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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2020-03-11AAC 3/11/20 Page 1 of 3 AGRICULTURAL ADVISORY COMMITTEE MARCH 11, 2020 Members Present: Evan Carpenter (Chair), Kim LaMotte, Marie McRae, Brian Magee Absent: Steve Foote Liaison(s): Craig Schutt, Conservation Board Guest(s): Loren Sparling, Town Board The meeting was called to order at 7:36 p.m. Review and approval of minutes dated January 8, 2020 M. McRae made a motion to accept the minutes are written, seconded by K. LaMotte and unanimously approved. Old Business E. Carpenter pointed out that there is a vacant seat on this committee expiring 2022. C. Schutt suggested Austin Beck to fill the vacancy. K. LaMotte has already spoken to the Becks and she will take a volunteer application with her to give to Austin for completion. E. Carpenter asked if anyone else had any suggestions, there were no other suggestions. Other Business None COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE M. McRae stated she was at a meeting a couple of weeks ago and has the report from the Agriculture Open Space Environmental Protection and Parks Stakeholder meeting. Highlights/Suggestions: • Farmers need to keep land clear for operations. • Development pressures causes farmers to make decisions like selling land or signing a gas lease. • Farmers have a vested interest in maintaining land over time. • North/South divide in town between farming forested areas. Forest management is agriculture. • No dedicated cost share program to preserve agriculture farmland protection easements. • Zoning minimums – take steps to preserve open space. • Can the definition of agriculture include solar farms as a way of preserving open space? Sheep grazing under solar panels. • Tompkins County Energy Road Map – could inform this plan. • County Tourism Plan is going to be released soon. • Agri-tourism. AAC 3/11/20 Page 2 of 3 • Agri-education. • Cornell – looking into deep earth heat. What is the energy picture moving forward? How does that inform local codes and laws? • Energy storage – an important part of the picture. • Need to also focus on transmission line and distribution infrastructure. • Near Ithaca/Ellis Hollow – heightened development pressure. • Development that has utilized conservation easements has not met the intent – needs to be revisited. • Southwest corner of Dryden – don’t extend sewers, no light pollution, don’t want streetlights. • People can do small scale infrastructure. • Challenge of scale for new infill development. • Need pockets of commercial, industrial tax base. (This made Lansing successful) • Deep roots in agriculture want to be separate from Ithaca/Cortland. • Village of Dryden should be a node. Keep Route 13 through the village. • Lack of restaurants in Dryden.] • Rail trail connects important areas together. • No collaboration between the school district and TC3 to prepare residents to work in the agriculture sector. • No vet tech program. • We need next generation to take over farming operations. • What are the economics that can keep farming in the future for the Town? • Infrastructure not ready to handle extreme weather events. • Become more climate resilient. • Town should update 100-year flood plain maps. • More proactive protection of wildlife. • What is the percentage of Cornell land in Dryden? How can Cornell be engaged to help with the agriculture economy? • Internet connectivity is a key concern for future growth. Vision Statement • Need to incorporate smart growth. • Old comp plan is outdated. • Need to keep larger areas of farmland together. • Agriculture and Dairy are competitive; but need to keep up or will get swallowed. • Farm direct to table is almost a necessity in order to keep land in production. • Difficult to obtain an ag assessment. • Rural roads, topography and open space makes Dryden a great place to bike. They will be putting on the website the list of people who were invited to each of the stakeholder meetings and a list of people that attended the meetings. She would be happy to relate any comments back to the steering committee. There have been several public meetings held. Website is up. M. McRae hopes they will expand what is up on the site. They are now planning to send out a postcard to all Dryden residents to let them know this Comprehensive Plan update is happening, and to alert them to the fact that there will be a survey about the comp plan in the future. They may run notices in the Shopper to try and spread the word. AAC 3/11/20 Page 3 of 3 The large public meeting that was scheduled for March 25th has been postponed due to public health concerns. E. Carpenter – one of the statements about Dryden High School and TC3 not working together and training for future farmers is not correct. We bus kids from the high school and back again on a regular basis for the professional tech program for the accelerated kids at school to take college classes. Several of them are working in the Ag Science areas at TC3. There is also a Visions program through BOCES, which is connected to Cornell, working with animal and horticultural science. One of the large programs (there are a couple of hundred kids involved), would be coming up in April. It’s a 6-week course, Animals and Medicine. This is at Cornell and the kids will be hands on with 2nd and 3rd year vet students as their mentors. Unfortunately, this is now in limbo until this health issue is over. C. Schutt suggested maybe something should be in the Comp Plan expressing Dryden’s interest in promoting those in the future. M. McRae suggested these comments be put on the website. There being no further business, on motion made and unanimously approved, the meeting was adjourned at 8:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Chrystle Terwilliger Deputy Clerk