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HomeMy WebLinkAboutCAC Minutes - 06_11_19Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 1 of 8 Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes of monthly meeting on Tuesday, June 11, 2019 Danby Town Hall, 1830 Danby Road, Danby, New York Council Members present: Matt Ulinski (chair), Joel Gagnon, Clare Fewtrell, Don Schaufler, Ruth Sherman Council Members absent: Bill Evans Others present: Elizabeth Keokosky (secretary), Bob Beck (Dryden Conservation Board member and guest speaker), Ronda Roaring (Danby resident), John Czamanske (Town Planner), Jim Long (Danby resident), Leslie Connors (Town Board member), Mary Woodsen (Danby resident and former CAC member), Sarah Schnabel (Danby resident), Bill Keokosky (Danby resident), George Adams (prospective CAC member)??? Meeting opened at 7:03 pm Agenda Review (Additions or Deletions) No changes Public Comments/Privilege of the Floor (later referred to as PoF) Roaring thanked Bob Beck for coming Main Event Invited guest speaker, Bob Beck, a member and previous chair of the Dryden Conservation Board (CB), and director of the Rail Trail Task Force (RTTF), spoke to CAC about the Dryden CB and what the RTTF was doing. Chair Ulinski introduced Beck and told him that our group had just finished the Natural Resources Inventory and we were hoping to learn from Dryden experiences. Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 2 of 8 Beck began by saying he hoped this would be a discussion. He told group he had not been on the Dryden Conservation Advisory Council (CAC) in 2003 – 2005 when they created the Open Space Inventory (see http://dryden.ny.us/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Open-Space- Inventory-2003.pdf). He joined in 2008 when they were a board and listed some of the products the board had produced (these documents are available on their website) • Methods and Criteria for land protection and Acquisition produced by a subcommittee what properties that town should consider – has a checklist - town doesn’t own many properties, but has many easements (none held by the town as of yet). • Developing a plan for easements. Developers must set aside some green space. CB does annual monitoring (form will be available online). Based on Finger Lakes Land Trust (FLLT). (Beck was a founding board member of FLLT in 80s and its first executive director) • Parks and Trail maintenance guidelines written originally for 5 mile Jim Schug trail – worried about too much ditching and too much tree cut backs. Consider trails linear parks and road crews sometimes don’t think of them that way. Department of Public Works (DPW) maintains it. • In 2015 extended Dryden rail trail. Connects Jim Schug trail to Freeville, Varna, and all the way to Ithaca. Worked with Cornell Design Connect. Dryden established a Rail Trail Task Force for the 10 ½ mile new trail. It will connect with East Ithaca trail at Game Farm Road - includes coordination with 4 towns and county. Now in 4th year – succeeding because of teamwork of diverse people with diverse skills. PoF: Roaring asked should the Trail proposed to be built through Caroline and Danby (South Hill recreation way extension?) use a similar method? Beck’s response was that it is possible. He noted that it also goes through four towns (Caroline, Danby, Dryden, Ithaca) and involves the county. PoF: Keokosky asked how many people served on the Dryden CAC? Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 3 of 8 Beck replied he wasn’t directly involved back then but the CB has 4-6 long-term members, a few people come and go. Trouble getting sufficient volunteers, but over all, has a good core group. Also have a liaison from town board and a liaison from planning board and should have liaisons from other committees. Asked how often do they meet. Beck replied that the Dryden CB meets monthly on last Tuesday at 7pm – open to public and sometimes invites a guest speaker. PoF: Keokosky(sec.) asked what specifics make the trail creation so complicated? Beck explained that the main problem was getting easements: In 1982 Dryden didn’t take opportunity to buy railroad bed but did acquire sewer and water easements for future development. When they started contacting people the route consisted of 48 land parcels, with 38 different owners. Originally neither DEC on Game Farm Rd. nor George Jr. Republic was interested. Many different people on team reached out to various land owners. Bruno Schickel (local construction owner) was a big help. Beck’s past experience with land trusts was very helpful. Reached out to grant writers: John Keifer (retired Senior Director of Facilities Management at Cornell), Todd Bittner. (Director of Natural Areas at Cornell Botanic Gardens), AARP grant for kiosks and benches. Got some money from Cornell, donations from a gravel pit (eventually going to make it a stone dust surface – very smooth). Got a DOT grant last summer for 1.5 million dollars to build a walking bridge over Route 13. Took 8 months to learn grant was successful. Had a big celebration for public outreach and publicity when George Jr. Republic agreed to easement and work was completed in that area. Continuing on Dryden CB accomplishments, Beck went on to list: • Dryden-Natural Resources Conservation Plan-Final-11-16-2017 part of town’s effort for new comprehensive plan. Ag Committee contributed an Agriculture Plan. Recreation Committee also contributed. These were combined. Didn’t have an outside consultant for but liberally borrowed from other plans. Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 4 of 8 • Concern of deer management – Cornell professor and DEC representative spoke, also 3 hunters at different meetings. This prompted consideration of a landowner database of people who want to encourage hunting on their land. • Just finished a Natural Resources Inventory working with Cornell Cooperative Extension support using county data made specific for Dryden. Done to get points for being a “Smart Community” to possibly get funding. The Natural Resources Inventory complements the Natural Resources Plan done previously. PoF:Roaring asked how Natural Resources Plan differs from Inventory and Beck explained the plan has priorities, goals and criteria on reaching goals, the other is an inventory database. Ulinski asked Beck about the difference between The Open Space Inventory – done earlier in Dryden, a DEC requirement to transition from a CAC to a CB - and the Natural Resources Inventory just completed in Danby. Is Natural Resources Inventory the same? Beck didn’t think so. (After-note: This link indicates that OSI could be extracted from NRI. See https://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/remediation_hudson_pdf/cacfsheet.pdf ) Draft rules for Small Wind Energy Conversion Systems v4 Plan for Small scale Wind Energy Conversion systems – provide basis for Town Board ordinance. Gagnon asked: What about photovoltaic? Beck said the town was in process of approving large solar farms and that CB was not actively involved in that. Joel: Dryden has more transmission lines than Danby. Ulinski: Did SEQR process for solar involve CB input? Beck responded a consultant was hired – but yes CB looked at biology components – some public controversy was involved . As far as biology or critical habitats CB saw no reason to object. The controversial topic for CB was assignment of Critical Environmental Areas (CEAs) – (town defines them, DEC approves them – not legally binding, but SEQR review had to give them a little more attention) . Dryden CB started with a unique natural area and Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 5 of 8 put a buffer around it. The lesson learned was the strong public reaction this generated. Town board had CB back off. Project was abandoned. It is not the same everywhere - at least one town in the state includes almost the whole town as a CEA (it was mostly agricultural). PoF:Keokosky(sec.): what was their main complaint? Fear of regulation, precluding development. This generated discussion around impact of CEAs: Gagnon: We’ve talked about that in Danby, and got sort of half way there - looking at UNAs and whether their boundaries should be adjusted, making a short list of potential regulations that would be put in place in addition to normal review. But it hasn’t gone forward beyond that. Beck responded that Dryden had no intention of turning them into ordinances; their intent was that SEQR review should give all the important factors proper consideration. But that scared a lot of people. Beck said he grew up on a dairy farm and he understands about landowners worried about regulations and government over- reach, but as a trained biologist he cares deeply about natural areas and he’s seen important environmental features disappear. PoF:Czamanske contributed the information that, for SEQR, areas with CEA require long environmental form vs short form. Not an impact statement. Ulinkski: No legal entity required other than landowner? No. PoF:Audience-member: Will it be a charge to Danby CB to identify critical environmental areas? Is that how it worked in Dryden? Ulinski: We could do that as a CAC too. Don’t need to be a CB – we could probably even do that in our production of Open Space Inventory - just putting together information but with no authority to do anything with it. Gagnon: We’ve already done some of that in conjunction with anti- fracking efforts. Ulinski: Did anti -fracking info got into NRI? Yes, it did. Beck noted that the Dryden CB is sometimes tasked by town board but also can take the initiative, yet there is concern from town lawyers that they shouldn’t be doing anything on their own. Ulinski responded that our CAC has a charge and it has some fairly broad statements to look into conservation and environmental issues. Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 6 of 8 PoF:Keokosky (Sec.) what is the basis of recommendation to planning board when a new developer wants to build. Beck’s answer was look at environmental and habitat. Question continued: Then what does CEA give you in addition? PoF:Czamanske responded and corrected himself. Said long form needed Only for Type 1 actions ( https://www.dec.ny.gov/permits/6203.html defines Type I and Type II actions). The DEC is not involved directly but a CEA is added to their list for record keeping while a UNA is not. Automatically filled in on long form. After-note: See 6 CRR-NY 617.14 and 6 CRR-NY 617.7 for requirements for CEA designation and requirements for determining whether a proposed Type I or Unlisted action may have a significant adverse impact on the environment. https://govt.westlaw.com/nycrr/Document/I4ec3ce77cd1711dda432a1 17e6e0f345?viewType=FullText&originationContext=documenttoc&tr ansitionType=CategoryPageItem&contextData=(sc.Default) https://govt.westlaw.com/nycrr/Document/I4ec3ce62cd1711dda432a1 17e6e0f345?viewType=FullText&originationContext=documenttoc&tr ansitionType=CategoryPageItem&contextData=(sc.Default)&bhcp=1 Beck noted that DEC also knows about Tompkins County UNAs which twice received state-wide awards for its Unique Natural Area inventory. Beck was involved in creating that. Open to discussion: Schaufler – what goals are there in Dryden Natural Resources Plan – are they general or specific. Beck responded they were more general. Recommendations and proposed actions – not measurable. PoF:Roaring what role will CB play in developing Dryden comprehensive plan review? Beck said that CB contribution was Natural Resources Plan. Town wants to hire a consultant. PoF: Roaring: One of the concerns of the Danby CAC was that becoming a board would create a lot more work for them. Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 7 of 8 Beck said not really. Depends – shouldn’t be a big concern. Board can define its focus and set aside other pressures. PoF:Keokosky(Sec) Danby CAC is already doing easements and being a CB would add environmental research and advice responsibilities. Beck said that Dryden is just starting to do easements. His concern with easements was when owner changes who can you sit down with in the future to discuss potential problems, thinking in terms of developers. Gagnon noted that easement goes with land. Beck not sure that town has an understanding of that. Ulinski said that most easement properties that Danby has are for individual property preservation. PoF: Roaring: we need to do annual inspections. Ulinski: we are in the other end of spectrum and have the ground work done but are working on follow-up. PoF:Keokosky asked what a resident can do if they see new or unusual animals on the property. PoF:Connors – should be recorded- reported to CAC and/or county to update inventory PoF:Roaring – What Beck did with Malleryville Bog was a story of preservation Beck told story of bog which was party of his property and one of four top natural areas in county. Beck stopped gravel company from building near there. Got Hydrologist involved SEQR process where DEC was lead agency. Beck provided the data to save the area which he then made into a preserve. Ulinski thanked Beck for coming and room gave him resounded applause. Approve Minutes MOTION for Draft May 14, 2019 minutes Gagnon moved to approve Sherman Seconded Unanimous approval Updates Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 8 of 8 1. Meeting at town hall to walk Sylvan Lane property on Friday, June 14. Meet at Town Hall at 10:45. Schaufler will bring van. 2. Ulinski inviting Gretchen Salm, Land Conservation Support Specialist from Finger Lakes Land Trust to speak at CAC meeting at future date. 3. Update on working with Highway Department class with Partnership for Regional Invasive Species Management (PRISM ) – Ulinski talking with Highway Department on Friday. Sherman concerned that we pin down a date. Highway Department may need continual training as new invasive species appear. Next Meeting is on July 9 at 7p.m. Adjournment The meeting ended at 8:30 p.m. _____________________________________________ Submitted by Elizabeth Keokosky (Secretary)