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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2009-02-05 - PH Town of Ulysses 2009 Draft Comprehensive Plan Public Hearing February 5, 2009, 7 : 00 P.M. Verbatim Transcription Time called to order : 6 : 58 p. m. Sue Poelvoorde Well it is close enough, I think I' ll get started. I ' ve got a statement I want to read and so, that will make sure we get enough time for folks to make a statement, although a lot of you folks did not mark yes to make a statement you can change your mind along the way and I will call on you through the process . Good evening. My name is Sue Poelvoorde. I am the Chair of the Town of Ulysses Comprehensive Plan Update Committee and I will be presiding over the public hearing this evening. The hearing is being conducted in accordance with Town Law, Article 16, Section 272A, Subsection 6 (b) which requires that the Committee, charged by the Town Board to revise a Comprehensive Plan, allow full opportunity for public comment on the Town of Ulysses ' Draft I 2009 Comprehensive Plan before the Committee passes it on to the Town Board with a recommendation to adopt the plan . As the hearing officer, I am responsible to make sure that everyone who wishes to do so will be given an opportunity to submit an oral or written statement for the record. In accordance with this, it may be necessary to limit the time for comments so that everyone has an opportunity to speak. Sign-in cards were available at the door. If you did not sign in yet, please do so . I will use the cards to call on persons wishing to provide a statement. The cards were numbered sequentially and distributed in that order. I will call speakers forward in accordance with the numbering system . We will also use the cards to record attendance at this hearing. I would like to stress that this is a public hearing, a time to take comments on the plan. It is not a session for questions and answers . If you have a question, please ask me or one of the Committee members after the close of the hearing session. Since most of our time will be spent listening, I ask that all of us recognize and respect the statements and positions of others . Please respect other' s viewpoints and avoid personalizing your comments . The Committee is very interested in comments on the accuracy of the information in the Plan. If you have a written statement, please submit it to me. Also, if you feel your statement may go beyond the allotted time, I would appreciate it if you could summarize the items of most importance to you, especially if you are also submitting a written statement. If anyone wishes to comment on the plan between now and the end of the comment period on February 16, 2009, you may submit a written statement to my attention either my mailing or dropping off your comments here at Town Hall or at the e-mail address listed on the hearing notice mailing you received and also on the posters to my right and to my left. Comments received this evening and up to the close of the comment period on February 16`h (close of business) will be reviewed and considered by the Committee on February 19`h Any changes or additions to the plan coming out of this comment period will be made to the document prior to submission to the Town Board. Once the Town Board, Roxanne noted to me, and I ' ll introduce our members here shortly but, that a couple folks have been asking about the process . I mentioned the Town Law. Town Law does say that if the Town Board requests that a special committee prepare a comprehensive plan or prepare an update that public hearings be held to give folks an opportunity to comment on it. Once this committee is done with our task of revising the comprehensive plan, we will be passing it along to the Town Board. Once the Town Board gets it, they will consider it and review it and they too will hold a public hearing. So there is another opportunity to take a look at this plan and make comments on it before it is adopted by the Town Board. Is that answering the questions that you received, Roxanne? Okay. Public Hearing 2 Draft Comprehensive Plan 02/05/2009 Roxanne Marino Yes . So, the document that ' s here now may not be the document exactly that is submitted to the Town Board. So there will be another document and notice of a public hearing. A lot of people were asking well why weren ' t there a lot more copies printed. We didn' t print a lot partly because this really isn' t the final, we hope it ' s the near final, but it is not the final document submitted to the Town Board for consideration for their public hearing. Sue Poelvoorde So again, as Roxanne said, we did not print a lot of copies . We do have it available on the Web . If you would like a printed copy, I did write a gentleman' s name down tonight and we will get that to you, if you do want a printed copy please see us after the hearing and we ' ll try to get a copy made as soon as possible. It might not be all color, but a lot of it might be black and white just to save on the expense of that. Before I get started on the main purpose of the meeting tonight, I ' d like to start off first by making a, at least, to start off I need to note an error on the printing of the Future Land Use Plan, this map that you see up here, in the document on page 37 . As you noted we have a lot of different green colors . In the document there is an area to the east of the Village of Trumansburg that ' s the avocado green area, I ' m going to call it, and that should be light green the Agriculture Priority Area color. That ' s what it was in the plan, and unfortunately, I think the computer got confused with all of the green colors that we have on our map and somehow that got switched. So , that is an error and that will be corrected before we forward it on to the Town Board. David Tyler But the map over here, is correct . Sue Poelvoorde These are correct. These are correct. This is the way, yes, thank you, that ' s the area in the plan, it' s the, what I ' :m calling avocado green, the very kind of bright green area, so that is one error that occurred. The Town' s first comprehensive plan was prepared over several years in the 1990s, with adoption by the Town Board in 1999 . As the first plan of its type for the Town, it was acknowledged by the Town Board that a review of the plan should occur in 5 years after adoption. It was anticipated that time that the Zoning Law would be updated and would have been field tested by this time to determine what, if any, issues or areas of land use planning that required further consideration or refinement that is done in a comprehensive plan. We are ten years past that point, but we ' re getting there . In 2006 , the Town Board passed a resolution creating the Town of Ulysses Comprehensive Plan Update Committee and appointed members to serve following a meeting that sought interested citizens to participate on the committee. And at this time I would like to recognize the Committee members in attendance here tonight. We have Bob Weatherby, John Wertis, Dave Tyler, Rod Hawkes, Liz Thomas, Liz is also a Town Board member, Roxanne Marino and Bob Brown. And, then we also have Deirdre . Deirdre Cunningham is also on our committee, she is out there in the audience . I ' d also like to recognize, I think Dave Kerness is still here. Is he still here? Is he out in the hall? Okay. There he is . Thank you, Dave. Dave Kerness is one of our Town Board members and he is here tonight. I didn' t see anyone else I need to recognize at this time . Our Committee hit the ground running shortly after the Town Board ' s charge was official and between August 2006 to today we have worked hard with the consultants from Bergmann Associates from Rochester to prepare the 2009 Draft Comprehensive Plan. The updated plan, directed by community input through a Town-wide survey conducted in 2007 and public information gathering meetings and workshops in 2008 , includes a vision, policy areas with objectives and action strategies to accomplish the objectives and a Future Land Use Plan to guide land-based development patterns . In addition to land-use direction, the plan also includes recommendations for initiating new or supporting existing social and cultural programs that make our community strong and vibrant . Public Hearing 3 Draft Comprehensive Plan 02/05/2009 While a large number of the action strategies will be accomplished through Town government action, many others will, and are recommended to be, accomplished by residents of the Town coming together on special committees . There is much to be done, and the Committee hopes that residents of the Town will use the plan as a call to action. The 2009 plan, the 2009 update builds upon the 1999 version more strongly recognizing the unique features of the Town. It is valued, one its location along the largest Finger Lakes through the Lakeshore, Conservation, Natural Areas/Parkland and Environmental Protection Areas zones . Its valued historical assets, the cultural heritage and the hamlet of Jacksonville through the Agricultural Priority and Mixed Use Hamlet Center areas . The need to provide a variety of housing options through the Village Residential and Mixed Use Hamlet Center areas, and the need to work to support, maintain and supplement economic diversity through the Office and Technology Mixed-Use, Transitional Commercial areas . Like, the 1999 version, this plan continues to encourage, in stronger terms , nodal development, strengthening the existing areas of Jacksonville and Trumansburg, where making use of the infrastructure in place saves municipal financial resources and encourages sustaining our agricultural base . As with any topic or issue, there are many different points of view and ways to approach issues. The Committee, with Bergmann' s assistance, did its best to find consensus and prepare a plan that preserves and protects the cherished character of the Town, an opinion that was expressed nearly unanimously throughout the information gathering and input opportunities . With that said, I will now start the formal portion of this evenings meeting. Let ' s see, we ' ve got some more folks signed in. Dave Tyler Do you want to officially open the public hearing? Sue Poelvoorde Yes, we officially open the public hearing. Dave Tyler Was there a public notice? Sue Poelvoorde Yes there was. Dave Tyler Do you want to read it? Sue Poelvoorde Yes. Marsha, do you have a public notice? Marsha Georgia No, I 'm sorry I don ' t have one with me. Audience attendant offers a copy of the mailing notice. Sue Poelvoorde No, the legal notice that was in the paper. We ' ll make sure that gets included in the record. Dave Tyler I ' m happy to see a lot of you here attended those public information sessions we had in the past year and carried through to come here tonight . Roxanne Marino Sue, we might just add also, that there are a couple other members of the committee who couldn 't attend tonight . Heather Filiberto is a member of the committee; as is Sue Ritter. Just in case if you may know them and want to give them input . Public Hearing 4 Draft Comprehensive Plan 02/05/2009 Peter Houghton Is anyone from Bergmann here tonight? Sue Poelvoorde No, they are not here tonight. They will be attending the public hearing with the Town Board. The comprehensive plan is a Town plan, it ' s the committee ' s plan. We did have assistance with Bergmann, but it is our plan. Sue Poelvoorde Did someone go get that (legal notice) ? So, I can read that into the record. Notice of Public Hearing Town of Ulysses Draft 2009 Comprehensive Plan Date of Notice : January 22, 2009 The Town of Ulysses Comprehensive Plan Update Committee, working with Bergmann Associates, Inc . , has completed the Draft 2009 Comprehensive Plan for the Town of Ulysses . The draft plan, which is an update of the1999 Comprehensive Plan, will be the subject of an informational workshop and public hearing on February 5, 2009 , in the Town of Ulysses Town Hall, 10 Elm Street, Trumansburg, New York. The workshop will run from 6 : 00 p .m . to 6 :45 p .m. followed by the public hearing beginning at 7 : 00 p .m. The purpose of the workshop is to offer an opportunity to become more familiar with the Draft 2009 Comprehensive Plan. Persons may provide comments at the hearing or in writing no later than the end of the comment period on February 16, 2009. All written comments should be forwarded to the following contact or to : Ulyssescp2008 @gmail . com . Contact Person : Sue A. Poelvoorde Chair Comprehensive Plan Update Committee Town of Ulysses 10 Elm Street Trumansburg, New York 14886 Availability of Draft Plan : The Draft 2009 Comprehensive Plan is available for review on the Town of Ulysses website, www.ulysses .ny .us . Copies of the Draft Plan are available for review at the following locations : Town of Ulysses, Town Hall, Trumansburg Village of Trumansburg, Village Hall, Trumansburg Ulysses Philomathic Library, Trumansburg Peter Houghton When was that published? Marsha Georgia It ' s not printed on here, but I can get that for you. Sue Poelvoorde It should have been January 22 , 2009 . Marsha Georgia It ' s around that date . Sue PoelvoordeOkay. Alright. When you make your statement, we ' ve put up a microphone here. It' s much easier for Marsha to pick up your comments if you would please come up to the microphone to make your statement. Public Hearing 5 Draft Comprehensive Plan 02/05/2009 I have a question mark for Janet Hawkes . Would you like to . . . . Janet Hawkes No . Sue Poelvoorde I have a question mark for Jackie Merwin. Jackie did you want to make a comment? Jackie Merwin I don ' t think so . Sue Poelvoorde We have a lot of shy people tonight. Diane Hillman. You have a maybe. Would you like to make a comment? Diane Hillman No , I don 't think so . Sue Poelvoorde A lot of shy people here tonight. Yeah. Well, we ' ll have time to talk, time to chat. Stan Koskinen. Did you? Can you . . . . Stan Koskinen Yeah. I don ' t walk too well . You ' ll have to bring the microphone to me. I can talk loud enough so you can hear me without it. Sue Poelvoorde We ' ll try to get the microphone over to you, or close enough. We ' ll start out with 5 minutes, Stan. Do you have more than that? Stan Koskinen How long do you want me to talk? Sue Poelvoorde Well, Stan, do you really want to know? No, we ' ll give you 5 minutes . Stan Koskinen I ' ve been a resident of this town since 1930 . I was a little kid when I came here. But anyway, I ' m considered a large land owner. And, the purpose of this meeting is to preserve farm land. Alright, why is there just two farmers in the whole dang room? I came up the hard way. I saved my money. Every piece of land that my wife and I had planned to own, we paid, we bought it. We didn ' t inherit it. And, I don ' t really want my land to be preserved for farm land. Because I can ' t retire on it. How would you like to have a 5 , 000-cow dairy farm within three miles of your place? You wouldn ' t like that. You can ask me questions if you want. I 'm not smart enough to speak. I ' ll state my opinion. Sue Poelvoorde This is a public hearing. We 're just here to listen to you, this is not a dialogue back and forth. Stan Koskinen Had enough yet? Sue Poelvoorde If you are done Stan, that ' s fine . If you have something else you would like to tell us that ' s fine. Stan Koskinen Most of the people in this room have had a good job some place and they get their retirement and insurance paid . My land, our land is our retirement and we can not sell it for agricultural purposes because the local farmers won ' t pay enough for it because they know how tough it is to make payments on land. Agricultural thing is in recession just like anything else. I ' ve been through one . I grew up as a little kid and this is, you haven 't seen anything yet. Wait until you ti 4 Public Hearing 6 Draft Comprehensive Plan 02/05/2009 see how this one is going to end up . All I know is what I read in the papers, and I don ' t believe any of it. I guess I said enough. • Sue Poelvoorde Thank you Stan. Don Ellis you are next. So , you might just as well take that microphone and continue. Don Ellis Well, I worked in the area of land use planning for a while, and saw quite a few land use plans for small municipalities, and I' ve got to say congratulations to all of you. This is really an exceptional job . I couldn ' t endorse it more. Very, very well done. I am particularly supportive of the mention and inclusion of area allocation as a method for managing subdivision. I hope in the future that zoning actions and zoning ordinance revisions can follow on from that little piece that is in the plan at this point. If there is one area that I wish there was more attention given to, which has received really none at all and very typically doesn' t in plans of this type so I ' m not criticizing anyone very much for it, is governance . We can plan our governance as well as our land subdivision and many other kinds of things ; it is really pretty well unaddressed. It ' s kind of a critical' time for small municipality governance . Right here in our own county there is a growing interest in returning to the old form of board of supervisors as opposed to legislature, which we have now. I would see that as a move away from a democratic and otherwise more efficient form of government than we currently experience . On a State level, home rule is being attacked extensively; and given the current economic situation the opportunity for those who would reduce home rule in New York State is larger than it has been in decades . Home rule is the form of governance where we have all these little municipalities . As confusing as they are, as difficult as it is to keep track of them when you live in them sometimes . Do you live in the town? Do you live in the village? Do you live in both? These kinds of things go around, people are plenty confused. But, I think in tough economic times what we 're going to see is a good deal of clamor for more efficiency in government and that will be addressed at reducing home rule, combining municipalities, combining this and so forth. If we measure efficiency in terms of dollars per something rather than in influence per citizen than the argument in hard economic times is a rough argument. But, I think this plan that we have before us right now is an excellent example of the second; that citizens have come together and the influence per citizen in the creation of this plan is really exceptional . And that ' s the kind of efficiency that I would support. Sue Poelvoorde Thank you Don. Next person wishing to speak is Greg Reynolds . Greg Scott Reynolds . Greg Scott Reynolds Stan, right, I really appreciate what you had to say. I can ' t tell you. Stan Koskinen I don' t know who you are, but you ' re an alright guy. Greg Scott Reynolds My grandmother would be proud of you because she used to sit on the planning board. Stan Koskinen I ' ve been on that before. Sue Poelvoorde Okay, you need to do your comment to the board. Greg Scott Reynolds I ' m just making my comments, because I agree with what he had to say. Those are my comments . She helped keep out mobile homes, which I think is a good thing. But, to affect people like you, Stan, is a bad thing. And, in these times we want to pass things on to our kids too . Stan Koskinen Well, the planning board has chased three of my kids away from here . There ' s only one left. t Public Hearing 7 Draft Comprehensive Plan 02/05/2009 Greg Scott Reynolds Yup , and I understand that too . That ' s important to me as part of my comments . But, I see this, there are some errors here folks and you ' ve done a good job and you ' ve worked really hard and I can ' t believe the amount of time you volunteered to do it away from your families . Family is very important to me . We ' ve been paying on this farm of 80 acres since 1931 and even before that if you include my uncles ' farms at 250 combined acres in the family representing 40 people . And to see it turned into Environmental Protection Area and Conservation Area, 100 percent of it, just tears me apart. How do I sell it when I lose my job? How do I sell off part of it? AAM doesn ' t really help me; not at all . It ' s got to be contiguous? But, it can' t be 100 percent contiguous . It ' s has to be stacked. Can ' t be along the road frontage, you have to have so much set aside. Then we ' ve got creeks that run for half a month out of twelve. They' re waterways . Right? Then we have our tax dollars going toward unique natural areas studies . Did those people come on my farm, trespass? And, then we have highly erodible land above 89, but not below 89? And then we have environmental protection area. It looks arbitrary. And I know you guys followed documents from other groups, so I 'm not aiming this at anybody, alright? And, I' m glad I ' m here now for the process for I hadn ' t been in the past because I chose to raise my kids here. Brought them in the back. I 'm trying to honor my roots and start a farm. This makes the year I ' ve had even tougher. It ' s been horrible, but it just doesn ' t feel good. It doesn' t say that my farm is going to be marketable if I need and when I need or if I will even sell part of it . And, my farm surrounds the Black Diamond Trail . I ' ve had a lot of concerns with that and I ' ve wrote publicly to Albany about that. And I did that on a Wednesday and on a Thursday I received comments back and I agreed to meet someone on a Saturday morning. That Saturday morning my whole buffalo herd was let out, and that person never showed up , never left a business card, never left a note at my door step . What am I to think about that? My comments become public and something bad happens to me . I was scared to be here, wasn ' t I Bob? Concerned about what ' s going to happen next. You know, I think the Black Diamond Trail is probably a really good thing and overall and I wrote that I ' m in support of it. But, to protect it versus my 40 members of the family and 250 acres and generations of tax paying people that paid on rural residential, not agriculture. That ' s a lot of tax dollars to pump into something that really is going to be used by a few. And I 'm not just talking about the Black Diamond Trail cuz nobody' s going to use my land but for trespassing. So, as a farmer I ' m going to have to put on some complementary agricultural stuff and I 'm going to have to use the New York State Ag and Markets Law to my fullest advantage to protect myself from EPA designation and Conservation Area designation. And I ' m very passionate about this . I think it ' s, you know it goes down to our bill of rights and what you should be able to with your own property and the use of your own property to provide for you family. And, I want to see some complementary development to go on, because we need jobs in this community. And, I need to be able to get a good start as a farmer. So I can not be run out like the rest of them. Right? And, this doesn ' t do it in my opinion and if I ' m wrong pull me aside and tell me so . I have open ears, I ' ll listen . You know, I just feel it, it just doesn ' t look good. I read through all 202 pages . That ' s what the pdf said anyways, and I tried to get a copy and I was refused one. So, I went and printed it myself at my own cost and I downloaded it at my own cost. But, I 'm just trying to do the best I can. I ' m respectful of my neighbors. To the north of me is my uncle, to the west of me is my other uncle . And then I have 89, which runs 100s of garbage trucks down it every day. So, that Cayuga Scenic Byway stuff when you are listening to a semi a half a mile away right on by with garbage flying out on the return trip or there, they don ' t always put tarps on. Doesn ' t call it the Scenic Byway to me. Okay. I call it the garbage highway, because I have to pick up after it. And now I ' m hoping that I don ' t have to pick up something in the middle of my property either, where trash is . And, I hoping that we kinda get smart on tax payer dollars as you said and start consolidating municipalities as was mentioned in here and the State has grants for that. Because Trumansburg, Ulysses, Town of Ithaca, Ithaca, Tompkins County there is just too much government right now. And we need to consolidate it. You know I watch one small plow go down my road pouring salt. Then I watch a bigger plow go down the road and put that salt in the same ditch, which ends up in Cayuga Lake. And I ' m wondering are we really looking after the watershed, or are we looking after trail . Okay? It just doesn ' t make sense . And if we are not going to make this purple area ` r i I j Public Hearing 8 Draft Comprehensive Plan 02/05/2009 just as highly erodible and it ' s steeper by the way, there ' s a problem there too . And if we ' re not going to take care of our culverts along the trail that a 1 ,000 or 100 metric tons of dirt flow into the lake all at once. My family discovered there was a trestle there in Glenwood Creek went for 80 years and never knew about it. That ' s crazy too . So, we can ' t even take care of what we have. And now we ' re trying to force it on the private lands owners when we publicly don ' t do a good job of taking care of it as well . Am I over? Sue Poelvoorde Yes . Greg Scott Reynolds Thanks. Sorry I got emotional, but it ' s really a personal thing for us because we ' re getting attacked on both sides as these agricultural land owners along here and we 're agriculture but paying rural residential taxes . And it ' s just being taken away from us one law and regulation at a time . Thank you. Sue Poelvoorde Thank you, Mr. Reynolds . Peter Cooke you have a question mark. Would you like to speak? Peter Cooke I guess no . Thank you. Sue Poelvoorde There ' s a voice in the hall . Well I don ' t have anyone else that ' s checked yes . Is there anyone that did not? Peter Houghton. Peter Houghton My name is Peter Houghton. My family dates back to the 1920s in the Town of Ulysses . I personally lived here from the 40 ' s until the mid 60 ' s. My brother has been here his whole life. I ' ve since returned . This is the first opportunity I ' ve had to look at these documents in the last half hour, but I do have three or four comments that I would like to pass on to the board. The first one would address what ' s in here as the, as the Environmental Protection Area. I feel you ' ve got some inconsistencies here . If you look at the document, the 200-page document, which I ' m disappointed there ' s not enough copies for each of us to have, I ' ve been looking at that briefly tonight. On page 93 is the Soils Map indicating the soil types in the Town of Ulysses . That soils map indicates that there are thousands of acres of prime agriculture property, land that ' s mapped east of the Dubois Road and east of the Willow Creek Road . Yet, you have this Environmental Protection Area going all the way up to the Dubois Road and the Willow Creek Road and that ' s highly inconsistent. You can ' t have prime agricultural land mapped below that, east of that and then call that an Environmental Protection Area. So, that needs to be addressed. The other thing in. the Environmental Protection Area description it talks about, the wording has the phrase as far as insuring development to be considerate of the natural character in and adjacent to that particular EPA zone. I don ' t see how you can indicate that you ' re going to control adjacent activity in a zone . It ' s either in the zone or it ' s out. It ' s like being pregnant, you are, or you aren ' t. You can ' t control it outside of the zone by including the term in and adjacent. So , I think that needs to be addressed too . I have comments on the Conservation Zone itself and I ' m sorry that the Bergmann people .weren ' t here . I don ' t understand why the Town spent thousands of dollars on the Bergmann Associate firm and there is not a representative with us tonight. But in any event, the Conservation Area, which is the crosshatched area, stops at the boundary of Taughannock Falls State Park. If there is any area in this town that has sharp, steep terrain, multiple streams, deep gorges and ravines, it ' s Taughannock State Park. I don' t understand why it is arbitrarily halted at the Taughannock State Park boundary. I realize zoning, when you get to, when this goes to the next iteration three levels from now, when it gets through the Town Planning Board, Town Board, and Zoning Board, and zoning comes up, obviously zoning restrictions don ' t apply on the State owned land . But, for land use purposes that Conservation Area should certainly extend all the way through the state park and in fact encompass most of Taughannock State Park if the description is as is indicated here steep and erodible soils, and ravines, and streams and steep terrain. So that to me is also inconsistent, that that isn' t zoned that way. Public Hearing 9 Draft Comprehensive Plan 02/05/2009 The third point I wish to make addresses the area that is called Lakeshore . I don ' t understand why there isn ' t an exception on the Lakeshore as far as a different color-coding for the Girl Scout camp . Obviously, I would think would fall in the same category as the State Park. The State Park you have the purple stops both north and south of the state park and the State Park intrudes all the way to the lake as a Natural Area/Parkland and I would think that the Girl Scout camp which has got some 4, 000 feet of lake frontage, would be accorded the same type of classification as the state park, because its obviously a non-profit. It doesn ' t pay taxes, etc . , etc . But, you ' ve got this purple running all the way through it and I don ' t, I think that ' s very inconsistent also . Lastly, the meeting, you made reference that comments, written comments can be made up through the 16th of February and will be taken into consideration at your February 19th meeting. Is that a public meeting? Sue Poelvoorde All of our meetings are public . Peter Houghton Is that here? Sue Poelvoorde Yes, we meet here at Town Hall . Peter Houghton 1 What day of the week is that? Sue Poelvoorde That ' s a Thursday evening, 7 : 00 p .m . Peter Houghton But that does not allow for public input? If public comes to that meeting, it ' s a working session of this committee. Sue Poelvoorde If the public attends, we would engage the public comment at the meeting. Peter Houghton You would engage the public? Sue Poelvoorde Sure . Peter Houghton Because I have had very little time, the hour or so • tonight to quickly look at this document and briefly look at the 200-page document. But, as little bit of background about myself I am retired. I was , I am a licensed engineer, with, my whole career was with the State Department of Transportation. So , I ' ve had a lot of involvement in these type of activities. Not necessarily in the Town of Ulysses, obviously, but in other endeavors throughout my career and I really. Will Bergmann Associates be available on February 19th? Sue Poelvoorde No . This is the Committee ' s meeting. What specifics do you have that you wanted to talk to them about? Peter Houghton In my experience with these types of endeavors throughout the State, and there are many of these that go on year after year in different communities ; the towns, the villages, the cities, etc . The consultant plays a role in pulling everything together into the document and I would think that, obviously, they don 't work free, we paid them a considerable sum I presume, to assist this committee in their development of this 200-page document and I would think that they would Public Hearing 10 Draft Comprehensive Plan 02/05/2009 be present to answer some inconsistencies if any come up as to how certain things got into the document or why certain things got omitted from the document. They are the ones who printed the document, correct? Part of their contract? Sue Poelvoorde Yes, they printed it. Peter Houghton They printed it. But, they will not be here on the 19th? Sue Poelvoorde No . Peter Houghton Okay. Elizabeth Thomas They will however, be here at the next hearing for the Town Board. There was a choice we had to make . We only contracted with them to be at so many meetings . So, there is one more hearing that the Town Board will have and they will be presenting then. We had to make a choice as to whether they would be at this one or that one. The date hasn' t been set for that one . Peter Houghton Well, I only attended one other meeting. Sue Poelvoorde We can continue this conversation after close of the public hearing. Peter Houghton I attended the meeting at the Racker Center about a year ago and someone was there. That was a very stormy night, and they wanted to get home quickly. Have they been to other meetings? Is that the only meeting they came too? Roxanne Marino No, they were at several other public meetings and several of our committee meetings . Peter Houghton But, not this one . Sue Poelvoorde No . Peter Houghton Thank you. Sue Poelvoorde Was there anyone else that wanted to make a comment that didn' t check the box when they came in? Lyle Gordon I didn' t check any boxes because I wasn' t sure . Sue Poelvoorde Okay. Lyle Gordon I have been at a number of the other meetings with Bergmann at the Racker Center and going through that process and this seems to fairly accurately reflect what I felt was the community input that was received at that time. So , basically I would agree with the plan. One of the things that I understand is that this, because there' s been a lot of discussion on the, this -protected area along the lakefront. My understanding is that there is nothing in this that would change the Public Hearing 11 Draft Comprehensive Plan 02/05 /2009 ability of people to continue to farm and use the land that they have in the manner in which they are using it now . And I would certainly hope that there is nothing in the plan, which does change that in any way. As far as the Conservation Area, it does seem to me to reflect, and I rather wish that it had some topographical lines on it so that we could see the break in the steepness of the slopes . Because it seems to me that is probably what this follows . Although, Dubois Road and Willow Creek they are more or less there, but that seems to be one area where it ' s following the road as opposed to what the actual contours lines are and maybe the contour lines does . And the Lakeshore area, as was pointed out, is an extremely steep area and in many areas steeper than the Conservation Area. And so, that should have as much protection, I would think, as the Conservation Area and again, as you say in the documents that ' s now mostly single-family residential . And so the zoning needs to reflect restrictions on any additional building or changes in those areas to protect the slopes and prevent even more erosion than we are getting now. Beyond that I just wanted to speak briefly about the area around Krums Corners Road. This already is an area where there are a number of businesses and things like that and while it certainly isn ' t up to the Town to decide exactly how things get developed . I mean you are not going to go out and purchase the property and build a store . For me at least, that would be a nice area since I live just up the road on Perry City. That would be a nice area to see a little more in the way of commercial some development, rather than having to go all the way into Jacksonville. Thank you. Sue Poelvoorde Thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to now feel inspired since other people have spoken. If not, I will close the public hearing. Peter Houghton Am I allowed to speak again? Did I use up all my five minutes? Sue Poelvoorde If you have something else that you would like to point out as an inaccuracy. Peter Houghton Again, I scribbled on this paper and I overlooked, on the Conservation Area there ' s terms that are very general and very, purposely I presume, non-specific . But, there are words that concern me. It says that the environmental sensitivity of this area demands establishing strong zoning regulations to guard again inappropriate development. Now appropriate that ' s a very general term. What ' s inappropriate to me, may be appropriate for you, vice versa. And to protect these resources that give the Town, blah, blah, blah. In order to implement protection of this area, the Town should consider, it doesn ' t say may consider it says should which is a strong term, a number of mechanisms including overlay zones . I don ' t know what an overlay zone is . To me if you are designating an area a Conservation Area, you ' ve established a zone and I don ' t know. There is nothing to overlay it with. I don ' t, I . Again, to me that is inconsistent. (Break in statement, while tape was changed) words that leave an awful lot to interpretation and I presume as it gets before the Town Board someone ' s got to start honing in and defining these, the intent of what these very general terms are . And certainly, specifically when you get to the zoning level it is going to be very pertinent that it ' s spelled out precisely what appropriate is and what inappropriate is and what overlay zoning is and all these other things . Thank you. Sue Poelvoorde Thank you, Peter. David Tyler Let me just say one thing. You were talking about coming to our meeting, which you are welcome to come to on the 19th . That is going to be a working session for this body. If you have something significant to say, you ' d be best to put it in writing because I don ' t think there will be a lot of time which to be allocated to just a discussion like we had here tonight . Public Hearing 12 Draft Comprehensive Plan 02/05/2009 Peter Houghton Well, between now and then it ' s going to be an attempt to get a hold of one of these 200-page documents. Obviously, these six pages is insufficient for me to give any kind of in depth comments, Hopefully, I can get a copy of this between now and then, with time to review it and a time to submit written comments . David Tyler That is preferable . Thank you. Sue Poelvoorde Anyone? Yes . Greg . Greg Scott Reynolds Yes, I apologize about earlier. But, I wanted to, Stan reminded me of something earlier. There ' s a group of people in the Town that are older and that have been farming for a long time. Some of them are one of the forty people I am here to represent and Stan would maybe in that category. When you ' re self-employed and you ' ve been a farmer since 1930 or in the family you didn ' t pay social security. Stan Koskinen No , No . It wasn ' t in the family. Greg Scott Reynolds Okay. But, I was talking about my family. My family started in 32 , Stan. You don ' t pay Social Security taxes . Okay so you don ' t have that for your retirement. What you did have, was something, on the back of the dollar bill it says "In God We Trust," other people trusted in land . And they want to sell that when they got older to fund their retirement, medical expenses, nursing homes, things that we shouldn ' t take for granted. Especially, for those people that have been in this Town for a long time . Thank you . Sue Poelvoorde Thank you. Okay, any other comments? Yes . Heinz Riederer I ' m Heinz Riederer. I live at Maplewood Point. Sue Poelvoorde Heinz, are you making a statement? Come to the . . . Heinz Reiderer No, just a quick comment. I am perhaps trying to get a little background on a statement . . (Audience member asks Heinz to use the microphone as they could not hear him. Someone else asks him to state his name again.) Heinz Reiderer I am Heinz Reiderer. I live on Maplewood. And, this is my first exposure to this document and I am somewhat curious and maybe I am presenting this as a question . In one section you indicate that between Taughannock State Park and the southern end of the town, which is all the lakefront, there is no public access and you say so exists as presently, at present . But, yet when you do the Lakeshore description you speak about actually making zoning available for some type of lakeshore access which possibly may be commercial not necessarily public park and you seem to direct some thought toward a public access, and A) I question that being in a comprehensive plan, because it presently does not exist. So , the question is why you put it in? It ' s not a present situation. And I would say I would certainly be opposed to any commercial development on the lake if that entire area is presently private land, single-family homes . So , I would like to have some response to that. What the thinking is . Sue Poelvoorde Anyone else like to make a comment? Public Hearing 13 Draft Comprehensive Plan 02/05/2009 Stan Koskinen I have to leave now, but my comment to the selected few that sit here have no constitution right to tell a private property owner what he can do with his property. Thank you. Sue Poelvoorde Thank you, Stan. If there are no other comments we will close the public hearing. I would like to thank you all for coming out tonight. Again, we will receive comments up to the close of business on February 16`" . I guess that ' s it and we will be here to talk to . Public hearing closed at 7 : 48 p. m. Transcribed by : Sue A. Poelvoorde, Chair, Town of Ulysses Comprehensive Plan Update Committee.