HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOC Minutes 2023-06-14 TOWN OF ITHACA CODES AND ORDINANCES COMMITTEE (COO
Meeting of June 14, 2023 —5:30 pm
Town Hall Aurora Conference Room
Minutes
Members present: Rob Rosen, Chair, Ariel Casper, Eric Levine, Eva Hoffmann &Bill Goodman (via Zoom).
Member Absent: Chris Jung
Staff Present: Dan Tasman, Senior Planner; C.J. Randall, Director of Planning; Susan Brock, Attorney for the
Town & Christine Balestra,Planner(via Zoom).
Guests: None
The meeting was called to order at 5:37 p.m.noting 5 of the 6 COC members in attendance.
1. Member comments/concerns. Mr. Rosen discussed the meeting room seating and set up. Identification
name plates were requested as well to keep the seating arrangement consistent for each meeting. Rob also
mentioned requesting the meeting room location to be changed to the Town Board room;however, staff
noted a time conflict with Town Court as well as audio/visual quality issues on the Zoom recording.
A PDF of the previous month's subdivision presentation was requested by the committee. It was noted
that the Zoom recordings of current and recent COC meetings have not been posted on YouTube;
however, recordings are available upon request. Eva requested the last meeting recording due to being
unable to attend and wanting to see and hear the initial subdivision presentation.
2. Review minutes from May 10,2023, COC meeting.Eric moved to approve the May 10, 2023, minutes;
Ariel seconded. All members voted in favor of approval.
3. Approve scope of work for Chapter 234: Subdivision of Land regulations. C.J. noted this document
was sent with the May meeting materials and only one minor change was made,removal of an accidental
comment left in the text on page 2, 4th bullet point from the bottom. The option was given to the
committee to table the approval if additional time was needed for review.
COC comments/changes were for a clearer outline format,possibly using line numbers, letters and or
numbers as opposed to bullets. If changes in the scope occur as the project moves forward, the document
could be amended. Eric moved to approve the scope of work with the formatting comments provided and
deletion of text noted; Eva seconded.All members voted in favor of approval.
4. Review technical memorandum for Chapter 234: Subdivision of Land regulations prepared by Dan
Tasman, Senior Planner.
Dan shared a follow up slideshow presentation on how subdivision regulations work (next task in scope
of work). The title was Recoding Ithaca-Land division and community design. The design standard
process entitlement processes were explained. Street types and designs were reviewed and park and open
space types, amount and siting,utilities, and stormwater management. The two standard types of major
or minor subdivisions were noted. The preliminary and final stages of the review process were described
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along with the performance bond process. In summary, the intent for the new subdivision regulations is
proactive planning for future development.
The committee shared a few questions during the presentation relative to how the existing regulations and
practices are implemented. There was discussion that there is no current financial guarantee written in the
regulations that a project must have the funding or feasibility to be completed after approval.An approval
can be granted and expire a certain number of years later with no substantial action taken by the developer
after the plat is filed. The completion of the infrastructure and improvements have been built into
approval resolutions in the past with the building permit contingent on them as an alternative.
Occasionally performance bonds have been required by the Planning Board as well.
A brief discussion about the need for detailed street design technical specifications within town law took
place. C.J. noted the Planning Committee is taking part in a"complementary initiative" along with the
intermunicipal Safe Streets 4 All transportation planning project. One of the outcomes of the project
discussion is the need to have detailed technical road specifications within the local municipal code for
streets. This would be working with town public works and engineering to design and implement
technical road specifications along with the Town Complete Streets policy and a relative manual for all
new development/construction of town roads.
Time did not permit review of the technical memorandum prepared; this will carry over onto next month's
agenda however the presentation was a complement to the memo and Dan will be prepared for any
questions the committee has at the next meeting or he offered e-mail or phone in the interim.
Rob asked about the general process of subdivision code updating. Dan explained it would be a clean
slate and would be applied in a suburban role context for everything that is outside of a TND. He
followed up by saying that Town Planner Chris Balestra began this research last year to for the update
process and he has added to the work started. C.J added that the initial draft would be prepared by staff
internally;planning department staff will then review and distribute to codes, engineering, legal and
public works all before the initial draft will be formally presented to the committee.
5. Other business:
• The Timing of draft minutes distribution was discussed. Rob asked about draft meeting
minutes being done and distributed to the committee right after the meeting.Previously
they were circulated to planning staff internally and then to the committee with the
packet. The discussion concluded that the draft minutes would continue to be distributed
to the committee with the packet.
The retention of the Zoom recordings was discussed; the time to retain was unknown and
would be clarified with the Records Management Officer. Any committee member or
member of the public can currently request a link to view any of the town meeting
recordings that are not posted on the YouTube channel.
• Next meeting (7/12) agenda. Carryover, review technical memorandum for subdivision
regulations, Chapter 234, questions/answers.Next step on scope of work is the
identifying of stakeholders and potential public engagement process (website,newsletter,
public meetings, etc.), clarify internal roles and responsibilities.
The meeting was adjourned at 6:59 p.m.
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