to Danby in the Spring
Approval Minutes MOTION for November 9, 2021
Corbit moved to approve
Zisk seconded
Unanimous approval.
REPORTS AND UPDATES from agenda.
1. Status of finding new members – Fewtrell
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Brad Rauch is interested in becoming a member when he gets Danby
residency; Katherine Hunter has applied.
2. Status of annual easement monitoring and placing easement signs – Don
Schaufler, Jonathan Zisk & Margaret Corbit
Schaufler is writing reports on easements that have been inspected. Curtis
and Palmer properties are still left for a monitoring visit. Nothing has been
done with easement signs, which are now in the town hall. In response to
Fewtrell’s query, Zisk said that he would take responsibility for putting
them up and check with Schaufler who, due to computer and internet
difficulties, could neither see nor hear what was happening in the meeting
at that point.
3. Status of Timber Harvesting Law – Don Schaufler & Jonathan Zisk
Zisk said the implementation is in Schaufler’s hands right now. Since
Schaufler was unreachable at that point, Zisk agreed, at Fewtrell’s urging,
to follow up where Schaufler had left off. In particular, rechecking with
people asked to give their feedback to current draft of the law, but whose
responses were not sufficiently documented. These people were mainly
from the Danby Highway Department – Jack and Laura Shawley , Soil and
Water – Angel Hinikle, and timber harvesting companies -- Bruce Richards.
Previous complaints raised to the Town Board were that the Highway
Department had not been included. (Bruce Richards’ comments were lost
in transmission and need to be retrieved).
4. Easement updates: proposed Roaring Easement (Margaret Corbit),
proposed Stein Easement (Brittany Lagaly) & others (Clare Fewtrell)
Roaring Easement: Corbit brought the group up to date on the Roaring
easement. She noted that the CAC’s consensus was that appropriate use
zones on that property should be a Restricted Forest Use Zone and a
Residential and Active Use Zone. Corbit said that she would do a better job
of expressing the importance of the creek running to the south which is a
riparian zone that may be covered by the new zoning ordinance, if it goes
through, but also could be additionally protected in the easement.
She opened up a general discussion about whether more space needs to be
allowed around a building for septic or gardens – 10 or 15 feet around
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 3 of 6
building for maintenance. People need to think more about how they want
to define their Residential and Active Use Zone.
Also Fewtrell asked how we should handle Roaring’s revocable trust;
Gagnon will ask Guy, the Town Attorney.
Roaring felt it unfair that the Town Board could change things after the
homeowner has spent money and time negotiating the proposed easement
with the CAC. She wanted more involvement of the Town Lawyer from the
start. Fewtrell said that there was no evidence that the Town Board had
turned down any easements, and since it was their responsibility to make
sure the easements were enforced they had a right to do so.
Lagaly Easement: Lagaly thanked everyone who walked her land. She had
used Wimsatt easement as a model for the Baseline Report. Her confusion
about Schedule B and and the Baseline Report prompted a discussion on
how to divide up the easement information between various schedules and
documents. Some do duplicate each other’s information and there is some
repetition in Schedules B and C and easement text. Gagnon said that the
Baseline Report should be actually called the Baseline Monitoring Report
since that it is what it is used for. Should conservation values and zones be
included in the Baseline Monitoring Report as well as in the easement?
Zisk and Fewtrell like them there as a point of reference. Fewtrell was
trying to keep different documents to a minimum so thought that Schedule
B should simply be the Baseline Monitoring Report. Corbit volunteered to
go through documents and compile them in a outline so the group could
decide what they wanted where.
Lagaly had made maps from Tompkins County’s publicly available GIS
mapping software, and added them. Both Gagnon and Fewtrell
complimented her on the extraordinarily comprehensive Baseline
Documentation. Fewtrell said that the detailed description of zones should
be in Schedule C and didn’t need to be in the Schedule B, but the maps
were useful there. Lagaly said her Residential and active Use Zone was
already generously defined. She uses all the zones in her easement.
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 4 of 6
On a more general topic, Gagnon reported that NY Governor Hochul had
approved and signed the law enabling Danby to abate property taxes in
exchange for conservation easements, including temporary easements.
Now it remains to be seen how this authorization is going to be developed
and written into local law. Zisk mentioned that he had been on the tax
planning working group (which had originated the idea) and he would be
interested in being part of this, but he noted that the tax group might be
biased. Gagnon explained that the appropriate role of any group would be
to inform the Planner, who with the Town Attorney will be writing the law.
Even then, the law still had to be approved by the Town Board. Zisk
suggested that Town Planner West could put together a “menu” of
“options” that a working group could choose from. Gagnon summarized
the goal as how to offer tax abatement in exchange for conservation
easements. Fewtrell noted that, however it was done, CAC wants to be
part of the process.
5. Report and Status of Agricultural Presentation Series – Elizabeth Keokosky
Keokosky reported that she has 3 speakers so far for her third presentation
– Scott Doyle from the Tompkins County Planning Committee; Monika
Roth, formerly from CCE; and Molly Johnston-Heck from American
Farmland Trust, who was working on getting a younger generation of
farmers on land. Keokosky also wanted to include information on
Incubator projects. She was trying to get ahold of Groundswell, but Barb
Neal of Tioga CCE also had an incubator project she could speak about.
She felt pleased with speakers she had lined up and thought the
presentation was coming together well.
Her other concern was advertising and she asked about writing to all rural
Conservation Advisory Councils in Tompkins County – if they exist (after-
note: They don’t. She ended up writing to town clerks). Zisk said that Soil
and Water might also be a conduit to interested people. Keokosky noted
that Danby doesn’t have many large farmers but we do have people
interested in doing small scale organic farming. This presentation may have
wide-spread interest. For advertising, also writing for DAN and CCE -- other
sources of advertising suggested. Keokosky noted that she was dissatisfied
with resolution of Zoom recordings of previous presentations produced on
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YouTube. Zisk offered that you could upload at a higher resolution in a way
that improves this. Will pass on to Town Clerk.
6. Website Update – Margaret Corbit
Fewtrell said that town clerk and assistant clerk have still not loaded CAC
files, but Corbit said that they are still getting used to using the new
website software. She said that the new system is very complicated and
that she doesn’t think it will be done till the end of Spring. Town Planner,
David West, has to be Town Clerk’s priority since it is legally required that
he display certain documents. Fewtrell expressed her frustration with the
lack of information available on website for people interested in
easements.
7. Status of Native Plants talk – Brittany Lagaly
Lagaly said that February 10th would be the date of her talk. Corbit asked
for a one-sentence description for her DAN article, which was loosely,
“Gardening with Native plants beneficial to wildlife as a replacement for
more traditional horticultural species”. Lagaly will decide on a formal title
and give it to the Town Clerk.
8. Discussion of Solar Panels: opportunities and regulations? – Elizabeth
Keokosky
Keokosky had no specifics to offer, but just wanted to encourage the group
to think about this topic and educate themselves. She had heard about
options for setting up solar panels to make them higher off the ground to
allow plants to grow under them (and have more sun) or set further apart
to allow a tractor to have passage through them or to rent sheep to mow
under them. More imaginative ideas might be available.
Gagnon said that the town has passed a law concerning solar on a
residential level but large scale installations had not been anticipated
There had been a public hearing on the current proposed installation.
There had already been a re-delineation of wetlands in that project since
the Biden administration had revised the Trump administration rules. Russ
Nitchman had previously planted the land to attract deer. Currently the
solar siting law considers trees that need to be removed. Keokosky noted
that a County Planner had mentioned that using a solar farm is a
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 6 of 6
conservation technique since it prevents development but can be removed
at any time.
9. Zoning update –Joel Gagnon
Gagnon announced that transfer of development rights requires a generic
environmental impact statement so it is going to be pulled out of draft
zoning proposal until that can happen. The County Planning Department
also has to review it. They have 30 days to make a recommendation and
they want all 30. But the moratorium on development will not be
extended. There will be a new public hearing on draft zoning proposal on
January 4th. The proposal will be dealt with as quickly as possible after the
end of the year. Serious suggestions for modification should be given by
the December 22 town board meeting.
Before the meeting ended, Mary Woodson brought up that she wanted to
start an easement on her property. Fewtrell said that people then needed
to walk the property. Woodsen added that the property had brambles and
was difficult to walk through, but intrepid Corbit, Zisk, and Schaufler
offered to walk it. Zisk was assigned to organize a walking date. Lagaly also
volunteered to join.
Fewtrell wished everyone a happy new year and congratulated them on a
very productive year –which, in turn, led to some discussion of annual
report.
There was no Executive session
Next Meeting via Zoom is on January 11th 2022 at 7p.m.
Adjournment at 9:14
_____________________________________________
Submitted by Elizabeth Keokosky (Secretary)