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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOC Minutes 2023-01-25 TOWN OF ITHACA CODES AND ORDINANCES COMMITTEE (COC) Meeting of January 25, 2023 —5:30 pm Town Hall Aurora Conference Room Minutes Members Present: In person: Bill Goodman, Chair, Ariel Casper& Eric Levine. Excused: Eva Hoffmann & Rob Rosen. Zoom-participant/guest Chris Jung. Staff Present: Chris Balestra, Planner; Susan Brock, Counsel; and C.J. Randall, Director of Planning. Staff via Zoom: Marty Moseley, Director of Code Enforcement. Guests: None Bill reviewed the agenda aloud and mentioned possibly going into closed session at the end of the meeting to seek the advice of counsel. C. J. Randall was introduced and welcomed as the new Town of Ithaca Director of Planning. Bill also noted that the committee did not have a quorum of members, so there could not be a vote to approve minutes from the December 14, 2022 COC meeting. This will be done at the February COC meeting. 1. Member comments/concerns: None. 2. Continued review of revised draft local law- §270-219 Personal wireless service facilities: Susan Brock submitted the latest set of provisions for the committee to review. A summary of the discussion and COC changes are below: SUBSTANTIVE PROVISIONS RE: SIGNIFICANT GAPS/LEAST INTRUSIVE MEANS FINDINGS: Susan asked the committee if this finding should be made for every facility application or only those which require site plan review by the Planning Board. The committee agreed that these should be for those requiring site plan review, so all references to the Director of Code Enforcement should be deleted. Susan will make changes in the next revision to reflect this. • First paragraph under this section, last sentence: add "to and" between the words voice calls and landlines that are connected... • Page 2: o Item (c) - has some wording that needs to be revised and will be revised by counsel. o Item (d) -Susan will add language related to dropped call and failure rates, along with whether customers are affected for only a limited period. o Under 2, second paragraph— remove "Director of Code Enforcement," change "and" to "or"just before item (ii). • Page 3—at top. More research will be done regarding denying the application where safety standards are not met. FINDINGS ON APPLICATIONS: Page 3-The findings will need to be revised to show which apply to all applications, and which apply only to those applications requiring site plan review 1 (findings for applications requiring site plan review include whether there is a significant gap and the project is the least intrusive means to address the gap). The list of seven items under "C. General criteria" will be sorted out. • Number 7 -The committee agreed to keep the co-location design requirement for proposed towers (except towers that are small wireless facilities). REMOVAL PROVISIONS: The language in this section was sent to the Town Engineer for review and counsel is awaiting comments. There is reference to the value of the security bond for removal being determined by the Town Engineer. An alternative would be the value being provided by the applicant in a cost estimate, and a review of the amount by the Town Engineer or Town consultant. The committee agreed to the applicant providing the cost estimate for removal. • Regarding second paragraph— notice provisions. The current telecom law does not have this. Committee discussed whether it is necessary and how the Town would know if facilities were obsolete/unused. Final decision—if a facility becomes obsolete or ceases to be used for its intended function for 120 consecutive days, do not include a requirement that the Town notify the owner/operator of the obsolete or unused facility, but require owner/operator removal within 90 days after the 120 day period runs. The security could then be used to remove it, if necessary. VISUAL IMPACT ANALYSIS REVISIONS:The committee did not have any changes or comments to the proposed language. TOWN CONSULTANTS: • Revised wording in 270-219.K(4) - Keep or delete "attorneys" on the list of services to be covered in the escrow fee?The committee agreed to keep attorneys on the list. • Revised wording in 270-219.K(5) - Remove "or any" seven lines into the paragraph, after the exceeding 50 feet language. The committee discussed the minimum deposit amount and ultimately agreed to not put a dollar amount in the local law, rather reference the fee schedule where the amount would be set by Town Board resolution and could be revisited. The total would not be more than the greater of any required escrow or 5% of the project cost, not including SEQRA. On the topic of town consultants, Chris Balestra reported a conversation with a local resident who has sat in on the City of Ithaca 's recent AT&T telecommunications proposals. It was observed that large amounts of data were submitted by AT&T and that most of the data did not include the information required by the city requirements, e.g., dropped call logs. She noted that FCC shot clock requirements could prohibit internal staff from conducting a thorough review. The local resident suggested that the town consider hiring an independent consultant expert to review the applications. The committee agreed that this was a good idea and considered setting up a system with a list of consultants/contracts ahead of time, so if this 2 situation occurs at the town, then the town would have a list on call who could review applications in a way that would not conflict with the shot clock. PERSONAL WIRELESS SERVICE FACILITY PERMIT: Based on recommendation by the Director of Code Enforcement, the committee agreed that this definition should read that the permit be issued by the Director of Code Enforcement, after recommendation by the Director of Planning, only where site plan review is not required. SETBACK-this language was related to events where an applicant leases only a portion of the lot. The committee agreed with staff to delete the following sentence "In the event that an Applicant leases only a portion of the lot, the Setback shall be measured from the Facility to the line of that portion of the real property which is leased by the Applicant." The review of the revised telecommunications provisions concluded. Additional sections will be provided for committee review at the next meeting. 3. Other Business: Next meeting: February 15, 2023, at 5:30 p.m. Bill noted he would allow public comment at the beginning of the meeting. He also mentioned that he intends this to be the final review of the telecommunications law language for the committee before recommending it to the town board. Note: Eva is excused from the 2/15 meeting. Chris B will check in with the member not in attendance to confirm for 2/15. Next meeting agenda: Final review and discussion of draft §270-219 Personal wireless service facilities. Minutes-tabled from previous meeting due to no quorum. No changes noted. The meeting concluded at 6:41 p.m. 3