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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOC Minutes 2022-11-02 TOWN OF ITHACA CODES AND ORDINANCES COMMITTEE (COC) Meeting of November 2, 2022—5:31 pm Town Hall Aurora Conference Room Final Approved Minutes Members Present: In person: Bill Goodman, Chair, Eva Hoffmann, Eric Levine, Rob Rosen, & Chris Jung. Ariel Casper (via Zoom). Staff Present: In person: Chris Balestra, Planner, & Susan Brock, Counsel. Marty Moseley, Director of Code Enforcement, &Nick Goldsmith, Sustainability Planner (via Zoom). Guests: None. The meeting was broadcasted on YouTube and the Zoom platform was used for one COC member and some staff. Bill reviewed the agenda aloud. 1. Member comments/concerns: None. 2. Minutes: Eric moved to approve the 8/31/22 COC minutes; Eva seconded. All members voted in favor of approval. Eva moved to approve the 9/14/2022 COC minutes with minor grammatical changes; Chris J. seconded. All members voted in favor of approval. 3. Town Energy Code Supplement proposed revisions: Nick Goldsmith prepared a memo that outlined six proposed amendments to the Energy Code Supplement (ECS). He explained that the ECS will become more stringent on 1/1/2023 and will need to be refiled with NYS. Nick suggested that now would be the ideal time to revise the code before refiling with the state. He then briefly summarized the scope of each amendment being proposed and noted that he would submit a full redlined version of the current ECS with proposed amendments for the December COC meeting. Nick noted that the same changes were also being proposed in the city code. He ended by saying that there would be a more detailed round of revisions expected in another six to eight months as well. The committee asked a few brief questions but was supportive of the proposed amendments. Marty gave a brief update on how the implementation of the ECS has been going internally. There have been several commercial and residential projects that have come through; some have been complicated, which has precipitated internal staff discussion for clarification. Marty noted that some homeowners/contractors have chosen to reduce the size of their additions and projects to fall below the requirements in the ECS while others have complied without hesitation. Nick also mentioned that the Town of Ithaca was awarded $200,000 from NYSERDA, primarily to provide technical assistance to staff to help with the ECS review process, and to applicants to assist 1 with compliance with the ECS. The town could hire a third-party consultant who could provide this technical assistance to staff and applicants. The Town of Ithaca has to re-file the amended ECS 30 days after Jan 1st to continue enforcement, so Nick is looking for the committee to complete the review of proposed revisions in December so the ECS can be moved on to the Town Board for adoption at their year-end meeting. 4. Discussion of Draft Local Law- §270-219 Personal wireless service facilities: Susan Brock submitted the latest set of revisions, which incorporated all the changes to date and included new recommendations and questions. Also reviewed was a separate document that contained proposed aesthetic criteria applicable to non-small cell wireless facilities. Chris explained that the proposed language for the aesthetic criteria applicable to non-small cell wireless facilities came from comparing the language from the existing law and the criteria for small wireless facilities that the committee previously approved. The committee began their discussion with a review of the aesthetic criteria document for non-small cell wireless facilities. The committee proposed the following changes: 1. Consider changing the word "practical" to "practicable," if it is more appropriate. 2. Remove the comma between "covering" and "or." Also, add a sentence to note that this does not apply to guy wires. 4. Delete #4 entirely. After a bit more discussion, the committee approved the list with the above proposed changes and recommended that it be incorporated into the law accordingly. The COC then moved on to the revised law, focusing only on the sections highlighted in yellow. Definition section changes were as follows: 1. Under the "Personal Wireless Service Facility Permit" definition —the committee agreed to the proposed staff change to have the permit issued by the Director of Code Enforcement, after recommendation by the Director of Planning. 2. Under the "Setback" definition-The committee discussed but did not completely decide to delete the last sentence in the definition. This still needs a final decision. In Section "D. Approvals and permits required for personal wireless service facilities and Section 6409(a) eligible facilities," the committee agreed to all the highlighted changes (changing to Director of Code Enforcement). In Section "E. Shot Clock Periods and Tolling," the committee made the following change: E(2). Change "and" to "or" in the sentence that starts with "If the Director of Planning (or) the Director of Code Enforcement..." 2 In Section "G. Applications for personal wireless service facilities," the COC supported the recommended changes but requested the same change as in "E": change "and" to "or." In G.2(b), state that the Town Board will set ROW fees by resolution and do not mention any ROW fee amounts. In Section 'T Visual impact analysis," the committee decided that the analysis should also look at impacts on important/scenic views. In Section "L. Design standards," Chris mentioned that this is where we would add the separate sheet that contains the aesthetic criteria applicable to non-small cell facilities. A future revised law would have (1) Aesthetic criteria applicable to small wireless facilities, followed by a list of criteria, and (2) Aesthetic criteria applicable to non-small cell wireless facilities, followed by a list. The committee then went into a long discussion about prohibiting PWSF's in historic districts, ultimately deciding to add "historic districts" to #4 of the aesthetic criteria list applicable to small wireless facilities, specifically the placement guidelines for node facilities and wireless support structures. The committee felt that prohibiting them entirely did not seem necessary with the other considerations in place. The committee left off at the bottom of page 20 (hard copy), which is just before item "j" in the aesthetic criteria applicable to small wireless facilities. They will pick back up in December with the remainder of pg. 20, through the end of the sections provided along with any additional sections to be provided. 5. Other Business: -Next meeting: December 14t", 2022, at 5:30pm. -Agenda: ECS revisions & continued discussion of Draft Local Law §270-219 Personal wireless service facilities. 3