HomeMy WebLinkAbout2021-11-30 11/30/21
CONSERVATION BOARD
11/30/2021
Hybrid
Members Present: Gian Dodici (Chair), Bob Beck (7:35), Anne Clark, Craig Schutt, Andrew Miller, Nancy
Munkenbeck (7:40 PM), Tim Woods, Jeanne Grace
Absent: David Wilson
Liaisons: Loren Sparling (Town Board), Simon St. Laurent (Planning Board), Steven Bissen (EMC)
Guest(s): David Weinstein
The meeting was called to order at 7:02 PM.
Review and approval of minutes dated October 26th, 2021
On motion made by G Dodici, seconded by C Schutt, minutes were unanimously approved as amended.
C Schutt informed the board that Bard Prentiss passed away. Bard was a founding member of
the Conservation Board and was a long term member until his health precluded him. The board sends
their thoughts to the Prentiss family.
EMC Update
They have been going through restructuring and looking at subcommittees to decide if they
want to keep them or expand on them. They want better communication between municipalities and
the EMC so S Bissen is going to attend Conservation Board meetings as often as he can.
Planning Board Update
The Planning Board has been focusing most of their time on the Comp Plan.
Town Board Update
L Sparling passed on the DSWP2 comments to Ray Burger and made sure Ray passed them on to
the author.
The Town of Dryden came to an agreement with Bernie Cornelius that entails a land donation in
exchange for a right of way to his property.
Scotties SUP was approved based on the fact that they moved the parking lot away from the
stream to the back of his property.
Conservation Easement monitoring
G Dodici asked Ray Burger for a list of easements in the town and asked the Planning Dept to
take leadership in keeping track of the easements the town holds along with keeping track of
monitoring. He now has a list of all the easements the town owns and now he is working with Ray to
come up with a spreadsheet or some sort of tracking mechanism. Two easements could be tracked
internally (within the CB) but they are now up to 8 or 9. They would like to make a list of them and when
they were last visited so it can be better kept track of. They may be looking for volunteers in the future.
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D Weinstein says there needs to be a process of getting feedback. G Dodici thinks part of that check list
is seeing if the recommendations from site visitors have been considered and if not, why.
Deer Management
T Woods gave a presentation to the village of Dryden trustees and they were receptive to the
idea of having a hunt in the village. Dan Wakeman has been directed from the mayor to coordinate what
they are going to do in the village through the DPW. He will coordinate with T Woods and Professor
Blossey at Cornell to start making things happen. They should hear back within 30 days. They found out
that they have to change the discharge of the weapon law in the village. It will go up for vote mid Dec. T
Woods thinks a hunt is possible in January. They are trying to get Joey Guernsey’s property as the
primary site within the village. They would like to approach George Junior to get permission to hunt on
their land as well.
T Woods also had a meeting with the village of Freeville as a follow up briefing of their trustees and
seem very receptive to the idea as well. Freeville village has had 18 confirmed kills with vehicle collisions
just this year.
Bio sequestration/Topsoil/Aquifer Management
T Woods briefed the villages of Dryden & Freeville on this topic. They have 4H clubs they are
going to talk to. They are trying to get into the FFA in Groton to get all ages involved. They are trying to
get the word out and get people interested.
Comprehensive Plan (S St. Laurent)
The big picture can be found at Dryden2045.org. This plan was supposed to be adopted by the
end of this year. Simon believes we are about a year behind the schedule. When and if this becomes
adopted, it becomes the comprehensive plan for the town and it replaces all of its predecessors. The
Planning Board is gathering feedback from committees as they are working to finish it up but the Town
Board will be the final editor and decider on this. They are asking for feedback fairly quickly but if the
board feels like they need more time, they should ask John Kiefer for it. They are in a hurry because they
are so far behind but he believes it needs to be done right so if more time is needed that should be okay.
The comp plan will be a foundation for the next round of zoning. Simon wants the board to look at the
bigger picture and suggests looking at places members know best. Land use is the core of this exercise.
Questions/Comments
• The zoning on Map 2 is completely wrong. What is vacant land on a federal wetland? That’s the
Conservation Zone. And the use on the road is not represented correctly. What is rural
residential when it’s a hay field? Its 12 years behind housing wise.
• Not only does Map 2 make no sense but also some of the other maps do not represent what’s
actually there. Where did they come up with the information on these maps?
• We should not be using a 2005 map for a 2045 plan.
• Descriptions need work.
• The Ag districts are by tax parcels so you could have a large parcel that’s important for ag
attached to a large forest but its all going to be ag district. That’s the way they map it.
• If the intent is to show land use in the town, dividing it by parcels doesn’t make sense.
• If it’s going to be used to change zoning, then we need to have it be more specific.
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• The zoning has to be centered around parcels because that is where the decisions about what is
allowed and not allowed under zoning gets made. It has to be tightly connected.
• This will become a historical document so it would be good to document the exact origin of each
map and figure in it.
• Because of this delay, will some of this data become outdated? Broadband map shows no data
for areas that have the best internet.
• How can we incorporate Bio sequestration/Topsoil/Aquifer Management into this plan?
• It would be better to just not include the maps instead of incorrect maps.
• If you don’t include maps, people will say you are trying to do things without specifying where
and that will cause a problem.
• Why was this completely rewritten? Why didn’t we just work off of the 2005 Comprehensive
Plan. It was supposed to be an update.
• What people want most out of a comp plan is to know the character of their section of town will
be maintained. They want to keep ag as the main focus of the town.
• There’s a lot more to agriculture than large dairy, and it seems the Planning Board is ignoring
that.
• Is it possible to have a designation that includes ag, conservation and rural residential for Ellis
Hollow?
• One thing lacking was a vision for lands to protect in Dryden, what are our priority areas?
• Map 7: Protected Open Space; Cornell oversees/owns much more of Mt. Pleasant than is
indicated on that map. It is farmland and research land overseen by the Harford dairy and
various CALS researchers. (Sent via email)
• Map 3 and associated text seems like a good place to discuss the emerald necklace initiative of
the FLLT and other likeminded groups.(Sent via email)
• The wetlands map should have an overlay of topography to help see where the wetlands
actually are.
• How many units more could each sewer plant accommodate and if it’s going to expand a line
what would the current cost be? Same for water.
• Route 13 congestion study, haven’t seen any results. County plan didn’t propose much change,
but it is referred to in the Comp Plan.
• Future land use map-there’s areas going out of Freeville that are federal wetlands and it’s the
headwaters of Owasco lake. On the map they are saying it would make prime farmland if
drained. That shouldn’t happen and shouldn’t even allowed to be drained.
• There should be a vision for conservation and it’s just not in there.
• There should be something about stream protection and diversity of water types because so
many habitats are built around different kinds of water.
• There are a few roads such as Baker Hill Road that are not on the maps.
• N Munkenbeck said she thought a lot of the Comp Plan was nicely written.
G Dodici is going to set up a shared google doc that the board members can add their thoughts and
concerns to. It will then be sent to the Planning Board.
The members thanked Simon for attending the meeting and helping them navigate this plan a little
easier.
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On motion made by N Munkenbeck, seconded by T Woods, the meeting was adjourned at 8:55 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Emily Banwell