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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCB Minutes 2000-10-05 Town of Ithaca Conservation Board Final Minutes October 5,2000 Present: Barney Unsworth, Chairman; Clifford Blizard;Walter Buble; Elizabeth deProsse, Richard Fischer; Eva Hoffmann; John Yntema; Don Weir, Elissa Wolfson Staff': Sue Ritter There were no persons to be heard. Member's concerns: None reported Coordinator Report: 1. Nancy Ostman can come to talk to the CB on Nov. 16 about the Unique Natural Areas. What questions do we have for Ms. Ostman? Questions could include buffer sizes needed to protect natural areas, and her thoughts on priority areas in the Town. Members should be thinking of other questions to ask. She can provide more details about Unique Natural Areas (UNAs) than will be presented by Bruce Johnson at the Planning Board meeting on Oct.24 regarding the Tompkins County Environmental Management Council's revised report. Bruce Johnson will be providing a more general overview about the DNA's. and CB members were encouraged to attend this also. 2. Regarding the Lake Source Cooling Project, Cornell has sent a letter to Andy Frost (Director of Building and Zoning), dated September 19'h,requesting a temporary Certificate of Occupancy. CU's letter states that they expect to complete the final grading and landscaping, and a list of other tasks within two months. When completed they will request a final Certificate of Occupancy. 3. The Board has approved funds for Barney to attend the "Sustainable Watersheds Conference" in Canandaigua on 10/12. Chair Re Barney distributed copies of several Ithaca Journal articles, they were entitled: EPA begins testing gorge lead levels; Proposed trail may get Fed funding; Where CU's at on waste. We also received a copy of Barney's article about The DEPOT, the name of the new Tompkins County Household Hazardous Waste Management Facility. This new facility will keep pollutants out of our trash and lake. Residents must schedule an appointment with the facility prior to bringing by their hazardous waste. Richard Fischer was thanked for his contribution to the Town Newsletter on the Monarch Butterfly. His next contribution will be on "SNOW". Wilson Lab Report At the Planning Board meeting on Tuesday, Cornell University_ Wilson Lab representatives agreed to take out four proposed parking spaces to increase the size of the vegetated buffer between the parking lot and Cascadilla creek. They also agreed to stabilize the stream bank erosion through some grading and plantings of the creekside. As part of the plan they will also be adding stormwater treatment biofilters,to the existing parking lot to treat stormwater runoff prior to its release into the creek. They still need to receive Zoning Board Approval. Approval of 9/7/00 minutes: Corrections to include - change that Elissa was present at last meeting; identify "Mr." Auble as David Auble; the word"to impact" was added to the hydrocarbons ----surface water. Also various style corrections. Approved as corrected. 1 Coy Glen documents to add to our Coy Glen File were distributed: Discussions Pertaining to ........... Coy Glen during 1997**and Coy Glen Visit-Oct.. 14,1997. Clifford was thanked for contributing work to the Coy Glen discussion. Membership appointments for 2001 were discussed. Members voted to recommend Walter Buble to the Board as a voting member (currently he is an Associate Member). Eva and Elissa agreed to being recommended for re-appointment to the Board. Both will need to send a letter to the town Clerk stating that they would like to stay on the Board. Barney will ask Jon Meigs if he would like to return as a voting member. Sue suggested contacting a women she recently met concerning membership (Associate). This women is a retired plant science professor/researcher who lives on Woolf Lane. Elissa requested that she not be re-appointed to the EMC. Walter is not sure he could handle it. Clifford and Walter will both consider EMC appointment and let us know by Nov.16. Report on South Hill Conservation Zonis. A meeting with Supervisor Valentino,Jon Kanter, and Sue with Ithaca College representatives Tom Salm,Peter Trowbridge, and Holt Architects was held September 21st. Tom Salm will be reporting next week to the College's Board of Trustees on the recent botanical/ecological study, and a proposed Master Plan for the College. Upon obtaining approval of the proposal by the Trustees, the College will release the information to the Town. In the Master Plan, it appears that the College, and their consultants, are not at this time calling for significant development within the proposed South Hill Conservation Zone. However, there is a large area, in the vicinity of the observatory(south and west of) where IC thinks they may need more ball fields. Until we actually have a copy of the plan we cannot assess this proposal. We have to wait. The area in question has rare plants. We need to understand the term "successional ". We will ask Nancy Ostman when she visits the Board in November about this. Richard warned us to take care that the water maintain its natural acid condition. Various Updates: Personal Watercraft legislation is now law. A second NYS law will impose stricter emission controls-[California standards]on new watercraft in successional steps to 2009, and is applicable to the whole State of New York. The Lakefront Development Plan [which Tom Niederkom is a consultant on] will be proposing noise control for all 6 communities, involving 1500 feet buffer from the shore. Don contacted the City. He was assured that the Fuertes Bird Sanctuary will not be involved in the Stewart Park Nature Trail. It will be near the Boat Club Building,but we are still concerned about the width. They talk about another bridge to the golf course. John Yntema asked about "Widewater". Elissa read a report from the Plantations Newsletter of 1997, which announced the gift from John Babcock and his sister Barbara Paine, of land at Coy Glen to the Plantations. This gift was donated honor of Ms. Paine. Meeting was adjourned at 9:10. Submitted by Elizabeth deProsse, Secretary