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Home My WebLink AboutPB 2024-09-26 PB 9-26-24 Approved 1 Town of Dryden Planning Board Meeting Thursday, September 26-24 Hybrid Zoom Planning Board - 2024 Current Members I.P. Z Ex Ab Tony Salerno, Chair (2029) X John Kiefer (2027) X Frank Parish (2028) X Chris Morrissey (2030) X Craig Anderson (2025) X Joe Wilson (2024) X Brad Will (2026) X Diane Tessaglia-Hymes (2024) Alternate X Bill Griffin (2024) * Alternate X Other Staff or Board Members I.P. or on Zoom Ray Burger, Director of Planning (IP) Gina Cassidy (IP) Shelley Knickerbocker – Zoning Officer (Z) Joy Foster - Recording Secretary (Z) Dan Lamb -Town Board (IP) PB 9-26-24 Approved 2 AGENDA 6:00 pm Call to Order Welcome – Quorum Check Public Comment Period (For items not on the agenda and limited to 3 minutes per person.) Battery Storage proposal for Dryden Zoning Audit Update Town Board Resolution on Data Processing Centers-Crypto Mining Site Plan Review Enforcement Planning Department Update Town Board Update Minutes Approval – August 22, 2024 Chair Salerno opens the meeting at 6:01 PM and activates B. Griffin (alternate) Public Comment Period – No Comments Offered Battery Storage proposal for Dryden - a presentation from Mission Clean Energy (MCE). They would like to site a battery storage system in the Town of Dryden and would like to introduce this idea to the board. They realize that the Town of Dryden does not have a law allowing this but that the Planning Board may contemplate this as we rewrite our zoning law. Mission Clean Energy (MCE) reps Ethan Frazier, permitting manager, and Anna Conley, project developer. presented a slide deck that introduces their idea for Dryden and material hand-outs. MCE was interested in finding out if they could expect strong municipal/community opposition on such a project before devising a site plan. This is an early introduction as they plan to be live by 2029. MCE suggested writing a zoning ordinance specifically permitting battery energy storage systems (BESS). For guidance, see: • Zoning Practice: Battery Energy Storage Systems from the American Planning Association. This article from March 2024 points out some of the most critical items that may be included in any BESS ordinances. • Grid Scale Battery Energy Storage System Planning Guidance for FRS from the UK National Fire Chiefs Councill (NFCC) Planning Guidance This document is more safety- and emergency-minded and goes into more detail on the technological and emergency response information that would likely need to be provided by a BESS developer during the planning process. PB 9-26-24 Approved 3 • Some states around the US are either implementing statewide BESS ordinances or are considering implementing statewide BESS ordinances. NYSERDA with their Model Law is a great example that you are familiar with, but I've provided some links to the regulations for other states that outline things like setbacks, required studies, and public engagement. • NY Model Law - The NY Model Law, as you can see below, is an incredible base for ordinances and has been used by numerous jurisdictions not only on the east coast, but across the Country. • Michigan's Public Act 233 - PA233 created an alternate permit pathway for utility-scale BESS projects in the state. Notably, PA233 outlines permit application requirements (Sec. 225), community benefit requirements [Sec. 226(1) and Sec. 227], and mandated setbacks from ROWs and homes [Sec. 226(7)(e)]. • In the zip folder provided, I've pulled out around ten different BESS ordinances from a variety of locations. Most jurisdictions are located in New York and based their BESS ordinances on the NY Model Law. However, I have also included jurisdictions that strayed further from the NY Model Law to show some more variety. • Lastly, we have pulled out examples of approved permits for utility-scale BESS projects. These give an idea of the Conditions of Approval (CoA) that could be applied to BESS projects. Usually, CoA's require pre-construction surveys or additional study/work plans be provided to the authority having jurisdiction (AHJ). Zoning Audit update – Nan Stolzenburg (zoom) Review of current zoning laws is completed. The report is set up, so the subdivision law is reviewed first and then the zoning, then section by section all the interviews were really informative. At the end of the report are general kinds of recommendations on how zoning could be more consistent. We need to make the zoning more consistent, internally, and with the Comprehensive Plan. The report goes from specific to general and covers issues or observations related to tables, language choice, and conflicting regulations. If there are any specific questions or if there's anything for next month, when we could have a more in-depth discussion about it. We are on a learning curve over battery storage and Crypto Mining. We need somebody that really understands these technologies to help the Planning Board understand the related issues. Chair Salerno proposed the PB meet during the October 15 - November 15 time period to discuss the report more in depth. Town Board Resolution on Data Processing Centers-Crypto Mining T. Salerno - We're getting a lot of information, but I'm thinking more from a process standpoint. Where do we want to go from here? And I think we want to incorporate it into sort of the general zoning discussions that we're having, but. J. Wilson - Two thoughts. 1 is just to reiterate, if this is indeed a technology different than, say, all the research I sent along, then we need to know that before we get very deep into our own deliberations, the other thing is we need to be careful about the timing of the moratorium versus the longer process of doing our zoning rewrite, because it could be that we have to take some of PB 9-26-24 Approved 4 that zoning rewrite time and focus on the crypto because the moratorium is going to expire at some point. T. Salerno - I think that's part of what John was alluding to earlier, which was working on the zoning in blocks, working out in sections, not doing it all at once. And that may mean that this particular section has to bump into priority because of the moratorium. The Boards discussion was about all the information each has been reading and researching and determined they want to have someone who is an expert on Crypto mining and data processing center technologies talk to the Board so they can better understand it and do what’s best in the interest of the community. Town Resident Marie McRae, attending by Zoom, offered to send the PB a recording of a recent Crypto Mining webinar at Cornell. Site Plan Review Enforcement C. Anderson, if I understand this correctly, those who do code enforcement do not enforce zoning as part of giving a certificate of occupancy. The James Coon article sent to Planning Board Members on 9/19/24 indicates that you could do this. The Town could put somebody in charge of zoning enforcement and link it to the occupancy permit or for the building permit. So, I guess I'm confused. I saw that article and I go OK, what does that mean? And you see that there's a law from Geneseo that was created, so you kind of wonder, why can't we do something like that to enforce the site plan review. The Town lawyer told us we couldn't do it. So, who's right? You have a state guy saying that you could do it and then you hear you can’t. It makes sense for site plan approval there should be some mechanism to enforce that site plan. Wondering if this could be a general condition, if you don’t comply with you don’t get an occupancy permit. S. Knickerbocker – The way the Town Law is written it says the Town Board enforces the site plan review. We followed that path and went through the Town Court, and we didn’t get very far. It’s something the Attorney needs to do. Because also there's some conflict with the Department of State as far as what we can issue with our building permits. T. Salerno - I think what it means is we need to review that whole part of the zoning; we need to see if it needs to be rewritten or written in a way that it can be enforced more easily to allow code enforcement to have a leg to stand on when they do an enforcement. S. Knickerbocker - Because where the conflict is that in our law 1203, which is Chapter 118, it gives us a list of things that we can issue a building permit on, it gives us a list of things that have to be on the certificate of occupancy and that is where the conflict is. Those are the regulations according to the Department of State that we must go by. And so that's where you know it doesn't say site plan conditions. It doesn't say, I can’t hold a certificate of occupancy back because the trees aren’t planted. PB 9-26-24 Approved 5 T. Salerno – I will formulate a question to Nan to see her answer and then we can put it to the attorney. I'm sure it's certainly frustrating for code enforcement people to take something into court and then be told no. Planning Department Update – Ray Burger • There are a couple of applications that we're trying to get to completion. One is a cannabis dispensary that wants to start up at 1280 Dryden Rd. That's the building down behind Autoworks off of 366. We did a review on that property for an office administrative office. Now a new business wants to lease that same property and actually have a retail business there. • We have an auto repair business that started behind the cemetery, right in the middle of our solar field. They are getting that application together. This will require a Special Use Permit (SUP) from the Town Board with a Site Plan Review (SPR) coming to the Planning Board for recommendations. Town Board Update – Dan Lamb • We discovered there are limitations on developing the land behind the Town Hall. There had been some talk, and the town had put out an RFP about doing several things on this land, including ball fields and even multifamily housing and a rec center. It’s been pointed out that there just isn't space for much more than ball field, so that whole RFP is being reworked at our request from the Town Board last week to just really focus on recreational fields. The access would be from the Town Hall parking lot. • Freese Road bridge: I've been in regular contact with DOT for 4 to 5 months about Freese Road. We finally have a review completed from the Federal Highway Administration. This is a Town Board endeavor that started eight years ago to ensure the project met requirements for historic bridges. The Federal Highway Administration sent a letter of approval to the NYS DOT granting approval. With that, we can now meet with our consultants and go over final design and scheduling, which I plan to do next week and move this Freese Rd. project forward which you know is important for the project that that you guys approved last month, and the town board approved earlier this month. • For the pedestrian bridge over Rt13 for the rail trail. DOT has everything they need. Now they need Federal Highway Administration approval. We speculate that they will come back sometime next month and maybe get that project out to bid this fall. • EMS services and this is a really important town wide county wide issue that EMS be declared an essential service by New York State validating the work that our EMS providers do but also imploring and actually mandating that every town or village or county has a EMS program established. Municipalities can do that in cooperation or they can do it on their own. It's my strong feeling, which is shared by a few folks at Dryden Ambulance, that we are subsidizing the surrounding communities with our ambulance service. This is not sustainable. The County Legislature has agreed to consider a bill that will recommend that the State declare EMS an “essential service,” PB 9-26-24 Approved 6 which would then require all Tompkins County municipalities to pay a fair share toward that service.” Minutes Approval – August 22, 2024 T. Salerno – posts draft minutes on shared screen and the Board makes edits, Tony will send Joy the amended minutes. Motion: J. Wilson to approve the minutes as amended Second: F. Parish Morion Passes with five in favor. B. Will abstains (he was absent) Next meeting will be 10-24-24 at 6PM Meeting adjourned: 8:15 PM