HomeMy WebLinkAbout2004-06-29 - TB TOWN OF ULYSSES
SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING
JUNE 29, 2004
PRESENT : Supervisor Doug Austic, Town Councilpeople Lee Scott, Robert
Weatherby; Roxanne Marino and Don Ellis ; Town Clerk Marsha Georgia; Deputy
Supervisor Richard Coogan
Others Present : John Wertis, Chairman Planning Board; Rose Hilbert, Planning Board
Member; Justice Roger Rector, Ithaca Journal Reporter; Trumansburg Free Press
Reporter; Radio Reporter (I apologize the names were not available.) ; Dan Smith; other
Ulysses Residents not identified.
Supervisor Austic called the Special Town Board Meeting to order at 7 : 30 PM and
reviewed the tentative agenda for the special meeting as follows :
• Schedule Meetings for review of Draft Zoning Ordinance
• Schedule Meetings for review of Land Subdivision Regulations
• Planning board Appointment
• Establish committee for MS4 Laws
• Water District #3 issue
Draft Zoning Ordinance
Supervisor Austic stated that after his initial review of the ordinance he has notice many
technical things that don' t make a lot of sense and he feels that will be found throughout.
Ms . Marino stated that it was sort of implied at the last meeting this ordinance would be
edited for consistency.
Mr. Austic stated that is correct we may have to check this as we go . Mr. Frantz had to
attend a meeting in Waverly and that is why he cannot be here tonight.
Mr. Austic's thought is that we schedule a series of meetings and plan to review 25 to 30
pages per meeting. If we can keep this schedule we should be able to get it done in four
to five weeks . Also if the Regular Board meeting finished on time, say by 8 : 30/9 : 00 PM
we may also be able to review some at that time.
Mr. Ellis stated lets look a little more on procedure; we are going to sit down and mark
up 25 or so pages?
Mr. Austic stated that he would hope everyone would previously review the pages to be
discussed at the meetings and come with changes.
Mr. Ellis stated that he has done about four hours of editing and he likes the spirit of what
is being proposed, he is a little concerned about how well it will work.
Mr. Scott stated it makes sense to make a schedule and stand by it and by the same token
we do not want to go back and re-write the whole thing.
Meetings Scheduled
• July 20th, 2004 6PM
• August 3rd, 2004 6PM
• August 24th, 2004 6PM
• September 7th, 2004 6PM
Mr. Frantz may have the SEQR done in a few days. If no major changes are done when
the ordinance is reviewed this SEQR could be used.
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Chairman Wertis of the Planning Board distributed copies of the last Planning Board
meeting at which the Board passed a resolution in support of the 30/70 in Al District.
Mr. Ellis stated that the work on the 30/70 has not ceased; it is on the schedule to be
discussed at the October Regular Town Board Meeting.
Mr. Wertis will ask the Planning Board at the next meeting on how they want to review
the ordinance and submit corrections and/or changes to the Town Board. From his
minimum experience with the Planning Board there are not a lot of Planning Board
members who would be very excited about doing this . Ms . Marino felt from her
discussions with Planning Board members that at least some of them would feel it
important that the Planning Board be involved in the review .
Ms. Marino was just wondering what the most constructive, if the Planning Board is
going to do it, (should they work on the same twenty-five pages as the Town Board and
give it to them before their meeting.
Mr. Wertis said the next meeting is July 8th and he will discuss this at that time .
Appointment to Planning Board
Mr. Ellis and Mr. Weatherby met and interviewed the residents interested for the
Planning Board. Ms . Marino commented that the Town was fortunate to have several
very qualified, residents interested in the position; other Board members agreed with this .
It was decided that we would keep the names of the interested residents on a list so they
could be notified when other seats came up .
Mr. Ellis moved, seconded by Mr. Austic to appoint David Means to the Planning Board
to fill the unexpired term of George Kennedy until December 2008 .
Mr. Austic aye
Mr. Scott aye
Mr. Weatherby aye
Ms . Marino aye
Mr. Ellis aye
Adopted .
Subdivision I Revision
Mr. Austic stated that the Board also has the subdivision to review and maybe if we can
make extra time at the Regular Board Meetings we can discuss it there.
Mr. Ellis feels that this needs to be done at the same time as the ordinance . He also has
the question as to if the Subdivision should be a local law.
Mr. Austic stated that in talking with Attorney Wilson both the zoning and subdivision
regulations should be a local law.
We may have to extend the meeting schedule.
MS4 / Local Laws Committee
Mr. Austic stated that Mr. Coogan and Mr. Wertis would be on the committee.
Ms . Marino would like to suggest two people and also she would like to work, as an ad
hoc representative on this committee because she is interested in this . Ms . Marino
suggests Rebecca Schneider who is a resident and has expressed several times her interest
on working on this storm water project. Rebecca is a hydrologist who works with
Cooperative Ext at Cornell and she is currently funded to work on a lot of these issues,
streams, roadside ditches and related water quality protection issues . She also has
worked with Sharon Anderson of the IO and several other people . The other interested
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person is Liz Thomas who applied for the Planning Board position and she asked recently
what other projects she could get involved in She is very interested in water quality
protection and water quality issues at the lake. She would also be interested in being the
representative to the Cayuga Water Intermunicipal Organization.
Ms . Marino moved seconded by Mr. Ellis the following :
BE IT RESOLVED that the Town Board of the Town of Ulysses appoints
Richard Coogan, Deputy Supervisor, John Wertis Planning Board Chairman, and
Rebecca Schneider and Elizabeth Thomas Ulysses residents to be on the committee to
work with the Genesee/Finger Lakes Regional Council on local laws for MS4 .
Mr. Austic aye
Mr. Scott aye
Mr. Weatherby aye
Ms . Marino . aye
Mr. Ellis aye
Adopted.
Ms. Marino brought up that the Genesee Finger Lakes Regional Planning council local
laws project is focused more broadly than just on laws for compliance with MS4
requirements, though this is clearly one important area for the Town. Since we have a
committee membership with broad interest and expertise in storm water and water quality
issues, we should not limit the committee to considering only local laws for MS4 .
Mr. Austic asked Ms . Marino to have Ms . Thomas sent him a letter of interest to serve as
the IO representative for Ulysses and this appointment will be taken up at the Jult
Regular Town Board Meeting, as it cannot be at this meeting since it was not on the
agenda.
Water District Local Law
Mr. Austic stated there was an oversight in the Public Water Local Law section 10. 3
Delinquent Payments ; the interest rate to be charged when an account is past due is per
month and not per annum. To correct this we will need to hold a public hearing. Mr.
Austic will have Attorney Wilson write something up . We can schedule a public hearing
at the July regular meeting.
In addition Mr. Austic said water is being wasted when we have to open up hydrants to
get the water moving. He has contacted an independent NYS approved water hauler
about purchasing water and he would be willing to purchase from us . Also , DOT and
others sometimes want water and the Town can sell it to them . To do that the Town will
need to purchase a portable water meter with a backflow prevention device that will hook
to a hydrant. Mr. Austic stated that he is purchasing such a meter and valve system, for a
cost of approximately $ 1 , 000 .
Ms . Marino asked the selling price for water. The price has not been established for
resale ; the Town of Ithaca still needs to establish the price they are selling water to the
Town.
Mr. Ellis stated that sometime in the future the Town Board might want a public
informational meeting about the overall water situation. He has been approached several
times and residents do not understand the rational of the water districts from their points
of view .
Mr. Austic stated that he had a meeting today with the Village about District 5 and more
was included in the district that the Village agreed to . These may answer some questions
people have out there. This will be discussed at the next Town Board meeting (July 13) .
Hearing no further business Mr. Ellis moved, seconded by Mr. Scott to adjourn the
meeting. Meeting adjourned at 8 : 21 PM .
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Respectfully submitted,
Marsha L. Georgia
Ulysses Town Clerk
MLG : mlg