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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPC Minutes 2017-03-161 TOWN OF ITHACA PLANNING COMMITTEE SUMMARY OF MARCH 16, 2017 MEETING COMMITTEE MEMBERS PRESENT: Rich DePaolo (Chair), Rod Howe, Pat Leary. TOWN STAFF/TOWN BOARD MEMBERS PRESENT: Susan Ritter, Director of Planning; Bill Goodman, Town Supervisor; Bruce Bates, Director of Code Enforcement. GUEST: Tom Santurri; Barbara Yunis. Chair Rich DePaolo called the meeting to order at approximately 4:30 p.m. Persons to Be Heard: None. Committee announcement and concerns: None reported. Consider January meeting summary: Rod moved; Pat seconded; Committee approved with minor edits. Continue consideration of a recommendation to the Town Board for amendments to the Community Commercial Zone concerning restaurant drive-throughs: - Rich: Directed attention to staff prepared language pertaining to restaurant drive-throughs. The language included criteria discussed by the Committee at the February meeting. He noted that the language did not include a revised distance measurement between drive-through businesses. - Sue: Responded that she had difficulty coming up with a rationale and strategy for a measured distance requirement. She considered the idea of a measurement between restaurant access driveways, mentioned at the March meeting, but this did not seem workable. Burger King, for instance, has two driveways, both of which egress on to private interior driveways. Would you measure “as the crow flies”, or from the point where the access drive intersects with a public road, and what would be the basis for any particular required distance? - Rich: Asked about limiting restaurant drive-throughs that are on the same road? He expressed concern for the proliferation of drive-throughs without adequate criteria. - Sue: Responded that she thought the Committee had rejected the idea of restricting drive-throughs on the same road, and that it was her hope that the proposed criteria would have a limiting effect on future restaurant drive-throughs. She expressed interest in having the new zoning proposed for the East Hill Plaza commercial area address drive-throughs, for all uses, more comprehensively. - Committee: Concluded that since most of the land is Cornell-owned and subject to a new planning effort that proliferation of drive-throughs was unlikely and a not including a distance measurement between drive-throughs was ok. The Committee agreed to several changes in the draft language, including: a) remove wording after “drive-thru window” and replace with a period. e) remove all wording after “parking areas” and replace with “do not pass through a drive-through lane”. - Committee: Agreed to recommend the proposed language to the Town Board for consideration (possible public hearing May 8th). - Staff: Asked about referring the language to the Planning Board and Zoning Board of Appeals for input. Committee thought that would be fine. It will also need Susan Brock’s input and formatting for local law. 2 Discuss possible strategies for addressing Airbnb: - Rich: Referred to the handouts provided by staff (Airbnb Market Report; Airbnb: Innovation and Its Externalities). He noted the revenue figures in the market study and expressed surprise at how high the income potential could be given the right property. It gave him a better picture of what is at stake with the Airbnb issue. He raised two current Town issues pertaining to Airbnb. One being the Renwick Heights neighborhood group asking that the Town to do something to address them, and second the Code/Building Department’s interpretation that Airbnb (short-term rentals) are not allowed. Rich reminded the Committee that the neighborhood group wanted, at a minimum, that the Town publicize current regulations. - Committee: Discussed various aspects of Airbnb and other short term rentals, and how enforcement tends to be based on complaints, which is not necessarily an equitable way to handle the issue. They agreed that property owners should be put on notice that they are operating at their own risk. - Rich: Summarized action items: 1. Address immediate concerns of residents of Renwick Heights through a notification process (letter, etc.). 2. Work on a more comprehensive solution, possibly through some sort of owner-occupied requirements. - Bill: Offered to meet with known Airbnb participants i.e.) Jane Marie Law and afterwards, follow-up with research on what other municipalities are doing legislatively. - Bill: Suggested that any letter drafted for the media have other interested municipalities sign on to it. - Rich: Volunteered to draft a notification letter. He will work with Bruce to get relevant citations in NYS Building Code. He also suggested that Committee members focus attention on the last few pages of the Airbnb article for the range ideas for addressing Airbnb. - Bill: Mentioned an upcoming webinar (March 25th) concerning Airbnb/short-term rentals to be shown at Town Hall. Continue consideration of rental property oversight strategies and recommendation to Town Board: - Rich: Reported that he had revised the documents based on comments from the previous Planning Committee meeting. The Committee went through the language in more detail, with the following comments: Document 1: Residential Rental Units B. (1): delete the proposed language for minimal landscaping standards. C. Possibly (not unanimous decision) add wording that makes it clear that this section pertains to those who have never received an operating permit. (i.e. “Failure… “to obtain”). Add that owner shall be given 30 days to get an Operating Permit. Add after Director of Code Enforcement “or designee” or just list the “Code Enforcement Department”. Yet to be determined: Does the COE have the authority to order the rental unit to be vacated; is this legal? E. Add language stating that permit is not subject to another fire inspection if it has already had an inspection within the last 60 days, when permit is transferred. F-J. Fees: The Town already has fees established for inspections/re-inspections, etc. Review existing fee requirements and consider eliminating this new proposed fee section. § Rental Property Information Form: Rich and Bruce will work on the form and propose included items. Bruce will ask that Lori Kofoid be included in this discussion. 3 § Penalties for offenses: Change “weekly” penalties to “daily” penalties as an incentive to correct the situation. The specific fees (highlighted) need to be modified and Rich will research to see what the maximum NYS would allow; he recalled a session at the Association of Towns conference (speaker Brody Smith) regarding short-term rentals that reported $350 as the maximum. § Non-disclosure of Personal Information: No changes, but the Committee does not want to have the identification of “renter occupants” collected as part of the regular process. If this information is needed, for a particular reason, then it must be shielded and not entered into Municity. § Broker’s Responsibility: Change “fourteen”-business day to “thirty”. § Implementation: No changes. Document 2: Zoning Law – Permitted Principal Uses/Accessory Apartments Permitted Principal Uses section: Remove (6), it is redundant. Accessory Apartments section: - Purpose and Intent: Applicable zones are yet to be determined. - Standards: (1) Owner occupancy: The owner can temporarily vacate their premises for up to a one-year period and still maintain definition as owner-occupied. However, how often they can vacate their premises over their period of ownership was not clearly decided by the Committee. Clarified during the discussion is that “30 days” or less is where the Town is headed for defining a short-term rental. Anything more than that will need an Operating Permit, so anyone vacating and renting their house for more than 30 days would assume to need an Operating Permit. No clear decision was made on the exact wording for clarifying the last sentence (only one unit can be rented). Current wording is “An owner shall be permitted a maximum of two dwelling units per lot”. (4) Accessory size: Change to a maximum of 800 sq. ft. Remove 50% criteria. (5) Reversion: Revisit resolution #53 to change parameters. - Rich: Will provide revised language to the Committee for the April meeting. Staff updates and reports: - Sue: Asked Committee to consider revisions to Town’s telecommunication law to address current interest in short poles (utility type poles) in right-of-way. - Committee: Agreed to consider. Discuss next meeting date and upcoming agenda items: Next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, April 20, 2017. Continue to consider rental management regulations. Revisions to telecommunication law. *Note: Sidewalk meeting will be held before the next Planning Committee meeting. Meeting ended at 6:40pm.