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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPB Minutes 1993-04-27FILED TOWN OF ITHACA Date 5 9 ® TOWN OF ITHACA PLANNING BOARD Is APRIL 27, 1993 The Town of Ithaca Planning Board met in regular session on Tuesday, April 27, 1993, in Town Hall, 126 East Seneca Street, Ithaca, New York, at 7:30 p.m. PRESENT. Chairperson Carolyn Grigorov, Robert Kenerson, Virginia Langhans, Herbert Finch, Candace Cornell, Stephen Smith, William Lesser, Floyd Forman (Town Planner), Daniel Walker (Town Engineer), John Barney (Town Attorney). ALSO PRESENT: Elsie McMillan, James Ainslie. Chairperson Grigorov declared the meeting duly opened at 7 :40 p.m. AGENDA ITEM: PERSONS TO BE HEARD. There were no persons present to be heard. Chairperson Grigorov closed this segment of the meeting. AGENDA ITEM: DISCUSSION CONCERNING MODIFICATIONS TO APPROVED SITE PLAN FOR SOUTH HILL RETAIL /OFFICE COMPLEX. Chairperson Grigorov declared the discussion in the above - noted matter duly opened at 7:42 p.m. John Novarr addressed the Board and stated he would like to put a college book store in on South Hill similar to the one that serves Cornell University. Triangle Book Store would like to set up a temporary store from May 3, 1993 to May 8, 1993, to buy used books from college students. Mr. Novarr stated that he had called the Town Planner because he was required to build a road that would allow people to turn through traffic at the intersection. Mr. Novarr stated that the Town had two problems with this proposal, 1)the existing parking lot might overflow, and 2)traffic control at the intersection. Mr. Novarr stated that they estimated 4,000 to 6,000 students would bring their used books to this location if it were to be approved by the Planning Board. The Planning Board discussed Mr. Novarr's presentation regarding a modification to the Site Plan for the South Hill Retail /Office Complex, and came to a consensus that they would go along with the proposal at the May 4, 1993 Planning Board Meeting. There being no further discussion, Chairperson Grigorov declared the matter duly closed at 8 :08 p.m. AGENDA ITEM: WORKING SESSION, DRAFT COMPREHENSIVE PLAN. Chairperson Grigorov declared the above -noted matter duly opened at 8 :10 p.m. • n Chairperson Grigorov stated from John Babcock regarding the Planning Board held on West Hill, the record.(Mr. Babcock's letter as Exhibit #1) that she had received a letter informational meeting that the and they are hereby accepted for and comments are attached hereto Elsie McMillan addressed the Board and stated that she had several concerns regarding the draft Comprehensive Plan. The Board discussed the comments made by Ms. McMillan, proposed changes to Chapter 3, and the Agricultural aspects of the Comprehensive Plan. The Board further discussed the inventory portions of Chapters 2 and 3. Ms. McMillan stated that she would submit her comments in writing to the Planning Board Members and to the Town of Ithaca Planning Department. Town Planner Floyd Forman stated that the Agriculture Committee would be going through the draft Comprehensive Plan and submitting comments to the Planning Department. Mr. Forman stated that he would send copies of the Committees comments to each of the Board members for review. The Board discussed additional concerns and comments regarding the Comprehensive Plan. Town Planner Floyd Forman stated that he would address the Planning Board's concerns and the Board can further discuss the Comprehensive Plan at the next Planning Board Meeting which would be held on May 4, 1993. There being no further discussion, Chairperson Grigorov closed the working session for the Town of Ithaca draft Comprehensive Plan. ADJOURNMENT Upon Motion, Chairperson Grigorov declared the April 27, 1993 meeting of the Town of Ithaca Planning Board duly adjourned at 10:35 p.m. Respectfully submitted, StarrRae Hays, Town of Ithaca 0 4/13/94 Recording Secretary Planning Board • is 0 • Mrs. Carolyn Grigorov Chairperson Planning Board Town of Ithaca 126 E. Seneca Street Ithaca, NY 14850 Dear Ms. Grigorov C O M M U N I C A T I O N S 600 Cayuga Heights Road Ithaca, New York 14850 phone: 607 -257 -6283 fax: 607 -257 -7333 April 21, 1993 Li i t n 2 .! .5 !THAgCA + The West Hill meeting to discuss the draft comprehensive plan for the town was such an unsettling experience that it has taken till now for me to summarize my brief words at the meeting. I had not intended to participate, but felt compelled to after the orchestrated parade of plan proponents with their exhaustive sheaves of self - serving documentation. It was a parade not characterized by democratic with a "little d," as one contributor suggested. Since the vehement reaction I returned with my "Residents Survey" in 1990 (attached), I have articulated in several written responses my deep and sincere objection to this entire project. Pitting the broad public against a handful of landowners in the name of majority consensus is patently unfair and not an appropriate exercise in democracy. That the hearing accommodated participants and spouses of the very authors of the plan was surely not an exercise in open debate. While their advocacy was a given, their onslaught nonetheless was so overwhelming as to squelch further objection or comment, save mine, made as a faint echo of the position held by us land owners who bear the lions share of inevitably increasing taxes. The possible creation of yet another suffocating layer of bureaucracy, a Conservation Advisory Board, will be simply one additional brick on a load we can scarcely bear. Thanks you for alloNving my comments, and for sharing them with your associates. q, st hkb; +1 Sincerely, rL ohn B. Babcock U ( j Q t7 RESIDENT SURVEY COMMENT IV-AN ;07 j The May, campaign 1990, Residents to induce broad Survey is an approval of arrogant and deceptive the Planning Committee's ambition to implement its own master plan for our Town. to desired The questions answers. Private are structured property to steer respondents rights are deliberately ignored. There is no attempt even to identify whether respondents are land owners. In a manipulative instructional paragraph leading to questions 23 -30, the public is all but directed to confirm that the vast shaded areas on the map are indeed important natural and visual assets. As the question is posed, it would be like maligning Motherhood and Apple Pie to respond in the negative. Numerically, responses from land owners will be buried in a sea of answers from renters and transients (many of them students). Be it bike trails, or public paths, most folks are in favor,--- "but not in my front yard." Everyone likes more park land - -- "but not my back yard." The survey presents huge shaded areas as a menu choice for people who live elsewhere. It's easy to anticipate the overwhelming show of support the Planners solicit. With no personal involvement and at no personal cost, it's a way for non - property owners to gain free access to the property of others. It's the quintessential "free lunch," a wish list with no strings attached. Survey results are proclaimed by its authors to help plan future land- taking and to encourage regulations by the Town to "protect and preserve." Substantial needs of the public at large are useful evidence to support the confiscation of private property. The tainted answers encouraged in this report may well be misused as support for expropriating private property or abridging property rights as part of a scheme labelled as a Comprehensive Plan. There can be no fairness in the report without specific reaction from the property owners who will be adversely impacted. Information should have been provided to inform the public of the harsh and heartless process by which land is wrested from reluctant owners through condemnation, and that it is a very costly as well as hostile undertaking. . IVA Recipients of the survey form also deserved to be informed how much recreational and park land the Town of Ithaca now enjoys compared to like communities, and had described for them the vast tracts of parks and public land adjacent to or easily accessible to the town. An appropriate question would be whether residents would favor a local sales tax to fund land acquisition, and point out that the new parks will no longer produce taxes. On another level, there is an implicit threat to land owners that under the sanctimonious label of "protect and preserve," Planners may devise regulations that will make private lands unusable to the owner, and unsaleable. While morally reprehensible, such "protection and preservation" could fulfill their confiscatory goals with no acquisition cost. Owners of property in the shaded areas not informed that their land would be fingered as potential park sites, are now vulnerable to the trespass that such designation invites. Question 15 confirms the strong pro - control bias of the survey. Prodding the respondent along to a target answer that suggests that farmers will be protected from development pressure, 5500 acres are lumped in a vague classification of "active and inactive farm land." A great deal of this acreage is simply vacant (not farm) land. The Town Planning Board has marked a course of increasing public ownership and control of special lands within our town. In doing so it is rejecting with disdain a tradition of private property rights and generations of responsible stewardship that have contributed so heavily to Ithaca's unique lifestyle. No evidence is available that government is the better - -- or more responsible - -- caretaker. E� H� PR22 r I