HomeMy WebLinkAboutCAC Minutes - 05_12_20Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 1 of 10
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council (CAC)
Minutes of Video Conference (Zoom) Meeting on
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Danby, New York
Council Members present: Clare Fewtrell (chair), Joel Gagnon, Don
Schaufler, Mary Woodsen, Ruth Sherman, Katharine Hunter, George
Adams
Council Members absent: Jonathan Zisk
Others present: Jason Haremza (Town Planner), Ronda Roaring (Danby
resident),
Zoom Meeting was called to order at 7:04
Deletions or Additions to Agenda
Fewtrell moved Agenda items 1 (Easement Signs) and 3 (CAC Column in
Danby Area News) to later in the meeting since Hunter (DAN article) and
Adams (his partner, Camille, was working on sign design) were not present
at the start of the meeting.
Privilege of the Floor - None
Approve Minutes MOTION for April 14, 2020
Gagnon moved to approve
Sherman seconded
Unanimous approval, no abstentions
REPORTS AND UPDATES
1) Management Plans for the Town-Owned Properties - Water
District (from now on referred to as Sylvan Lane property) and
Deputron Hollow Rd.
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Plan writing came to a temporary standstill since Roaring, who had
volunteered to write them, felt there were issues still needing to be
resolved (that she had previously listed in an email) before she could
continue. Fewtrell directed her to write a draft and Roaring backed
off since she did not want to redo it if CAC didn’t approve. Schaufler
advised her just to proceed with a description pulled from material
they had gotten before under previous chair, Matt Ulinski, as a
starting point, which Roaring said she had done, but still wanted
some assurance CAC members approved of her ideas in her
previous email.
Haremza asked if there was a management template being used, and
Schaufler replied there was one from Soil and Water, another from
the DEC. He agreed with Roaring, saying that there were still
management questions about invasive species and deer issues that
needed to be resolved. Haremza said we need to fill in the missing
gaps, and he would get Roaring the info on slope maps that she had
requested.
Fewtrell concluded by saying management actions would be
discussed at June meeting and asked Roaring to send CAC
members description of Danby properties and outline of what needs
to be discussed.
2) Logging Ordinance – George Adams (not present at this point
yet) and Don Schaufler
Fewtrell asked Schaufler to resurrect and chair the old logging
ordinance committee (it used to consist of Don Schaufler, Matt
Ulinski, Scott Davis, and George Adams) to bring to a resolution a
discussion begun last year on municipal preparedness and response
to poor logging practices (after-note: prompted from the Deputron
Hollow Rd logging shambles affecting road and water ways during a
thaw of early 2019)
3) Planning Group and sub-Working Groups – Joel Gagnon – see
meeting notes on P.G. website (finding out what this is from
Joel)
Conservation Working Group
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Using 3 maps to set conservation priorities. Looking for what was not
identified by previous canvasing, what was not identified by the
current maps (i.e. agricultural land was not identified on the basis of
their suitability for agriculture; geography/topography was not
identified on basis of connectivity or riparian habitat; aquifer
protection areas were left out - recharge areas in particular, such as
wellhead for Danby water district). A new round of maps that
Haremza is building will include these.
What is it about these things that we are trying to conserve?
What tools are needed to do it? Which are best suited to particular
areas?
Tax abatement working group.
The group came to an agreement on a way to approach the difficulty
that large landholders are having paying their rapidly-rising taxes.
Being forced to sell is not in the interest of open space. Using the
example of several other towns in NY, the group came up with a
proposal for the Town Board to go to the State Legislature for
permission to make a new local law allowing property tax abatement
when conservation easements are granted. This would contain
options for both permanent and temporary easements (with
decreasing tax deductions for shorter easement periods). Although
some people in the CAC felt this would defeat the long-term purpose
of an easement the rationale is to overcome the reluctance people
felt with a permanent commitment of their land to being undeveloped.
In addition to the classes already in the model, the tax group added
another class of 5 to 15 years and also an additional 9% decrease in
taxes for various forms of public access. This proposal was endorsed
by the Planning Group and went to Town Board for consideration.
Fewtrell wanted the CAC to talk about it at our next meeting. She is
not happy about the 5 year class. Gagnon said that there was no
rush. Barbara Lifton is not sure the State Assembly will be convening
at all this summer. The proposal can be thoroughly vetted and the
Planning Board will be looking at it next. Gagnon will be writing
about the proposal for the Danby Area News.
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 4 of 10
4) Review of Danby Easement Process – Joel Gagnon presented a
history and an explanation of Easement document
Danby’s most recent Comprehensive Plan was a standout model for
its time – written in 2003 Sarah Newman, head of Planning Board at
the time, produced document
• Following its passage, an Implementation Task Force was put
together (which Gagnon chaired)
• Crystal Buck – Tompkins County Planning Department Circuit
Rider helped support this group
• An early focus was on identifying tools for preserving
undeveloped land
• Town held a charrette – 60-80 people attended and one
conclusion was that, though there were existing regulatory
options, such as zoning, there were no voluntary options for
preserving open space.
• As a result the Conservation Advisory Council was created in
2010 as the main avenue for addressing voluntary ways to
preserve space. (see Danby Resolution 82 authorized creation
of Conservation Advisory Council (CAC)
http://danbyny.org/Documents/TOWNBOARD_RESOLUTION_2010082.pdf )
• NY Law Sec 239 states that the town can create CAC by town
resolution – Key was that, in addition to statutory minimum
requirements, town board could write in its own goals. So in
the resolution the town added the identified ways of promoting
conservation preservation by voluntary means. a.-f. are all the
standard things; the next page “In addition” list these extra
options.
(g) focus its preservation efforts on land it deems to be at risk of
development located in areas zoned for low density or
conservation;
(h) develop a list of scenic or historic sites to protect as
opportunities allow; lobby on issues relating to the council's
duties and goals;
(j) actively support open space protection by facilitating the
transfer of land from sellers to buyers sympathetic to open
space preservation;
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 5 of 10
(k) accept by gift, grant, bequest, or otherwise, money or other
personal property in the name of the Town of Danby, for its use
in furtherance of the objectives of this resolution;
(l) propose, subject to Town Board action, the acceptance by
gift, conditional or unconditional, grant, devise or otherwise, the
fee or any lesser interest, development right, easement,
covenant or other contractual right, including conveyance with
limitations or reversions, land, in furtherance of natural resource
protection within the Town of Danby;
(m) recommend acquisition by the Town Board by purchase in
fee or any lesser interest, development right, easement,
covenant or other contractual right, including conveyance with
limitations or reversions, by negotiation or condemnation, such
real or personal property as may be needed in furtherance of
the purposes of the Council;
(n) pursuant to (l) and (m), administer a conservation easement
program on behalf of the Town, to include the crafting,
acquisition, and monitoring of easements, both purchased and
donated, with the acquisition being subject to Town Board
approval of each proposed easement.
(o) develop and implement management plans for Town-owned
conservation land. At a minimum, the plan for each parcel or
group of contiguous parcels shall identify and set forth the
features of the property to be preserved and/or enhanced, the
features that can be compatibly exploited for public benefit, and
the actions needed or desired in order to do so, complete with a
schedule of steps to be taken.
For conservation properties owned by the Town at the time of
creation of the Council, the Council shall create management
plans within three years. For newly-acquired properties, the
Council shall create management plans within two years. For
each management unit, an opportunity for public comment shall
precede adoption of the unit’s management plan by the Town
Board, with adoption required before implementation by the
CAC.
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The management plans for every management unit, once
adopted by the Town Board, shall be reviewed by the council
every five years. Progress, via the specified implementation
steps, toward the adopted goals, shall be carefully scrutinized.
The public, particularly the neighbors of the management unit,
should be encouraged to participate in the review.
The Council may propose changes to a management plan,
subsequent to its periodic review; these changes must be
approved by the Town Board before the Council can implement
them.
(p) for land acquired by the Town for conservation not protected
by conservation easement at the time of acquisition, prepare an
easement for Town Board review and possible adoption.
Gagnon went on to explain some of Danby conservation easement
history and goals, and gave a step-by-step review of conservation
easement template created in response to n) charge above.
He noted that acceptance of easement is a town board action; CAC is
only advisory to town board.
• It took the CAC 2 years to define scope and framework of
Easement. The group looked at several templates, including
that of the Finger Lakes Land Trust (FLLT), ultimately deciding
that our template could provide for just 3 possible land use
zones.
• The goal was to acquire development rights to help minimize
open space development. To accomplish this the CAC
produced a “plain vanilla” easement, which is minimally
restrictive. The restrictions are primarily to prevent permanent
degradation of the land resource, since unlike the FLLT, the
town lacks the resources to enforce additional restrictions.
Since the main purpose of Danby easements is to protect open
space they are well positioned to stand the test of time and
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 7 of 10
less difficult to monitor and enforce. Danby’s easements are
oriented differently from the FLLT’s – and more inclusive of
ordinary places.
• Since an easement can be eliminated by court action if the
purpose of the easement no longer exists, a more basic and
minimal easement approach avoids that hazard. The CAC
worked with the town attorney, Guy Krogh, who produced the
original draft.
• CAC outreach – 1st pass – sent letter to 30 largest landowners:
not effective. Probably a good thing since it could have
precipitated more work than fledgling committee could have
handled.
• 1st Easement was with Art Hanson, for a property on Sandbank
Rd., which was subsequently sold to Steve Selin and became
South Hill Cidery.
Conservation Easement comments and summary (see
https://towndanby.digitaltowpath.org:10768/content/Boards/View/4:fiel
d=documents;/content/Documents/File/87.pdf for a copy of
easement template)
• The process of creating an easement begins with a site visit to
the property for baseline documentation. One reason for this is
to avoid acquiring liabilities (e.g. buried tanks of toxic waste)
• A legal description of the property is needed – the “metes and
bounds”. Then, take stock of what’s there of conservation
value. Look for natural values of the property, as well as rare or
exceptional values
• This “baseline” serves as basis for monitoring and compliance
• Next step is to determine which of the “zones” within the
template apply to the property (“residential and active use”,
“agriculture and forest management”, and “environmental
protection”) – negotiating with owner as to which parts of
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 8 of 10
property s(he) wants to put in each zone category. These
zones are from least to most restrictive.
Generally
o Owner can retain some rights to develop (provision can
be made for a building envelope – for a future new
building), or a section of land could be left out of the
easement entirely.
o Easement can’t be subdivided – although the ownership
can change – but provision can be made when the
easement is being drafted to divide property, but
monitoring becomes more complicated. Such a provision
for subdivision can be worded so that the right will expire
after a set time if the right is not used.
o No public access allowed by default – could destroy or
impair conservation values previously identified.
o Prohibits vehicles except those used for access
o In “residential and active use” zone there is a house
limitation -- it can only be made 50% larger (though there
is an escape clause for exigencies – such as necessity to
house parents). Can do usual things that happen around
a residence
o In “agriculture and forest management” zone – advises
use of best management practices – for instance avoid
actions that alter the topography, but can’t enforce
specific practices, such as use only organic methods.
o In “environmental protection” zone – strictest rules apply
that do not allow degradation by any user
• “Article I: Conservation Purposes and Property Description” and
“Article II: Allowed and Prohibited Uses and Rules for Use Zones”
are the “meat” of the easement agreement; the rest of the
template is how easement is enforced and other legal “boilerplate”,
such as how the town is compensated should the easement be
removed by a court, no guarantee of tax benefits, etc.
• Legal review: Two attorneys (donor’s and town’s) generally review
it, and a title search is done. A survey might be needed. Any
mortgage needs to be subordinated to the easement.
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• The value of the gift of the development rights needs to be
appraised if the owner is interested in claiming a federal income
tax deduction (which deduction has recently been disallowed by
the IRS for New York State conservation easements). The
appraisal needs to be done within a 60-day window on either side
of the signing of the easement by the donor and the town.
• The CAC refers the completed easement to Town Board, which
has a public hearing. If approved, the Town Supervisor signs it. It
is filed with the DEC and the County Clerk’s office, (as well as kept
in Danby Town Hall files).
• Note on Schedules – meant to elaborate on basic easement
wording:
o Schedule A property description
o Schedule B baseline documentation
o Schedule C use zones
• Annual monitoring uses baseline documentation,
5) New Easements
• Woodsen reported on her progress (or lack thereof in the Covid-19
world of masks and social distancing) with easements
• Fewtrell and Sherman establishing a time line with theirs
Fewtrell raised questions on how to structure next meeting
Topics to be discussed include:
• Tax abatement discussion
• Management plans
o What do we need to decide before to proceed on that
§ Jason wants an example of Management plans for
town-owned property
§ Invasive species and hunting questions decided
• Easement on Clare’s property
There was no Executive session
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Next Meeting is through Zoom on June 9 at 7p.m.
Adjournment
The meeting ended at 9:02 p.m.
_____________________________________________
Submitted by Elizabeth Keokosky (Secretary)