Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2001-02-0716 9 TB 2 -7 -01 DRAFT TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWN BOARD MEETWG February 7, 2001 Board Members Present: Supv Mark Varvayanis, Cl Ronald Berk, Cl Thomas Hatfield, Cl Deborah Grantham Absent: C1 Charles Hatfield Other Elected Officials: Bambi L. Hollenbeck, To%vn Clerk Jack Bush, Highway Superintendent Other Town Staff: Mahlon R. Perkins, Town Attorney Henry Slater, Zoning Officer David Putnam (TG Millers), Town Engineer Supv Varvayanis opened the meeting at 7:15 p.m. and explained that the first portion of the meeting would be devoted to the study recently prepared by George Frantz regarding billboards (off - premises advertising signs) and public comment regarding the same. George Frantz gave a presentation regarding his study and findings and options with respect to regulation of billboards within the Town of Dryden. A copy of the study is available for review at the Town Clerk's office. His recommendation is to (1) limit billboards to the MA and MAA zones and (2) allow only a limited number and (3) not permit billboards within 500 feet of a residential zoning district. He also recommends the billboard structures be no closer than a half mile apart with 150 square feet of advertising space and a height restriction of 1.5 feet. Mr. Frantz also suggests better control of lighting on the billboard face and screening for the structure from adjoining structures. J Reid of Park Outdoor Advertising asked why screening would be required when the billboards would not be permitted within 500 feet of a residential zone. George Frantz explained that the vegetative screening would protect residential areas, as well as any other property that might be right next to it, whether a retail store, restaurant. The idea, is to provide some buffering between the billboard and the adjoining property owners or land uses. Mike Lane asked George Frantz to explain the control of the State on the state highways vs. the control of the locality. G Frantz - The federal government through the Highway Beautification Act has delegated the responsibility for controlling billboards along highways to the State. It actually applies to an area within 660' of the right of way. In communities that have zoning that has well defined manufacturing and /or commercial districts, the State is pretty clear that it cannot issue a permit for a sign in an area that is zoned strictly residential. It can only issue permits for areas that are zoned for commercial development or industrial development. In Dryden commercial uses are allowed within residential districts by special approval. To me it's a very gray area. M Lane - Is the State issuing permits now within 660' of State highways? G Frantz - Yes. The 1965 Highway beautification Act was essentially designed to make billboards extinct in this country. The irony is in 1965 there were about 300,000 throughout the United States. Today there is about 450,000. Along the interstate highways just beyond that 660' limit you can see the 5 story, several thousand square foot billboards that: are there because there is no controls for them. Page 1 of 27 Q TB 2 -7-01 DRAFT M Lane - For property owners who lease land to billboards, ho,%v are their assessments • affected in taxation of them. G Frantz - There are a couple of parcels along Route 13 that actually have just billboards on them, several on private property. There is a value placed on the billboard structure and it is taxed. M Lane - I support the idea of limiting the number and limiting the size of these. I am very distressed about the idea of having billboards anywhere near a school and I would hope that in your recommendations you might consider the affect of billboards close to school property. For example, the high school is on Route 38 and the Covenant Love school is on Route 13. We know that advertising companies are doing everything they can to insert themselves into our schools to influence our children at a very young age. I would hope that you would try to take that into consideration and to restrict that. I think a substantial distance from a school property ought to be given consideration. Liquor laws for example don't allow the sale of liquor within so many feet of a church or school. You might want to cons7der that. Billboards are known for advertising vices of all kinds. I would think that we would want to take that into consideration. G Frantz - Prohibiting them from residential areas addresses that because that is where you find schools .and churches. We are limiting them to manufacturing districts. M Lane - You can still allow them in a manufacturing district and prohibit them within so many feet of a church or a school. G Frantz - With a 500' buffer between billboards and residential zoning districts, actually I think there might be one space for a billboard structure in the MA Zone on North if Street just north of the village. There is a residential district in the Village of Dryden across Route 38. The idea. is not to allow them to put a billboard right smack at the boundary between the manufacturing zoning district and the residential district because then you can end up with them in somebody's front yard. M Lane - I think protecting children is important. Tony Hall - How did you come up with the 500 feet? Did you check the visibility at the borders of each of the places? Could it be 600 feet? Is that just arbitrary. G Frantz - No, 500 feet really isn't arbitrary. Driving up and down the road it was a point where the billboard isn't that intrusive into the visual environment as you are driving down the highway. 500 feet is a good buffer. It's almost two football fields. It's far less intrusive. J Reid - The State spacing is 300 feet. 500 feet: happens some places, also. Being a representative of the sign industry, I'd like to say two things. We advertise local businesses. You'll never see another Marlboro sign on a billboard. They aren't allowed anymore. The only vice I can think of that we might advertise might be for a beer. Other than that, I don't know what other vices there might be. M Lane - Gambling. G Frantz - The majority of the billboards in the Town of ]Dryden advertise local businesses, whether they are Tompkins County or Cortland County businesses. One of the reasons the industry has actually groom is the fact that it does provide local business with what a lot of them perceive as being a good bargain and a good medium for getting their Page 2 of 27 TIT 2-7-0 l DRAFT message across. That's another reason why regardless of what you think about them, if you totally prohibit there you start hurting local business, I'm reflecting a lot of the research that I've done, but I'm just a neutral party here. M Lane - How are you u mammending to handle issues regarding the sign,, such as things added to the signs? Are you goinng to have bi111avaxds that are blowing smoke rims, or that are electrified and issuing music and voice advertising? Are we going to have giant cows and huge harmers flying to i ateh attention? Are these covered in your recommendations? G Frantz - Actually they are not because what I'm really doing is not looking at the design of the signage. First of all it's ,sort of an exercise in distinguishing between ran- premises signs that businesses are allowed to have on their property to advertise their businesses and activity within the businesses, and the off- premises signs which are advertising signs that are not located on the property where a particular business is active_ As far as design, first of all the'T'own has provisions in its :sign regulations that cover that. O Slater - It applies to all sign messages. That lights will be of constant intens-ity- There should be no moving light , lashing lights. There isn't any discussion of banners or things of that mature. Frantz - The key Mike is that you could have up to 160 square feet and haw you design that surface, as long as it doesn't pose a health or safety hazard, as the ordinance is writteo, it would be allowed. I didn't get unto sound, You actually raise a good point because apparently in some areas this type of technology is being applied to billboards. The other thing is I'm sure the Town of Dryden leas a noise ordinance_ Response - No. Frantz - Okay, we'll work on that, But again, that is one war to dead with that. J Reid - The State also has rules and regulations regarding #lashing lights and Ixarmers and so forth. G Frantz - And what the State looks at first and foremost before issuing a permit is highway safety because that's really what they are interested in. J Reid - I wanted in comment on the vegetation requirements_ We have submitted applications and the vegetation you have suggested fvz a barrier would almost be prohibitive because the n is only 1 feet high_ The maximum height is 15 feet. It would only be three feel: off the ground. If you put a bunch of plants in front of it, they'd be up in front of the sign once they were three feet high. Frantz c lamed that the plants would go to the side of the si�rx and parallel to the road, J Reid stated that plantings that were to be 30 feet long on either side of the sign and tern feet deep. Gr Frantz stated that would not block the view from the highway, but would block it from adjoining properties. The idea is to screen the properties adjacent to the highway, Cl T Hatfield - We should probably ask Mahlon to draft a proposed amendment to the zoning ng ordinance. Atty Perlflns - You'll need to hold a pulnlic }nearing once you have a specific proposal. You need to give me some direction, key parts Lhat you would like to see in some new regulation. Pam 3 of 27 TB 2 -7 -01 DRAFT The board decided to Limit new billboards to The; MA and NIAA Tones. Any e3dstir billboards will be allowed to remain. G Frantz commented chat the existing biAboards are pretty weD screened and are probably in conformance with that aspect. 'there will be no need for ainortization of the em sting billboards_ Atty Perkins - I would expect to have samethi g for you to set a public hearing on next week. That would give you the ten days notice for the public hearing and it could be held on March 7. Realistically that leaves you until February 28 before you enact it. If you want to have a public hearing on extending the umratorium, you could make that motion tonight_ The public hearing could be the 14" '. upv Varvayanis - We should extend the moratorium, We could do b: for an additional 60 days to be sure; we get things done. RE 3O1,UTION #84 - INTRODUCE LOCAL LAW 1EX'TENDING BILLBOARD MORATORIUM AN ADDITIONAL 60 DAYS Supv Varvayanis offered the following resolution and aNke;d for its adoption; RESOLVED, that the following local law extending the moratorium an billboards for an additional 60 days and setting the public hearing for the extension for February 14, 2001, al. 7:00 p_rzn_ at the Town Hall, F 5 East Main Street:, Dryden, New York 13053 Section 1. Tide. This local lave %hall be referred to the Third Temporary Moratorium on the 1 stoblishme =nt of Outdoor Advertising Billboards in the Town of Dryden. Section _ Definition. An "Outdoor Advertising Billboard" means any device, object or building facade situated on private premises and used for adveri� goods, services or places other than those directly related to the premises on which said si is located. Section _ PurPO r The Town of Dryden Zonuig ordinance was inittially adopted over 3 years ago. The zonmi g ordinance contained certain provisions loosely regulating Outdoor Advertising Billboards. Since the adoption of the zoning ordinance, the New York Court of Appeals has ruled that local governments may regulate the time, place and manner of commercial speech (as apposed to its contents) to effectuate a significant governmental interest and the regulation of aesthetics constitutes such an interest. Current town of Dryden zoxung ordinance regulations der not; pzahibit Outdoor Advertising billboards, and to manly persons, such s -is are aesthetically ob ectionable in a rural town and if misplaced., often are egregious examples of ugliness, distraction and deterioration. The Town through the Planning Board has underi WoEm a review of the Tomm Comprehensive Plan and has recently conducted a town -wide survey of residents to solicit their input on recvrnmendatiorns for updated local ordinances. Pending the receipt of a final draft of the Town Comprehensive Plan, the Town Board is concumed about the lack of restrictious on the placement of Outdoor Advertising 1301boards in light of the Court of Appeals decisions. in order to preserve the environment and to provide for an orderly discussion of identified and yet imidentified concerns about Outdoor Advertising Billboards in a lawful, thoughtful and reasoned manner, the Town Board de,ne„-r,i„es that it must declare= a turd, but shorter, mazatonium ern the establishment of any Outdoor Adverti na Billboards pending the enacunent of oppropriatc local legislation further regulating, prohibiting, or requiring the removal of the so;w - 0 Page 4 of 27 TB 2 -7 -01 DRAFT Since the oriVnal moratorium became effective on Hone 16, 2000, the Town Board has engaged the services of a consultant who has conducted a thorough review of the existing conditions That relate to Outdoor AdvertiSi 9 Billboards. The consultant has inventoried the Outdoor Adver -64ing Billboards in the Town of Dryden and examined the currezlt Town of Dryden regulations pertaining thereto. The consultant presented drafts of his comprehensive report to the Town Board. In addition to the inventory of and analysis of the existing regulations, the reports contain a thorough discussion of state and federal rep ulations, other approaches to regulation in New Yoxk State, a discussion of relevant coturt cases, a study of the effectiveness of Outdoor Advertising Billboards as a marketixXg tool, and recommendations for Town of Dryden regulations_ The reports also contain a survey of other municipal regulations, a survey of Outdoor Advertising Biliboard users. and illustrative examples of Outdoor Advertising Billboard designs. The report has been accepted by the Town Board. The TowD Board has disseminated the report to the public, received comments, and proposed changes to the Town of Dryden regulations, More tune is needed to enact the changes to the zoning orclanance, including drafting the changes, conducting a public bearing thereon and publishing the notice of adoption of the approved changes. Based on all of the foregoing, it is necessary for an additional, but shorter, moratoriumu_ Section 4_ }' - mbjbidons_ Va person, firm or corporation shall construct or submit any application for an Outdoor Advertising Billboard to the Code Enforcement Officer dui ing tide efFecfive period of this moratorium, The Code Enforcement Officer shall not accept any application for an Outdoor Advertsing Billboard and shall not issue any permit for the same during the effective dates of this local law. The Town Board shall not hold any public heating on any podding applications for Outdoor Advertising billboards during the effective dates of this local law. The Zoning board of Appeals shall not entertain any appeal of any order, regwzement, decision, interpretation, or determination made by the Code Enforcement Officer during the effective dater of this Iocal law if the same pertains to Outdoor Advertising Billboards, Section S. Invalidity_ The Invalidity of any provision of this local law shali not effect the validity of any other provision which can be givext effect without such invalid provi Edon _ Section 6. Terra. This local law shall be in effect fora period of 60 day€ from its effective date unless sooner repealed_ _Section 7_ Effective Date. This local law shall take effect on filing with the Secretary of State as provided by the provisions of the Municipal Haime Rule Law, 2114 Cl T Hatfield Roll Call Vote Cl Heck Yes Cl T Hatfield Yes Sul v Varvaynnis Yes ClOranYham Yes Cl Grantham - Mahlon. you'll be developing something with those options? Atty Perkins - I'll have a draft for you on the 14tH and if that's aZCeptable, you can Set your hearing for March 7. Pig- 5 of 27 TB 2 -7 -01 DRAFT Joyce erbasi asked whether sr,me language needed to be added regarding rebuilding of existing billboards- ZO Slater explained that if more than 59:/o vas to be repaired it would be treated as -new construction. John Reid ,stated that in order to repair th,c structure it is sometimes necessary to remove the face and that is often considered to be 50"x, and that there may be no way to repair it without removing the face, COUNTY BRIEP`l NG M Lame - The County Board has reorgotu2ed. Barbara Mink was agouti elected Chair, and I will be serving as Vice Chair. We've changed our committee structure. This year I will be chairi ng the Public Works Committee and I've also been charged to chair a. committee on the County Charter. Our Charter rewires us to every ten years canside,ar whether there should be a commission or oth.er way of looking at our Charter and changing it. What has happened this year that affects the towns and city is the census. The tinning of the census and the tLu ' of the elections of the Board of Representatives don't coincide very well every twenty yeim5- Some of us remember what waN happening back in 1980. 'There was a. problem because of the delay in getting the census information in 1980 that did not allow the Board of Re-pre sentatives to redistrict to account for the change in population, mostly growth in the, town in time for the election of the Board of Representatives that year. That meant the Representatives elected is 1981 were serving in districts that were not proportional in the number of people in them. That was challenged in Court at the time and the County compensated for that by going to a weighted voting system. That is still an option. it's not something a lot the board members liked very well. Another option is whether we can get the redistrict in time. If we redistriec il-hKt means you virUl have to take a look at your districts also to make them coincide. In 1990 part of the district I sense in now was attached to Gmton because Groton had lost population relative to some other areas- That could happen again. We think the Lansing area will probably see a population increase and there is a possibDity that the City of Ithaca may have a lossmi population. They may only be entitled to four seats instead of five. 'I'he Tow3a of Ithaca may pick up a seat. The timing is critical. Other alternatives include some kind of a special referendum to change the terms that we would have to serve for - We could change to a four year term or a one year terra this year. That's a problem because it means a county -wide election- Any time we change a term of office or how a person is elected or anything that has to do with an election there is a mandatory referendum. That's one of the first things the Charter Committee is tackling, e do have the advantage this year of having the GIS system in place to help us with looking at various scenarios. In 1990 there were 48 or 59 scenarios of what possible redistricting could look like in thLe County. I'll keep you posted, but i hope that if I could do anything with this it would be to seed in your Mind chat we need you guys to be nimble on this. We may need the City to be nimble. f we could possibly keep our districts we could keep our elections the orgy they are and not confuse or burden the population and hopefully save costs, We renewed the extra 1% sales tax last night as we do every two years. Sales tax receipts wire up considerably this year, about I -7 million coLmtyv de_ over what they were the previous year. We are very concerned about our budget this year already- We are wandering w1lether we need to take a look at slowing down some of our spending so that we don't get into a situation in the VaU where we might have to have some sort of inordinate tax increase- We're trying to do some good planning. That's high on our agenda- I am serving on the budget committee tKis year as well. The cable negotiations are Continuing, I still miss l)ryd�ri. I wish the 'Town of Dryden were a part of the consortium. I can't discuss the particular; { }f the negotiations, but I can tell you that in our request for proposals 9we had a strong request for the Inet, which is the institutional network which is hopefully a fiber network chat would hook up our various tnvva s and villages. Ira our proposal we wanted to hook up to each of the rouracipal buildings, We Page 6 of 27 TB 2 -7 -01 DRAFT wanted a hookup to T 3. The Vet College is very interested in being able to broadcast: &orax there. They have a wonderful studio and wonderful equipment and would like to be able to broadcast_ The negotiations are tough and Tom, I have to tell you publicly, You were absolutely right. The time has taken a lot longer than I would have imagined. It has been very, very tough_ Of course the Federal Government and the FCC have coTztinually over the past years chipped away at whatever leverage ynu have, so we don't have rate leverage, for example. We can require Inet, but the oast of that has to be discussed and negotiated. I would still urge you to _fain the consortium. l think it would be good for the Tawas of Dryden and it would snake a lot of sense to have all of the municipalities on board for negotiations. We're glad to have Jae on board and he carne in with both feet_ Joe Lallev - I've had a busy first month. I got mfr committee assignments and am serving with Mike on Public Works and I'm also on the Economic and Work Force Development Committee which has not met yet, and also on G overnr=unt Affiqixs that has riot Met, IPM also an ComCap with Mike and that's what I want to talk to you about tonight. That prroject is moving along. We had a presentation by a firm called Nystec which is a not for profit communications consulting firm. They have reexamined all the options that are out there, all the technalogies, and in essence came to the same conclusion that the earlier consultarits did, which was that probably an $00 megahertz trLuik system is going to be the best option for a public safety communications system, They had one interesting idea in their report. Earlier studies were shooting for a 95% covev4p of the county and they thought that one way to achieve that was that you Haight consider doing what they call tactical deployment of mobile repeaters_ If you have an incident going on in a gorge, rather than trying to build a tower structure that might cover all of the county all of the time, that you would be able to roll one of these in fairly quickly and provide communications for an incident and it would be there for as long as A was needed. The implications pos.4bly are a different arrangement of towers_ They aLre going to go back and prepare an analysis that shows some diminishing returns. If you go to 90%6 coverage here's what it means and here's what it means money wise, thin like that. It was a very well balanced presentation and very understandable foTmat_ I thought they did a great job. Probably the most si "cant thing from a process and legal standpoint i,% that the County is going to use the SEQR process to bring this project forward to the public, even though counsel says they doxft have to do that_ At this point they've made a positive declaration and made themselves lead agency and the plan is to involve the Towns as interested agencies. Thcy are working right now on a sconirIg document. We are looking for discussion about the impacts of free standing versus 9 9de-touers and what the implications would be if we design a system where we keep the tower -.eights under 190' or 2 0O'. Then they don't have to be lit. Some sort of a visual impact_ The other two sections that we plan to add that should be in there will be a discussion about microwave radiation and whar if any health hazards there are. f nally a financial section where there will be discussion about what the impact might be on the local volunteer agencies like fire departmentts and perhaps towns that might be users of the system and how they plan to deal with that. There's a draft schedule of upcoming activities of Comcap that will be on the County website fairly soon, At the February 27th meetir there will be a decision on the riew 911 center and recommendations will be forwarded to the County Board, I've been involved in a couple of searches. One was for the County Administrator, I e been trying to make a paint to get to one county department a week. 9 Joyce Gerbasi, Dryden's representative to the EMC, member of the Dryden CPC and member of Fall Creek Watershed Committee -'1'he position of facilitator is now held by Sharon Anderson and was held in her position as > }nvironmental Educator with Cooperative Extension PagC 7 o127 TB 2 -7 -01 DRAFT (funded by Cayuga Lake Watershed), Sharon Anderson has now became the steward of the Watershed and hos been able to combine her job as facilitator with Fall Creek Watershcd Committee with her new job. We understand that Cooperative D, xtension is discussing not replacing her as envirantnencal educator. but spreading her work around the among the other Cooperative Extension staff. As we see it, given how much they all do at this point, environmental education is not going to be properly covered and the specialties that the present staff deal with now are also going to suffer as they try and pick up her work. They would appreciate it if the Town Board would send a letter to Cooperative Extension reeluesdrig that the pasition of full time environmental educator be filled and fully funded as it has been, in order that all of their projects are properly takers care of. Cl Grantham recused herself from this discussion. 1 Beck and CIT HatReld gwnuld like to ask for clarification from Cooperati ve lJxienMon. Supv Varvayanis will write to Cooperative Extension. and Joe LaiEey wM also check into the matter. Lois Chaplin, represents the Town of Dryden on the NESTS Transit Study Client Committee - T iS is a follow up to one of the recommendations in the NESTS study. They have juwt started meeting and will be putting forth some guidance and an RFP for a study to founw up on the transit re "u)mendati.ons. She would like to lunou• 1how she can best represent the Town_ They are meeting once a month and the project will take about a year, She will keep the Town advised and would like input. This is the transb4poxt of the study. They will be looking at transit options for what was originally in the NESTS area to make any recommendations they cazti to alleviate or anticipate any possible increases in traffic. Now they are discus' to what extent to include the City of Ithaca since the City wos not included in the original NESTS study_ The City needs to be acld,owledged as an origin and destination. She would be happy to meet with the board to keep them advL ed. Cl Grantham suggeslnd that she e-zua. l updates to the Town, but. come to the board meeting when they are at decision making paints. ITHACA PRODUCE (continuation of Public Hearing) Brent Maynard - I'm here to give an update on the steps that Ithaca Produce is taking and talk about some of the other steps that e are prepared to tike in order to meet the conditions that the board has set in our application for ;� ch,arige in our special hermit. Since we were last here we had our consultants conduct a sound study aiialyairkg the levels and duration of noise produced by Route 13 traffic, -by Ithaca Produce, and the surrounding areas, The study concludexd that our operations do have a limited impact on residential noise levels in the early inorning hours, but that does not appear excessive &en the close pTuximity of the residences to the highway. There were no excursions of sound beyond 70 dba from our operations_ Since the last time we were here we've also ins&ralled an eigbt foot high, seventy -five: foot long fence along the west aide. of our property scparat our property from the Porter property as required. We're also been working hard to adjust our night time delivery schedules from our purveyors. Wherever possible we've attempted to move #bra majority of our deliveries to khe hours of 6:00 a.m. to 3:00 p_m. We are continuittg to work with all our suppliers and carriers to inform them of our new policies and wb at's happerkbag with the company. For example, we've been able to cut our night time deliveries from Byrne Dairy in half, thus eliminatmg two hours of ]are niglit unloading time (unloading all the hulk off their truer )aato our car lens) by dropping a trailer. 13yrne Dairy now comes to us every other day. We've adjusted our order schedules to do so and they coine to our faoility every other day. '1'he r drop a trailer :and are in and out in about ten minutes- Page 8 oM TB 2 -7 -01 DRAFT We've continued to reconfigure our truck parking to the east side of our building and away from Route 13. And we are also continuing to work in good faith with our neighbors to overcome the differences that we have. We are prepared to plant trees for sound protection along the new fence to the west of our property. That's something we had decided previously. One thing that came up the last time we were here, the Cox's have stated the effectiveness of the pines between their property and the Mix property in eliminating noise. We are certainly willing to plant trees on our property or on the Cox property as a natural sight and sound barrier. We are continuing to work with our suppliers on arranging our delivery schedules. This includes seeking out new suppliers to replace those that cannot adjust their routing to accommodate our new restrictions. For example, our mushroom trailer which comes to us three times a week in the evening, they are unable to adjust their delivery schedule. We can either do business with them as is or not at all. I've been working very hard to find a new supplier in that regard and I think I've found one, which would include us ba.ckhauling product from another location in the State, thus eliminating that incoming trailer three times a week. That's just one example. We deal with many, many different companies and carriers and our order schedule is important. We are certainly open to any reasonable alternatives that you have with regard to our ability to serve our customers. It's a very important point. We are always willing to maintain an open dialogue with our neighbors to address any ongoing issues and any issues that may come up in the future. Monica Horton - I live with my mother Sun Ho Porter right next to Ithaca. Produce. I just finished my associates degree and am working to finish my bachelors. I'm working full time for my parents in Ithaca and attending school full time in Syracuse. The problem is that when I come home and go to sleep, I get woken up every single night by these trucks. For example, Sunday I Gwent to sleep and by this time I'm exhausted, I've repeatedly talked to Dick and Rich both about this problem. They haven't done anything except to put a fence up, which my mother has been asking for for twelve years, and that only stops the lights of the big tractor lights. It doesn't do anything at all for noise. I woke up Sunday night at 1:30 and again at 3:30 when I had to work the next day at 2:00. Being that I'm sick, I need my rest. I work a lot of hours and go to school. I have a lot of homework to do. I was really agitated by the fact that I have to get up out of bed in the middle of the night, get dressed, walk over to Ithaca Produce, "please turn these trucks off so I can get back to sleep ". That's all I ask. I've gone to Dick and Rich in tears asking them to do this for me. They say "yes, I agree with you, I'm sorry" but they have yet to do anything but put that fence up. It took the Town Board to get the fence up in the first place. Why should .I have to get up out: of my sleep to walk over there and tell them not just once a night, we're talking two or three times a. night, to shut the trucks off so I can go to sleep. I have to go to work the next day, and drive to Syracuse, and go to school, and come home and work some more, and come home and do some homework. Then I found out my Mom and Mr. Cox went to the Town Board. What: are they doing about it.? I found out some more information. The special permit that they were given did not allow any operation to happen after 8:00 p.m. They do it anyway. There are trucks running all night long. We wouldn't be here right now if they obeyed their special permit. We got a letter on November 2, 2000 and it gives a copy of their special permit and it also says "if you find additional hours of operation are necessary you must obtain Town Board approval prior to any actual expansion of business hours ". Did they get your approval first, before they operated all night long? I didn't hear about it. It really bothers me that I can't sleep at night. In the local laws that you have, Section 1.303 lists specific requirements for your special permit. It says specifically in number 2, in reaching a determination the Town Board shall consider the following, and in section C it says "whether the use would be more objectionable or depreciating to adjacent or nearby properties by reason of traffic, noise, Page 9 of 27 TB 2- 7411 DRAFT v'hration, dust, fumes, smoke, odor, fire, hazard. glare, flashing lights or disposal of u*aste or sewage,', Mast of those thingq listed is what is waking us up in the middle of the night, I 've gone over there in. ray pajamas, sometimes I'm so ,sick. I've been sick for two v4•eeks now- It takes so much energy for me to get up. I told lira that I'm going to keep the phone -next to me from now on when I go to sleep so that I can just simply call. When I called Sunday night there was no anau*er. It takes me a half houfto go back to sleets_ Then at 3;30 another truck carne M and woke ine up. I don't understand why this is happening_ It's not fair 110 me at all. In section (i it said "whether health, safety and general welfare of the cninmunity may be adversely acted ". I'm sick right now. When you go home you go home to rest, When f go home 1 can't rest at night because there are trucks running all night long. It wakes me up. There are vibrations throughout our house_ I don't understand the point of changJng their special permit when they don't abide by their special permit in the first place, They're not supposed to be operating past 8:00 right now. Who is there to enforce these ruler and laws. Rich told me himself that' because they don't abide by the special permit, they could be fined $1.04 a day. Wby aren't they being fined $100 a day then? Who is here to enforce these laws? They aren't suppo.& ed to operate past 8:00 and if they do, it says in a letter from you, that they have 110 have approval of the Board prior to changing hours, My mother gets up at $;0.0 in the morning to open our store in Ithaca and works 60 flours a week, Our ]Tome is our place of rest, and when we can't rest, that's kind of ridiculous, We aren't talking about normal business hours, or da.nner time, we are taA:; g about >n the middle of the night wlrien people are trying to sleep. The trucks carne vvitlun 15 feet of m bedroom window. }Aefore the fence went up, in the middle of the night it was the flashing and brig yellow lights, the beeping, the noise everything. At least the fence blocks the light, But it doesn't do anything for the noise. I have talked a few times to Dick's son Rich and he says he agrees with me, but they need to run the "business. i understand that but' there is no reason that you have to accept loads that late at night all the time_ There is sometlniug called loading time, an baubinesses will only accept your load at certain times, There are ways that they can work around Trot having trucks run all night long, It is a8ecdM.our lives. I've gane to Rich multiple times in the middle of the night_ There is nothing he says to deny anything I've said. He agrees with me 100 %, but they haven't done anything until last week, Last week I'd had enough- I went over there in the middle of the night and 1 said "If you don't do something about this now by -next' week I urill can the police every single night until something happens, and I will Ynake sure you are fined $X00 everytime I'm woken up because I aril fed up with it ". I'm not a grumpy old man trying to complain to the Town Board. I'm a hard working, trying to be educated student. I'm only 21 gears old_ I'm a pretty rowdy person myself and I go out and stay tip pretty "ate at night, but when I come home 1 expect to rest. 'fiat is my place of rest, Ms Horton stated she had talked to Dick ut%a and said if he was living next door things would be changed tomorrow_ He said she was right. She understands they have a business to run, aazd her family does too. She stated they chose a bad area, an area that has resid.enees surr❑unding it. They need to consider who they are living bY. and she said they listen, but are not' considerate, Shrubs ; hould have already berm planted because that blocks the noise a little mare_ Ms Horgan stated the bray that tractor trailers drop �licir loads off ha is the one closest to h.er house, Using the bay furthest from the house would help. The mushroom truck comes Sunday, Tuesday and Thursday anywhere from ten €t night to two in the mornbng. The Byrne Dairy truck comnes Sunday, Monday, J'uesd y. and 'Thursday anyw1aiere from 9 to 11 at night. They could tell Byrne Dairy when they want. their loads to come ir1. utias told her They had cut their loads ign half by having Byrne drop the trailer off. But the trucks are still. running through at night and she states it doesn't matter if it is for ten minutes or half an hour, it still happen%, and it is happening illegally. They aren't supposed to nun in the middle of the ni&t, and they are doing it and they don't care_ page I (l of 27 TB 2 -7 -01 DRAFT Horton - Ail these things can be changed in a positive way that won't affect their business- Why in their new special permit are the hours of rest from 5 at night to 9 at night? ,Dick said the reason why is their employees don't like to work during dinner tinge. They would rather come in at 9 o'clock and work til 4 o'clock than work five to two. Their employees can have dinner with their families and I have to not sleep at might. It's not fair to me that a business next door is keeping me up all night- They haven !t done,anythLng until I said I was going to call the caps to do something about it. Now all of a sudden they are going to have their lawyers draw up a contract. They told me to tell them what I need, My suggestion was to put a gate up at the end of their driveway so that they can't accept loads and tractor tTailers won't come on the property anyway and sit ibere all night long. Why can't you accept your loads during the day? They weren't even open in the middle of the night when they first opened. Roes that mean they couldn't get loads in and they couldn't find people to give them products I�ia all of a sudden their bus-ir,ess needs to operate in the middle of the night- Now they have to take these loads at night because there is no other time they'll bring them. if that is true, I would like a statement from every company that delivers to Ithaca Produce stating thal' fact. I'm just so frustrated. They haven't listened to you so fix, They have not obeyed your special permit- Zf they do not obey your specie,] permit now, what makes you rkiink they will obey �,. new special permit. They are supposed to be maldng up a statement for us to sign, but who's to say they're going to obey that? Then whal' am I supposed to do- The Town Board so far hasn't enforced any of these yaws to help us sleep at might- What am I supposed to do? Spend roy money to hire a lawyer and say these people broke our contract? It's a civil contract. It will go to small claims court. What �m I supposed to do to ger, a good night's sleep? There are simple steps that can be taken to change this. All they need to do is have no trucks n] n £ram IO;OQ at might until 4:0 in the morn. That's all we're osidng. Yes, we live on Route 13, Yes, there is traffic ors the road end things of that nature, but they are not idling next to my window for sometimes a. half an hour, It's affecting my health and it's aFfecting my life- We are asking that trucks do not run from 10:00 at night until 4:00 in the morning. The reason T say 4;00 in the mooing is because Dick and Rich have bold me that they have a lot of shipments going nut of state and that's the time they rived to get their trucks ready to leave. That's understandable. I'll compromise. At least I've got a few hours of sleep. I'm asking you, please, as a neighbor of business that obviously has expanded beyond what they planned to, please don't let them run their trucks at night. Rich says they have some plans to change the refrigeration on their trucks. I don't quite tiuznderst€Mnd it, but it's not being done now. They say it takes thirty clays to make changes. I bet if 1 took one day off and went over there, I bet, I could get it stone in one- You need to call the company and ask them riot to come at certain times- These are easy steps to be taken to let us have a decent night's sleep. I don't think that's too much to risk, It takes -me half an #-lour to get back to sleep again- upv Varvayanis - I don't mean to cut you off, but you're starting to get a little repetitive. Horton - You know what? This i with it, s a very repetitive thing in my life and I'm fed up Supv Varvayariis - I understand that- M Horton - it's every sLmoe night- Sometimew I stay up in Syracuse so I can get a good night's sleep, Right now £'m not evert sleeping in my own bedroom. I'm sleeping in a sewing ro(}m with five sewing marhines and a mattress on the floor, because it's further away from Ithaca Produce. I can't even sleep in my own bedroom at night, ']"taus i-s enoh. They're not even obeying the law as of right now - What does your special permit mean when they don't Page I l of 27 TS 2 -7 -01 DRAFT abide by it? Whose supposed to enforce these laws? I understand they have a btisme.ss to run, but this is getting out of hared- 0 Robert fox - I wrote a note here- :verylrnd's had a short biography tonight. I'm 69 years old and I'm a tough old SOB. What I'd like to do is postpone &Es until May Before you give a. FmA decision- That's where our windows are open. I can hear the trues through the windows now. At 12930 every mon -ung there's a slam - bang. Maybe you guys have an alummu�oo. thing that your forklift is going up on? That makes quite a.lot of x�oi a when it's dropped at 12:30 in the morning- All I'd like to do is have you not grant this thing now- I've talked to some other people, and like Monica says, we're tired of R. .I know Dick's gat a business to run and all 1 hat and C don't want to hamper that, but on the othez hand he said he's going to try- Udell, let's give him a chance to try. In all fixness to Mr. Cutia and b families affected by it, give hiva a, chm-Ite to alleviate some of the noise like he promised to do. But now isn't the time, Our wi7idows are closed. Cal Collins who lives way up on spring Run Road can hear the beepers on the trucks in the summer time. So why not make the decision when the weather is right. Not now, when evea3thit 's in his favor- But he sags he's going to try, and I'm willing to give him a chance to try, It would be unfair to make a decision now. I'll leave it up to you, bnt I'm going to be madder than hell if you do. I've got all your n�lnae9 for the next voting, Supv Varvayauis - Mahlon, i% it true that they can be caned $100 a day? Mahlon - If convicted of violating the ,special pemit- You could also revoke the special permit. Yes, they can be prosecuted. Poi Horton - We want to work with them, We'11 compromise, They can run their trucks after 4:00 a.m. 0 Cl Grantham - Yo u've given a couple of examples of how you've reduced the truck traffic at night- Can you tell me how %uccessful you've beert at doing that? liolar much have you reduced it by changing delivery patterns? B Maynard - We've been working on this diligently since the last meeting. In fact this has been hanging over our head like a cloud- We're very concerned. We've been working very hard with our suppliers- This is a business of fresh produce- It's a cycle of products that c:ume in and out We have done eveq thing we can tr} push our deliveries from California to the daytime hours. We've done this as best we can and are continuing to improve on it and get them used to the new cycle of not accepting deliveries whenever they arrive which is what wkr raid in the past- 'There have been times when we've had to buy product elm where because tine truck would come at an inopportune time. We would like to retain the ability to accept a trur.'k in an emergency situation. We feel we need to have the ability to do that on occasion. We do not. intend to abuse that: in any way, shape or form- e think that a can reduce when we are all said and done by at least 90°fo. Off the top of my head as far as reduction so far -- M Horton - Byrne Dairy is dropping off a trailer instead of unlo ading it there, Thy trucks are still coming on the land, still dropping the trailer off, still „u,,,,; g and leaving in the nidddle of the night, 'c`hat's the only difference l;o me. 13 Maynard - We feel we've made much more.., M }lorton - We3] r'd like to see that on paper Cl Grantham - Can you estimate what the current reduction of loads that you take at night is? 0 Page 12 of 27 TB 2m74)1 DRAFT B Maynard - Since our last meeting, 30 %. Cl Grantham - How many trips does that represent? R Cutia - I'm the one who works at night. I could document, or they could document what's coming or going. Every time they hear a truck vibration they could write it down. Then maybe we could see if there's a reduction. Cl Grantham - But can't you tell me how many deliveries you get? You don't know how many deliveries you get in a night and how much you've reduced that by changing patterns? M Horton - They have no control of their business and when there is going to be a truck. Cl Grantham - Please, let me ask these questions. You say that you are estimating a current reduction of 30%, but how many trips does that represent? R Cutia - As far as big tractor trailers, it's probably down from 15 to 12 a week. Now that we have made arrangements to not receive California trucks at night, and to be honest with you at great expense to the company because we buy our products direct from California. If we can't use that. product in our business that day, we need to buy it somewhere else. Say for example the trucker calls and says I'm going to hit your building about midnight. I have to say to him okay, you need to go park your truck until 4:00, we can't: unload until 4:00, we have to fill in, which means that we have to send a truck to Pennsylvania or Rochester or Buffalo to buy the product we need to put on our trucks at an extremely higher price than we would pay by buying it direct. We're buying it second hand, plus the expense of sending the equipment and a man somewhere to buy the product we need to put on our trucks that night. They say that they know what we do, and they say that they could fix it in one day, but they have no idea. what we do. And they have no idea what we've done. We know what we've done as far as noise. 1 know because I'm there. I know it, and we are trying to change it. We are sensitive to their feelings and we are trying to change things. We put the fence up. We say we are going to plant trees. We are trying to cut down the number of trucks in and out. What else can we do? If we shut down our night time shipping, we are out of business. Flat out out of business. We have contracts signed with companies, and if we default in those contracts 25 people at Ithaca Produce are going to be looking for work. And a lifetime of work that he put into it. I didn't want to get into this, but 1 sleep in the day. You sleep at night, or try to sleep at night. Everytime the snowplow drives by my house, should I call the Town Board and tell them not to come up? When the garbage truck goes by? I'm using this as an example. R Cox - I don't know about this interstate coin anything else. All I know is trucks are coming in late theirs, and it's not very pleasant. It sounds like since has really gotten a hell of a lot noisier. And if my wife We aren't here to put anyone out of business, we're tr the citizens don't count, so do what you have to do. coerce from California or Pennsylvania or right across from my house and next to the 62 days were granted, the business was here she'd tell you the same thing, ring to tell you how it is, and apparently S Porter - You say you cannot ask them to come at different times. You are the one paying the bill, you are the customer. You get there when the customer wants you to come, when and what time. Don't tell me. I know how to run it. I've been there myself. Would you ever say to your customer, oh I can't get there when you want me to? B Maynard - We give them a window of when we'll be there. ® S Porter - Is that how that works? You are the buyers. You are paying them. Page 13 of 27 TB 2 -7 -01 DRAFT 1 0 rantham - You said you are trying to restrict deliveries to the lours of 6:00 a, M. to 3:00 p.m. so my question is how many deliveries do you now get between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.zn? 40 I Cuba - Appraximafely eight per ee3c. CF there i tt uck com;ng iri F ca i hear it. I run out and I tell the guy to turn the truck off. M Horton - Sunday a truck came in at 1;30 and 3 -40. R Cutia - And you asked th.e roushrrro1'n guy to please turn his truck off.,. M Horton - And the truck ran For almost half an hour.., R Cutia -raid you asked 13im hour many tunes he had delivered hare, and he said "I'm sorry, ma'am, this i4 my fixst time here. I didn't know I was supposed to turn the truck off." Cl Grantham - So you are contluuing to try to work with people delivering to you to change the time when they deliver. , R Cuba - `('hat's Correct, Cl Grantham - 1z7.cluding the mushroom truck and Byrne Dairy and so on_ You gave us a lot of information about noise ordinances and stuff that looks very interesting, but have you looked into anything like the blankets or mufflers that you mentioned in December and the costs for that? B Maynard - Yes we have, Grantham - is that sort of thing reawmable? P Maynard - As far as the blankets are concerned, our consultant had never dome that before. That would be a new third*, for them. They said they researched it a little bit and what they would have to do is build a cone - shaped frame five or six feet high to place over the refer units on the trucks. Then you have to attach somehow the sound absorption blanket around that, R Cuiia - It takes two men to do it. We'd probably actually need a facility to do it, Those were like $3,000 each. B Maynard - And that was a rough cost off the tap of their head, R Cutia , And then you'd have to remove them before the truck let( the premises, and stare them somewhere. 8 Maynard - As far as the refer unit issue, there's a few things they could change, air filters, mufflers, clean the inside of therefor Lmi s and stick ia-isulat[an around there, change a condensor fan, at approximately $2,000 a truck estimated, For only a three decibel drop in sound. Cl Grantham - These axe your trucks? I2 C-utia - Correct_ Cl Beck - They'd have no control over rMybody ej!?e's trucks. They could request, but that's it. 0 Pagc 14 of 27 TB 2-7 -01 DRAFT M Horton - I have a question. Why couldn't you at 9:30 at night put your Ithaca Produce trucks up to the dock, because you load them overnight, load the four trucks up and then take the next loads for the next mornings trucks, put them on your loading dock, wait for four o'clock in the morning, move those four trucks, put four more in and load them up real quick, ready to go? Why is it necessary to have truck movement in the middle of the night? Why couldn't you do it that way? B Maynard - These are issues that we are continuing to work on. In fact we've had many conversations in the last week and we are trying to change the way we do load our trucks to limit the amount of our own personal trucks' movement in our yard in the middle of the night. R Cutia - I'd like to make a statement on that. When we spoke Sunday, Monica had mentioned to me that it was the "big trucks" that were really bothering here, like the mushroom truck and the Byrne Dairy trucks. When she called the other night she said would you please turn the truck off and I said it's one of our trucks and it's just backing in and well shut the truck off quickly, which led me to the idea that it wasn't just the big trucks, that it was our trucks too. She'd said your little trucks don't bother me. M Horton - I thought so, but I don't have the energy to get up every time and go look outside. I was surprised that it was their truck. Cl Grantham -®Nell it seems like there are some things in your own processes that you can change as well, is what you are saying. ® R Cutia - After the incident on Monday night, I spoke with the fellas on the night crew and we tried to work out a way that if we started an hour or two earlier, and like Monica said, we could get our Rochester and Buffalo and Jamestown trucks loaded and moved before ten o'clock at night. Then back the other three trucks in, because we have one bay with the Byrne Dairy trailer, load those three trucks and not start them until they get ready to leave in the morning. Some of them leave at 2:00 am. Now that's cool, we can stage in the building. When it warms up we would have to refrigerate our staging area, but we could stage our last four trucks inside the building, and at 4:00 pull the other trucks, back the four in and then load what we have staged and checked already. That would limit our truck movement of our own personal equipment from like 10:00 to 3:00. Making provisions to cool the larger part of our warehouse would be a substantial investment on Ithaca Produce's part. to cool that warehouse down. Nov we can open the doors and keep it 32 degrees in there, but when it warms up in a couple of months, then we'd have to have a partition and walls put up and we'd have to cool it down. To be honest, I wrote this today. I talked to my Dad about it and he said that he would be willing to make the investment of trying to cool off a part of the warehouse so we can stage more loads, and then load them all at once at 4:00 am. In a normal days business, I know everybody works hard, but in a normal 16 -18 hour day we have to find time to sit down and go through all these other problems while we're trying to do all of our other stuff too. I don't want people to think that we are not doing this because we're ,just not doing anything. I want them to know that we are trying to solve the problem. M Horton wondered why nothing was done when her mother and Mr. Cox first: complained and why it took ten months and Town Board and her complaining to get anything done. Cl Grantham - Mahlon, do we have to take any action? Page 15 of 27 TB 2 -7 -01 DRAFT Atty Perkins - I didn't know we were going to do this tonight, so I haven't looked at the file. At the last meeting we continued the public hearing? If this is the conclusion of the public hearing then you have time to think about it. 40 Cl Grantham - The minutes say table any decision with respect to the application of Ithaca Produce to modify their existing special permit until the Board receives information from Ithaca Produce's consultant and from the Town Engineer on noise abatement so that a target can be developed for noise mitigation. We did have a hard time figuring out what to do. Atty Perkins - I remember there was a discussion about adjourning the public hearing until we received this. Supv Varvayanis - I don't: want to argue whether they've been taking steps for ten months or one day or whatever, they are taking steps at this point, and we also obviously grant to continue pressuring them to continue working. In fact we were told by one citizen he'd be mad if we did anything today. So what options have we got? Atty Perkins - At some point you've got to make a decision on the application for a special permit and close the public hearing. I don't know if you've done that or not. And you've got to make a decision. I thought the intention in December was to adjourn the public hearing until w-e had this information and the board would reconsider it, which I assume is what we've done tonight. B Maynard - I do have the minutes from the last meeting and it was stated by Atty Perkins "you're already in your public hearing. You've got 62 days to make a decision. You could table it I suppose." C1 Grantham - I think the information we've gotten tonight makes it clear there are some reasonable ways to reduce the truck traffic and the noise at. night without jeopardizing the business. l think that we ought to encourage that action and press for coming as close to the current special permit hours as possible. Then be willing to consider a change to that special permit. It's not as if there's no way they can make these changes and stay in business. They're telling us they are making changes and finding other ways to make changes. Cl Beck - What action has to be taken at this point? Supv Varvayanis - We could reject their request or do what we just did and not enforce it and hopefully they come up with more of a plan. Atty Perkins - If you give them some approval or modify their conditions in some manner, they can always come back and ask for a modification of that. You set conditions now and they find they can't live with them or they can't meet them or whatever, it's very difficult to go backwards though because they're the ones that have to come to you. Certainly at the time they entered into these agreements and started growing the business they were aware that they operated under a special permit and that there were hours of operation. It's going to be difficult for them to plead hardship. They were aware of what they were doing and are now looking for relief. Cl Grantham - I guess what I'm saying is that there is room for Ithaca. Produce to make changes and at least come much closer to compliance with their current special permit and I'd like to see that done first. Cl Beck - I think that's what they're working toward. C1 T Hatfield - What were the hours they are asking for? is Page 16 of 27 TB 2 -7 -01 DRAFT ZO Slater - 9:00 p.m. of one day to 5:00 p.m. the next day. Cl Beck - I don't think we should grant that at this point. C1 Grantham - I don't either. Cl'r Hatfield - I'd be inclined to look at modifying the hours until the first of June or something. I'm looking at something like 3:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. That's gives the neighbors some quiet time and gives you time to work out some changes internally. Cl Beck - You say you get eight deliveries a week during the night? R Cutia - That's correct. Cl Beck - It sounds like eight a night from the complaints we are hearing. R Cutia - The thing that Nve worked out earlier today is feasible I think, right now. Cl T Hatfield - Mahlon is suggesting that we need to make a decision. What you asked for in your original application, I don't think anyone here has an appetite for. I guess we're looking to modify that in some way that will provide a window of quiet in a reasonable time frame for the residents. D Cutia - Do you feel that adjusting the trucks would provide that for them? ® R Cutia - A window of quiet meaning not running equipment in the yard. We can work in the building. Cl T Hatfield - Work in the building, but the yard is quiet. D Cutia - We could do that. Cl T Hatfield - Stop the trucks, stop the traffic. CI Beck - It would be a good start. Cl Beck - What are you going to do about these California trucks? It hasn't been solved at this point? B Cl T Hatfield - Then we can come back in June and see how it's working. That original permit was based on a different it? business. big trouble. Cl Beck - What are you going to do about these California trucks? It hasn't been solved at this point? B Maynard - I'm not sure. What: happens if the guy says he's going to be there Saturday night and hits a snow storm in Illinois and we've got no product because %ve haven't had time to react to it? If we have no product, we're in big trouble. R Cutia - If it's decreased from the eight that we do in the middle of the night now, to one once in a while, the odd ball out, and if we stop moving our trucks by starting a little earlier and staging stuff on the interior. I know that I can control our trucks from 10:00 to 3:00 without moving them. I think we can by starting earlier. Cl T Hatfield - If you can do that, that's what I find personally to be a big step forward. ® D Cutia - Monica, would that be all right with you? Page 17 of 27 TB 2-7-01 DI1AP1' M Horton - Of course, that's our whole point of being here. That's all we're asking. R Cutia - We have an issue with the refer unit noise because we can't start the trucks and move them away from the docks to put them on the other side of the building, So after those three trucks that are in the yard at the docks are loaded the switches are going to have to go on for the refer units which will be running by the house because usually we start them up and drive them around the other side of the building. Cl T Hatfield - What time do you do that? R Cutia - Between 12:00 and 1:00. Cl T Hatfield - That's a problem. R Cutia - Maybe we can try it without turning the refer unit on right away. The stuff we put in there is cold. If we shut the door, maybe we can monitor the temperature. Maybe it wouldn't go up ten degrees in a few hours. Cl Grantham - How many of your own trucks have to go out at three in the morning? R Cutia - Rochester, Buffalo and Jamestown leave at 3:00. Cl Grantham - And then when do your next trucks leave? R Cutia - 5:00 and then 6:00. Cl Grantham - So when are you proposing to finish loading the three that have to leave at three in the morning? R Cutia - 1 am proposing to finish loading them by 10:00 and pulling them out and backing the other three in. Cl Grantham - And those three that are backed in sit there until... R Cutia - They'll sit there until 3:00 when the drivers come or 4:00 when the drivers come to leave with them. Cl Grantham - Then the three which you finish loading at 10:00, is there not another place anywhere that you could take them so that their refer units could run? R Cutia - We can pull those around the side of the budding. Supv Varvayanis - Then the ones that are parked, cant you leave those unloaded. R Cutia - We can load those three. We can stage about four trucks now, and we can stage and load those and leave them at the dock. The area will be clear and we can stage our next four trucks. At 4:00 those trucks pull out, and we can back the other ones in and in a hurry try to load the rest of it. Cl T Hatfield - If you start down that road at least you've got a five hour window that's relatively quiet. D Cutia. - 10:00 to 3:00. Page 18 of 27 Tfl 2-7 -01 DRAFT Cl Grantham - My question still is, not just take the trucks around to the other side of the building, can you take off the property to someplace? R Cutia - We explored that possibility after the last meeting. Logistically it would be, our drivers would have to drive their cars to where the trucks are parked. First of all myself and someone else would have to drive a truck from our property. Two of us would have to leave and go and drop the truck somewhere and then come back and then our drivers would have to drive to this particular spot, get in their truck, leave their vehicle there all day. I think that it would at least double the traffic in and out of the building, at a minimum. Instead of doing 50 trips a day, it would be 100 trips in and out: of the driveway a day. Cl Grantham - I'm only talking about those three. At 10:00 you drive them off the lot and they don't ever have to come back on and turn on 3:00 in the morning. Cl T Hatfield - They're going around to the side and apparently when they're at the side they're not a problem. D Cutia - There's twelve acres of land up back. R Cutia - Here's another issue. There's probably six or seven thousand dollars worth of product on the truck. C1 Grantham - Then can they be driven to Rochester or Buffalo that: night? heave the site at 10:00, since your guys right now are working all night anyway? R Cutia - We'd have a problem with customers. A lot of our stops are, actually 41 of our new stops that we'll be starting in a month, are Friendly's that don't open until 6:00 a.m. The other stops that this whole thing started with in August, that we have a lot more flexibility what: time you get in, a lot of those places are manufacturing facilities and are open early. That's why we kind of married these two programs that we've been working on for a year and half together. Atty Perkins - I think Deb's point is why can't the truck leave the facility, and if your guy has to take three hours nap someplace on the thruway or in someone else's parking lot until he can deliver, that's the cost of doing business for you. Cl Grantham - It's only for the three trucks so that there's the 10:00 to 4:00 am. window. If you can stage your other trucks and don't have to start. loading until 5:00 or 6:00, that's really a seven hour window. What I'm saying is just find a way to take those three trucks off the site once they're loaded at 10:00 p.m. D Cutia - Is that so they won't be leaving so early in the morning from our facility? Is that what you are getting at? C1 Beck - Plus the refers won't be running. Atty Perkins - It's at least another hour, plus no refers. Cl Grantham - Then you have a whole six hour span with no trucks coming in or out. D Cutia - We can do something like that. We can maybe take them to Caskey's. It's a possibility. Maybe the guy who sells the trailer homes. We can work on something. 0 Cl T Hatfield - So we can modify it 10:00 to 4:00 and if it doesn't work revisit it. Page 19 of 27 TB 2 -7 -01 DRAFT Cl Beck - Why don't we ,set it 10:00 to 4:00 and do your best effort. • Cl Grantham - And how do we set conditions, Mahlon, so that they need to come back to us, and we need to review how its worked, and we. need to consider things like vegetation and those sort of mitigating factors. Atty Perkins - As I understand it, what you are proposing is to approve a modification of the permit to allow there to operate until 10:00 p.m. and then there will be no movement of vehicles other than passenger cars arriving or something like that, between 10:00 p.m. and 4:00 a.m., and no refer units operating on the premises. Are we talking about some kind of screening or plan or something like that? CI T Hatfield - We talked about that last time and fence and screening was in the original permit, which we are going to continue. C1 Grantham - Their consultants talked about other things. Atty Perkins - Then make them come back with that plan and get approval by a certain date or else it is void. R Cutia - What if the temperature rises too much in the trucks that we load at midnight that are parked could do to that at the dock if you really wanted that we can't: move and we have to turn the refer units on? D Cutia - Is there any way that we can take them off premises? It's going to get %varm. Atty Perkins - Can't: you run the refer units til 10:00 to cool them down before you start? D Cutia - We could do that. We're talking about trucks that wouldn't be loaded yet. • Atty Perkins - I understand. C1 Grantham - I thought: that you were saying that you load the three and the rest of it is staged inside the building until 4:00. Supv Varvayanis - They'll load another three trucks. Cl Beck - They get loaded and then they're ready for the next group as soon as they move out. Atty Perkins -'What they're worried about is the trucks that they are in the process of loading. Cl Beck - 50 or 60 degrees can happen by the end of April. Cl Grantham - I think that it seems like there are ways to work this out so that you don't have to have the refer units or vehicle traffic from 10:00 pm to 4:00 am, and that's what I would like to see. And that we put a time limit on it and you come back to us so we hear from you and from the neighbors about hoer it works. Additionally you can present some ideas to us for additional buffering, vegetation, whatever, as you've already started to talk about in some of these documents you've provided. That's what I would like to see. Cl Beck - You've got a couple of months before refrigeration will become an issue. 1 go by and I see the fence and say okay, that's a solid screen, but there's a lot more things you • could do to that fence that would be a lot more effective for a noise barrier if you really wanted Page 20 of 27 TB 2 -7-01 DRAFT to. It could be twice as high and you could get some kind of a fabric or something on it, which might be an eyesore, but it probably isn't the most: beautiful thing in the world the way it is now. But there are other things that could happen with a noise barrier other than a straight board wooden fence that's eight feet high when you've got trucks that are already above the level of the fence with the refers running. M Horton suggested moving existing shrubs to the fence. Cl Beck - Can we make this a temporary thing to see how it works so it expires and we're not locked into it forever if it isn't going to work. Atty Perkins - There is no provision to make a temporary permit. You make the permit and if it doesn't work it's up to them to come back to you and ask for permission to modify it. now. Cl Beck - So we need to make it as restrictive as we want it.... Cl T Hatfield - And they'll see how it works and come back to us. Atty Perkins - Is there some question about a landscape plan? C1 '1' Hatfield - That's why I was talking about June 11 You can't plant: shrubs right Atty Perkins - There is an issue about what was required by the original permit. Cl T Hatfield - The original permit had a landscape plan in it. I remember talking about 0 it. Atty Perkins - Are you going to extend the time for compliance with that? Cl Grantham - Did they comply with ghat? Was it just the fence? ZO Slater - There was a question about where the landscape buffering wvas supposed to be. At the time it was my opinion there was a typo that said east and it should have said west, or vice versa. They did plant a lot of landscaping at the time of the original permit. So they either planted correctly or incorrectly depending on whose opinion you want to listen to. Cl Grantham - But they put the fence up now, so does that meet the landscape requirements one way or another? ZO Slater - You have the original stuff there. I don't recall a fence. I think they volunteered between them and Porters to build a fence. Atty Perkins - Are there issues then with respect: to the original permit? ZO Slater - Other than hours, I don't believe so. Cl Grantham - And what where the days of operation? ZO Slater - Monday through Saturday, one truck leaving at 4:00 a.m. and general business hours of 6:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. daily. I think you're talking about 4 :00 am. to 10:00 p.m. Monday through Saturday. 0 Cl Grantham - And not open on Sunday. Page 21 of 27 TB 2 -7 -01 DRAFT ZO Slater - But what I just said isn't correct. They'll still be working, but can't: have noise between 10:00 p.m. one day and 4:00 a. m. the following day. 0 Cl T Hatfield - The only thing we're restricting is the yard movement and refer units. R Cutia - The refer units are going to be a problem. With this account that starts in a month, we sell a lot of frozen product. I forgot about it when we first talked about it, but we have separate compartments and that part has got to stay frozen and that means it will have to run. Cl T Hatfield - Then you'll need some sort of a muffler on those refers. Cl Grantham - I think there are ways to work this out. You started getting creative about it, I have all the faith in the world that you can work this out. After further discussion it was decided the hours of operation would be 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with no yard movement from 10:00 p.m. to 4:00 am. and no refer units running. Atty Perkins - Let me work on the conditions, and we'll come back to it. Supv Varvayanis stated that Thoma Consultants had submitted a proposal to administer the Cayuga Press HUD grant. Atty Perkins is reviewing it and the Town should be ready to move forward soon. Cl Grantham explained the changes made in the RFQ for the Master Plata work after going to Planting Board, comments from Atty Perkins, and a letter from Dave Putnam with additional names of people to send it to. 0 Cl Grantham - One change was I had in it originally possibly review recent special permits, etc, and the Planning Board said don't say possibly, just say do it. Another change was to really be explicit about include a work plan and time line for the project, estimate the overall cost of the contract and give a complete and current list of standard hourly rates for categories of employees. Mahlon wanted me to add the Town Comprehensive Plan is being prepared in accordance with Town Law §272(x) and it should include items set forth in subsection 3 and subsection 9, ag review and coordination with the Town of Dryden Right to Farm Law. That's all the changes that I made. The list of people that will be notified are Clough Harbour, George Frantz, Ralph Pendell at Cornell, the Chazen Companies, and Rebecca Reuben at the New York Planning Federation. The time line that I wanted was to approve it tonight so that we could send out the letter and start getting applications. Barbara and I both want to be on the search committee and we wanted to ask if we could get approval of the RFQ and approval for a search committee that would be me and Barbara and choose another person from the Planning Board. Than well come back and make a recommendation to the Town Board, Supv Varvayanis - 'That's fine with me. Cl Grantham - Al move that then. RESOLUTION #85 - APPROVE MASTER PLAN REQUEST FOR QUALIFICATIONS Cl Grantham offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby approves the Request for Qualifications for the Master Plan work as prepared and authorizes its release. 0 Pale 22 of 2.7 2nd Cl T Hatfield Roll Call Vote Cl Beck Yes Cl T Hatfield Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Grantham Yes TB 2 -7 -01 DRAFT Supv Varvayanis - Matt Shulman has been working for a month already and his contract has not been signed. The only change he wanted to make was the insurance requirement. His insurance is not that high. Cl Beck - Do we get into a policy problem if we change one? Atty Perkins - You'd be changing your policy, yes. You make the policy, you can change the policy. The question is whether it's a good idea. Cl Beck - He seriously objected to it? Supv Varvayanis - He's got his insurance now and it costs him a fair amount. Cl Beck - It's not a big deal in my business for an extra umbrella if you've got the coverage to start with. Cl T Hatfield - He'd have to demonstrate a hardship on that one. Cl Beck - Or demonstrate why he can't. Supv Varvayanis - Okay, assuming I'll get: him to do that, do I have permission to sign a contract then? Cl T Hatfield - As far as I'm concerned. RESOLUTION #86 - AUTHORIZE CONTRACT WITH MATTHEW SHULMAN Cl T Hatfield offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby authorizes the Supervisor to execute the contract with Matthew Shulman to provide services in connection with Project Impact after the question of appropriate insurance coverage has been resolved. 2nd Cl Beck Roll Call Vote Cl Beck Yes C1 T Hatfield Yes Supv Varvayanis Yes Cl Grantham Yes Cl Beck - Are we going any further with the building program? This is a serious problem. Cl Grantham - Dianne needs to tell me that she's gotten all of the information that she can get. When she sends it to me I can write an RFP to get someone in to do a. needs study. That's the next step. Supv Varvayanis - And we're looking at modular units to put out back here. It's about 1200 square feet, so that would give the Judges a fair amount of room. Pagc 23 of 27 TB 2 -7-01 DRAFT ZO Slater - Patrick Kennedy is trying to contact you to set up a time to look at those units so we can arrange to do this when the weather is right. There seems to be some other interest. C1 Beck - I guess we need to do the needs study first. There really hasn't been a consensus, and I'm not saying we should make the decision, but are we looking at remodel, a bulldoze and brand need? Do we have to make that decision? It seems like it kind of directs the needs study if we've got some kind of a basis to start with. Cl Grantham - I think that the needs study comes first. We need to know how many square foot we need. They did some work must be over ten years ago now, but at the time we didn't have the bulk of records that we have now, our court wasn't as busy, we had one and half people in the zoning, we didn't have Matt Shulman, we had fewer deputies. It's a whole lot different. Cl Beck - I know we have a. huge space problem, but my concern is is this building even worth considering as any part of the future plan? I've been hearing things from the people who are supposed to know that this place is not very acceptable for future use. Cl Grantham =1 guess that could be part of an RFP, to evaluate this building with respect to a needs study, but I think we should do a needs study. It doesn't have to take very long. They need to look at the legal requirements for the justices and then interview... Cl Beck - And look 20 _years down the road for what we are going to need then. ZO Slater - You've got to look at the requirements for each and every individual that: works here, not just the justices. There are requirements for everybody. The ones for the justices are extraordinarily large. Cl Grantham - That's what a needs study needs to look at and I think you need to do that first before you decide whether this building has any use. Cl Beck - We need to get the scope of what we're going to look at right the first time. Supv Varvayanis - I'm just assuming we'll need a new building, and that's why I'm proposing sticking a temporary thing out here because it will probably take a couple of years to get something built and I think ure're at a critical point now. If we put something out here, it would be kind of stupid if we then try to expand this building right into what we just stuck there temporarily. Cl Beck - If we hire an architect tomorrow and let him do the needs study, how soon can we break ground? By Fall? C1 Grantham - I've seen it get done in one to two months. Cl Beck - I just want to keep it moving. Atty Perkins - Can we get back to Ithaca Produce? Supv Varvayanis - They were talking about a 60 decibel average. Should %ve throw a 60 decibel limit into this resolution? Page 24 of 27 TB 2 =7 -01 DRAFT Dave Putnam - Do we think we ought to have that analyzed by someone that knows more about sound than all of us? I have looked into it and I can get somebody to analyze and make sure that that is done factually and correctly. Atty Perkins - Don't you think the whole thing that they submitted is suspect? 24 hours in the middle of winter. I don't think you should go there frankly without more of a basis to it. Cl Beck - Right. We're really not sure what we've got for information. Supv Varvayanis - If it's true that it's only 60 decibels, it's not waking anybody up. But if they are coming in here claiming that that's what they're making, then should we just put that in? Atty Perkins - Are you going to enforce that? Cl T Hatfield - How do you enforce it? Atty Perkins- Henry will be down there at 4:00 am. with his decimeter. Cl Grantham - So what are you suggesting then? Atty Perkins - I wouldn't go with setting decibel limits and things like that. It seems to me that the neighbors came up with a specific proposal and you're prepared to impose that on them and that sounds workable. Atty Perkins then read proposed language for a resolution for the Ithaca Produce matter. The board discussed a landscape plan and decided a plan should be submitted by April 1, 2001, approved by the Town by May 31, 2001, and the plantings fully implemented by June 30, 2001. Atty Perkins stated that the goal of the plan should be to mitigate noise. ZO Slater stated the plan should include how tall the plantings are going to be and the density of them. Cl Grantham stated the plan need not necessarily be only trees, they could plant four foot trees and back it with an 8' fence. Cl Grantham - Henry, the enforcement is you, and you've got to do it. If you get complaints from neighbors you've got to go do that. You've got to figure out how to enforce it. ZO Slater - I think you're going to have to make a decision sooner or later whether to make them move or let them be there. It's a 24 hour a day business because that's the nature of their business and I think the jury- rigging is not going to work and we are going to be down there all the time. And I for one don't want to do it. It's going to be difficult. C1 Grantham - But until that happens it's your job, and you are the Zoning Enforcement Officer, ZO Slater - Well up until this point you haven't wanted to enforce anything. Now you are telling me you want to enforce it. Is that what you're saying? C1 Grantham - Yes. ZO Slater - I'll do the best 1 can. The only way you're probably going to enforce it is to get an injunction prohibiting it, because the Court's will not stand behind us. That will be my recommendation. That if it doesn't work we ask Mr. Perkins to get a injunction to enforce those hours so it's a legal requirement, not just the local Court saying you shouldn't do this. Page 25 of 27 TB 2-7 -01 DRAFT And I think Mr. Perkins would agree with me that that's the route to go based on our prior experience. 0 Atty Perkins - It depends on what we charge them with and how quickly we can get a hearing, and how serious the Judge is about: enforcing a fine. I don't know what the penalty is, is it up to $1,000 a day? Maybe on a third offense it gets pretty significant. That's probably not going to be an acceptable cost of doing business after a while. You've got two remedies. You've got your local court remedy which is quasi - criminal, and you've got Supreme Court injunction. Supv Varvayanis - $100 a day, $36,000 a year. You don't want to spend it, but if that is what it takes to stay in business, he might: be willing to do that. ZO Slater - They won't fine him $10 a day. Atty Perkins - That's the problem. Cl T Hatfield - Their problem is the zoning there. There's no buffer between the zone they're in and their neighbors. Cl Beck - Our worst problem is that they are out of compliance with the permit we issued them now, and if somebody brings that to us... ZO Slater - We can write them, but we can't make them stop. Atty Perkins - We can make them stop. "LO Slater - Right, but not in this Court. Supv Varvayanis - Okay, let's not worry about: that tonight. RESOLUTION #87 - MODIFY ITHACA PRODUCE SPECIAL PERMIT Supv Varvayanis offered the following resolution and asked for its adoption: RESOLVED, that this Town Board hereby modifies the special permit of Ithaca Produce with the following conditions: 1. There shall be no truck movement: on the site between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. the next morning. 2. There shall be no truck engines running on the site between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. the next morning. 3. There shall be no truck or txailer refrigeration engine operations between the hours of 10 p.m. and 4 a.m. the next morning. 4. Ithaca Produce must submit to the Town a satisfactory landscape plan to further mitigate noise from the site. The plan must be submitted no later than April 1, 2001 and must be approved by the Town not later than May 31, 2001. The Town reserves the right to make such additional requirements to the plan as may be necessary to best achieve the ends sought. The plan , including the planting and other noise mitigation installations, must be fully implemented by June 30, 2001. 2nd Cl T I•Iatfield Roll Call Vote Cl Beck Yes is Page 26 of 27 Cl T Hatfield Supv Varvayanis Cl Grantham Yes Yes Yes T13 2-7-01 DRAFT At 10:00 p.m. Supv Varvayanis made a motion to move into executive session to discuss a possible land purchase or swap, the discussion of which in public might adversely affect the purchase price, and to discuss the medical and employment history of up to three individuals, and for the purpose of attorney /client privilege discussions. Motion duly seconded and unanimously carried. No action was taken. On motion made, seconded and unanimously carried, the meeting was adjourned at 10:40 p.m. Respectfully submitted, Awf 41VO6"CIC Bambi L. Hollenbeck Town Clerk Paige 27 of 27