HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-08-20 - CPC Town of Ulysses
Comprehensive Plan Committee
August 20, 2007
Approved June 16, 2008
Present : Sue Poelvoorde- Chair, Bob Brown, Heather Filiberto, Rod Hawkes, Dave Kerness,
Sue Ritter, Bob Weatherby, John Wertis . Deputy Supervisor Dick Coogan
Absent : Elizabeth Thomas, David Tyler
Ms . Poelvoorde called the meeting to order at 7 : 10 p .m . She presented the minutes from the
April 24, 2007 , meeting ; she noted content corrections to be made . Mr. Wertis made the
MOTION to approve the minutes . Mr. Brown seconded the MOTION. The vote on the
MOTION was unanimous, MINUTES APPROVED WITH CORRECTIONS .
Ms . Poelvoorde stated the Consultant Selection Subcommittee had worked through the summer.
Using the ratings all the members did they came up with the three top firms — Bergmann,
Rochester, New York, Elan, Saratoga, New York and EDR, Syracuse, New York. The
subcommittee scheduled meetings with all three firms for interviews . After the interview process
the subcommittee met and reviewed the interview material . They decided to request all three
firms send in a proposal and cost estimate . They wanted to make sure they had three cost
estimates . Mr. Kerness called references . He did not just use the references provided, but called
the Towns and Villages that the firms had listed in their first submittals . The group met again to
review this information and decide which firm to recommend to the committee of the whole . The
two top firms after the interviews were Bergmann and Elan .
Mr. Weatherby asked for clarification as to what the consultant would be doing.
Ms . Poelvoorde stated they would help prepared the updated Comprehensive Plan including
getting analysis information, reviewing survey results, helping with the community forums,
helping with implementation strategy, preparing the draft and final comprehensive plan. Instead
of having a committee do all the work the consultant would to this . Their top selection was
Bergmann . Bergmann was the lowest cost at $ 33 ,625 . 00 . Elan ' s cost was $ 60,000 . 00 and EDR' s
cost was $ 54,750 . 00 . There was quite a range in price . Bergmann ' s Andy Raus has come from
another company starting up the planning division. He is giving us a pretty good deal.
Mr. Wertis asked how this relates to our budget.
Ms . Poelvoorde stated we would have half in this year' s budget. The other portion would be
budgeted in next year ' s budget. She asked Mr. Kerness to review his reference findings .
Mr. Kerness stated both companies were highly regarded, and either company could do the job .
Most of the contacts have their Comp Plan on their Web sites . He did not read them intensely but
they look nice . Most of the communities hired them again to do additional work. That says a lot
in his opinion.
Ms . Ritter stated they did very intensive interviews . They were at least two hours long each.
They met before to prepare the questions and reviewed right after the interviews . They all had
pluses and to weigh them all was difficult . The woman from Elan was a real go-getter. Bergmann
was really good . They were hoping something would come out in the reference interviews, but
instead they all got glowing reviews . The price was really a motivator. Bergmann is trying to
build business and gave the Town a break .
Ms. Poelvoorde stated after two hours of deliberation they could not come up with a reason to
spend an additional $ 20, 000 . It really came down to fiscal responsibility. When she called the
Comprehensive Plan 2
08/20/07
other firms they iunderstood, one company specializes in environmental issues thus they may be
utilized further down the road on another project.
Mr. Wertis asked how we proceed from here.
Ms . Poelvoorde stated this is a committee they all have a voice .
Mr. Weatherby asked how the Town Board proceeds from here.
Ms . Poelvoorde 'stated Roxanne Marino has been involved . She sat down with Supervisor Austic
and reviewed the prices . He stated once the committee met and they made their selection he
informed her to come back and they would review procedures from there .
Mr. Brown asked how they would get this approved by the Town Board.
Ms . Poelvoorde stated they were charged with the selection, the funding is up to the Town
Board . She stated it would be the same Board putting the budget in place for next year. She is
confident the funding will be there . The timeframe for completion is one year barring time delays
on the Town ' s part.
Mr. Wertis stated it is rather scary when you look at the total hours on the bottom line.
Ms . Poelvoorde 'asked if there were any further questions or comments .
Mr. Wertis made the MOTION, seconded by Ms. Filiberto.
Whereas, the Town of Ulysses Comprehensive Plan Update Committee has interviewed and
reviewed the Planning Consultants applications.
Whereas, Bergmann Associates, Rochester, New York has met the requirements and price
structure,
Therefore be it resolved, the Town of Ulysses Comprehensive Plan Update Committee requests
the Ulysses Town Board hire Bergmann Associates for the Planning Consultants.
The vote was unanimous for hiring Bergmann Associates.
Mr. Weatherby asked what Cornell would be doing with the survey data.
Ms . Poelvoorde stated that is an item that needs to be discussed. Bergmann will be using some of
the data, hopefully they will not need any other but they can further tabulate the data as needed.
Mr. Hawkes stated he wanted to commend the subcommittee for an excellent jog done.
Ms . Poelvoorde stated Andy Raus did provide a scope of services as well as the cost estimate.
Mr. Kerness stated he learned several things . One of the items was communicate, communicate,
communicate and get the public involved. Hopefully, Andy can do this . Another item was a good
cross section of community, the last part was having someone from the Town Board at every
meeting. All of the consultants and clients stated that was one of the items they would if they did
not.
Mr. Wertis stated Roxanne is our liaison.
Ms . Poelvoorde stated they have had communication with the Town Board, they get their
minutes, Dick Coogan reports .
Ms . Filiberto stated that knowing the politics of the Town Board, maybe the committee could put
it onto themselves to attend the Town Board meetings . They could facilitate the communication
by doing it themselves . The Town Board does not read 12 pages of minutes .
Ms . Poelvoorde agreed this would be a good thing for them to do . The other committee ' s prepare
a brief report and they usually do this in the beginning of t he meeting so the member would not
Comprehensive Plan 3
08/20/07
have to attend the entire meeting. She stated she is hoping the Comp Plan committee can get
some of the nastiness put aside and eliminate the misinformation and get some good stuff out
there . She stated getting back to the communications it is really all about the task outline, and
making sure we as the committee understand what we are asking Bergmann to do.
Mr. Weatherby stated his understanding of the whole task is to review the Comp Plan not
necessarily write a new one.
Ms . Poelvoorde stated the Comp Plan was the first one, it as a baby step that led to updating the
zoning ordinance . She would like this plan to be more detailed and have positive implementation
steps/tasks that can be followed . The first had broad goals and objectives .
There were no needs or studies . There were no action strategies to take . So, really some strong
action statements to take from this process are needed . It may look like a rewrite but it can be
strengthened with details and action steps .
Ms . Filiberto stated they really talked about the importance of having 4 main policies to work on
that get you through to the next update period .
Mr. Wertis stated the next meeting is the project meeting. He would think they should have some
interpretation of the survey.
Mr. Kerness stated they could to that but he would see it as a simultaneous process .
Ms . Filiberto stated she believed they would do a SWOT ( Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities,
and Threats) analysis, and then they would do the inventory of existing conditions, part of that
would be reviewing the survey. Then they would prepare and get the public information. By the
time they get to do the policies they will have a handle on the other information.
Ms . Poelvoorde stated they had sent a draft contract, the period of service is one year to
complete . She spoke with Supervisor Austic and he is giving the contract to the Town' s attorney
for review .
Ms . Filiberto stated she questioned if they could get the inventory/analysis ready in two months.
The timeline looks great, the meetings would fall at good times of the year.
Ms . Poelvoorde stated they are ready to start . Andy Raus can attend the next meeting if the
contract is approved .
Mr. Kerness asked if the consultants could get the survey information so they can prepare.
Ms . Ritter stated Bergmann ' s is familiar with the survey formats and will not have difficulty with
this . She stated this committee could meet August 28`" to review the scope of services. The first
meeting with Andy Raus could be September.
Mr. Kerness asked what documents would the consultants need; he feels a list of items to prepare
for them would be helpful . What can they do to facilitate providing information to them as soon
as possible.
Ms . Filiberto stated there are many planning and regulatory documents they could review. The
Comp Plan is on line, the Zoning Ordinance is on line . She offered to gather a list. She asked
members to send her any items they feel should be included .
Ms . Poelvoorde stated the members need to review the scope of services . They need to have a
meeting prior to September to determine if the scope of services is acceptable.
The information regarding the survey is in the Code book that had been provided to them by SRI.
Mr. Kerness stated the analysis has been done but he would like to review prior to it being
distributed . He has the Code book, which is how many responded, the mean, minimum and
maximum . The comments are in this as well . He is to meet with SRI to review statistical data.
Comprehensive Plan 4
08/20/07
Ms . Ritter statedi there was a glitch. SRI was not supposed to type in the comments. The
committee was going to do this . SRI is hoping we will offset some of the cost. It was $600. 00 to
do all the typing:
Mr. Wertis asked what they would see eventually.
Mr. Kerness stated he is hoping they are going to get what statistically is important to a particular
question . They are trying to do a correlation as to where people live and how long. They broke it
down a little simpler than the questionnaire presented it.
Ms . Ritter stated Yasmin had sent a note that there were some cost overruns . She stated they
were stopping work to review what was happening. There was only so much money buy they did
some statistical analysis and gave them the number. They often write a lot of reports but they did
not do this in our case .
Mr. Hawkes asked if Bergmann could further analyze the data.
Ms . Poelvoorde stated we get the data on disk and this can be given to Bergmann, however this
is not part of their cost estimate .
Mr. Brown asked what amount we had contracted with SRI.
Ms. Poelvoorde reviewed the numbers and we did not expect to get 700 surveys back. We had
approximated 250 . Significant amounts of the overrun were the extra surveys and the comments
being completed . Mr. Kerness is meeting with SRI to reach a final cost.
Mr. Wertis asked if the extra statistical information is needed. Are we at a point that we can get
the data from what we have? We would see more than raw data. There would be no tables or
graphs, just numbers .
Ms. Poelvoorde stated the consultants could do some of this for us. The comments really cannot .
be used statistically but they are interesting and informative to read .
Ms. Ritter stated she found the last park to the survey-the questions asking why you like living
here-interesting. She was surprised to see many of the answers were the same.
Mr. Hawkes stated he found some of the answers curious, i . e . I cannot see the sunset, air control
as issues .
Ms . Poelvoorde stated she had a short meeting with Dick Coogan and Monika Roth of Cornell
Cooperative Extension to focus on the agricultural component and applying for a grant to expand
the planning process to include the preparation of a agriculture and farmland protection plan.
Monika' s office lean assist through the agricultural district update, with this process they sent out
a survey. She will donate her hours . Debbie Teeter ' s hours would be charged. The Town ' s match
would be the funding the Town is currently paying the consultant. They will apply for the
funding for the Ag grant . Monika believes there will be a lot of competition but we are hopeful.
They are looking at farmers in the area of part time, full time, rented lots/lands or landowners
themselves . If rented, types of operations, i . e. organic farming, woodland resources, trends in
farming, strategies for retaining and keeping farming.
Mr. Brown stated if a lot of the land is being rented by farmers, it would be up for grabs. He did
not realize it was this heavy in Ulysses .
Ms . Poelvoorde stated they are waiting for the State to issue a request for proposals. She called
Assemblywoman Lifton ' s office to see if the Town could get a member item. There is
competition to get funds , but if the request is not in they will not get it. She noted the committee
can contact Senator Winner ' s office as well . The Assembly fund limit is $20,000 and the Senate
is $ 50, 000 .
Comprehensive Plan 5
08/20/07
The next meeting is August 28 , 2007 at 7 : 00 p .m.
The meeting was adjourned at 9 : 15 p . m.
Respectfully submitted,
Robin Carlisle Peck
Administrative Assistant
Final Editing Completed by Sue A. Poelvoorde, Chair