HomeMy WebLinkAboutCB Minutes 6-1-06 Town of Ithaca Conservation Board
June 1, 2006
Final Minutes
PRESENT: Diane Conneman, Lenore Durkee, James Hamilton, Eva Hoffmann, Brent
Katzmann, Jon Meigs, Larry Sallinger
STAFF: Mike Smith
VISITORS: Chris Soule and son Michael Soule
The meeting was called to order at 7:35PM. There were no persons to be heard.
Member concerns: James suggested that an easy and economical way to develop a
network of walking paths in the Town would be to use the routes of various easements
such as those for water, sewer and other utilities and asked if maps were available that
show these. Mike replied that he doesn't think the easement boundaries are something
the Town has in a digital form and could be placed on a map, but location of water and
sewer lines should be available. Mike will check into this. Park and trails already being
planned have included some of these connections. One difficulty with James'
suggestion might be that most easements go through private property with potential
conflict of interest.
Chair report: Diane explained that the COC is working on an amendment to the
Zoning Ordinance that will permit the use of solar collectors and installations.
Coordinator report: Mike discussed the public Information meeting on the lighting
ordinance. There were few questions. Cornell's representatives inquired about how to
define "glare" and also asked about the possibility of allowing some lights to remain on
for a longer time than permitted for special cases. More discussion is needed before
the ordinance goes to the Town Board at the COC. The draft ordinance is available on
the Town web site.
Business: The minutes of the meetings of 4/6/06 and 5/4/06 were approved with one
abstention, after minor corrections.
Fischer Award: The Fischer Award presentation will be held on Monday, June 12 as
part of the agenda of the Town Board meeting, tentatively between 6.00 and 7.00 PM.
Brent and Mike will check on last year's press release and Brent will make the required
modifications and prepare the name plate that goes on the plaque. Diane will check
with Warren Almon on how the name should appear. James will take photographs. CB
members are urged to attend the ceremony.
Stream setback ordinance: Some members pointed out a number of inaccuracies on
the map, including the position of streams and street names. Also, there might be a
problem for a property owner with interpretation of setback widths at branch points of
streams. Eva said that the map should be as accurate as possible, even though
streams change course over time. Mike replied that this is one of the reasons the map
is not being included as part of the ordinance, but is referenced in the text, and could
require periodic updating. Brent suggested that property owners should be reminded of
possible map inaccuracies and that field verifications may be necessary.
Lenore suggested some clarification of labels in Appendix A, Figures 3 and 4.
Development rights discussion: Mike provided maps that offer different kinds of
information that might be useful to the Board. They were 1) an anticipated land use
map; 2) a zoning map; 3) a UNA and Critical Environmental Areas map; 4) a Park &
Open Space Plan map; 5 a protected properties map. The state is interested in
preserving good farmland and has funds to support this. Does the Town want to use
the funds it sets side (ca. $50,000/ year) for farm land acquisition? Will farmland be
important in 20 years? Are trails or forested lands or environmentally sensitive areas
more important than farm land? Should the money be used for agricultural easements
or parkland development? James argued that if we use these funds to buy little
properties, we may not be able to have the financial resources to preserve larger, really
important areas, like some CZs. We need to develop criteria to guide us in how the
funds should be spent. Diane asked how we should go about setting up these criteria
and priorities. Jon said we should use these maps to set up our own priorities and then
compare them to others (e.g. ag interests). We should try to develop the criteria,
estimate the number of acres that should be preserved and make some stab at the cost
of the program. Brent reminded the members that we need to think far ahead--where
will development occur and what areas will become important to preserve? what is the
future of existing farmlands? What will be the environmental challenges? The task is
enormous and probably will require more expert input than the CB is able to provide.
After further discussion, it was agreed that the members will read the document entitled
The Town of Ithaca Natural Heritage Preservation Program (Draft Feb. 27, 2001) with
careful consideration of the criteria mentioned in the document as well as other features
that are critical to the development of an effective program. The Board should decide if
this document is something to work from and develop or does the Board want to go in a
different direction. The July meeting will continue discussion of this topic.
Reports:
ERC --none;
Scenic Resources Committee--the Committee is preparing the final report on its work;
EMC--none;
Six Mile Creek (last meeting was 5-22-06 and the Monitoring Program has three new
volunteers. One volunteer will be attending a workshop on identification of benthic
macroinvertebrates and will be able to train new volunteers in this skill. The last
sampling indicated that water quality was very good--within the state swim guidelines.
The website for public access is coming along well. A problem is to use language and
graphics that the public can easily interpret. Next sampling date is June 28, 2006.
NAC--none.
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Other business: After discussion, Brent moved and Larry seconded that Chris
Benedict be invited to become a Member of the Conservation Board. Diane will call the
other two candidates about participating as Associates.
It was noted that next year the CB will need to schedule its June meeting so as not to
conflict with the Ithaca Festival parade.
The meeting adjourned at 9:40PM.
Lenore Durkee
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