HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOC Minutes 2022-09-14 TOWN OF ITHACA CODES AND ORDINANCES COMMITTEE (COC)
Meeting of September 14, 2022— 5:30 pm —via Zoom and live on
YouTube
Minutes
Members Present: Bill Goodman, Chair, Eva Hoffmann, Eric Levine, Rob Rosen, Chris Jung &
Ariel Casper-Members.
Staff Present: Chris Balestra, Planner; Susan Brock, Counsel; Susan Ritter, Director of Planning;
Marty Moseley, Director of Code Enforcement.
Zoom Guests: Irina, Sheila Out, Wendy, Andrew & Marie Molnar, David, Adam, Lydia, Jeff and
2 call in guests.
The meeting was broadcasted on YouTube along with the Zoom platform. Bill reviewed the
agenda and began allowing public comment.
1. Member comments/concerns: None. No meeting minutes were ready from the August
meeting.
2. Public Comments (time limit 3 minutes per person): Bill noted several comments were
emailed through the Town Clerk's office and received by the committee.
-Irina was concerned about cell phone antennas being placed near homes to fill gaps in
coverage and how they would impact the home values and compromise health, supported a
minimum 1500 ft setback between facilities.
-Wendy stated that 5G is invasive, uses too many resources, and there is no need for more
advanced technology than the current, adequate 4G.
-Sheila was most concerned over health risks from radiation and supported the largest setbacks
possible. She also thanked the committee for the work being put into the revisions.
-Marie thanked the committee for the informed and detailed conversations. She also
recommended the town disallow redundant wireless infrastructure and define the parameters
for gaps in coverage to be proven as well as 1640 ft setbacks from occupied locations. She
asked how the possible number of 250 ft setback came into play when the committee was
agreeable to the minimum of 1500 ft at previous meetings.
-David appreciated being able to give input and urged the town to write strict codes for any
wireless infrastructure, only allow antennas where there is a proven gap in cell phone coverage
and a min setback of 1640 ft., require general liability insurance without pollution exclusion and
conduct radiation testing. Main concern was protecting health.
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-Adam had concerns over the radiation, EMF and health effects based on proximity of the cell
antennas and the potential that nearby home values could be reduced by 20%.
-Andrew thanked the committee for their time and shared a short video on health effects vs
safety standards related to Microwave Power Density (radiation). He also noted it did not
appear that any of the City of Ithaca's new Telecommunications provisions had been
incorporated into the Town's draft and asked why and where the revision recommendations
that were emailed stood?
-Jerome thanked the committee for their time and advised to take precautions for the short-
and long-term effects of all wireless facilities as well as require general liability insurance
without a pollution exclusion.
-Lydia agreed with all the previous points and noted concern with the Telecommunications Act
not allowing health concerns to be taken into account for regulating the cell industry. She
thanked the committee for being heard.
-April asked for sufficient protection for the population's health and recommended a 1500 ft
minimum setback to mitigate the potential radiation, only allow if proven gap in cell coverage
and include unannounced radiation testing. She also thanked the committee.
The guests were thanked for their comments. Staff and committee members continued the
meeting on Zoom for the remainder of the agenda. Guests were encouraged to watch from the
YouTube platform for the remainder of the meeting. Bill did note that further review of
additional sections would still be required by the committee prior to recommendation to the
Town Board, and that the Town Board process included holding an official public hearing prior
to decisive action.
Susan B. provided another reminder of the Town of Fishkill process in adopting their recent
local law and restated the statement made by their consultant Attorney Andrew Campanelli
regarding health effects that "a municipality cannot legally regulate telecommunications
based on health concerns if the facility is compliant with the FCC regulations regarding RF
emissions." Susan then read another excerpt from the November 2021 COC minutes which
referenced a quote from the Town of Fishkill public hearing when Mr. Campanelli explained, for
the record, "that local governments may not regulate wireless facilities based on
environmental concerns, which Federal courts in NYS have ruled means health concerns, to
the extent that the facility is FCC compliant and that is the law."
Bill addressed the question from the public on the "placeholder" number for the proposed
setback to be 250 ft between facilities verses the minimum of 1500 ft or 1640 ft recommended.
He explained the two-year history of the committee, the changing of members and various
aspects of the aesthetic considerations including setbacks. The COC mapped out both options
of the setback distances chosen by the City of Ithaca and Town of Fishkill. He stated that the
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law could be subject to challenge if the municipality uses health concerns in relation to the
setback distances adopted, as it would be in violation of the federal law.
Ariel stated that it would be helpful for him and future public comment periods to know which
spectrum of 5G is being talked about, what band/frequency. There are several frequencies
available and used and the public has been simply saying "5G" with no regard to which
frequency they are talking about.
3. Continued review of Draft Local Law-§270-219 Personal wireless service facilities:
It was noted that the draft being reviewed is the same from the meeting two weeks ago.
Additional sections are anticipated for further review including the gap in coverage
requirement, based on the Second Circuit guidelines. Chris and Susan are looking at the items
raised at the last COC meeting, including fall zones over property lines, and which criteria
applies to larger towers compared to small facilities. Susan is reviewing the existing law to see if
there are any other items not addressed in the current draft proposed language. She will review
the Fishkill law to ensure all the items the committee wanted included in the draft are included.
She will also review all the public comments. This is anticipated to take another couple of COC
meetings to review all of the final language being proposed.
The committee briefly discussed the email received from Andrew Molnar:
1- Final setback numbers between facilities - Bill addressed this earlier. Susan added that,
although a commenter said Attorney Campanelli said towns can establish any limit they
wish, the limits cannot have an effective prohibition for the service. She noted the Town
of Fishkill Board asked for the setbacks to be as large as legally possible and they
ended up with 300 ft for all small wireless facilities from any residential dwelling or
structure within residentially zoned districts unless there is a colocation or existing
pole.
2- Add schools and day care facilities to the setback distance-Susan would need to know
the basis for adding these locations if regulations cannot be based on health effects. For
example, what aesthetic or other legally permissible criteria could be applied to add
those specific areas? In a quick search of the Fishkill law it did not appear that schools or
day care facilities were called out specifically, the other setback number used in other
zoning districts in their law was 50 ft.
3/4-Adequate Coverage definition-Susan addressed above, noting that part had not been
drafted yet, however will be researched. The law will follow the definitions and
interpretations from the Second Circuit Court of Appeals (personal wireless service
meaning phone coverage, not internet/data).
5- Include fall zone requirement-this is being drafted as noted above.
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6- Add a statement in the Purpose and legislative Intent section to minimize the number of
facilities to avoid redundant infrastructure. Susan noted that in some cases, two smaller
facilities would be preferred rather than one large one depending on location and
impacts. There are other protection measures in the Purpose and legislative Intent
section as well and this could be discussed further if the committee would like.
4. Other business - next meeting: Bill proposed combining the October and November
meetings to be held as one on November 2"d, 2022.
Agenda: Review draft revised Telecommunications Law. Also, changes to the Ithaca
Energy Code Supplement (ECS) are anticipated to be presented by Nick Goldsmith,
Sustainability Planner. The goal is to have the ECS amendments adopted by the end of
the year. If the committee recommends changes to the language provided for the
November meeting, the final recommendation to the Town Board could include those
changes to save the revised document having to come back for a second COC meeting.
Susan informed the committee that an email was sent out from the Town Clerk that the NYS
Governor is not extending the Executive Order that allowed the meetings to be held fully
virtually. The new town policy will be followed, which requires a quorum of members to be in
one place physically and open to the public. There are provisions for extreme circumstances for
a member to participate virtually and she recommended the full policy be sent to COC
members for reference. This committee has 6 members, so 4 physically present is required.
There is no requirement in the policy that staff must be present physically-they could attend
virtually depending on how each board and committee chose to move forward. There also
does not appear to be a grace period from the time the Executive Order expired (30-day period
ended 9/12/22).
Chris noted a large amount public attendance at COC meetings could cause the need to move
to the Town Board room. She also stated she would be at the Town Hall for future meetings.
Bill noted the hybrid meeting set up in the Town Board room is less effective due to the audio
compared to the smaller Aurora Conference room. New audio equipment is anticipated for the
bigger room in the future but there has been a delay in receiving the components.
Rob was not in favor of hybrid meetings and preferred all virtual or all in person. Eva was in
favor of virtual meetings in place of in person when snow or other major circumstances arise
and noted preference for the Aurora room for hybrid and in person meetings. Ariel was in favor
of hybrid meetings.
Committee members agreed to combine October and November and hold the meeting in
person on November 2nd
The meeting concluded at 6:43 p.m.
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