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Home My WebLink About2024-03-12 CAC MinutesTown of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 1 of 5 Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council (CAC) Draft Minutes of In-person Meeting in Town Hall, and via videoconferencing Tuesday, March 12, 2024 Council Members present: Margaret Corbit (Meeting chair), Jonathan Zisk, Joel Gagnon, Anne Klingensmith, (Don Schaufler, Katharine Hunter, Brittany Stein – came in later) Council Members absent: Renee Owens Others present: Elizabeth Keokosky (Secretary), Ronda Roaring (Danby resident), Ginny and Chris Gartlein (Danby Residents), Carrie Lamontagne (Danby resident – perhaps interested in joining CAC) Meeting was officially called to order at 7:05 Deletions or Additions to Agenda: Klingensmith wanted to add what she had been doing on Zoho workspace files to agenda. It was added as item 2a. Privilege of the Floor (PoF): None Approval of February 13 minutes was postponed until a quorum was present at town hall (only 4 members present at the time) REPORTS AND UPDATES (from the agenda and additions) 1. Status Report: Conservation Easement Tax Abatement – Gagnon Hunter reported on this when she arrived. She said Dan Klein, Danby delegate to county legislature, was working with Anna Kelles and Lea Webb, state legislature representative and senator, respectively, on trying to make the tax abatement for new conservation easements retroactive to existing conservation easements. 2. Status Report: Easement monitoring – Owens Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 2 of 5 Owens absent 2a. Refer to “Additions” above: Corbit reported that there is a hard copy archive of easements filed in a vault behind the clerk’s office. Klingensmith reported on her re-organization of all files (that did not relate to easements). Under one master folder, CAC annual reports and agendas and minutes were stored in separate folders with subfolders by year. Other folders under the master folder were committee administration files and public information files. She went ahead and moved current files to these new folders and if links show up broken Cindy Katz, the Deputy Clerk, will redirect them for us. Introduction of visitors – Gartleins and Lamontagne (previously) 3. Status of Timber Harvesting law – Schaufler, Zisk Zisk said that he, Gagnon, and Schaufler had met to work on this and were close to being ready with a finished draft. Schaufler spoke to a new development. He had just recently – with the intersession of Crystal Buck - been contacted by Jeff Kehoe, an Agricultural Protection Planner in the NYS Department of Agriculture and Markets. Mr. Kehoe had finally cleared up the persistent confusion on how classifications of tree use are divided between the NY Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) and NY Ag and Markets. This information will be incorporated into current draft. Corbit requested that Zisk get the law ready to present at the next meeting. 4. Updates on on-going easements – from leads on each easement Woodsen – Zisk said this is on pause Sherman- Stein reported progress, working on Schedule D Caldwell – Corbit reported that Caldwell is working on marking up a map to define various zones. Zisk said that if boundaries are put in the app, “Gaia,” Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 3 of 5 the program will then calculate area automatically. Corbit said that Town planner can extract acreage from visual map. Zisk replied that boundary coordinates and (less so) distances are the critical thing to know when monitoring is done. Discussion followed on importance of having a lawyer to check easement contracts. Hunter said for that if CAC offers referrals of lawyers there should be at least 3 to insure neutrality. 405 Troy Rd – members familiar with location said it was on the corner on Nelson and Troy close to a pipeline, steep on one side, abutting a development, and next to an existing Nature Conservancy preserve. An easement might be complicated by trespasser or existing trails or rights of way. Group expressed the thought that the property owners might want to apply to the Nature Conservancy, given the adjacency to their preserve. What they want to do with it is the main question. Corbit said that she would talk to Greg Hutnik, Town Planner. 5. Status of checklist to “trigger CAC involvement in town planning of land use”– Zisk Zisk had nothing to report (a hand cut in a table saw accident had interfered). 6. Follow-up on Discussion with Crystal Buck from CCE on farmland protection and preservation - Keokosky Keokosky reported that statistics comparing farmers and farmland between Danby and Caroline that she had requested from Buck had turned out to be more elusive than Buck had anticipated and she was still searching to combine them from several sources. Buck had also told her that Governor Hochul had announced this past year that the Farmland Protection Implementation Grant funding is offering money for the purchase of farmland development rights – a conservation Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 4 of 5 option that a former planner, David West, had talked about. (https://www.governor.ny.gov/news/governor-hochul-announces-more- 55-million-awarded-protect-2100-acres-new-york-farmland ). Cornell Cooperative Extension of Tompkins County is starting a pre-application process for the next round of the grant. Group discussed the priorities and options available. Buck would like to come to the next CAC meeting to discuss these. Buck noted major priorities for this grant in her email: 1. It’s generally targeted towards larger farms with good soils (there are some funding categories that go down to 10 acres in size, but mostly it’s tailored for farms 50-100+ acres) 2. The state has expressed a preference for land trusts rather than municipalities to work with interested farmers, but having a very active CAC might make us a more likely candidate than other municipalities 3. The process can take 2-3+ years, so it works best for landowners that are planning long term. 4. Land must be in active agriculture to qualify for the development rights purchase (leased is fine) (Note: Keokosky later found out that the available funding is competitive by region and Tomkins County’s region is the Southern Tier.) Klingensmith mentioned a family she knew that had said that their large farm located on Hilltop Rd was perfect for raising sheep. Klingensmith and Schaufler identified the owners as Richard Ehrhardt and Ramona Slepetis, 66 Hilltop Now located at 6280 Kinneville Rd, Eaton Rapids, MI Discussion followed on how to let people know of Buck’s visit. Keokosky volunteered to get the word out through the ag-related list of emails she had. Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 5 of 5 There was no Executive session Next Meeting is on April 9, 2024, at 7p.m. Adjournment at 8:30 pm _____________________________________________ Submitted by Elizabeth Keokosky (Secretary)