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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPB Minutes 2016-09-06TOWN OF ITHACA PLANNING BOARD Shirley A. Raffensperger Board Room, Town Hall 215 North Tioga Street Ithaca, New York 14850 Tuesday. September 6. 2016 AGENDA 7:00 P.M. Continuation of determination of adequacy for public review of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Maplewood Apartments Redevelopment project located between Maple Avenue and Mitchell Street, Town of Ithaca Tax Parcel No.'s 63.-2-10.2, 63.-2-1, 63.-2- 2, 63.-2-14, and 63.-2-3, High Density Residential Zone. The proposal involves demolishing the existing Maplewood Apartments housing complex and redeveloping the +/- 17 acre site with up to 500 residential units (studios and 1-4 bedroom units) in a mix of townhomes, stacked flats, and multi-family apartment buildings. The project will also include some small retail, new interior streets, parking areas, pedestrian facilities, open spaces, storm water facilities, and a community center. Cornell University, Owner/Applicant; EdR Trust, Applicant; Scott Whitham, Whitham Planning & Design, LLC, Agent. 2. Persons to be heard 3. Approval of Minutes: August 16,2016 4. Other Business 5. Adjournment Susan Ritter Director of Planning 273-1747 NOTE: IF ANY MEMBER OF THE PLANNING BOARD IS UNABLE TO ATTEND, PLEASE NOTIFY SANDY POLCE AT 273-1747 or SPOIX TOWN.! iHA( A.NV.U.S. (A quorum of four (4) members is necessary to conduct Planning Board business.) Accessing Meeting Materials Online Site Plan and Subdivision applications and associated project materials are accessible electronically on the Town^s website under "Planning Board" on the "Meeting Agendas" page (httn://w\vw.tiiwn.ithaca.nv.ii.s/meetinu-at!endas). Town of Ithaca Planning Board 215 North Tioga Street September 6, 2016 7:00 p.m, PLEASE SIGN-IN Please Print Clearly. Thank You ame Address TOWN OF ITHACA PLANNING BOARD MEETING Tuesday, September 6, 2016 215 N. Tioga Street, Ithaca, NY 14850 Town Planning Board Members Present: Fred Wilcox (Chair), Linda Collins, Joseph Haefeli, John Beach, Liebe Meier Swain, Yvonne Fogarty, Jon Bosak Town Staff Present: Susan Ritter, Director of Planning; Chris Balestra, Planner; Susan Brock, Attorney for the Town; Debra DeAugistine, Deputy Town Clerk Call to Order Mr. Wilcox called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m. AGENDA ITEM Continuation of determination of adequacy for public review of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for the proposed Maplewood Apartments Redevelopment project located between Maple Avenue and Mitchell Street, Town of Ithaca Tax Parcel No.'s 63.'2-10.2, 63.-2-1, 63.-2-2, 63.-2-14, and 63.-2-3, High Density Residential Zone. The proposal involves demolishing the existing Maplewood Apartments housing complex and redeveloping the +/-17 acre site with up to 500 residential units (studios and 1-4 bedroom units) in a mix of townhomes, stacked flats, and multi-family apartment buildings. The project will also include some small retail, new interior streets, parking areas, pedestrian facilities, open spaces, storm water facilities, and a community center. Cornell University, Owner/Applicant; EdR Trust, Applicant; Scott Wliitham, Whitham Planning Design, LLC, Agent Mr. Wilcox said the board received emailed material that afternoon from the applicant. He had not had time to read it. Does the new material constitute a new EIS and possibly restart the clock? He said the board had little choice but to ignore it. Ms. Brock said the board should make a determination of adequacy based on what they already had time to review, and if the new material addresses some of the issues, once the planning board provides a description of everything that's inadequate, the applicant can say that the new material addresses those issues. So the material won't be ignored. Mr. Whitham said what they sent was a memo in response to the memo they received from staff the previous week on the DEIS. They're not pages for the EIS. His team made fairly substantial responses to those comments and they hope to have a discussion. They had no expectation that the board would have read it by that night's meeting. Mr. Wilcox said he didn't know how that would fit into the process. When the board makes the determination, they'll provide a list of inadequacies, then the applicant team will submit revised pages that attempt to meet what the board thinks is inadequately addressed in the draft. Another issue to deal with is that the board received an email from Joe Wilson that morning. Mr. Wilcox said the problem is that he twice implored the public not to comment on the DEIS because it's not time to comment until the board makes a determination that it's adequate for public review. How many people didn't make comments because they heard what he said? Planning Board Minutes 09-06-2016 Page 2 of 5 Mr. Bosak construed the input as not being a comment on the EIS, but rather a comment on its adequacy. He found the comments useful, and most of the important points were points he had already come to. Mr. Wilcox said he was comfortable as long as they're Mr. Bosak's points. It's the board's responsibil ity to determine adequacy, and should we do that, then the public has a right and obligation to chime in, which then the applicant would respond to in the development of the final EIS. He thought the board's goal was to create a list of items, topics, and concerns that the scoping document said need to be addressed that were not addressed or not adequately addressed in the DEIS. Mr. Bosak said the memo from staff saved him a lot of work. He commented that it's a fabulous piece of work, and if the board could agree with what staff said, it would save a lot of time. Mr. Wilcox thought it a good idea to start with staff comments and determine whether they're the planning board's comments. The board was in agreement with staff comments. Mr. Wilcox invited the board's comments, stating that the discussion should be limited to questions of inadequacies in the DEIS. Ms. Brock compiled the list of comments to include as conditions in the resolution. PB Resolution No. 2016-047: SEQR - Non-Acceptance of Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) as Complete for Public Review and Comment, Maplewood Redevelopment Project, Tax Parcel No's: 63.-2-10.2, 63.-2-1, 63.-2-2, 63.-2-3, 63.-2-14, Between Maple Avenue &. Mitchell Street Moved by Fred Wilcox; seconded by John Beach WHEREAS: 1. This project is the proposed Cornell University Maplewood Apartments Redevelopment project, located between Maple Avenue and Mitchell Street, Town of Ithaca Tax Parcel No.'s 63.-2-10.2, 63.-2-1, 63.-2-2, 63.-2-3, and 63.-2-14, High Density Residential Zone. The proposal involves de molishing the existing Maplewood housing complex and redeveloping the +/' 17 acre site with up to 500 residential units (studios and 1-4 bedroom units) in a mix of townhomes, stacked flats, and multi-family apartment buildings. The project will also include some small retail, new interior streets, parking areas, pedestrian facilities, open spaces, stormwater facilities, and a community center. Cornell University, Owner/ Applicant; EdR Trust, Applicant; Scott Whitham, Whitham Planning Design, LLC, Agent; and 2. The proposed project, which requires site plan approval and special permit by the Town of Ithaca Planning Board and a rezoning to a Planned Development Zone (PDZ) by the Town of Ithaca Town Board, is a Type I action pursuant to the State Environmental Quality Review Act, 6 NYCRR Part 617, and Chapter 148 of the Town of Ithaca Code regarding Environmental Quali ty Review, because the proposal involves a zoning change and the construction of 250 or more Planning Board Minutes 09-06-2016 Page 3 of 5 residential units (30 or more per Town Code) that will be connected to existing community or public water and sewage systems (§617.4 (b)(3) and (b)(5)(iii);Town Code Section 148-5.B(2)); and 3. The Town of Ithaca Planning Board, on April 5, 2016, declared its intent to serve as lead agency to coordinate the environmental review for the proposed Maplewood Redevelopment project; and 4. The Planning Board reviewed the Full Environmental assessment Form (EAF), Part 1, prepared by the applicant, and Parts 2 and 3, prepared by the Planning staff, and established itself as lead agency to coordinate the environmental review of the project, as described above. The Board issued a positive determination of environmental significance at its meeting on May 24, 2016, in accordance with Article 8 of the Environmental Conservation Law, also known as the New York State Environmental Quality Review Act, for the above referenced action as proposed, and, con firmed that a Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) will be prepared; and 5. The Planning Board held a Public Scoping Meeting on June 21, 2016 to hear comments from the public and interested and involved agencies regarding the scope and content of the DEIS for the project, after distributing the Draft Scoping Document to potentially involved and interested agencies and the public; and 6. The Planning Board, on July 19, 2016, accepted the revised Final Scoping Document as being adequate to define the scope and content of the DEIS for the Maplewood Redevelopment Pro ject, after amending the document at its meetings on July 5, 2016, July 12, 2016 and July 19, 2016; and 7. The applicants have prepared a DEIS, dated August 2, 2016, regarding the proposed Maplewood Redevelopment Project, and submitted said DEIS to the Town of Ithaca Planning Board for con sideration of acceptance as complete; and 8. The Town of Ithaca Planning Board has reviewed said DEIS; NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED: 1. That the Town of Ithaca Planning Board hereby finds that the DEIS for the Maplewood Redevel opment Project, dated August 2, 2016 is not satisfactory with respect to its scope, content, and adequacy for the purpose of commencing public review, and hereby does not accept said DEIS as complete, pursuant to 6 NYCRR Part 617.9 because of the following deficiencies and corrections that must be made to the DEIS: a. Address all the items listed in the Planning Department's August 30, 2016 memo from Chris Balestra regarding the Maplewood Redevelopment Project—Draft Environmental Impact Statement Discussion Regarding Adequacy of DEIS. b. Section 2.3, page 2-8: Provide support for the assertion that the new housing "will create the opportunity for more owner-occupied single-family homes in the area." c. Section 2.4, page 2-10: Delete Development" in item 3 of the chart under "Agency." Planning Board Minutes 09-06-2016 Page 4 of 5 d. Section 3.4.3.2, pages 3-42 and 3-43: List which of the bus stop and bike share amenities the applicant is proposing to incorporate into the project, and describe the proposed carpooling, walking, and bicycling incentives and which entity would provide them. e. Chapter 5, page 5-3: Explain whether the applicant is proposing to use Passive House criteria for the project. f. Section 10.2, page 10-2: Support the assertion that community services "will take necessary actions to respond and increase their capacity, as needed, over time." g. Chapter 2: The following is missing: "A history of the Site will be described, including a summary of previous developments on the Site, such as the existing Maplewood Housing de velopment and the former Vetsburg development." h. Chapter 2: The following is missing or inadequately addressed: "an analysis of the target mar ket for the proposed housing (including affordahility for the target market) and how the Pro ject responds to the Ithaca area's and Cornell's housing needs" and "the projected population that is intended for Maplewood, containing projections for graduate, professional and under graduate students, their families, children, any projected faculty and others." i. Section 2.3.4, page 2-9: Provide references to the page numbers in the City and Town Com prehensive Plans that project an increase in population and an emergent demand for housing, and cross-reference Appendix ] in the DEIS text where appropriate. j. Section 3.4.1.7, page 3-31: List the parking fee referenced in this section. k. Where an appendix supports the text, add references in the text to the appendix. 1. There are erroneous captions on pages 3-55 through 3-79. Please correct. m. Page 3-5: Remove Belle Sherman Cottages from the list of City existing uses. n. Page 3-28, Table 3.4-1: Correct the speed limits for Mitchell St (from City line to Pine Tree Rd) and for Pine Tree Rd. o. Correct the error or explain the discrepancy for Northbound-Ithaca Road in the Mitchell Street/Ithaca Road intersection analysis on pages 3-34, 3-39, and 3-40. p. Page 3-58: Provide a legible Figure 3.6.2-3. q. Page 3-87: Add a discussion about New Roots Charter School. r. Page 3-94: Clarify and correct the statement about the annual $1.5 million figure. s. Add ASHP to the List of Acronyms. t. Section 2.1, page 2-1: Change Mitchell "Place" to Mitchell "Street." u. Pages viii through x: Revise the list of figures to remove the reference to three tables and to order the remaining figures properly. V. Pages 3-53 and 3-54: Clarify the meaning of numeric labels on buildings. w. Page 3-45: The discussion about existing cable TV and high speed internet infrastructure is missing. X. Page 3-50: Provide appropriate mitigation measures for the water capacity issue. Planning Board Minures 09-06-2016 Page 5 of 5 Vote Ayes: Wilcox, Collins, Haefeli, Beach, Fogarty, Meier Swain, Bosak Ms. Balestra said that once the applicant submits the revised DEIS, the board has 30 calendar days to make their determination of adequacy or inadequacy. Mr. Whitham said his team planned to submit the updated DEIS by September 13th. Mr. Wilcox pointed out that there were two regularly scheduled meetings within the 30-day period. AGENDA ITEM Persons to be heard - No one came forward to address the board. AGENDA ITEM PB Resolution No, 2016-048: Minutes of August 16, 2016 Moved by Fred Wilcox; seconded by John Beach RESOLVED, the Planning Board approves the minutes of August 16, 2016, as amended. Vote Ayes: Wilcox, Collins, Haefeli, Beach, Meier Swain, Fogarty, Bosak AGENDA ITEM Other Business Mr. Wilcox said the Planning Federation still has an opening for a Region 6 representative, in addition to him. It involves three trips to Albany a year for meetings on Saturdays. AGENDA ITEM Adjournment Upon a motion by Linda Collins, the meeting adjourned at 9:47 p.m. Respectfully submitted, ebra DeAugiHm%-Deputy TowhsClerk