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HomeMy WebLinkAboutTB Minutes 2014-04-22 Special Meeting of the Ithaca Town Board Tuesday,April 22, 2014 Public Hearing SEQR Draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement re.: 2014 Comprehensive Plan Board Members Present: Herb Engman, Supervisor; Pat Leary, Eric Levine, Rod Howe, Tee- Ann Hunter, Rich DePaolo and Bill Goodman Staff Present: Sue Ritter, Director of Planning; Paulette Terwilliger, Town Clerk, and Dan Tasman, Planner Mr. Engman opened the meeting at 635 p.m. Mr. Tasman gave a power point presentation(Attachment#1) introducing the DGEIS followed by comments from Mr. Engman reiterating that this is a comparison to the 1993 Comprehensive Plan which we must follow now and what we are really doing is comparing that plan to the draft Plan and what those environmental impacts would be in adopting the new Plan over the old Plan. The status quo is the old Plan combined with current zoning and that is what we are trying to change with the current Plan. Comments from the public are verbatim. Written comments are also possible up through May 5th Pat Dutt, 135 West Haven Rd, West Hill The idea of a comprehensive plan is to lay out a road map for future community development in a manner that ensures protection of key community assets, the environment and provides for the efficient use of public resources and infrastructure investments. That is from a friend of mine who was a Town Planner. My opinion is that the Town's Comprehensive Plan has not yet met this obligation in terms of say, food security, viewsheds, infrastructure development, safety issues and community fabric coherency and what I'd like to do is follow up these statements with a few points taken from the Minority Report and some of these points are taken verbatim from that report and you can find most of these right in the introduction, right in the few introductory pages. The first point is "road diets." Residents expressed concerns about traffic. Instead of transportation taking up more land, we need to allocate the space we have already dedicated to transportation differently. Road-narrowing projects result in traffic reduction. When road removal was combined with an increased emphasis on alternatives to auto use such as bike lanes and busses, traffic reduction was significantly higher. Residents want space for bikes and pedestrians over roadways, so that's my first point, taken from the Minority Report. 1 Second point, "rate of growth." The Town of Ithaca experienced a total of 699 new housing units that were built from 200 to 2010 and so 699 units in a 10-year period. The present Plan recommends in the next 15 years,up to an additional 3,400 units on the West hill alone and so my question is, where is the demand and where is the jobs? My next point is specifically related to the West Hill. Residents expressed concerns about more development on West Hill. The West Hill Traffic Report projects major traffic problems with large-scale buildout on West Hill. There is no conceivable plan for a transition of West Hill to a mixed use urban node. Furthermore, it is more important, and this is from the Minority Report again, to protect the agricultural areas on West Hill than to use the land for more housing. Sustainability. The proposed Plan focuses on cost-saving measures rather than community-wide structural changes that are necessary and finally, Social Justice. It is important that our entire community be diverse and that individual neighborhoods reflect that diversity. The Town is unfortunately developing new neighborhoods on a very segregated bases; low income in one place, seniors in another and wealthy in yet another. Residential developments should result...should not result in ghetto-izing of any group of people. And those are my final comments and thank you for listening. Gentleman not named lives on Indian Creek Rd My family and I live on Indian Creek Road and this whole development came as a total surprise and it was sort of, to our feelings, sprung on us a while ago and I've been away for several months down to Central America but while I was away, an Indian Creek Association was formed and I attended several of those meetings before I left, and they were concerned about this project that is springing up on this otherwise vacant piece of land and they discussed among themselves how they felt about it and I think, I believe they've hired a lawyer and they've come up with a plan and I am surprised they are not represented this evening because I expected them to do all the talking why I just sat back(people in the room acknowledged they were there) ... oh you're here... well anyway, the meetings were very well attended, a very literate group. Their concerns, I thought, you know, were very reasonable and there was talk about turning that into a park as an alternative from these units that were going to be built. It is something that was done in Lansing I believe, there was precedent for that, and there was also talk about forming a village that would also have some control over its own destiny and develop and what would be good. They were very concerned about a community orientation, you know, instead of just having developers just decide our fate. I know when we moved to the area, it was essentially because it was zoned in a particular way, low-impact, they keepi talking about low-impact and how... it's not low-impact when you put that many units on that piece of land, it seems to be, its less low- 2 impact than if they weren't there, let's put it that way. In any case, I looked at this kind of one- sided presentation and it's what you would expect a developer to come up with if he were just sort of making it all wonderful and claiming that this is how things should be, but... I hope my colleagues will do a better presentation than I have,but it's certainly not ok, it's... there's seemingly much to be concerned about and the whole thing just seems misguided and ill- conceived. You know, when you compare the alternatives and what the clear impact is going to be, not just on Indian Creek Road, of course we're concerned, we're right across form it, but, you know, the traffic patterns there, the whole feel of the West Hill. There's been some talk that so we're ... those that don't embrace this concept immediately are against low-income housing, this is absurd, if you look at Overlook's creation right across from the hospital, we've, it seems to me, West Hill has paid its dues, land, you know, honored its commitment to low-income housing, but let's not just take all low-income residents and drop them on West Hill. Anyway, I have a lot more to say but I, in fact as I, wasn't expected to say anything at all... Thank you for your patience on this.... Cynthia Brock, Live on West Hill and on City Council representing the First Ward, which is both West Hill and South Hill In looking at the environmental impact statement using my City hat, I can't help but think about the impact that the new Comprehensive Plan will have on the City and if the impact on the City has been considered in proposed mitigated strategies in the zoning. When we are talking about West Hill specifically, as has been mentioned, the impacts from increased residential development in the West Hill area will necessarily related to traffic and Stormwater runoff which will, as you know,be directed downtown to the basin and into the downtown area. One of the challenges that we see throughout this area is a very shallow soil level that then immediately hits rock and then redirects into our streams and waterways. In addition to having, in terms of traffic, only one or two major arteries in which to receive all of that. So, looking at that, it does seem that in terms of West Hill, I don't believe that the City has the capacity to absorb the volume of development that is being proposed for this area without facing some significant detrimental impacts, both to environment and quality of life; traffic exhausts, backups and so on. So, that's my concern in regards to the Comprehensive Plan for the West Hill area. In the South Hill area we have very much the same challenges. One major route into the City, the secondary route using Stone Quarry Road is in a difficult state of repair and then feeds into a very challenging intersection in the City. I am seeing firsthand the impact of the increased development that has been occurring in the South Hill area just by looking at the volume of Stormwater runoff that is being directed into the Spencer Road area and basically carving out and changing the stream structures along South Hill. Whether or not we are going all the way down near Buttermilk Falls and the volume of water that is coming through, I believe the Town 3 did some work on Stone Quarry some time back and now the volume that is coming through is causing a tremendous amount of erosion in the City. The amount of water that is coming off of Ithaca College, and then the new residences that are there is also causing tremendous Stormwater impact down-gradient of the Town. How are those elements going to be mitigated? When I lookup and look at and examine the origins of the water, I see that, yes, they created baseball fields or athletic fields,used tile to collect the water and then then the water runs through the tile and through the field and into the storm drain and then down. By all accounts, they've followed what seems to be appropriate measures. What's happening is that because we have such shallow soil,because its being directed into only a few streams, the volume of water that is coming off as more and more development comes in is increasing past the capacity of the area to absorb it. So, looking at the proposed development for South Hill, the proposed development for West Hill, the lack of ability for the City to mitigate or absorb this impact, I ask the committee to look again to see if further measures can be taken to reduce or distribute or redirect what will come as a result of the directions set forward in this Comprehensive Plan. Nancy Emerson, Trumansburg Rd,just past the hospital with the solar panels in the field. I am not prepared with a statement, I just took some time this afternoon to review the 300 some plus pages... it was way too much for me to absorb, but that's my concern. At first glance it seemed very comprehensive, it felt like there was nothing un-reviewed, but in that, it also felt like any point of view and any motivation that wanted to be supported could be found in there. It seems too big to me. If I wanted one point of view I sort of was finding validation of what I thought, but I thought well other people who might be looking for other points of view would also find it in there. It sort of covered everything and I was looking for the reduction down to what really will be the guiding principles in short form. There were so many guiding principles in there that I thought, I'm not sure whether or not it really told you something. I thought it could support just about anything that could come before you. You're all much more experienced about this than I am,but that was my concern, as well as echoing all the other things that people have said. I appreciated that in there was desire for biking, desire for public transportation, desire for walkable neighborhoods, desire for businesses to be where people are, parks to be where people are, schools to be where people are. But I didn't see how that translated to really guiding principles for development in the Town of Ithaca which is so scattered, so spread out, and has lots of areas that are just very rural and very agricultural and are not,without a tremendous amount of infrastructure built in and variability of building nodes, there was sort of that word in there, but it didn't, I didn't see where it said how there is going to be a store and a school and a library and a neighborhood and a park in a place. It really just kind of talked about housing developments saying these principles, it was good to have, bussing and biking and all. Particulary about West Hill, it is our area of concern, thought the traffic study said that all of the roads are under maximum capacity, 96 was the highest number on that list... what I also found very interesting was that 96 was the highest number on that list of trucks going 4 through, except for maybe one, which would have been an obvious one going up to Cornell, so if you just compared roads that are neighborhoods and not roads that are more obvious commercial things, I think, I don't see how you can put anymore and it was very clear to me, with that number of trucks going through, how could it possibly be safe for bicyclers. So there's my concerns there. I also am not sure if I saw anything in the environmental review that talked about the wildlife, and I think that that would also be something important to consider. That is also a part of health of our community and I'm not sure it really covered... it talked about soil and water, I didn't see anything in particular, maybe I missed it, about trees and plants, it's also a tremendous part of our environment and our clean air. I'd like to see something that is more specific about the guiding principles that reduces it down to something that you can really use and maybe some of those other points considered. Stephen Schumer. West Hill To pick up one of the points from Nancy, yes, I agree, it's, the plan is so general and there's so many different concepts in there, that, I think it's very difficult for anybody to criticize anything is this Plan because everything is there, or everything seems to be there, and it is so general that you can't say, ok, I don't agree with this specific point because... it doesn't seem to be specific enough to even allow that kind of criticisms. So that's the first point. And then, I'm not sure what the goal, really the very basic goal of the Town of Ithaca is, but it seems to me that the goal for the next years is more growth, to bring in more people, and I abslolutely disagree with this. I don't know how the Town can even plan that because... even if I don't look at environmental issues, the traffic alone, to me, I mean, I am new to this area, but, traffic, the traffic situation in Ithaca, or around Ithaca, it's just so bad that, already that.... I just don't understand how the goal can be to add more to that. To add more people, to build more housing... Why not use the money and the energy to improve what's already there, the infrastructure and everything. Why do we have to add more, why do we have to bring in more people? I just don't see the demand... like, how much more does Ithaca want to grow? Or the Town and City of Ithaca? I just don't see that at all... I totally disagree with that. And related to that, I am not sure how this...ah... what's it called... this traditional neighborhood development...I'm not sure how you define that. Like what do you mean by that? When you say you want traditional development neighborhood opposed to traditional... I don't know what you call it... opposed to I guess normal standards of urban development. Because some of the examples I saw, those were actually established villages and so how... so what are you planning to do? like build new villages? If you build like a residential area, like set up, put up, add new like 60 townhouses as planned in my backyard, that's not a neighborhood. That's not an established neighborhood, it's not even a community, it's just a bunch of houses, that's all there is, without any other services, stores, infrastructure... So I just don't see how that 5 traditional neighborhood development...how... what that really means and how you define that. I would really be curious about that,because you can't just set that up in like... you know, out of thin air almost. I don't understand how that works because if the current planned, currently planned development, if that's supposed to be traditional neighborhood development,then I don't understand how that's defined, so... those are my main points I guess. Dan Yokeman, Dubois Road, West Hill From the very beginning, when I sort of tuned into the long-range goal of the Town of Ithaca to buildout pretty extensively, I was concerned about a sustainability issue related to TCAT because there seems to be this attitude in the Town that if you build, you build it and they will come. And I think we all know that it doesn't work that way with TCAT and it's not going to in the near future as we know it, for a whole lot of reasons, and I think... and we have pockets, especially on the Route 96 corridor where this is actually fairly acute. Certain busses, commuter busses, are already full, in particular, Overlook development is having a very hard time with transportation because they are a low-income housing and a lot of people there don't even have cars. I suggest if you want to get some first-hand experience, sit in on one of their resident meetings and you will really get an earful about how they're being served by TCAT. And it's no fault of TCAT, it's just the money's not there to build out, and we all know that. So it really makes me wonder, when you're talking about all these new developments, how that is, you know, how are you planning on ferrying all these people into Town? All these people down the skinny Route 96 corridor that's already fairly over crowded as far as I'm concerned. It's certainly not going to be TCAT unless something drastically changes. It's going to be people's own automobiles or if people don't have their own automobiles, it's going to be kids walking down the streets with no sidewalks, in the middle of the night, or people who can't really afford it taking taxi's for$20 a pop. I think it's actually kind of socially irresponsible to be even considering massive amounts of new development until you address those issues because that's the number one issue as far as I'm concerned. So, that's all. Nancy Gould, Happy Lane, West Hill Truthfully, I have not read the whole Plan, I just saw it today for the first time. I am also concerned about traffic going into town. I have walked downtown a few times, you take your life in your hands when you walk along Route 96 going downtown. I'm also concerned about the school system and I don't know whether it would have an impact, number wise, on Enfield, but our neighborhood school is Enfield School. These children are riding 45minutes to an hour on the bus now to go to school and just increasing the number of children in the area I don't think is going to be useful to the children nor useful for the children that are already there. Also, there are no neighborhood parks available to us on West Hill. There was supposed to be a park, I understand, at Woolf Lane. If you can tell me where it is I would be glad to visit it. Are you aware of the Woolf Lane Park? Ms. Hunter responded that there is land there that has been set aside for a park but it is not a developed park. Ms. Gould—It certainly isn't a developed park 6 and I see no plans for parks being developed in that neighborhood. You have the Overlook development which does not have a community park. You've got the rest of the neighborhood. There's no place for the children to go play. I think you need to concentrate on developing some of those infrastructures and stuff before you think about increasing the number of residents on West Hill. Thank you There was no one else wishing to speak at the public hearing and Mr. Engman closed the public hearing at 7:24 p.m. Mr. Engman stated that some staff and board members might be willing to stick around after the hearing if people wanted to talk individually about some of the issues for a brief time, but the public hearing was the only business to transact and the comments will be addressed in the response to the draft Environmental Impact Statement. He thanked everyone for attending and adjourned the meeting at 7:25 p.m. SubmitM )y Paulette TerwiUiger Town Clerk