HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-01-13 Town Board MinutesJANUARY 13, 2021 4:00 P.M.
SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING
WORKSHOP – DRAFT COMPREHENSIVE PLAN
The Special Meeting of the Town Board of the Town of Cortlandville was held via Zoom
video and telephone conferencing with Supervisor Williams presiding as permitted by the
Executive Order of the Governor of the State of New York due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Members present: Supervisor, Thomas A. Williams
Councilman, Jay E. Cobb
Councilman, Jeffrey D. Guido
Councilman, Theodore V. Testa
Councilman, Douglas E. Withey
Town Clerk, Kristin E. Rocco-Petrella
Others present were: Town Attorney, John A. DelVecchio; Deputy Town Clerk, Abigail
Albro; Supervisor’s Secretary; Patty O’Mara; Town Planning Board Members: Chris Newell,
Chairman, Nasrin Parvizi (Comprehensive Plan Committee Member); Laird Updyke; Ann
Hotchkin (Comprehensive Plan Committee Member); Nick Renzi; ZBA Member: Bernice Potter-
Masler; Comprehensive Plan Committee Members: Pamela Jenkins; and Forrest Earl;
Representatives from CHA Consulting, Inc.: Jean Lowenstein, AICP, Principal Planner; Chris
Einstein, Associate Vice President; Town Residents: Peter Morse-Ackley; Robert Martin; and
News Reporter, Colin Spencer from the Cortland Standard.
Supervisor Williams called the special meeting to order and asked for a roll call of all Board
members in attendance. Chairman, Chris Newell introduced the members of the Planning Board
that were in attendance.
Before proceeding with the main agenda item, to discuss the Comprehensive Plan,
Supervisor Williams asked the Board for approval of payment to CHA to proceed with the design
of a new proposed entranceway to the Raymond G. Thorpe Municipal Building (Town Hall).
RESOLUTION #24 APPROVE EXTRA WORK AUTHORIZATION OF CHA
CONSULTING, INC. FOR THE DESIGN OF A NEW
ENTRANCEWAY TO THE RAYMOND G. THORPE
MUNICIPAL BUILDING
Motion by Councilman Testa
Seconded by Councilman Cobb
VOTES: AYE – Williams, Cobb, Guido, Testa, Withey NAY – 0
ADOPTED
BE IT RESOLVED, the Town Board does hereby accept the Extra Work Authorization from CHA
Consulting, Inc. related to the design of a new entranceway to the Raymond G. Thorpe Municipal
Building and further authorizes payment in the amount of $1,985.00.
Supervisor Williams commenced the workshop portion of the Town Board meeting to
discuss the Draft Comprehensive Plan for the Town of Cortlandville (dated December 2020). At
the conclusion of the workshop it was determined that any additional comments should be emailed
to the Supervisor’s Secretary, Patty O’Mara by February 1, 2021.
Supervisor Williams: Thank you. Next order of business is the Draft Comprehensive Plan. And,
I am… let me make a note here… put this out and I guess my initial question is… Nasrin is the
Chair of the Committee and I guess still is. I reviewed the original proposal that was received…
that was passed in March of 2018. This was their original... Clough Harbor’s original proposal to
proceed with a Comprehensive Plan and I guess I’m asking you, since I wasn't around at that time,
what your feelings are as far as whether or not you felt that what we asked for, what they propose,
and what we got... if those were all pretty much the same.
Planning Board Member Nasrin Parvizi: Sorry, I was muted. To answer that, of course, if my
memory goes back that far to compare what the proposal is what we got. We think that what we…
JANUARY 13, 2021 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING PAGE 2
there were a lot of events that happened that I should mention. One of them was that we lost the
Town liaison which was John Proud that started from that. And we went to reiterate. Of course
COVID almost at the end of it, this tract... what we originally planned to do. So, as far as what the
scope of work included, and as far as getting the inventory of all the Town and the history
information, imagery, and analysis that we were supposed to get. We supposed to have some Public
Workshop, that we handle those. We got the needed assessment ordered, community survey that
we wanted to incorporate. We got the goals and objectives. And, we worked a lot on The Vision,
it was a part of it. Creating the Vision. And also the Vision Statement and the goals and objectives
of the Town. We included... we went through a lot of reiterations. Of course I have to first
introduce, I'm sorry, I jumped in and introduce all the members which included: I see Ann
Hotchkin and Pam Jenkins. In addition to them was Forrest Earl and also David Yaman. We lost
one person that he... Allan... he has started with us and now he’s not. So I thank all the committee
members, they put a lot of time and effort especially through the meeting through the COVID
which was started last March. So we started in July of 2018 and as I said we followed those Vision.
We got all of those Public Workshop input. We got the draft proposal. We put together the
recommendations. We reviewed all of the recommendations. And then the plan of action was put
together. So basically, yes. I should say that we received what it was in the beginning and I have
information about the proposal based on… not the proposal… the full process as we discussed in
our July meeting of 2018, we followed it. So this is a very long answer to your really quick question
Tom.
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: Tom, this is Nick Renzi. I have a quick question. Have all
the members of the Comprehensive Plan committee read the proposal from Clough Harbor dated
February 9th, 2017?
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: I… We were not privy to that.
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: Why not?
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Well, I don’t know if… speaking from my own
experience again. Your consultant makes a proposal to your Town. The Town accepts it and then
forms a committee. And then your consultant comes to a meeting and says, okay committee
meeting... I am sorry, committee, here’s our outline for what we intend to do as part of our contract.
Now we did have a liaison between the committee and the Town Board, which was John Proud,
who is no longer on the Town. But, he stayed with us through the whole thing. So, I don't… I guess
you'd be relying on your consultant to relay to the Town Board…
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: Yes, but why isn’t the proposal from the consultant,
Clough Harbor, something that's available to the committee to see what is it that the Town has
contracted for us so that you have your mindset as to the direction you want to go in. To see what
is being proposed and accepted by the Town, shouldn’t that be something that is logical to be
viewed by the Comprehension Plan committee? Seems to me it’s so logical it’s not even worthy
of discussion.
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: I mean, I was surprised, if we're just having an open
conversation, that the contract did not include a Needs Assessment. I was shocked. Or not a Needs
Assessment… a Survey. That was something that we always did to get the pulse of the key….
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: Has the Comprehensive Plan committee ever asked for
the contractor that was signed by the Town Board with Clough Harbor?
Planning Board Member Nasrin Parvizi: I can answer that. No. We had the chart, we had the
outline, and he followed that and that does not change any validity or what the content of the
Comprehensive Plan is. The contract is not dictating what the outcome of Comprehensive is. The
Comprehensive Plan itself…
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: No, but it is dictating…
Planning Board Member Nasrin Parvizi: No, let me finish…
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: … what the deliverables are...
Planning Board Member Nasrin Parvizi: Let me finish…
JANUARY 13, 2021 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING PAGE 3
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: ...and the workshops, and the actions, and all the rest of
it. I mean, such fundamental details. I really don't want to discuss it too much. Because the more I
discuss it the more upset I get. So we’re not going to get anywhere with this. You should have
been seeing... you should have looked at that in the beginning. You haven’t done it, but that’s
history. Let's get on with it.
Planning Board Member Nasrin Parvizi: Exactly.
Supervisor Williams: Excuse me, Nick. I guess I take exception to that. Let’s let this flow as it
does. I personally can't speak to the history because I wasn't there. There were others on the Board
that were, and if they want to address that they may. But to...
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: Well, Dick Tupper...
Supervisor Williams: No Nick, excuse me I haven’t finished yet. To try to go back...
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: Okay, go ahead.
Supervisor Williams: Thank you. To try to go back and finish what was done 3...2,3,4 years ago,
I think it… really isn't really material to where we are today. We have a plan in front of us...
whether it's flawed or not I don't know we have a plan in front of us…. we have a plan in front of
us that we need to do something with. We either need to send it back to the committee and for...
to revisit it. We need to move it forward. We need to adjust it. We need to do something. I am not
in any... I'm not one to go back and try to refigure out what happened historically. And so my
direction now, my advice now is, unless somebody who was on the decision-making process at
the time wants to weigh-in, I suggest we move ahead. Let's look at this as perhaps not a finished
document, but at least as a reference point to where we start and move forward.
Councilman Withey: I agree with you there Tom. Now that this segment is concluded I guess I
would ask the committee: Knowing what you know now, and if we were going to be attempting
to do a Comprehensive Plan study today, what would we add to what the program was for the past
three-four years. Cause now that you've gone through it I would think there would be things that I
wish we’d asked this, I wished we asked that, and so on. So, it doesn’t have to be right now, but I
would think towards the end… well I wish we had this in that document and so on to work from.
And, I think that might help to answer Nick’s questions as well.
Supervisor Williams: Thank you Doug. I mean you were... just to put this sort of in historical
perspective... the… I have in front of me the proposal from Clough Harbor and the approval by
the Board from Clough Harbor that was dated March of 2018. So you're one of the ones that can
speak to that as one of the ones that was on the Board.
Councilman Withey: You’re muted Tom. Tom. Can’t hear ya. Can’t hear you.
Planning Board Member Nasrin Parvizi: Muted.
Councilman Withey: You’re muted.
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Hold up a sign.
Supervisor Williams: There. Okay. I’m done. I’m back. Somehow I got muted. What I was
saying...
Councilman Withey: You’re muted. There you go, now you’re back.
Supervisor Williams: 1, 2, 3, 4… Good?
Councilman Withey: I hear you now.
Supervisor Williams: Alright, I have in front of me the original proposal that was dated February
2017. It was voted on by the Board on March of 2018. Which would have been, I’m guessing,
early into your tenure. Am I right?
Councilman Withey: Yep. First couple months.
JANUARY 13, 2021 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING PAGE 4
Supervisor Williams: And, I don't know how familiar you were, two months in, three months in..
I don't know how familiar you were with this. And I don’t know how you voted. You were one
that could speak to this if you wanted to.
Councilman Withey: Well, I’m sure I voted in favor of it, if memory serves me properly, I vote
in favor of it. The depth and detail, being a rookie, a newbie, was probably not my forte to actually
read into to rely on senior Board members. We know we need a Comprehensive Plan because the
old one was pretty much outdated. So to move ahead it was good. The details, the RFP that maybe
was sent out, I don’t know if there was an RFP it maybe just went directly to Clough Harbor. So,
the action taken was a needed action. Whether the guidelines and stuff are sufficient, that's beyond
my expertise and probably most of us here. Other than, as Ann has said, I think three of four Towns
and the City she’s worked with. So, she’d be more in tune with that. But, it sounds like they didn't
even see the total scope. Which is unfortunate. So…
Planning Board Member Nasrin Parvizi: I'm sorry. Can I talk, Tom? I'm sorry.
Supervisor Williams: Of course.
Planning Board Member Nasrin Parvizi: On behalf of myself and the committee. We saw the
scope. I just wanted to make sure. We saw the outline. We reviewed all of that. That is, we did not
see and whether I take the responsibility and say it was my fault as the Chair. We did not think
that it was important at the time to see the contract. Okay? Is that, we know the proposal, we know
the content, we know the outline. So the solution was, if anything, we would have asked to it. I
would say that I agree with Ann. We would have had the Need Assessm ent and Survey include.
And a little bit more photos that we wanted and some more sketches, but those photos and sketches
it was not as much that it was the Need Assessment and we went and got a proposal from Clough
Harbor and also we got proposal from some other venues including Cornell. And we went with
them. And so we did and we include… and Clough Harbor included the results in it. So we
remedied that part. Tom I just wanted to make sure that everybody knows, we knew what the scope
was. So, there is no doubt we just personally did not take the proposal. And, I don't agree that we
should have seen it. It would have been great, yes. In hindsight I could have asked for it and see
it. But it was not necessary. We were the steering committee not the selection of the Engineer
Committee, it’s a different responsibility that a steering committee has. Okay?
Supervisor Williams: Does anyone else… I see we have two other members, Miss Jenkins and
Mr. Earl. if they would want to weigh in on that and then I'm saying let's move forward. Do you
want to do this vocal piece or move forward?
Comprehensive Plan Committee Member Forrest Earl: This is Forrest. I don't have any more
comments. I think I understood what our task was going into the committee. Clough Harbor had
already been selected by the Town, so from the perspective of reviewing their contract… that
specific contract didn’t make sense. I fully understood our goal as a committee was to update a
forty-year-old Comprehensive Plan. We were provided the plan from... I think it's ‘78 to review in
advance and we understood we needed to upgrade it. Were there some nuances, I wouldn’t have
picked up on him either. I've never done a Comprehensive Plan. Wouldn’t have occurred to me
that a Survey was or wasn't in the scope of work. So I'm… that's all I really have to offer on that.
Supervisor Williams: Okay. Thank you.
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: The document that Tom references is February 9, 2017 is
not a contract perse it’s title Town of Cortlandville: Comprehensive Plan Proposal and in the
proposal they define the scope of work and the different tasks that they will be engaged in and you
know… it's just an outline of what they're planning on doing. And, at the end they talk about how
much each task is going to be charged and the total is $131,000.00. I don’t want to belabor the
point, but it would have been good reading the Plan committee… the Comprehensive Plan
Committee to have read what is it that the Town has engaged Clough Harbor to do. That’s all. We
can go on.
Supervisor Williams: Alright, let that be… the last committee member… original committee
member, Miss Jenkins I see your head went side to side I believe. Not up and down. So you’re in
agreement with Nasrin? Yes? Okay.
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Tom?
JANUARY 13, 2021 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING PAGE 5
Supervisor Williams: I don’t know if we have audio or not at their... where they are but…
Comprehensive Plan Committee Member Pamela Jenkins: Oh, we have audio. I’m just saying
let's go on, let's move on.
Supervisor Williams: Okay, thanks you. Also, it should probably be noted, for the record, that all
of this was in the Public Domain. It was available to anybody who wanted it. The RFP, the
proposal. As I say, I wasn’t there at the time, but I know who was and I know that it was done as
it should be. That if anybody wanted this information, it was available. That being said, let's move
on.
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Tom?
Supervisor Williams: Yes?
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: In addition to the plans that I was directly involved
with you obviously read a lot of competitors' plans. So if you want to put your mind to rest, I would
say the contents of this plan compete favorably with any other Comprehensive Plans that are out
there. We may have argued on, like Forrest said, some nuances or what should go in or how much
more we should explain one topic, but I don't disagree that the plan is complete.
Supervisor Williams: Thank you. Alright… let’s… you know… you start out this with an
Executive Summary and go in to a whole bunch of stuff. I’ve read it several times and I hope
everybody else has. I’ve asked Jeff Guido to become sort of our expert on this from the Town
Board standpoint. Let’s start out with the general flavor. What is the general flavor of this? I know
it's… we're going from 1978 to current, which is a long period of time. I understand a lot of what
was said, but... I guess... and I’m going to be very honest with everybody... I think right now, when
you're on the beach it's time to either fish or cut bait and I'm thinking it's time to do one or the
other. Do we sit here and mull over the nuances of this or do we accept this, the work of the
committee, this document, as something, not The Holy Grail, but at least something that we can
adopt and move forward with? And, if that's the case, that's a Board decision, if that’s the case then
the question in my mind is, how do we do that? How do we…?
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: You want to jump right over getting any comments on the
plan?
Supervisor Williams: No I'm not jumping over anything Nick. I'm just saying, my impression is
that there's a plan that's been put in place, a suggested plan, we either have to adopt it or not.
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: No, you have to invite whoever is on the committee or on
a telephone call if they have any comments on it.
Supervisor Williams: Of course…
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: ...then you can talk about adopting it or making some
changes of recommendations to Clough Harbor.
Planning Board Chair Chris Newell: I have a question, Tom.
Supervisor Williams: Yes.
Planning Board Chair Chris Newell: If we accept the Comprehensive Plan the way it's written,
do we have the opportunity to add to it or tweak some of the changes after we’ve adopted it?
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: Forgive me Chris, I think the first thing you want to do is
get comments, submit them to Clough Harbor....
Planning Board Chair Chris Newell: I realize that Nick, but I just wanted to know if we could
make changes.
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: Yea, because this is a draft.
Planning Board Chair Chris Newell: No, I'm saying let’s say we accepted this today… let's
for... and then…
JANUARY 13, 2021 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING PAGE 6
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: Why would you accept it and then want to make changes?
Why don’t you make the recommendation changes now, have Clough Harbor incorporate them,
and then make the final acceptance.
Planning Board Chair Chris Newell: Absolutely, if we come up with these changes. But, down
the road there may be other things we are not thinking of today. And, my only question is, do we
have the ability, after it's accepted, to make changes?
CHA Engineer Chris Einstein: So would it be alright if we weigh in at this point, this is Chris
Einstein?
Planning Board Member Nasrin Parvizi: I was also going to ask…
Supervisor Williams: Hang on… hang on one minute… just one second. We have to, for this to
move forward… First of all, we’re not accepting anything tonight. This is a Workshop for the
Boards to look at the process. To look at what’s in front of us. At some point the Town Board is
going to move to accept this, at which time it will then go to Public Hearing. We will have to set
a date for a Public Hearing for the public to weigh in on it. And then, after that, we move forward.
This is not a... tonight's meeting is not a slam-dunk, it's not an approval meeting, this is a meeting
to… it’s a workshop and I'm told there's no such thing as a workshop in New York state, but it's a
workshop where my thought was all these folks could come together and sort of talk about it and
then see where we go from here.
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: Okay, good Tom? I have extra comments and I can email
them to you and you can incorporate them as you see fit.
Supervisor Williams: That would be fine, email them to Patty O’Mara and she will see that they're
distributed to all those present.
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: Okay.
Councilman Withey: I would think there would be more than just Nick’s comments. I would
think, if people read through this, and reviewed it, and I've got a couple comments as well. I would
think everyone else would have some comments. Now that we have a draft copy. So if you do,
please send the Patty cause I'll do that tomorrow.
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: The other thing I want to comment on Tom is that the
statement was made in its correct statement the last Comprehensive Plan goes back to I think 1978,
somewhere in there, that's true. But we did have the Corridor study which was a pretty formidable
plan that was put together back in 2002 and I think it’s good to reflect on the contents of that. Not
to read it word for word, to see what that plan looked like and what we got for the money in this
plan here. It's a good reference point. It's the most up-to-date reference point we have. We had a
lot of growth between. And also, it would be a good starting point to look at how Cortlandville has
changed in the last 18 years since the Corridor study, reflecting on that, and what we want and
how we want to proceed ahead. But I've made those points in my comments and I will send them
off to Patty O’Mara for distribution.
Supervisor Williams: Nick, knowing you, I would assume that you did make those points. So,
include those in… or send them to Patty, she will distribute them. Anybody else who has
comments, get them to Patty and we’ll try to make this mishmash go round and round and round
electronically as best we can.
Planning Board Member Nasrin Parvizi: Tom, can I interject. Sorry. I would like to, before we
go too far as far as the question because question may come up, I would like, I see that Chris and
Jean from Clough Harbor and I appreciate their time and they have come here tonight to present a
little bit what was their methodology or what we went through. And, also a little bit explain the
plan. So I would, if that is okay, can we turn the table to Jean and Chris?
Supervisor Williams: Well actually that had been my plan about half an hour ago to ask them to
sort of give their... as the professionals in the group... to give their view. So unless there's objection,
let's have the Clough Harbor folks talk.
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: Thank you.
JANUARY 13, 2021 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING PAGE 7
CHA Engineer Chris Einstein: Before we get started I wanted to go back to the question that
was asked with regards to what you can and can't do after a Comprehensive Plan is adopted. One
of the nice things about any planning document is, you know, it can be a living document and
something that you can go back to and make changes to. But I guess the one thing that I would
like to get across to you is that we made many recommendations, we being the committee, not just
CHA. And those recommendations were then carried over into action plans and there are numerous
action plans, or numerous actions that we're recommending that the Town should take in order to
implement this document. So, there is more work to do. In order to make the plan and the vision
for the community to become a reality. And so that's why this really is a living document. There
is a lot of opportunity to look at additional things, there certainly were aspects of the Town or areas
that really needed more... a much closer look than we could do at a Comprehensive Plan level.
And so those are part of the action plan items. So the document isn’t, ya know, once you’ve
adopted it it’s... we can’t do anything more than exactly what this plan says. That’s not the intent
of it.
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: Thank you Chris. Good evening everyone. Thanks for taking
time out of your day to attend this meeting. What our thoughts were tonight was to spend time
discussing and presenting some of the key recommendations and actions that were outlined in the
plan. As Chris said, there are over 40 recommendations made. So we thought we would focus on
what we consider the most impactful ones and then of course answer any questions that you may
have. Typically…
CHA Engineer Chris Einstein: Can you share your screen?
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: Oh sorry.
CHA Engineer Chris Einstein: Can you see our screen yet?
Supervisor Williams: Oh yes.
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: I’m having trouble advancing it right now, hang on. You’ll
have to give me a minute for some reason my slides are not advancing.
- fixing computer -
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: I think I’m ready now, thank you for your patience. So as I
mentioned, we were going to review the key recommendations and actions. And, I want to take
one step back. The committee… one of the first tests that the committee had was to identify a
Vision. And, that was based on the inventory analysis, public workshops, meetings with Town
Officials, and also the written and website survey that was conducted. And each action that is
identified in this plan supports the Vision. So you have a general Vision and then from that we
created Goals and Objectives. From the Goals and Objectives we started creating
Recommendations and Actions. So each step gets a little more specific, but it's important to
understand that every Recommendation and Action should support the Vision. So, as I mentioned
before, the most impactful actions you can take in implementing a Comprehensive Plan is usually
in the areas of Zoning or Regulatory. And the committee was pretty clear that they felt that
Wellhead protection and Aquifer protection was very, very important. And the recommendation
here is to review and update, if necessary, the regulations in the map with an emphasis on the land
uses that it can occur within the Wellhead protection areas, particularly Zone 1A and 1B. Another
important recommendation was to complete a Critical Environmental Area Designation Process
for the Wellhead protection zone. And we also had discussions and included in the
recommendation that some other natural features including Chicago Bog and the marl pond should
also be included in that designation. Another important area of change or recommendation for
zoning was the... in the Agricultural Zoning District. This was to allow... to update the allowable
uses to only allow agriculture uses in that zone. This was also recommended in the Farmland
Protection Plan that was adopted, I believe, in 2018. As part of this, there were proposed changes
that were made to the district boundaries of the Agricultural Zone. And this was intended to create
a transition between agricultural uses and more intense uses. And one way to do this is through
Conservation Residential Zoning. In a couple slides I'll show you a map that identifies that area.
Supervisor Williams: Jean, before we move. Your last slide, I think there was an error or maybe
a typo. You’re talking about 1A and 10 and 1B?
JANUARY 13, 2021 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING PAGE 8
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: Oh no, I'm referring to the Town regulations for Wellhead
protection, I believe it's article 1A and then there's an Aquifer Protection District regulations, I
believe is article 10.
Supervisor Williams: Alright.
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: I could be incorrect. But you are right, the actual Wellhead
Protection Areas or Zones are 1A and 1B.
Supervisor Williams: Alright. Okay.
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: Thank you.
Supervisor Williams: Move on.
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: So as I mentioned in the previous slide, recommendation was
to adopt Conservation Residential Zoning and Rural Development Guidelines. The illustration
here has been around for many years. Many of you have probably seen this, but it's still a very
good illustration. The slide on the far left shows a farm, essentially. This middle slide shows the
conventional subdivision which eats up a lot of the open space. The right hand slide shows the
same intensity of development and the same number of units, but they’re cited to maintain open
space and protect the farmland. What this does, it does a couple things. It protects the farmland
and open space and the habitat. But it also provides a transition between farm uses and non -farm
uses which helps eliminate some of those land use conflicts. Some other areas... Zoning Areas that
recommended changes included adopting a Business Overlay District to try to incentivize
underutilized infill parcels. The committee identified, for instance, the Kmart, Big Lots Plaza, and
the Groton Avenue Plaza as areas that could particularly use some incentives to redevelop. This
also has a couple advantages because when you develop infill parcels and underutilized parcels it
limits your need to expend utilities and build new roadways. It limits development of parcels. The
best way to describe it… a big development out in the middle of nowhere and now you need to
extend utilities or a roadway to that development. And the area between that new development and
the existing, more intense, development... that whole area along the roadway starts to become…
to feel the development pressure. We… The committee also suggested developing criteria for
mixed-use Zoning particularly along U.S. 11 and State Route 13, areas that are proximate to the
city. And the idea here was, create an area where people could live near where they work, they
have access to services, entertainment, public transit, and civic spaces. This helps create, not only
a good living environment for people, but also a nice sense of place. Another recommendation
was... is to view allowable uses in the Industrial Zones and potentially adopt performance
standards. Currently the I-2 Zone, many of those… many of the I-2 Zone lands are immediately
adjacent to residential development. When the I-2 Zone was originally adopted it's quite likely that
the residential areas were totally undeveloped, but heavy industrial uses and residential
development can definitely result in land use conflict. Another important recommendation is
adoption of a Stream Corridor Overlay District. This protects your water quality, wildlife corridors,
and it also helps maintain visual quality of an area. Okay this, what you can see now on the screen
is the Future Land Use map. If you take a look at the dotted purple boundary, that is the limit of
the potential future growth boundary. The area inside that that is hashed, I guess in an orange color,
that’s an area that has been proposed for Conservation Residential Development. So it forms a
buffer between the largely Agricultural and undeveloped areas in the Town to the more intensely
developed areas of Town. I'd also like to point out in the lower left side of the map in the area of…
to the South and West of the City of Cortland. There's a rather large red boundary that’s identified
as Future Critical Environmental Area Designation so that includes the lands we spoke of earlier,
the Zone 1A and 1B in the Wellhead area as well as additional lands that surround the nature area,
the marl ponds, and some of the other significant features. There are a number of other key actions
that are not specifically tied to zoning, but nonetheless were considered important. One of them is
to adopt a utilities master plan for a Sewer, Water, and Stormwater. As many of you know, the
absence or presence of utilities often drives development pressure. So I hope the Town, in
identifying and coordinating areas where they would like to see development or that has been
zoned for development, and areas where they would like to see maintained as less intensively
developed or as open space. It will also help in protecting the Aquifer from the impacts of potential
over withdrawal. Another recommendation is to prepare a multi-modal facilities master plan and
incorporate a Complete Streets criteria. Complete Streets criteria are required in any projects that
have Federal funding and I believe State funding. But, the Town should also consider it for their
local roads. And by doing this you’re accommodating all types of transportation modes: private,
public, motorized, non-motorized and you create an efficient transportation system accessible to
JANUARY 13, 2021 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING PAGE 9
everyone. Another recommendation is to protect and reinvest in your existing neighborhoods. One
of the recommendations under that was to conduct a Housing Conditions Survey. And also to
identify appropriate transitions between various land uses that goes back to the potential for
conflicts when you have residential development that is immediately adjacent to a high -intensity
development. And finally, under that was consideration of completing a Blodgett Mills
neighborhood plan. The area is very unique within the Town and with its location next to the river
you can create a really unique area and help create a better sense of place in that area. Another key
action is related to the Tioughnioga River. There is a local waterfront revitalization plan that had
been collecting dust for quite a while and I believe earlier this year or last year the City of Cortland
began to... we got some funding to begin participating in this program again and the Town should
participate in any actions related to that. Developing public access along the river would be great
for all residents to be able to fish or bring small craft onto the river. Also, relating to one of the
previous recommendations adopting a Stream Corridor Overlay District to further protect the river
and it’s banks. Protecting the Lime Hollow Nature Center is very important. Zoning in that area
should be reviewed to address any potential land use conflicts and ensure that there are adequate
buffers in that area. In the area of land conservation and natural resources, prohibiting and limiting
development in: wetlands, subplanes, and slopes greater than 15% was discussed. Some other
important actions would be to continue to encourage the extension of Broadband in the Town.
There are several programs, I believe one is Rural Broadband and it is mentioned and identified in
the plan of funding Broadband capabilities. I think as we learned this past year access to the internet
is more important than ever. The continued responsible development of renewable energy
resources including the areas of wind, solar, and geothermal. We recognize that the Town has seen
quite a few applications for Solar Farms over the last several years and it has created concern, I
guess, on all sides. One of the recommendations in the plan is that the Town should be the monitor
with their existing regulations along with any projects that are built to see if the regulations are
functioning as needed and if any changes need to be made. And finally, continuing to support
existing and new community minded businesses is also important. Businesses such as that, their
the businesses that help out the local Boy Scout Troop, they're the ones who get out there wit h
their shovel when a cleanup day is scheduled. Those people live in your Town and it's important
to try to support them. Okay, the last map we have is a map of the land conservation map and its
intent is to give a feel for how some of the existing open space resources can be connected and
more efficiently utilized by the Town. On this map we identified steep slopes, wetlands, and
floodplains. We identify potential for future critical environmental areas, the confidential
residential area, an area that could be considered along the Tioughnioga River as a recreation area.
We also identified Town and parcels and Town and parks. The red dotted arrows you see are
potential trail connections and that was... that's a very general arrow, but it looked at some lands
that the Town either already has access to or will connect natural areas and in the case to the South
of the City of Cortland, the area is in the conservation residential area. Where you could, as
development occurs, build that trail bit by bit. I don't know if you want to ask questions. I have
included in the presentation the action plan, which identifies every action that the committee
wanted to include. Some of it is repeat of what I just covered so I don't know if the best thing is if
people have questions to go from there.
Supervisor Williams: Questions?
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Jean, this is Ann.
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: Hi Ann.
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Does your contract call for you to get the Town
through the adoption process?
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: Yes.
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Okay. And, just as a reminder, is it one or two Public
Hearings and does the document need to be submitted to the State?
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: I believe… in our proposal is one Public Hearing. And, you
mean required by law to be submitted to the State? It’s submitted to the County.
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Okay.
CHA Engineer Chris Einstein: ...County for review, but not the State.
JANUARY 13, 2021 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING PAGE 10
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Okay. If the County reviews it, I’m just trying to get
all of the corrections done and input at the same time. Does the County get to weigh in on it?
CHA Engineer Chris Einstein: Yes.
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Okay.
CHA Engineer Chris Einstein: Yes. I mean, normally that would occur there’s… so the 239M
County referral would be required so the County then would review the document and then provide
their comments. I think that’s typically done during the comment period. So once the draft is
considered acceptable by the Town Board for public review then it would be made available for
the general public and the 239M referral would occur.
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Okay. That’s to County Planning? But not necessarily
to the County Legislature?
CHA Engineer Chris Einstein: Well you certainly could send it to anyone that you wanted to...
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: No, I’m just saying what the law is. So, okay.
CHA Engineer Chris Einstein: Yes, that’s correct. It goes to the Planning Board.
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Okay. Alright.
CHA Engineer Chris Einstein: Or the Planning Department.
Supervisor Williams: Alright, where are we folks? Questions?
Town Resident Andrea Rankin: This is Andrea Rankin. I have a question. It showed on the last
map a red dotted trail of potential trails. Was there any intent to, in some ways, connect them up
with the Empire State Trail that's just been completed?
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: That's not something we discussed specifically, but I would
think that any trail system that the Town is involved with developing, in a larger picture, you would
try to see if you could connect it to additional trails.
Town Resident Andrea Rankin: Thank you.
Councilman Withey: I have a comment…
Supervisor Williams: To weigh in on that, I don't believe that we… we may miss by a little bit,
but we don't have... we don't have any connected point, at this juncture with, say the Finger Lakes
Trail or the North Country Trail. I think that resolves South of us. I know they made some changes
to the Finger Lakes Trail, but I think that is all actually Town of Virgil and Town of… no I tak e
that back that may come into... we may have a little chunk of it down in the Hoxie Gorge area, but
not much. But it wouldn't be far to connect from maybe Yaman Park down to that.
Comprehensive Plan Committee Member Forrest Earl: The Finger Lakes Trail crosses the
Tioughnioga in Blodgett Mills.
Supervisor Williams: Forrest, didn’t they move it south of that? It used to come across... come
down Blodgett Mills and across the bridge. Didn’t they move it south of that?
Comprehensive Plan Committee Member Forrest Earl: They’d have to take it all the way to
Messengerville, maybe they did.
Supervisor Williams: No I think they put their own little foot bridge across.
Comprehensive Plan Committee Member Forrest Earl: Okay, that’s news to me.
Supervisor Williams: Alright, I don’t know I was Trail Stewart for that section for a lot of years.
The Hoxie Gorge area up over to Starr Road what not, and I think they... I think I read that they
moved that because they didn’t want people on the roads. They moved it and put in their own little
foot bridge.
JANUARY 13, 2021 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING PAGE 11
Comprehensive Plan Committee Member Forrest Earl: Okay. Well, but sort of to Andrea’s
point, to connect to the Empire Trail, which is well North of us, we don't have a connection, right
now, to trails to the North. That's… from Statewide Trails Finger Lakes is the only one the Town
of Cortlandville connects to directly right now.
Supervisor Williams: Alright, other questions?
Councilman Withey: I just have a comment there… maybe I’m muted.
Supervisor Williams: No, we can hear you, wherever you are.
Councilman Withey: Okay, Tom it’s Doug. Can you hear me? Anyone?
Supervisor Williams: Yea.
Councilman Withey: Okay, I wasn’t sure. On the Action Plan, this is more a comment just to
Jean, on B can we spell out A.R.? The average person coming in wouldn’t know what that actually
stands for.
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: Which item are you talking about? Are you talking about the
Wellhead Protection Zones?
Councilman Withey: Yea…. B… A-R… Is there any reason why that can’t be spelled out?
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: I’m sorry you're...
CHA Engineer Chris Einstein: Yeah you broke up a little bit.
Councilman Withey: Yea, my connection is weak. I apologize.
Planning Board Member Nasrin Parvizi: I’m sorry, if I could just interject. Jean, what he means
is on page 5.3, The Action Plan, it says A it says Wellhead and B it says A-R Zoning District. Spell
out what is A-R is and that is an abbreviation of the Zoning itself. So in parenthesis maybe you
want to see what A-R means.
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: Okay.
CHA Engineer Chris Einstein: Yes. Certainly we can do that.
Planning Board Member Nasrin Parvizi: Is that what you wanted Doug?
Councilman Withey: Yeah it is Nasrin. I keep losing signal so thank you so much for clarifying.
I think it should be spelled out for people that aren't familiar.
CHA Engineer Jean Loewenstein: Okay. We can do that.
Councilman Withey: Yea, thank you.
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Can I ask a question too? This is Ann. Can you hear
me?
Supervisor Williams: Yes.
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: We seem to have a little disagreement on what a
Comprehensive Plan can and cannot do. So I'll use a specific example, we have a rather large Solar
Farm proposed for the Blue Creek Road area. You probably all are familiar with it. And, right now
the Comprehensive Plan says this is slated for Conservation Residential, if I have that correct.
However, our Zoning Law, which is currently in place because it’s Zone Agricultural, says that
this is an allowable use, with certain contingencies, in a Solar Farms allowable in an Agricultural
District. So, my feeling is, you can't turn around and deny a developer the right to put this in there
based on the Comprehensive Plan because; number one it's not adopted and number two it's not
regulatory in nature. And, I don't mean to trail off on a specific example, but it's before us right
now and it is causing some concerns.
JANUARY 13, 2021 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING PAGE 12
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: Well, wait a minute Ann. We still have to go through the
SEQR process. And, the last couple of items on the SEQR Process, Part 2 talks about Community
Character and all the rest of it, and we can talk about the Agricultural and Farmland plan, which
has been adopted by the Town. There’s a whole bunch of things that go into play that are necessary
in the Zoning Law, if you will. But are really relevant when it comes to completing the SEQR
process, which we still have to do.
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Right, but I want us... we have to be very careful, the
Town has been sued before, so I'm just saying, at this point, I'm not sure we would mention the
Comprehensive Plan as yet another arrow if indeed we shouldn't.
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: No, we don't have to mention the Comprehensive Plan,
but we can mention the Farmland Plan, we can mention Community Characters, a whole bunch of
things that we can mention in there. So I don't want to preempt what we're going to be doing when
we do the SEQR Process, Part 2 for the Blue Creek projects.
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Okay, so let's get off the Blue Creek project.
Attorney DelVecchio: Thank you.
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: Okay. Good.
Attorney DelVecchio: I see, this is John DelVecchio. I see Ann’s point, it’s well taken, that it
doesn't seem fair that if this... if the Town Board decides to adopt this Comprehensive Plan that it
can impact any pending application for any type of Zoning Approval. I don't know the exact answer
to that, I'm not going to make any further comment about it. But, I would caution... it is certainly
a cautionary thing.
Supervisor Williams: John, I would defer to you obviously as the legal beagle, but I think that if
I were helping with the adoption of this or weighing in on the adoption of this plan, at whatever
point, it would be without prejudice to anything that’s on anybody's table at the point of adoption.
I think that's been a pretty strong tradition in this Town and in this nation that if you're on the
docket… if you're in the process, you stay there, and anything we do would refer to something
there after.
Attorney DelVecchio: I agree with that.
Supervisor Williams: Alright. So Ann, I appreciate your comment, but I don't know where we go
with that.
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: ....for legal reasons, but we still have to go through the
SEQR Process, Part 2, and item 17, consistency with community plan is going to be an important
part of that whole determination….
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: And I didn’t mean…
Supervisor Williams: And say that would be the existing plan in place at the time of the SEQR
determination. And that something we put in place thereafter is what we put in place there after
and I don't think we can go back and do that…
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: No, we can’t go back, but the first item on 17 is not
consistent with adopted land-use plans and you certainly can't mention it in the Comprehensive
Plan because it's not adopted, but we certainly can mention the Farmland and the Agriculture use
plan which was adopted by the Town in 2018.
Supervisor Williams: That becomes the law of the land. The Comprehensive Plan, at this point,
isn't the law of anything. It is a…
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: That’s right. That’s what I’m saying. Okay.
Attorney DelVecchio: My last comment on this. John DelVecchio, again. Likely, my advice to
the Town will be, at the time of adoption, that the overall adoption of this Comprehensive Plan as
JANUARY 13, 2021 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING PAGE 13
a part of the Resolution to adopt it, will be that it should not impact any pending application before
the Town.
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: John, that’s okay, but aren't some of the words, any
applications that have not reached a Building Permit point would be impacted.
Attorney DelVecchio: There’s a vesting issue there. I have researched the vesting issue as it
pertains to some other aspects of zoning regulations. This is very different. The Comprehensive
Plan is a sort of recommending device, it's not the law of the land. So, I’m hesitant to make a
similar conclusion regarding the vesting issue, but I will delve into the subject at the appropriate
time.
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: Yeah, because the Comprehensive Plan is just giving us
an outline to what we are already doing and changing zoning or whatever you want to do so in and
of itself is not a governing document like the Zoning… like our Code Book would be.
Attorney DelVecchio: Correct.
Planning Board Member Nick Renzi: Okay.
Supervisor Williams: Alright. Where are we going here folks? We've been at this now for an hour
and 10 minutes. I’ve often said that nothing good happens after the first hour of any meeting, but
let’s keep on trying here.
Planning Board Chair Chris Newell: I think we should send in suggestions to the Town that
pertain to the Comprehensive Plan.
Planning Board Member Nasrin Parvizi: That was my recommendation too, Tom. That
everybody who has been here, they can go back and read a little bit more on their own and make
their recommendation or comments. More likely comments to Town.
Attorney DelVecchio: I'm curious to hear what Ann’s recommendation is procedurally at this
point. It sounds like she has more legit… So Ann, you've sort of been in this position before, what's
your suggestion?
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Can you hear me?
Supervisor Williams: Yup.
Councilman Withey: For now.
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Okay. I always get a little concerned at this point and
I'm going to speak from Clough Harbor’s point of view. When you think you're almost done and
you're ready to package it up and then the potential exists to get either an avalanche of comments
and who is going to dictate how much of that goes into the plan? So I would just put it out there
that we probably should have a plan in place as to who's determining what comments are going to
get incorporated in the plan so that we're not rewriting major portions of the document.
Supervisor Williams: Well I would say that, how would this be Ann for a place to go? I’m just
looking at a calendar here. We have a meeting... The Board has a meeting next Wednesday. ZBA
and Planning have one the following Tuesday. What if we were to... anybody who's interested...
to get comments to me by the 1st. That would be the Monday before the next Board Meeting...
second board meeting it would be the 3rd. And, if possible, Patty and I could combine those into
one document. If there are some that are similar in nature, we’ll sort of put them together. If there
are some aren't, they'll stay by themselves. And, if we feel there's a Comprehensive… we feel
there’s something that the Board can actually chew on we’ll take that to the Board Meeting on the
3rd. If not, we'll push them out to everybody that has made a comment, and we will then try to
move that to 17th. I really want to get this place. I want to get... the next step is, who's going to
resolve some of the… not resolve… who’s going to take charge of some of the action points.
And… but, we need to make the plan cohesive and current and acceptable to most of the players
involved. So how would that be, if anybody here or anybody anywhere wants to contribute, that
they try to get everything to me by the 1st of February, or to Patty. We will then, if there's four
things we’ll put those in some kind of order that makes some sense and bring them to the Board
JANUARY 13, 2021 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING PAGE 14
on the 3rd. If there is no sense to be made of them we’ll take them back to the author and we’ll try
for the 17th of February, which would be our second meeting of February.
Planning Board Member Ann Hotchkin: Yes so long as Clough Harbor feels that's okay too, so
you know we're all under the understanding that we're not asking them to rewrite major portions
of a document that's almost complete. But, on the other hand, be open to the fact that people may
have questions or comments that may be very valid.
Supervisor Williams: Understood. Does that work for those here?
Attorney DelVecchio: Reasonable to me.
Supervisor Williams: Sounds good. So let’s put that in place. Patty, yea you’re still there, maybe
if you get… or Kristin, get an email out to those that are here with that timetable. That any
comments that they have to get to Patty by the 1st and thereafter we will put them together,
hopefully by the 3rd, and if that doesn't work we will move them to the 17th.
Councilman Cobb: Sounds good to me.
Supervisor Williams: Kristin, I see your head going up and down. Patty, you're okay with that?
She’s muted I guess.
Assistant to the Supervisor Patty O’Mara: Yes, I’m okay with that.
Supervisor Williams: Alright, anybody else? Going once, going twice, done. We stand adjourned.
Planning Board Chair Chris Newell: Thanks Tom.
Councilman Withey: Really?
Supervisor Williams: Yes, at…
Councilman Withey: If I could just throw out one comment.
Supervisor Williams: Of course.
Councilman Withey: You will be sending out an email to everyone in this meeting. Even if you
don't have a comment if we sent back no comment it might be helpful down the road.
Supervisor Williams: That would be fine. We have a list of those that were here. Without
objection we stand adjourned at 5:15 p.m. Thank you all and we will be in touch. My feeling is
this needs to get moved on and the sooner the better. Thank you.
JANUARY 13, 2021 SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING PAGE 15
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No further comments or discussion were heard.
Councilman Withey made a motion, seconded by Councilman Testa, to adjourn the
Regular Meeting. All voting aye, the motion was carried.
The meeting was adjourned at 5:15 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Kristin E. Rocco-Petrella, RMC
Town Clerk
Town of Cortlandville
*Note:
The draft version of this meeting was submitted to the Town Board for their review on February 8, 2021.
The final version of this meeting was approved as written at the Town Board meeting of February 17, 2021.