HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-07-11-STB Special Town Board Meeting 1
July 11, 2013
Town of Ulysses
Special Town Board Meeting
July 11 , 2013
Present : Supervisor Elizabeth Thomas ; Councilpersons Lucia Tyler, Nancy Zahler, David
Kerness, and Environmental Planner Darby Kiley ;
Absent : Councilman Kevin Romer and Town Clerk Marsha Georgia
Others Present : Louise Terry, Barbara & Carl West, Susan Ettinger, Pete & Doris Houghton,
Mike & Dale Strok, Heinz Riederer, K. Avery, Carolyn McGory, Don Wilson, Jack & Diane
Fallenstein, Stephen Coats, Rod Hawks, Gail & Richard Mott, Chris Hamilton, Laurie Murray,
Mary Shoemaker, Rocco Lucente, Nancy Cool , Beth Prentice,
H . Matthys VanCort and Amy & Ben
Supervisor Thomas opened the Special meeting at 7 p .m . She said that there will be "privilege
of floor" at the end of the meeting . There are a few copies of the draft that have the changes
from the last meeting of July 9t", 2013 . (Copies available in the Clerk' s office . )
The Board reviewed the draft Lakeshore Zoning and made changes and corrections which will be
added or deleted from the current draft.
* * Due to the absence of the Town Clerk only the audio tapes will be available on line at :
http ://www.ulysses .ny. us/council/tbmeetings/
Jack Lewis asked a question of Ms. Kiley about the 150 ' /250 ' acreage requirement. Also he
thinks that it would be much safer to have a permanent boat ramp as a removable one like the
zoning proposes .
Ms. Kiley explained.
The Board noted his comments .
Rocco Lucente
Hello, my name is Rocco Lucente ; I am the chairman of the Town of Ulysses Republican Party .
Often when the idea that government is using bullying tactics is brought up in political discourse
it will refer to a misrepresentation or stonewalling of public opinion by a federal or state
government. It is not often that these things happen in local government, but in the lakeshore
zoning I can see clear examples of these things occurring .
By far the most damning offense committed by this town board is the use of this lakeshore
survey as a barometer of public opinion on the lake . Having the West Shore Housing
Association, which was partially organized by David Kerness, release a survey and calling it
unbiased is absurd. That isn ' t to say the WSHA doesn ' t do some good things , I like the fact that
they have begun exploring the Trumansburg sewer issue , but the fact remains that they are a
biased group . The ULA has a bias as well , they were formed to oppose this zoning, but nobody
world expect the town to take a ULA commissioned survey as an unbiased representation of
public opinion in the way that the town has tried with the WSHA survey. I would point out to
you that the survey had only 36 respondents, compared to the 97 members of the ULA . This is
very interesting to me, as my household never received a copy of the survey; despite the towns
websites claim that there was a survey sent to all 177 parcels on the lake . I do not know if there
are others who did not receive the survey, but I cannot imagine I am the only one .
Some may be hesitant to call this for what it is, but this survey was a deliberate attempt by the
town board to make it seem as if public opinion is in favor of zoning when it is clearly not.
Though the town board was not directly involved, using the WSHA ' s survey clearly
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demonstrates their bias on the subject. This is a survey done by a group which has a vested
interest in passing the towns plan. It really is not difficult to read between the lines . This is not a
new tactic or one exclusive to this town board, the misrepresentation of public opinion via biased
surveys is a standard political tactic . But it is a shameful tactic . The only way to make this right
is to table this legislation immediately. If you decide you must go ahead with lakeshore zoning, I
would submit that you must have the approval of the majority of residents before pushing
forward with any plan. Failure to do so will result in a town with dwindling confidence in a
town board who fails to respect their opinions or their rights .
Mr. Kerness commented on a survey taken by the Town.
Ms. Thomas said that there is a lot of data that Ms . Kiley has used .
Beth Prentice said she realizes what a hard job the Board has and she is so please that there will
be special document for grandfathering. Ms . Prentice asked about neighbor ' s property and said
that others should be thinking about their property being non-conforming . Ms . Prentice
disagrees that density is the primary issue . She believes that density controlled is fine but septic
and erosion is a concern.
Cheryl McCann does not see the point creating new zoning and creating more non-conforming
properties .
Louise Terry asked the following questions :
1 . Re : Section 9 . 2 in the July 9, 2013 Lakeshore District revised Draft
A definition of what constitutes "altered" is needed for clarification. For example, if an owner
wishes to simply replace windows in an existing cottage or home with new energy-efficient
windows, is that considered " altered " ? What constitutes an " alteration" under this proposal?
There was no clear consensus among Board members and staff at the July 11 meeting, pointing
up the importance of clarifying this for all parties .
2 . Is the application for Home Rule for Town of Ulysses pursuant to 46-a of the NYS
Navigation Law still active and potentially in play? If Ulysses takes on this responsibility from
the State, exactly what will the new requirements be on the Town in terms of equipment (boats,
etc . ), training, new staff and benefits, insurance? How large is the annual budget impact to take
on this additional workload and responsibility ?? What is the rationale to justify the additional
cost of this action to the taxpayers in the Town?
3 . What is the size and cost of the additional workload for the Town to enforce the new
Lakeshore Zoning if passed - personnel, training, benefits, etc . ?
4 . Are these additional costs of government for the Town of Ulysses for items 2 & 3
above included in the 2013 -2014 budgets and how specifically does that additional cost translate
to the tax rates in the Town?
I look forward to having answers to these questions available at the July 23 , 2013 Town Board
meeting .
H. Matthys VanCort commented on the lakeshore frontage requirements and if it remains 250 '
only the very wealthy can afford to buy lots .
Laurie Murray
This lakeshore zoning plan has absolutely no respect for people ' s basic property rights . From
new laws restricting lot sizes to a law preventing somebody from cutting down a tree on their
own land without the towns permission, it makes you wonder if this town board has any respect
for the balance which must be obtained between rights and laws . This zoning plan sets the
precedent for the complete control over our land by the town board, and I think it ' s a travesty
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that you believe you know better how to manage our land then do the property owners of the
town . Zoning is a process that was meant to keep the porn shop off Main Street and to keep the
factory out of a residential neighborhood , it was never a process meant to grant a town board
power to exercise centralized control over an entire area of the town. To try to fit the character
of the lake to your vision assumes that your vision is superior to the status quo . That notion is
roundly disproven by the ULA membership .
I have seen the town continue to push this through despite the mass disapproval of the majority
of lakeshore residents . It makes me wonder if the concept of representative government has been
lost on certain members of this town board . 97 ULA members, representing over half of the
parcels on the lake, disagree strongly with what you are trying to push. When you are enacting
zoning you must have the approval of the majority of residents, anything less is pushing an
unwanted agenda on the people of this town. If this town board pushes this through they will
lose the consent of the people they claim to represent and see the residents of the lakeshore
become disillusioned with their government.
There is no reasonable solution to the lakeshore zoning problem other than for this plan to be
immediately abandoned . Quite frankly, there are a million issues of greater importance that you
could be focusing on right now. Instead of enacting legislation which takes away people ' s rights
and makes it difficult to improve your property you should begin to focus on legislation that
enables property owners to improve their property with ease by giving them the right to do so . I
strongly call for the repeal of this plan . Thank you.
Lawrence McCann
This statement is to express our opposition to this undemocratic process, in the proposed re- zoning
of the Lakeshore District, currently being rushed forward by a small controlling minority. To list a
few reasons for this opposition :
Preferential Spot Zoning
Preferential Spot Zoning changes the character of one small area of Ulysses, adversely affecting
the landowners/taxpayers while benefiting a small self- interested contingent. It is the anti-thesis of
a democratic government.
Disproportionate effects upon a small minority of Property Owners
Spot Zoning benefits only the applicant. The Town Board and Planning Board are charged with
upholding the laws and regulations ofUlysses for the benefit ofthe town' s community . The only
entity that benefits is a small contingent. In contrast, the value ofthe adj acent properties declines.
No small group deserves apreferential re-zoning fortheir benefit atthe significant expense of all
others in that community .
Our viewpoint is heavily weighted by our lifetime as conservationists and as an engineer and artist
in the community, as resident of Tompkins County and Ulysses for 18years and 15 years
respectively . A resident, owner and taxpayer have the right to be treated ethically, fairly and
equally . None of which are occurring in this vague, secretive process .
There is no good reason to seize our property rights, based upon factual errors, misstatements and
misrepresentation . We urge the members of the Town Board to issue a recommendation to deny
this process . We further request that a survey that does in fact " include all landowners of the
lakeshore" (which the WSHA has misrepresented repeatedly throughout) be instituted .
Tuesday night, 7/09/ 13 , and tonight, 7/ 11 / 13 , the Town Board discussed changing the
recommendation of their supermajority controlled and appointed Ad Hoc Committee and now is
trying, under the guise of conservation, to change the recommended and current 2 acre zoning. It is
now in the draft to decrease to 1 acre lots, along the lakeshore, with the plan to reduce from 250 ft.
of lakefront to 100 ft. While in the non- lakeshore, i . e . just feet away, setbacks have been increased
to an impossible 75 ft. without discussion and the minimum lot size is increased to 5 acres from 2 .
Again without debate or rationale . 250% of the current zoning, while along the lakeshore you have
passed a 250% reduction of the current and recommended zoning. Inorder to preserve the lakeshore
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environment?
While taxes rise and the expense of every step of living with a reasonable footprint increases to
unaffordability. Because of these zoning restrictions, the character of the lakeshore changes, forcing
out all but the rich and the Maybe, "grandfathered" . The Town Board has not fairly addressed these
and many, many other issues . The Ulysses Public Hearing of2012 made it clear that the residents
did not support reducing the zoning from 2 to lacre, while increasing adjacent land from 2 to 5 .
Your self-appointed Ad Hoc Committee deliberated for much of the year to conclude that was not
proper. Yet tonight, in a few short minutes you have gone against everything .
We also wish to state that we have repeatedly been unduly excluded from participation inthis
process, in multiple ways, which is a violation of New York State Open meeting Law.
Slow the process, deliberate with facts and democratic input. What is the hurry?
Peter Houghton
Mr. Houghton said he would send specific questions to Ms . Kiley on the setbacks. Two general
observations ; a lot of data compiled and referenced as supporting documentation from all over
and was not looking at Cayuga Lake nor Seneca Lake and those are the lakes the Army Corps of
Engineers are involved with. We already have state and federal controls on Cayuga and Seneca
lakes. He researched for himself what the neighbors are doing on Cayuga and Seneca lakes .
Called Towns of Covert, Lodi, Ovid, Romulus, which are immediately adjacent to Ulysses ; they
do nothing with Lakeshore Zoning. He sees no reason to impose additional regulations
Heinz Riederer
We note that Section 9 . 7 prohibits any parking within 50 feet of the MWHE or Mean High Water
Elevation which is defined as 383 . 5 feet above mean sea level . This seems particularly onerous
to elderly people whose homes are near the Lake and who have a need for parking near their
homes . Is there any indication that this has been a problem? Why was this done?
Doris Houghton most dwellings are non-conforming; we would like to have remodeled but
before all this happened. You are focusing on the minutiae ; why not focus on sewage control
that goes into Cayuga Lake from other sources than residents ; there are a whole lot more
important things . A big issue also is the grandfathering .
Nancy Zahler clarified that Ms . Kiley is not making things up she is citing what exists . We plan
to work on the re-writing and clarifying grandfathering .
Peter Houghton said you have been involved with this for years and still don ' t understand the
current grandfathering; seems like you have problems within your organization .
Hearing no further business Ms . Thomas adjourned the meeting at 9 : 40 p. m . .
Respectfully submitted,
Marsha L . Georgia
Ulysses Town Clerk