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Home My WebLink About11-05-2020 Lansing CAC Agenda Town of Lansing Conservation Advisory Council NOTICE OF MEETING The meeting of the Town of Lansing Conservation Advisory Council will be held at 6:30 p.m. on Thursday, November 5, 2020 at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCs2FgU2xFnDyGS8DwXgojwA • Because of the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Emergency and State and Federal bans on large meetings or gatherings and pursuant to Governor Cuomo's Executive Order 220.1 issued on March 12, 2020 suspending the Open Meetings Law, this regular meeting of the Town of Lansing Conservation Advisory Council will be held electronically via conference call instead of a public meeting open for the public to attend in person. • Minutes of the Conservation Advisory Council Meeting will transcribed and posted on the Town's website at https://www.lansingtown.com/town-docs. AGENDA: 1. Call to Order/Agenda Review: modifications to agenda 2. Approval of October 1, 2020 Minutes 3. Public Comment—Please email comments to tolcodesOlansingtown.com 4. Membership 5. Natural Resources Inventory: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/lUcks44mgZO3GnlEl4MKS-UveeHBx8QmZ?usp=sharing C.J. and Heather will make final edits and add a few missing parts, including David Wolfe's Executive Summary and Robyn's addition to Open Space; send final comments to them. Next step: forward to Lansing Planning Board in November [agree on that date] 6. Scenic Resources Appendix Update on progress Set subcommittee and meeting to refine choices, finalize appendix 7. CAC Annual Report, comments on draft (see attachment) 8. Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) Regulations for large-scale solar facilities Significance? The Town's comments might be the only local input that the state will consider in the entire approval process. Input on Part 1 are due to ORES on 11/16. Please skim Part 1 (see attachment) and prepare comments and questions. We will provide these to C.J. so she can aggregate them with those of the Planning Board and send to ORES. This is a large document, so to make life easier, see the email from the Sierra Club below and consider focusing on the following pages, suggested by Tom B. as relevant: For local engagement, setbacks, visual impacts, noise: pages 18, 24, 25, 30 For viewshed, mitigation/screening, water resources: pages 39, 48, 51 For decomissioning and site restoration, NYSERDA funds, pages 69, 76 For Ag & Mkts guidelines for solar, page 111 Additional details are in the October 1 email from C.J. At our December meeting we will review Part 2 and provide comments on that. A "teach-in" on the regulations will be hosted by NYers for Clean Power, Nov. 12, noon. Virtual public hearings (electronic media and telephone) on these regulations will be held on 11/24 and 11/30; register at https:Hores.n og v/regulations. 9. Request from Planning Board Solar Subcommittee for CAC help (see email from Dean Shea below) Background: Preparation for large-scale solar is needed, especially regarding setbacks and how to mitigate impact on nearby residences Response from CAC? ------------------------ Agenda Item 8: ORES—Sierra Club Email From: Sue Forker Ruoff<sruoff209gmail.com> Date: October 28, 2020 at 2:54:16 PM Subject: ORES info from Sierra Club LAC-PPF members: We asked our contact at the Sierra Club, David Alicea, for their thoughts on the new ORES (Office of Renewable Energy Siting) regulations and he provided the information below.... "We have been collaborating with a number of organizations to sift through the regulations put forward by the Office of Renewable Energy Siting. At the core, we support the regulations being adopted and believe that if they were adopted as they stand now, we would be able to speed up the development of utility-scale projects without sacrificing the strict environmental standards that we expect in NY on any development. Our formal comments on the standard permitting conditions may include some specific minor changes around wetlands and environmental impacts, but the details of that are somewhat nebulous at this moment. We have been preparing some materials this month and I will share them all and hope some of it is helpful: 1) Comment form: http:Hsc.org/NYCleanEnergy(note the text comes up after you've entered your comment info and before a comment is submitted). 2) We are supporting NYers for Clean Power which is hosting a teach-in on the regulations on November 12th, at 12:00pm. You can register here. 2 3) We have draft talking points regarding the office and have also created a side by side comparison with some highlights of the changes between Article 10 and ORES. Another thing worth flagging for you all is that there is also a comment period open (closes 12/7) at the PSC to establish a Host Community Benefits Program for utility-scale renewable energy projects. Staff is proposing that an electric rate discount be added in addition to the PILOT and host community benefits agreements that developers typically negotiate. If the sPower project ends up being 200MW, it translates into a $100,000 per year fund for 10 years, which would then be divided equally to every residential electricity customer in the Town of Lansing. Note, this is NOT final and subject to change, but we think it will deliver a tangible benefit to every person living in a town hosting a renewable energy project. We had previously put in some specific suggestions that we think would've made this a stronger program, but they were mostly all dismissed, and have decided to NOT comment further given limited time and resources." David Alicea NY Lead Organizing Representative Sierra Club ------------------------------------ Agenda Item 9: Dean Shea (Lansing Solar Subcommittee) request: From: Dean Shea<deansheaksunnybrookbuilders.com> Date: October 27, 2020 at 4:09:24 PM To: Al Fiorille<afiorille&tompkins-co.org>, Larry Sharpsteen<larbear(c�juno.com>, afiorille(&Iansingtown.com<afiorille(&Iansingtown.com>, caward lansingtown.com<gcawardklansingtown.com>, C.J. Randall<crandall(a)lansingtown.com>, lsharpsteen(a lansingtown.com<lshaMsteen(&lansingtown.com> Subject: Conservation Advisory Board vis-a'-vis vegetative buffers and earthen berms Hi All: As we consider planting schedules and earth berming requirements, we could use some help. Would it be appropriate to ask the Conservation Advisory Board be interested/available to work with our committee to: - obtain accurate list of invasives for our area - identifying species and common names, growth rates, mature height and spreads of trees, shrubs, grasses, ground covers, forages and pollinators suitable for vegetative buffers, berms, and storm water swales and ponds in our location and climate zone - objectives for coverage in terms of percent coverage at planting and max time to full coverage -plant spacing (from each other and from structures, fences, roadway ditches, etc.) and pattern (inline or staggered, etc.) -berm construction details (Larry, please resend the info on berm construction you previously provided) - suggested berm locations to shield residences from neighboring non-residential (ala Dutch Mill Dr., the coming industrial solar, etc.)uses and any other suggested uses - suggested set backs to streams for industrial solar and other uses -Anything else I left out 3 These items are needed not just as we consider implications for industrial solar, but as we update the LUO in general and as we consider ongoing site plan reviews in the meantime. It occurs to me regarding the industrial solar that any private or County land near Borg Warner, the Airport and DOT facility that can be built on would be a prime location for Solar as it is not a prime location for Agriculture. Has anyone talked to the Village about their take on industrial solar? Also, any industrial or warehouse facilities in the town like those on Dutch Mill Rd. and Town Barn Rd. should be considered for rooftop solar before prime farmland or land of statewide significance is solar covered. Generate closest to use as much as possible. I have also seen some utilities have started putting a panel on each utility pole, so that is something we may want to ask about and address before they start showing up. Dean E. Shea, VP NAHB Certified Graduate Remodelor, Green Professional &Aging In Place Specialist BPI Trained Building Analyst and Envelope Professional Referral Institute Certified Networker Sunny Brook Builders, 2147 Slaterville Rd, Ithaca,NY 14850 Office 607-539-6286, Fax 607-539-6323, Cell 607-280-3356 4