HomeMy WebLinkAboutCB Minutes 2009-02-05 Town of Ithaca Conservation Board
February 5, 2009
7:30 p.m.
Final minutes
Members present: Diane Conneman, Andrew Goodell, James Hamilton, Eva Hoffmann, Tony
Ingraham, Susan McCutcheon, Jon Meigs, Nirav Patel
Staff: Darby Kiley
Guest: Kristine Shaw
Persons to be heard: None, though our guest Ms. Shaw was introduced to members and staff and
invited to speak her mind if she felt like contributing at any time to our meeting. Kristine is
interested in joining the CB, and may become our liaison to Tompkins County's Environmental
Management Council.
Members' Concerns: None.
Chair and Coordinator Reports:
Chair: Diane noted that Cornell's Transportation-focused Generic Environmental Impact
Statement went to the Planning Board on Tuesday. Carrowmoor would be doing a full
Environmental Impact Statement. She invited members to attend a Woodland Seminar in
Spencer on Feb. 21, sponsored by the NY Forest Owners Association's Southern Finger Lakes
Chapter. She reported being impressed at all the newly planted trees with drip irrigation she saw
during a recent visit to Israel.
Coordinator: Darby noted that sometimes the Conservation Board writes articles for the Town
Newsletter. We still have a vacancy on the board, so we can resubmit that information. Is
anyone interested in putting something different together? The deadline is March 2nd. Tony
volunteered to write something on scenic views, hoping to report that the Town Board would
adopt the list of best views identified by the SRC report as officially worth conserving by
Comprehensive Planning.
Carrowmoor: The public scoping meeting will be held on February 17 and comments can be
submitted for 10 more days after that meeting. After that the draft Environmental Impact
Statement will be prepared.
IC A&E Center Wetlands Mitigation Plan: A public hearing on the Supplemental
Environmental Impact Statement was held on February 3 at the PB meeting with public
comments being accepted until February 13. After that the PB will accept the SEIS, will make a
determination, possibly draft a Findings Statement, and also discuss the Site Plan.
Cayuga Medical Center will be keeping a residential building, near hospital entrance, that was
previously slated to be demolished. The PB, acting as the Sign Review Board, recommended
hospital signs be approved by the Zoning Board of Appeals. The signs do not meet the
requirements of sign law, but since they're for a hospital, might be allowed.
Stream Setback Law: Still no local law from the Attorney for the Town
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Business: the minutes for 1/8/09 were approved with a few small revisions.
After discussion and minor revision, Tony moved, Eva seconded, and all agreed that this
finalized 2009 CB Work Priorities list be approved:
Conservation Board 2009 Work Priorities
Monitor the Town's Comprehensive Planning process, and promote environmental
conservation in this plan.
Monitor town adoption of the recommended set of scenic views to be protected and develop
tools for public education on the importance of scenic resources. Complete the design and
installation of at least one scenic resource sign by the end of the year.
Participate in development of final report and encourage enactment of Coy Glen
Conservation Zone.
Investigate invasive species management on Town properties. Educate residents on
invasive species.
Investigate options for local laws to preserve trees; follow up on recent recommendations to
Codes and Ordinances Committee for changes to conservation zoning for tree protection.
Monitor and engage as appropriate efforts to manage Town deer populations. Educate
residents on deterring deer and preventing deer damage.
Continue ongoing activities such as Fischer Award, Environmental Review Committee
reports to Planning Board, and respond to Town Board requests.
Investigate planning for Natural Heritage Preservation Program (NHPP) development and
funding in 2010.
(Darby will see if Sue Ritter can remind us of the status and intent of the NHPP, something we
looked at quite a while ago.)
Reviewing the 1993 Comp Plan Goals and Objectives:
Darby put the Comp Plan in legal and historical perspective: Under New York State Town Law,
Section 272-a. "Town Comprehensive Plan," finds that local governments make decisions on
growth and development. Town governments have the authority to undertake comprehensive
planning and to regulate land use for the purpose of protecting the public health, safety and
general welfare of its citizens. Citizens should participate in the planning process. The
legislature encourages but does not require towns to adopt a comp plan.
Under law, a comp plan includes goals, objectives,principles, policies and standards for growth
and development; existing and proposed location and intensity of land uses; consideration of ag
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uses, historic and cultural resources, natural resources and environmentally sensitive areas;
population and demographic trends; current and future facilities (transportation, utilities,
infrastructure, educational, historic, health, commercial, industrial); context and coordination
with other plans; measures, programs, and devices to implement the goals and objectives.
The most important point in this law is that all town land use regulations must be in accordance
with a comprehensive plan adopted pursuant to this section.
The Town of Ithaca is updating its Comprehensive Plan. Since the 1993 Comp Plan was
adopted, many of the recommendations have been implemented. In early 2007, the Town Board
appointed a Comp Plan Review Committee to review the 1993 Town of Ithaca Comp Plan and
related documents and to report to the Town Board with recommendations. One key
recommendation identified the need to fully update the comp plan. The nine member Comp Plan
Steering Committee started meeting in February 2008 and is in the midst of work on the plan
update.
Resident and stakeholder input is needed to update the Plan to reflect current and future issues.
The first step was a resident survey. Now they are gathering input on a variety of specific
topics. Some input will be solicited in Focus Group meetings and another approach is to contact
individuals who have a stake or interest in the Town's future.
CB members, having studied sections B and C of Chapter III on Goals, Objectives, and
Recommended Actions in the 1993 Comp Plan, suggested that more attention be paid to
connectivity and biological corridors as they affect wildlife in the Town. Land needs to be
understood as an interconnected ecosystem to prevent isolated islands of habitat unable to sustain
important species. A good open space plan would identify and map out such connections. When
development plans are approved, it is even more important to follow up on the implementation of
the building and site plans to make sure that good ecological designs are actually followed. There
ought to be ways for the Town to reward the practical and actual development of good building
plans, as obeying environmental laws should be just as important as abiding by any other law.
The public needs to be educated in the importance of conservation; perhaps via more information
in the Town Newsletter about practical measures they can take as residents here. Fact sheets on
tree planting, green practices, weeding invasive species, for example, might be published. A
special Energy section in the next Comp Plan should address conservation plans the Town could
do. Perhaps a green roof should be installed on Town Hall. Conservation and Energy need to be
considered together. Construction of new buildings might require energy-efficient design. The
CB looks forward to Diane keeping them connected to Comp Plan revision.
Regular Reports and Updates:
Environmental Review Committee: Eva noted that the chair for this committee would rotate
among its members;just prior to tonight's meeting they were reviewing IC's wetlands mitigation
plan.
Scenic Resources Committee: Tony, the new chair, will soon arrange a meeting to consider an
Interpretive Signs for one of the best viewing sites. He has a good book for this by Suzanne
Trapp on Signs, Trails, and Wayside Exhibits (Univ WS State Press, 1994).
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R. Fischer Award Committee: James notes that an invitation for nominations has been sent to
Ithaca Journal, Ithaca Times, and Tompkins Weekly. He's seen it published in Journal and
Times. Brent sent email invitations to several list-serves and conservation and sustainability
groups. James hasn't yet seen any nominations, hopes the Town Clerk's office would be getting
them by the Feb 28th deadline.
Tompkins County EMC: still no Town rep on that committee.
Sixmile Creek Volunteer Monitoring Program: James reported that the 6MC group met with
several other Cayuga watershed groups at the Community Science Institute's (CSI) symposium
on Jan 22, 5 to 7 pm at the Human Resources Bldg. About 40 attended for supper and talks by
Stephen Penningroth, Frank Proto, Craig Schutt, and Nick Schipanski. Steve explained that CSI
has a website designer upgrading a way to improve access to the water quality data so that it will
be easier to make sense of it. Frank noted that state funding for environmental quality was going
to suffer big cuts, and encouraged us to convince legislators that our project was well worth
funding. Craig explained that a Watershed Protection Alliance that funds us would be suffering a
$1.1 million cut, and hopes volunteers could write legislators to support the Finger Lakes/Lake
Ontario Alliance. Nick gave a brief explanation of BMI surveys performed in Six Mile Creek,
noting that CSI hoped more volunteers could be trained to do this in other watersheds despite the
considerable time and effort it takes. A Q&A session after these talks discussed CU's lake source
cooling monitoring, the value that 6MC data had for Ithaca's City water treatment plant, and the
big need for fresh new volunteers.
City of Ithaca Natural Areas Commission: No report.
Comprehensive Plan: The public opinion survey called 3,500 town resident phone numbers, and
managed to complete reports for 359 phone interviews. It will take a while to digest these ("Don't
even get me started on the squirrels."). On Feb 26, 6:30 pm, a meeting of the public to focus on
neighborhood group input to Comp Plan will be held in Town Hall.
Other Business: Final committee membership was officially recognized as follows:
ERC: with Eva today's chair, will rotate chairs with her, Jon, Tony, Nirav, and Andy.
SRC: Tony chair, with Jon, James & Eva
R.Fischer Award: James chair, with Susan and Diane
The American Farmland Trust will hold a symposium on March 25th in Syracuse on "Planning
for Farms, Food& Energy in Central New York" and members are invited to consider attending,
and to check out www.farmland.org.
Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 9:16 p.m.
Minutes generated by James Hamilton
Approved at March 5, 2009 meeting
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