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Home My WebLink About02-06-2020 CAC Minutes DRAFT 1 Town of Lansing 2 Conservation Advisory Council 3 Monday, February 6, 2020 6:30 PM 4 5 Present Excused 6 Robyn Bailey John Fleming 7 Andra Benson 8 Thomas Butler 9 Karen Edelstein 10 John Greenly 11 Carrie Koplinka-Loehr 12 Todd Walter via skype 13 David Wolfe 14 15 Other Staff 16 C.J. Randall, Planning Director Sue Munson, Code Office 17 18 Public Present (0) that signed in 19 Osamu Tsuda from Cooperative Extension 20 Paul Bailey- Guest Speaker on trees & composting 21 22 Co-Chair Carrie Koplinka-Loehr opened the meeting at 6:30 pm. 23 24 Public Comments 25 No Public Comments 26 27 Summary of Paul Bailey—Trees & Composting: 28 Paul Bailey is a Professional Forester and Master Composter, he has worked on projects like 29 Tree City USA; Preservation Ordinances; Shade Tree Advisory Commission for the City of Ithaca, 30 Landscape Commission of Cortland, Parks & Recreation Committee and the Board of Directors 31 with the Friends of Salt Point along with many other organizations. He talked about how to 32 implement some of the items from the Certification Action Checklist that he is knowledgeable 33 about. 34 35 CAC might be interested in: 36 Tree City USA Utility program 37 - Would need a Tree Committee Board (eg. Ithaca has the Shade Tree Advisory 38 Commission and but not limited to the Landscape Commission of Cortland) Pagel of 5 DRAFT 39 - To keep the Tree City USA the Town would need to spend $2.00 per Capita per year on 40 individuals in the community. That could be planting trees or removing trees. Would be 41 approximately$25,000 per year 42 - Must have Tree Ordinance. Could be as simple as the Town plans on maintaining this 43 type of Urban Forest or plan on building this type of Forest Community within the Town 44 or Preserving this amount of woodland for wild spaces 45 - Would have to celebrate Arbor Day which we have been doing unofficially by planting a 46 tree each year. We could make it official by inviting the Supervisor and the public to 47 celebrate 48 There are several Grants available through the NYS Urban Forestry Council —CAC Chair 49 can apply on behalf of the Town. 50 o Simple Arbor Day Grant is $1,000; requires a match. Paul recommends this 51 because it's simple and then the CAC/Town could apply for more ambitious 52 grants later. 53 o Three types of DEC Grants offered every year 54 ■ Extensive Tree Planting is a matching grant 55 ■ Tree Canopy Inventory would involve hiring a consultant to inventory the 56 wild space; doesn't require a match. 57 ■ Urban Forest—more difficult in Lansing as there is not the density of 58 neighborhoods 59 o Watershed restorations 60 ■ $25,000 to work on stream banks (Riparian areas). County might match. 61 Karen Edelstein is interested in researching the spatial data on what Lansing has for tree 62 canopies. 63 64 Lansing Parks & Recreation would like to apply for the Beautification Grant for Myers Park thru 65 Cornell Cooperative Extension grant 66 67 Robyn Bailey will check into the RFP for the Inventory grant. She will look into but won't have 68 time to write the grants 69 70 One idea is identifying the need for restoration at Milton Meadows. 71 Next step is to plan and apply for grants 72 73 Composting 74 Composting in a municipal building for employees. The earth bin is provided by Tompkins 75 County. Paul will guide us on the proper set up and maintenance or an employee can take 76 home. Andra would like to see it opened up as a drop off for the community 77 Page 2 of 5 DRAFT 78 Cornell Orchards—(Lansing) 79 Gary Stewart did not have any update to give. 80 What steps we can take on our end. There is a value to being proactive. 81 82 David spoke to Greg Peck and Justine Vanden Heuvel they work at Cornell and are experts with 83 apples and may have a vested interest in the Orchards. For them now is the time to decide if 84 there is space, they want to preserve. There are no plans for the orchard in Ithaca to be sold. It 85 appears that the store was not making enough money to stay open. 86 87 The Town should be informed if they decide to sell the Lansing property 88 89 Update on the Solar Local Law 90 - The Town of Lansing has been working on a developing legislation for community Solar for some 91 time now. Originally it was based on Residential and small Community scale solar 92 - Then the focus changed to the 25-acre solar arrays as the project interests increased 93 - Lately there is more interest in the Utility Scale Solar Development that could be 1,000 to 1,500 94 acres. This type of Solar is governed under a Public Siting Board that is appointed by the Public 95 Service Commission 96 - Tompkins County is working on a Best Practice guideline to assist the local municipalities 97 o What could be done alongside agriculture 98 o What types of plants flourish in the defused light 99 o Is there equipment that could be used around the arrays 100 - Goal is by April or May of 2020 to have the Draft to the Town Board and then host a Public 101 Hearing with possibly a vote on if there should be a limit on the size of the Solar Arrays. 102 - Negative part of the Utility Large Scale Solar is temporarily taking currently farmed land out of 103 the production for awhile 104 - Positive part is the Town would benefit by a host community agreement and get paid fixed 105 amount per megawatt could be around quarter million or more a year 106 - The reality is if we pass a local law that says we don't want projects above a certain amount, 107 that may not matter in the end, because the State has preemptive authority.The Governor is 108 already stating shovel ready renewal sites. 109 - The Town has a substation at the old power plant that would be ideal for a Utility Large Scale 110 Solar 111 - The Main concern it the size of the project.The only way to possibly avoid this is to not accept 112 any Solar Farms. We may still end up in litigation 113 - There is a feeling that an energy smart community should not be against solar 114 - The CAC should send a letter to the Town Board about the Solar Local Law, which the Board 115 would vote on to approve or deny 116 Progress on Being a Climate Smart Community 117 - Director of Planning C.J. Randall, Co-Chair Tom Butler, Co-Chair Carrie Koplinka-Loehr met with 118 Osamu Tsuda to discuss the goals and what to prioritize the items that seem to be in our reach Page 3 of 5 DRAFT 119 and review what has already happened so we can move forward to become a Climate Smart 120 Community 121 - With all the actions that we have planned, it totals to be 155 points which is 33 points beyond 122 the threshold. 123 - Primary focus would be creating a greenhouse gas inventory that goes along with the natural 124 resource inventory and the climate resiliency vision. Chosen because the town is currently 125 working on them or interested in pursuing these. 126 - The greenhouse inventory would be completed by CCE's Climate Smart Program.The Town of 127 Lansing will need to provide the last two years of Utility Bills for Electricity, Gas, Oil and Vehicle 128 Fuel usage from the government operations. Climate Smart would then calculate the 129 greenhouse gas emissions that the town has produced then they cross compare to see if there is 130 an increase or decrease over time. 16 points 131 - The Comprehensive Plan was worth close to 50 points 132 - Watershed Assessment is worth 6 points 133 - Conservation and Natural Habitats is close to 16 points 134 - C.J. and CCE's Climate Smart Program have has been working with Cornell's City and Regional 135 Planning graduate students who are part of a land use planning class.They will be assisting with 136 the Natural Resource Inventory, Conservation, Hydrology and Land Cover portions of the 137 checklist 138 - Significant Natural Areas, Open Space, Agricultural Areas are sections that you need to know the 139 community will be assigned to the CAC to provide descriptions and analysis 140 - Natural Heritage Sites, Unique Natural Areas (Karen Edelstein working on), Protected Open 141 Space and Scenic Resources need some additions and all need more of a back story to go with 142 them 143 - Karen Edelstein will work on Slope and Topography, Bedrock Geology, Surficial Geology and Soils 144 - David Wolfe is interested in working emphasizing of climate change on a specific natural 145 resource 146 - There is a whole section on Climate Change and Projections that David can focus on 147 - There is a whole section on Climate Change and Projections that David can focus on 148 - Concern with town ditches and can be integrated with the watershed.Angel at the County my 149 be able to give input on the portion with the ditches.The hydroseeding has not been happening 150 especially on the State Roads 151 - Everyone can start working on the areas they choose to before the next meeting 152 - The students will attend the March 51h meeting, and everyone can share what they have 153 accomplished 154 - C.J. will send the maps along with the CRP Syllabus to the CAC members 155 - Focus on Solar at the next meeting 156 Adjourned Meeting 157 Meeting adjourned at the call of the Co-Chair Carrie Koplinka-Loehr at 8:35 pm. 158 159 Minutes taken and executed by Sue Munson. Page 4 of 5 DRAFT 160 161 Access to public documents are available online at: 162 Conservation Advisory Council Email tolcodes@lansingtown.com 163 164 Town Website https://www.lansingtown.com Page 5 of 5