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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2019-05-20 TOWN OF DRYDEN CLIMATE SMART COMMUNITIES TASKFORCE MEETING May 20th , 2019 Present: Alice Green, John Kiefer, Ray Burger, Peter Davies, Osamu Tsuda (CCE) Absent: Joe Wilson Town Staff and Elected Officials: Ray Burger, Director of Planning ; Alice Green, Climate Smart Communities Coordinator & Town Council Member >> Alice Green called the meeting to order at 12:05 p.m. Introduction Alice Green went over general goals and objective of the meeting and reviewed the actions Osamu Tsuda listed in a Climate Smart Communities Action Items email memo update. Ms. Green also recognized a reporter from the Ithaca Times who intends to create an article on Dryden becoming a certified Climate Smart Community. Climate Smart Communities Status Report O. Tsuda reviewed each individual action the town has completed as of May 20th of 2019. He also reviewed the required documentation on the remaining actions for the town which include documentation on interior lighting upgrades, HVAC systems, water efficiency fixtures, BEMS, conservation easements, solar and geothermal upgrades, educational material for renewable energy, EV charging stations, composting stations, outdoor lighting upgrades, rail trail, climate resiliency plans, and lastly but not least, updates to the existing comprehensive plan. P. Davies asked about the current status of the comprehensive plan for the town. Green and Burger clarified that a Planning Board subcommittee created in fall 2018 to make sustainability additions to the town’s 2005 compressive plan has been dissolved. Instead, the town will include climate change resiliency and sustainability in a complete update of all aspects of the comprehensive plan over the next two years. Davies also questioned the whole purpose of becoming a climate smart community and the actual feasibility of gathering the documentation by the July deadline. Tsuda clarified that with strategizing and prioritization of action items, the town can become certified. R. Burger announced that he would be able to gather documentation on the conservation easements for the township and would be willing to look into potential actions that the town has done to conserve and protect riparian buffers. J. Kiefer explained that becoming certified can help with the application for a DEC grant the town is applying for to fund an update to the comprehensive plan. A. Green said she has been working with DPW to collect necessary documentation about building utility upgrades, which has involved a significant time investment by town staff. Part of the difficulty is that records of installation the solar, geothermal and other energy saving features of Town Hall and the Highway department buildings go back 12-15 years. O. Tsuda discussed potential CSC actions that might be worth considering; given the time constraints and the limited time and resources the town has to invest. Based on the best outcome, Tsuda predicted that the town can have enough points to submit by the July deadline without some of the DPW documentation. The priority actions that need to be completed include certifying the town of Dryden’s new Natural Resources Inventory (NRI), getting the necessary resolutions in place, collecting documentation on existing land use efforts to help protect wildlife habitat and efforts to become flood resilient. A. Green explained that siting issues for the Electric Vehicle (EV) charging stations have arisen, and they will not be installed on time for the July deadline. O. Tsuda further outlined the remaining documentation needed for the priority actions to gain the greatest number of points. Green, Burger, and Kiefer discuss on how to work together and gather the required material in a timely manner. P. Davies agreed to recommend Town Board approval of the NRI, once the conservation board has had the chance to review the document. He will follow up with Tsuda accordingly. Closing Remarks The committee discussed the next time to set up a meeting in mid-June before the submission deadline. P. Davies expressed concern on the necessity to conduct the meeting in a timelier manner next time. Green proposes to have a designated timeframe for the upcoming meeting to help with this process. A. Green offered to update J. Wilson on the CSC application, as he is on vacation and thus was unable to attend the CSC taskforce meeting. O. Tsuda said he would send the taskforce a detailed list of materials needed for each remaining action item. He also agreed to send out a doodle poll in the coming weeks to set up a final CSC taskforce meeting to discuss the rapping up phase of the CSC application and conduct a final evaluation the remaining actions >>Meeting Adjourned at 2:15pm ET.