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Home My WebLink About2008-10-22 - CPC Meeting Minutes Town of Ulysses Comprehensive Plan Update Committee October 22 , 2008 Approved November 16, 2008 Present: Sue Poelvoorde, Chair; Roxanne Marino ; David Tyler; John Wertis ; Rod Hawkes, Sue Ritter Absent : Deirdre Cunningham, Heather Filiberto, Bob Brown, Liz Thomas, Bob Weatherby Sue Poelvoorde called the meeting to order at 7 : 08 P .M . Rod Hawkes moved to accept the meeting minutes from October 9, 2008 , seconded by David Tyler. Approved unanimously without changes . With reference to Point 4 in the October 9 , 2008 , minutes, John Wertis wondered if there will be confusion between the Conservation Districts that the updated comprehensive plan is recommending and the existing Unique Natural Areas (UNA) designated. John recommends that the Town adopt the UNAs. Sue Ritter noted that the Tompkins County UNA Inventory exists whether a municipality adopts it or not. The committee decided to add an action under Policy Area # 1 , Objective 1 . 1 Preserve and protect the town ' s natural and environmental resources in support of the County' s UNA document recognition of the unique natural areas in the town. The action will read : H. Officially recognize and act to preserve the Unique Natural Areas located within the Town of Ulysses . The committee also will have Kimberly Baptiste update the Future Land Use Plan to include all of the UNAs as a Conservation Area. On the subject of the Future Land Use Plan, the committee members noted that the area to the east of the Village of Trumansburg boundary changed from Village Residential to Conservation District. All agreed that it should be changed back to the August 2008 version. The committee reviewed and discussed the Environmental Protection Area (EPA) and Conservation Area (CA) write ups . All agreed that the EPA description should use further clarification. Sue Ritter volunteered to work on additional text. The committee used the remainder of the meeting to continue the review of the feedback from various agencies regarding the preliminary Draft Comprehensive Plan (DCP) . Planning Board comment #6 on Affordable Housing: • Objective 2 . 5B & C — The Planning Board was concerned that the amount of area or extent of affordable or low-income housing was left open, noting the impact that too much can have on the School Districts . The committee reviewed the statements in the plan and agreed to leave them as currently written (9/ 18 DCP) . Via e-mail, Heather Filiberto provided a response to the Planning Board ' s comment that the committee agrees with . Heather' s comment inserted. " The overarching objective for all these housing actions is to ` PLAN for adequate and varied options in housing to meet the needs of current and future residents ' . I think it is implied that affordable housing would be promoted to the extent that it is identified as a need. That said, I wouldn ' t change the action at all . Further, I think we are justified having actions pertaining to affordable housing. 1 . The county' s housing needs assessment (2006) shows a need for housing at all income levels. 2 . The existing conditions section of the Ulysses Comp Plan shows a need: 43 . 1 % of families earn incomes below $50,000 . The most common definition of affordable housing is simply households spending no more than 30% of their income on housing. I would almost bet that any family earning under $50,000 is spending more than this on their housing (roughly $ 800 per month after taxes) . 3 . The market will generally provide for the higher end housing whereas it does not provide affordable housing : without some type of promotion and public subsidy, affordable housing doesn ' t happen. One last comment: any type of housing development, not just affordable, would need to be evaluated in regards to the school district capacity, availability of public services, etc . " "Other comments" section from 10/ 1 /08 memo prepared for the Town Board meeting Comprehensive Plan Committee 2 10/22/2008 Several comments from Lois Chaplin, Bicycle and Pedestrian Specialist, Cornell Local Roads Program, recommending adding wording supporting the "Complete Streets" initiative and also Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) . The committee reviewed the various sections noted by Lois and made the following changes. • Objective 4 . 5 Create a cohesive pedestrian and bicycle network throughout the Town (current wording) — Lois Chapman comment on "Complete Streets" initiative; no changes to current wording required • Policy Area 2, Objective 2 . 3A, B — Lois ' s comments mostly seemed to be supportive of the Plan, without suggesting specific changes • Objective 2 . 3 , add "G" : Whenever sidewalks are developed, every effort should be made to follow the Americans with Disabilities Act guidelines . " While Lois ' comments heavily support a coordinated and well-planned mix of transportation options (multi-modal) the committee received a comment from Doug Austic, Supervisor, that the Town would not build sidewalks all over because the population density does not support it and he believes it would change the character of the Town . The committee discussed Doug ' s comment and reviewed the Policy, Objective, Action item regarding sidewalks, noting that no one was suggesting that we put sidewalks all through the Town, only where density supported them and made the area safer for bicyclists and pedestrian. The following change will be made to the action item . • Policy Area 2, Objective 2 . 3 E — Require new developments to include sidewalk networks to connect to adjacent, established commercial and mixed use areas, as appropriate. Comment on the Future Land Use Plan size of the cluster residential area at the Krums Corner/Dubois Road area. Alex Rachen, Code Enforcement Officer, requested that the area be reduced in size to only include the former Poyer' s Orchard area. He noted that agricultural land use is still very high in this area. Committee members noted that in the existing zoning code the Cluster Residential Area proposed in the update comprehensive plan is currently zoned moderate density residential and the size of actual area that could be used for cluster residential development is restricted by the streams and other environmental areas . Also, the cluster residential area recommends mixed uses in addition to residential . As noted in earlier meetings, the committee agreed that on the page before the Future Land Use Plan that each land use category be summarized in two sentences so that the reader has an introduction to the intended look of the area rather than only looking at colors and sizes of the blocks of areas and having to flip forward to the text. The committee also will recommend to Bergmann Associates that the colors used for the different land use areas be changed to pastel tones . The Committee started to review the action items in preparation for reviewing the draft implementation schedule prepared by Bergmann Associates . The following changes will be made to the text. • Objective 1 . 1 Action B — Add at end of the sentence "in all land use areas". Committee thought this would be a good short -term priority action list (for Plan Implementation section) . • Objective 3 . 1 Action B - Change the word participate to "facilitate. " • Objective 3 . 1 Action C - change to " Develop a local agriculture to identify issues and advise the Town Board and Planning Board on environmental concerns . . . " • Objective 4. 2 Action A - Add new item: "Undertake a comprehensive evaluation of potable water issues in the Town. " • Objective 4 .2 Action B - New : "Prepare a water needs study to determine which areas of the Town are in need of assistance to secure a potable water supply". • Objective 4 .2 Action C - New : "Prepare a long-term strategic plan to prioritize future development of municipal water service in concert with the future land use plan. " • Current Objective 4. 2 Action C becomes 4.2 Action D • Current Objective 4 . 2 Action D becomes Action E; add after Village "of Trumansburg, the Town of Ithaca, and the City of Ithaca . . . " Comprehensive Plan Committee 3 10/22/2008 • Objective 2 . 6 Action C Delete • Comment RM made on "should we consider adding a section . . . " to connect to the 1999 Plan and make a clearer connection to it . Sue P . suggests putting it under Future Land Use categories (Section 4 . 0 Future Land Use Plan), she had some rough wording. Sue will work on drafting a little piece to put in here. The committee scheduled an additional meeting to continue to review the document and consider the implementation schedule. The meeting will be held on Thursday, November 13 , 2008 , at 7 : 00 P .M. at the Town Hall . The meeting was adjourned at 8 : 55 P . M . Respectfully submitted, Sue A. Poelvoorde Chair i