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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-10-01 - TB SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING COMPREHENSIVE PLAN UPDATE COMMITTEE (CPUC) PRESENTATION OCTOBER 1 , 2008 PRESENT : Supervisor Douglas Austic ; Councilperson Elizabeth Thomas , Councilperson David Kerness and Councilperson Lucia Tyler; Town Clerk Marsha L . Georgia . Absent : Councilperson Rod Ferrentino Others Present: Sue Poelvoorde , Chairman CPUC , CPUC members Roxanne Marino , David Tyler, Bob Brown , Rod Hawks , John Wertis and Sue Ritter; Village Trustees Chris Thomas and Debbie Nottke ; Free Press Reporter Jamie Saine . Ms . Poelvoorde opened the meeting at 7 : 00 p . m . For the benefit of the Village Board members , she went through the process that the Comprehensive Plan Update Committee has followed thus far to update the Town ' s 1999 Comprehensive Plan . The preliminary draft Comprehensive Plan was distributed in August of 2008 to the Boards . Ms . Poelvoorde said that the main purpose for the meeting tonight is to request that the Town Board focus on and start looking over the plan and provide the committee feed back on the plan . She stressed the importance of the Town Board 's review. The Town Board will be adopting the plan and it is important that they know what is in the document and are comfortable with the content . She does not want to head to public hearings if the Town Board is not fully aware of and supportive of the plan . Ms . Poelvoorde distributed the comments that have been made to date . As noted some of the comments have been incorporated into a new draft , others have not . She noted one change in particular that has been the subject of considerable discussion over the past month — the existing land use map . The map in the August 2008 version uses data from the New York State Real Property Office , which uses assessment codes . The codes do not recognize multiple land uses on a property. So a parcel that has a house and farmland can be listed as residential . The map does not accurately depict the actual land use in the Town . Fortunately, Tompkins County Planning Department has been in the process of updating the Land Use/Land Cover map for the Town and this map is being incorporated into the updated Comprehensive Map . The new map does accurately represent the land use in the Town . The following list includes the comments that the CPUC has received to date . Ms . Poelvoorde requested that when the Town Board members provide comments to please include the page numbers where they have an issue or correction for the CPUC to consider. Comments on the August 2008 Preliminary Draft Document Comments made and incorporated to the September 18 , 2008 edit ( not distributed ) General Comments In addition to changes identified below, additional editorial changes (spelling of DuBoise, spelling, grammar, etc . ) have been identified and will be incorporated into the next draft document submittal. Page 1 Second paragraph modified to read — "The Comprehensive Plan was developed within a transparent public participation process that sought to engage and involve the Ulysses community as a whole. Beginning with a community survey that was distributed by the Steering Committee in the Spring of 2007, the year-and-a half planning process has been open to all interested Town residents. A brainstorming session with Town officials and committee members, multiple steering committee meetings, public meetings, and land use workshop sessions rounded out the community outreach efforts associated with the Plan. " CPUC 2 10/ 1 /2008 Page 3 Small communities plan relabeled as "Historic Communities" and moved to Brief History section of plan. Last two sentences on page re-organized to read — " The Town has retained its rural, small town character even as growth has begun to transform other agricultural communities around the City of Ithaca. Development pressures occurring elsewhere in the region have the potential to encroach into the Town, possibly impacting the rural character and agricultural lands which define the Town today. The potential for future development pressure could lead to the loss of existing agricultural industries (will change to "agricultural businesses"), changes to the character of rural roadways as they see increased traffic, and the loss of open space and scenic views as large parcels get sold and subdivided. " Page 9 Statement added referring to Villages economic development goal, as follows — "The Economic Development goals of the Village focus on maintaining the Village core as a viable commercial center, stating Trumansburg is the "commercial and social center of adjacent rural communities, " such as Ulysses. Today, the Village certainly fills that role for the Town and will continue to in the future. " Page 13 Vision Statement modified to read as follows — " Ulysses is a rural community in the Finger Lakes region that takes great pride in its agricultural heritage and character, natural resources, and small-town atmosphere. Significant community features, including our farms and lakeshore, make Ulysses a desirable location for residents and visitors alike. We will continue to celebrate and protect our unique resources by promoting efforts that support agricultural sustainability, open space conservation, a balanced approach to economic development, and revitalization of village and hamlet centers. We will strive to effectively balance future growth with the conservation of key community assets through proactive planning in a manner that benefits all residents, both today and in the future. Page 16 Additional action item added to address subsurface water — G. "Identify measures to protect the quantity of groundwater for Town residents, including the preservation of open space and prohibiting over-withdrawal of groundwater 1) resources. H . "Initiate programs to protect the quality of groundwater resources in the Town, focusing on potential negative impacts associated with septic systems, agricultural practices, and commercial contaminants. " Page 19 Objective 2 .4, Action E modified to read — "Consider adopting appropriate zoning regulations to allow residential and commercial alternative energy generation. " Page 31 Future Land Use Map amended to eliminate Transitional Commercial touching Rabbit Run and to show Duddleston Road as an undedicated roadway by showing it as a dashed line . All maps will show Duddleston Road as an undedicated roadway through the use of a dashed line. Page 34 Area Allocation Method (AAM) method summary clarified to state that residential development cannot be contiguous along road frontage. Page 43 Statement added to Transitional Commercial description which reads — " The intent of this area is not to compete with existing or future commercial uses within the Village, but to complement the range and diversity of commercial uses which may be accommodated within the larger region. " CPUC 3 10/ 1 /2008 Page 47 Major modifications to land use section have been made to clarify how existing land uses are represented in the Town. The Tompkins County Land Use Cover Plan and associated narrative have been added. Page 69 Waterbodies map renamed to Natural Features . Unique Natural Areas and Natural Resource Focus Area locations have been added to the map . Comments discussed and adopted at the September 23 , 2008 , CPC Meeting but yet to be included in the preliminary draft plan Acknowledgements page • Review and update to include former Town Board members and other Town staff that have helped. (Note : Sue P . will re-write.) Table of Contents • Add "Process" to the title of 2 . 0 (and Section 2 . 0 heading on p . 3) • Change title of Section 3 . 0 "Introduction" to "Vision Statement", to be parallel with Executive Summary • Section 3 . 0 — this (and Section 4) is the meat of the Comprehensive Plan, consider changing the heading for this section to make it more clear to the reader • Put Section 5 . 0, Existing Conditions as an Appendix ( 1 ) ; have tabs on the final document (Note : Section 5 will be become the Implementation chapter with a schedule.) Executive Summary ( p. 1 ) • Paragraph 1 — Replace second sentence with "In June of 2006, the Ulysses Town Board appointed a Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee to conduct a formal revision of the 1999 Ulysses Comprehensive Plan, in accordance with the Plan Implementation • recommendations and as directed by the Town Board resolution adopting the 1999 Plan. This Comprehensive Plan was developed out of a collaborative effort involving the Comprehensive Plan Steering Committee, representatives from Town boards, and residents with varying backgrounds and perspectives". • Boldface "community survey" in Kim ' s 9/09 Memo , p . 1 second paragraph modification • Paragraph 6 : First sentence, modify to ` Building on the Vision statement, the Plan is organized into five Policy areas . . . . " 2 . 0 Overview of the Comprehensive Plan (add "Process " ) • Introduction, first paragraph, second sentence — add `Enfield" after Town of Ithaca (p . 3) • Kim ' s modifications p . 3 , second sentence — change "existing agricultural industries" to "existing agricultural businesses" (Note : Sue P . amended the wording in this summary memo presenting the 9/09 memo prepared by Kimberly. ) • Summary of Local Plans and Studies — Move Town of Ulysses Comp Plan 1999 to the first one discussed, then TC Comp Plan, Village Comp Plan, Rt 96 Corridor study. • Public Outreach Summary ( p . 10 ) Add a first sentence : "The Comprehensive Plan Steering committee held regularly scheduled monthly meetings throughout the Plan update process. " Start second sentence "In addition. . " 3 . 0 Visioning and Implementation ( p . 13 ) Re-title somehow to be more clear the content of this chapter. Look at 1999 Plan for a parallel . • Objective 1 .2 (G) Groundwater protection — more work needs to be done on this item and wording, in response to comments received. • Consider further the wording proposed by the Planning Board on ground water and drinking water protection, to add to Objective 1 . 2 • Objective 2 .2 (p . 18)— It could be confusing that there is one "transitional commercial" land use designation on the Land Use Plan, but commercial is also allowed in another use CPUC 4 10/1 /2008 designation. Include Transitional Commercial and Office/Tech Mixed Use in parentheses after " . . . defined on the Future Land Use Plan" . • Objective 2 . 5 F . (p .20) Change "conserve" to "efficient use of " municipal services • Objective 2 . 6 D . (p . 21 ) Change wording of second sentence to "Cluster Development should be permitted if the remaining agricultural land is preserved through vehicles such as the sale or donation of a conservation easement to the Town or qualified land trust or permanent deed restrictions ." [previous wording too limiting (permitted only if. .) to actually making cluster development happen] 4.0 Future Land Use Plan • On p . 30 (blank facing page to FLUP) insert a 1 -2 line summary description of each land use area on the FLUP map, color coded to match the map, and referencing the following page(s) with the full description of each land use. [This gives a more direct connection of the land uses proposed with the map] • Include approximate acreages for each land use area. 5 .0 Existing Conditions (change to an Appendix) • Existing Land Use map and summary table (p .47) -- Still in discussion, but the preference of the Committee is to use only one map, the Tompkins County 2008 Existing Land use map, and accompanying summary table. Other option is to also include the NYSORP map and table, but focus on the TC map . Appendix 1 • 4.6 (p . 119) Figures on sewer should be checked and this section re-worded. "More than 32% of respondents do not receive public sewer from the Town." This suggests that 78% of the respondents to the survey do receive public sewer, and therefore live in the Village since that is the only area in the Town with public sewer. But later (7 .b . ,p . 124), 29% of respondents indicated they lived in the Village. Other: Plan implementation section (as with our old Comp Plan) should be added; example table accompanies this memo . Comments submitted and under discussion by the Committee Town of Ulysses Planning Board Item #1 : The Plan outlines a suite of recommended actions for each of the objectives . With over 100 action items, it will be difficult to accomplish all the objectives and even to begin to plan to do so . it would be useful if the Committee could prioritize a smaller subset of the action items, e. g. those which have particular urgency or greater importance to the town and highlight these priorities up front in the document. Our smaller comments are as follows : Item #2 : Under Objective #2 : Protect existing water resources This section only discusses surface water and makes no reference at all to the need to protect ground water underlying the Town. However, many town residents depend on wells for their water needs . Protection of the quantity of ground water (e. g. by preserving open space which acts to recharge the groundwater and preventing over withdrawal by a few users) and the quality of ground water (e. g. by preventing ground water pollution by septics, agricultural practices, and/or commercial contaminants such as dry cleaning or automotive wastes) should be a priority goal for our comprehensive plan. Suggested text : "Protect ground water which is the primary source of drinking water for many Ulysses residents through maintaining open space which acts to recharge the groundwater; preventing over withdrawal by single users; legislating responsible discharge practices for commercial and agricultural contaminants ." Item #3 : The Plan makes a distinction between the Conservation Zone along the western shore, and an Environmental Protection Zone located just upslope of the Conservation Zone, apparently with CPUC 5 10/ 1 /2008 the distinction based on difference in slope . Having it may be difficult to get Town buy-in of two separate zones. Also, the Environmental Protection Zone actually has streams and other features that feed directly into the Conservation Zone. We recommend that the zones be treated as one zone, with different land management practices allowed based on slope. Item #4 : Existing Land Use Map This map has been incorrectly labeled and is misleading. Please change the title and caption to explain the contents or remove from the Plan. Item #5 : Unique Natural Areas It was noted that the UNAs are described in detail in the appendix but only mentioned in prior text. However we consider these UNAs to be an important asset and resource for the Town, and greater emphasis on their protection should be highlighted earlier in the text (possibly on p, 15 under Policy Area # 1 ) Item #6 ; CAFOs , Objective 1 .2 As written, Action Item G supports the presence of medium and large CAFOs in our Town. Given the documented impacts on groundwater and surface water quality, pathogen incidence and human health, as well as odor, we recommend that the issue of CMOs in our Town be re- evaluated. At the least, wording in this action item should be changed to be less encouraging. Item #6 : Affordable Housing Action items 2 . 5 B, C as well as other locations in the document promote affordable housing and also low income housing. It is important that the actual extent of each of these housing types be evaluated with respect to the current and future tax base for the Town and the 'Trumansburg Central School Districts? capacity and needs . Other comments General • A perception that actions in the plan are promoting changes that run counter to preserving the rural character. Objectives and Action Strategies • A series of recommendations to incorporate the national "Complete Streets" initiative, which encourages communities to make their roads and streets safer for bicycles and pedestrians into the language of the plans objective and action statements . Also include language about making facilities ADA accessible . • Cluster residential and CAFOs will never happen because no one is interested in coming to Ulysses to build. • Sidewalks not economically feasible in a town with our population. • Town government will not build new roads . This is a job for developers. Future Land Use Plan • Size of the Cluster Residential area — consider reducing the size as it includes a considerable amount of active farmland. Include only the areas of inactive or vacant land. f Existing Conditions (Chapter 5 to become Appendix 1 ) • Housing Starts — Statement about number and location about housing starts being primarily in the agricultural district is misleading as the majority of the Town is covered by the district. Compiled by Sue Poelvoorde September 30, 2008