HomeMy WebLinkAbout2023-05-04 CAC MinutesTown of Lansing Conservation Advisory Council
Minutes of meeting 5-4-23: 6:30 pm via Zoom
In Attendance: Carrie A. Koplinka-Loehr; Edward Dubovi; David Wolfe, Todd Walter; Karen Edelstein;
Robin Bailey; John Fleming; Adam Buck; Ruth Groff (Lansing Town Board liaison)
Absent: Gabrielle Desnoes;
Bergmann Associates: Katie Darcy
Minutes for meeting for CAC meeting on 4/6/23 were approved.
Katie Darcy representing Bergmann Associates presented an update to the timeline for the OSI
project. The preliminary scoring of the 70+ acre parcels selected for the OSI is complete and Bergmann
will be working on the “tool set” that the town can use once the project is completed. What has yet to
be determined is the public meeting probably in September to gauge the citizen’s response to the
preliminary plan.
Katie reviewed the scoring criteria and the ranking process. All identified parcels now exist in a
master spreadsheet linked to the data sets used to score the parcels. Since the last meeting the issue of
“vulnerability to develop” was added to the scoring criteria with 1 point given to parcels within 30 miles
of sewer, 1 point for parcels within 30 miles of municipal water, and 1 point for properties in zones R2,
R3, B-1, B-2, and IR. New maps with these new data were shown and there was agreement to accept
these new criteria. A question arose as to whether a single owner of contiguous properties was
explored – Katie will check on this.
Adam questioned the high score of his property. Katies went through a detailed presentation of
the scores of the criteria used for the ranking. While most of the criteria scores seemed reasonable to
CAC members, there were a few that raised some questions such as the bird habitat data which seemed
to be too general for meaningful scoring. At this time, the bird data are the best set of data
representing wildlife issues. The second more problematic criterium was the viewsheds. Karen raised
the issue that the viewsheds determinations were not a comprehensive survey of the town and
therefore would not be appropriate to judge all parcels. The pros and cons of the issue were discussed.
Maps with and without the viewsheds will be available and the issue may be left for the narrative of the
report.
The question arose as to whether the committee would review all of the parcels as to the
scores. The consensus of the committee was that this would take too much time for the committee and
Bergmann to achieve this goal. For now, the ranking of the parcels by Bergmann will be used for the
presentation of new maps dealing with the view sheds issue. Ed requested that Bergmann provide a bar
graph that shows the distribution of parcels by low, medium and high and high categories.
Committee Reports:
a. Ag and Farmland Protection. Carrie, Ruth and Ed attended the Ag committee meeting held on
the 2nd of May to solicit input from the ag community regarding the OSI project. The major concern
expressed was the future use of a study that ranked the properties in the Town. The expressed intent of
the OSI is to provide guidance to the Town should a resident wish to preserve (conserve) their property
with the help of the Town. With the OSI, the Town would have a detailed analysis of the property from
which they could assess the value of expending Town resources. How these data may be used in years
to come with the changing demographic of the Town is an unresolved concern. The presence of John
and Adam on the CAC provides valuable insight into the issues of concern for the ag community. The
existence of an earlier assessment of ag lands in the county was noted and Katie will look into this to see
if it has any impact on the ranking process.
b. EMC liaison. David noted that he did not attend the last meeting . He indicated that he was to
do a presentation on the Town of Lansing for the June meeting and needed help with the history of the
Town.
c. Ruth noted that there were no issues related to the CAC from the Town Board. The Ag zone
was approved.
d. Planning Board - no rep present.