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HomeMy WebLinkAboutAG Minutes 2020-11-17 Town of Ithaca Agriculture Committee Meeting Tuesday, November 17, 2020, 6:00 pm (via Zoom Video Conference) Final Minutes Members Present: Lisa Ferguson, Claire Forest, Christianne White, Matthew Stalker. Members Absent: Michael Casper, Steve Cummins, Russ Wedemeyer, Jamie Baker, Sharon Tregaskis. Town Representatives: Mike Smith (Senior Planner), Bill Goodman (Deputy Town Supervisor) Guests: Graham Savio (CCE), Bill Hilker (Honeyrock Farm), Liz Coakley (Groundswell) 1. Persons to be heard-none 2. Member Announcements and concerns • Matthew reported that his farm has an active Facebook Page, AJ Teeter Farm, for educational purposes to keep the public informed. The lack of rain resulted in a lower feed harvest and herd size decrease. Low availability of butchers/meat processing was also noted. 3. Chair(Lisa) and Coordinator (Mike) reports/updates: • Mike Smith reported on the deer culling program. Spring 2020 resulted in 20 deer harvested. 2021 Plans include eliminating two locations, 6 total confirmed and 4 others in progress. A map showing the 6 confirmed properties is on the Town Website and will be updated when the new sites are added. • Claire shared information about a hunter neighboring her property interested in additional places to hunt. • Lisa reported that she connected with Graham Savio who has a website for local Ag products and is willing to list the Town of Ithaca products available. He is willing to speak at a future meeting to help with social media and internet resources and tips for farmers. 4. Ithaca Town Board (Bill) report/update: • Bill Goodman reported that the Town Board adopted the new Neighborhood Code which covers the area around East Hill Plaza, South Hill 96B/King Road intersection area and West Hill from Linderman Creek to the Hospital. The next step is to form the regulating plan for specific development levels in each area. Interested property owners in the areas would approach the Town for Development, Charrette would take place with outside consultants to develop a regulating plan. No development is proposed yet but there is now a Code in place as the first step. Claire stated her farm is near one of these areas and asked how the Neighborhood Code would affect it? Bill replied that it should not have any effect on her property and listed the owners of the land within the TND zone proposed for that area. He explained that its form- based zoning and will be formed with the stakeholders and public as development is proposed. She was in general opposed to buildings over one story high and wanted to 1 preserve the existing businesses in the area. Other opinions on the Code were raised, all agreed the Charrettes would be the place to express individual opinions for proposed development in these zones or a special meeting. The pedestrian Recreational Trail extension discussion continued as well, with the Towns (Danby, Caroline, Dryden, and Ithaca) and NYSEG. Bill G gave some background history on the project, stemming from approximately 10 years prior. Initially the County was thought to be the main entity however the Towns have been designated to work together on their own for the railroad trail extension. The former railroad bed runs through many farms in the Town, some debate occurred regarding the ownership/easement rights between NYSEG and the property owners. A draft license Agreement from NYSEG would come to the Town Board and Public Hearings would be held for concerns to be voiced. Concerns were raised by Ag committee members regarding safety and existing hunting, sensitive crops, irrigation, health concerns with beehives in proximity, numerous existing trails, farm disruption, etc. All agreed that this topic should have its own time, possibly the town Ag committee could set a meeting with the Rail Trail Committee (the 4 Town Supervisors) and encourage other affected farmers to attend. Bill Hilker offered to arrange this. The Legal argument around ownership however would not be under the Ag Committee purview. Bill reported that the Economic Development Committee is working with a consultant for the proposed Inlet Valley area rezoning. Meetings begin in December; landowners will meet in January. The zoning intent is to promote more commercial activities, agriculture and tourism and economic development. Christianne asked for clarification between the brief initial idea proposed on her property in Inlet Valley for a potential lane way compared to the pedestrian rail trail extension. Bill explained that an easement would need to be granted by her for her property whereas the rail trail extension would be using an existing easement held by NYSEG already. Christianne wanted it clear that she reserved judgement on the lane way idea and no formal discussion has begun in any manner for her property. Lisa concluded with a statement about the goal is to continue to be community focused and look at the benefits of the majority of the community rather than individual members. 5. Approval of minutes of January 28,2020 and July 28,2020-tabled, none were available for approval. 6. Continue discussion of social media for farms • Graham Savio joined the meeting, stating he heads up Agricultural programs at Cornell Cooperative Extension. Online Farm listing via CCE on Website, "Buy Local Food NY" focusing on the 5 Counties. Farm information can be added as well as direct links. "Meat Sweet.com" is another site for livestock farmers for meats and products for sale. He will send links to those sites to the Ag Committee. Lisa noted that some farmers don't sell food or meat, so the name of the pages may not be where someone would look for local farm products in general, possibly the wording could be altered to be inclusive. A class for Social Media marketing could be put together for the Committee or just a more 2 familiar representative from CCE could come to the next Ag committee meeting for a brief overview of strategies. All agreed to a short presentation at the next meeting to show how to use social media to market agricultural products for individual farms as well as using social media overall as a Town to promote agriculture examples: Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Each member described their farm to Graham also. 7. Review the recommendations in the Town's Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plan-tabled to next meeting. 8. Other business • Recommendation of Chair and Vice-Chair for 2021. No quorum-tabled to next meeting. • Approval of the 2021 Meeting schedule 1/26, 3/30, 11/30, 7/27. All were in general agreement; a quorum would need to be present for formal approval at the next meeting. • Christa Nunez, owner of The Learning Farm was invited to attend an Ag Committee meeting to explain her farm operations. Internet availability was noted as an obstacle for her and the group briefly discussed the Towns Broadband expansion possibilities. 9. Adjourned at 7:30 pm • Next meeting January 26, 2021 6pm. Agenda: Cooperative Extension Social media discussion, Approval of minutes and meeting schedule, review of the Town's Agriculture and Farmland Protection Plan, possibly Christa Nunez from the Learning Farm. Minutes were drafted by Planning Admin Staff Abby Homer 11/17/21 3