HomeMy WebLinkAboutCAC Minutes - 01_10_23Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 1 of 6
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council (CAC)
Minutes of In-person Meeting in Town Hall
Tuesday, January 10, 2023
Danby, New York
Council Members present: Jonathan Zisk (Acting Chair) Margaret Corbit (via
Zoom), Joel Gagnon, Katharine Hunter, Don Schaufler (via Zoom), Brittany Lagaly,
Renee Owens, and Mary Woodsen (via Zoom)
Council Members absent: none
Others present: Elizabeth Keokosky (Secretary), Ronda Roaring (Danby resident –
via Zoom), Marie Monroe (prospective CAC member – via Zoom)
Zoom Meeting was officially called to order at 7:16 (held up by technical
difficulties).
Privilege of the Floor (PoF): Roaring described her possible “NY State Council of
the Arts” “place based project.” She visualized a website asking everyone in town
who wanted to to contribute to answering the question “what is rural character”
for which she would be moderator. She suggested using any artistic medium
from poetry to pictures to a simple text response. And then, taking this further,
using the site to promote land preservation. Deadline for the idea submission is
February 16 and she needs a letter of support. CAC members were approving
and asked her to explain her goals and ideas and questions further in an email to
both CAC and town board. .
Deletions or Additions to Agenda: Zisk and Keokosky added a topic at the end of
today’s session to discuss the possibility of Planner West giving a presentation on
ArcGIS mapping use. Hunter added a discussion point to item 4 on “How to make
monitoring easier.”
Approval of December 8, 2022 minutes
Hunter moved to approve
Corbit seconded
Approval unanimous.
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 2 of 6
REPORTS AND UPDATES (from the agenda)
1. New CAC Member Search, Annual Report, and other CAC specific issues -
Margaret Corbit
Marie Monroe introduced herself as a prospective member. She said she
was curious and interested in learning, though she would not admit to any
particular expertise. Another possible member was Anne Klingensmith
who is strongly interested. Her previous experience with anti-fracking
organization in Danby and the Tompkins County Environmental Council
(EMC).were cited. All current members who chose to stay on were
reappointed by town board.
Corbit is writing the CAC Annual Report, which is due by the end of the
month. There has to be a motion to get it to the town board for approval
and it is also sent to DEC.
2. Status of changes on CAC web pages: Revisioning of Danby conservation
easement message and how to strategize outreach; GIS map that is being
worked on with David West - Margaret Corbit
Corbit reported that Janice Adelman (Town Clerk) has made most of the
changes suggested so far for the CAC webpage.
Some discussion followed concerning organizing an extra Zoom meeting
and Doodle Poll for a dedicated time for revisioning the CAC message and
mission for better website public communication. An alternative
suggestion was to re-organize a regular monthly meeting by getting rid of
some of repetitive things on the agenda and putting aside an hour for
discussion. Owens, as a new member, expressed interest in further
defining CAC’s purpose, and she offered wildlife photos that she had
previously taken for use on the CAC website.
3. Updates on Passed and Proposed Easements - Main coordinators for each
easement. Zisk reported on the first three easements in process:
Andi Gladstone – she is still on board for an easement. Fewtrell and Zisk
walked her property the first time. Need more from a second walk for a
baseline documentation report.
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 3 of 6
Ben Altman – wants to use the easement to work with Haudenosaunee and
is thinking about how he can use it for reparations. He envisions an
educational component. Zisk wants to walk the land with some people and
Hunter, Lagaly, and Keokosky volunteered.
Woodsen – Zisk is still working on the map with Woodsen
Hoffman/Karlson – Gagnon reported that the baseline documentation is
incomplete and needs more walking of the property. Zisk, Owens, and
Lagaly offered.
Sherman – Lagaly observed that the weather was better and it was a good
time to proceed. Zisk said he would go with Hunter and Lagaly to walk the
property.
Butje -- West is getting the finished easement copy ready to show to the
owner.
4. Status of annual easement monitoring and placing easement signs -
Jonathan Zisk, Katharine Hunter
Ed Schott and Eric Palmer still need annual monitoring. The status of signs
was discussed. Zisk needs to put one sign on Kate Oneal’s property and
clear out vines covering another potential location.
Hunter’s addition to the agenda was a narrative of how an easement on her
family’s property in Pennsylvania is monitored. A letter from the easement
monitoring group is sent letting her family know when the property is to
have an annual monitoring. It asks if they can be there, but it is understood
that the lack of an owner’s presence does not affect the date of the
monitoring. Hunter offered to compose a letter based on this model for the
CAC. Zisk said to send it to him to tweak to fit the CAC situation. Corbit
read what the easement rules now say about it “being reasonably possible
for owner to be there.” A balance has to be considered.
Zisk and Corbit need to get together to bring all current monitoring reports
in one place and load them in a formal folder in Danby’s WorkDrive,
Danby’s cloud-based collaboration platform.
Zisk questioned language in the easement template. The protected forest
zone still allows management of forest; does this include maintaining an
existing meadow via mowing? He suggested that maintaining a habitat
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 4 of 6
shouldn’t preclude actions that would enhance it (i.e. “preserve, stabilize,
and restore”). An easement is not just preservation but also conservation,
so mowing would seem allowable. Does the currently ambiguous language
need to be changed? No action was taken following this discussion.
5. Status of approval of Timber Harvesting law - Don Schaufler & Jonathan
Zisk
Schaufler said he had incorporated the preamble and edits made by the
group. Gagnon said that he had sent this document on to the town board
to consider, with some remaining issues still to be resolved, such as how
the law would apply to DEC land (need to contact DEC). Also, town planner
David West and town lawyer Guy Krogh, need to weigh and answer
contextual questions, such as, should this law should be part of the zoning
law or free standing? Once these remaining issues are worked out, it will
then come back to the town board for final approval. The group applauded
the completion of this task that has taken the energies of multiple people
over several years.
6. Status of school tax abatement discussion and local implementation of
varying easement time lines committee - Joel Gagnon
Planner West met with the finance committee of the Ithaca school board.
They said that looking at the policy (of reducing school tax for Danby
easement owners) might take a long time. If this takes more than a couple
of months, the committee is considering going ahead without their buy in.
Options for the committee are to approach other school districts, or just go
ahead and add school tax modifications later, especially since this
discussion on the status of taxes for temporary easements has delayed the
implementing legislation for so long, postponing it for over a year. Yet
Gagnon reported that the Planner West thought that the delay had been
worth it since it allowed the school board to be included in the tax
reduction discussion from the beginning, perhaps making them look more
favorably on our request. The additional expense to other taxpayers is
calculated in pennies, so it is not the finances but the principle (of tax
reduction in return for conservation, and the precedent it sets) that they
need time to consider. Owens volunteered to replace Fewtrell’s position
on the committee.
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 5 of 6
Gagnon noted that there is already some refundable tax money through
the state income tax. (Note: This is specifically “an annual income tax
credit of 25% on their school district, county, and town property taxes up to
$5,000. If a landowner's tax credit exceeds the amount he or she owes in
state income taxes, the landowner receives a payment for the difference.”
See
https://www.dec.ny.gov/lands/26428.html#:~:text=The%20Conservation%
20Easement%20Tax%20Credit,a%20payment%20for%20the%20difference.
7. Discussion of an extra session with town planner West for giving a
presentation on ArcGIS mapping (from “Deletions or Additions to
Agenda” above)
Keokosky noted that Planner West had remarked that he thought the maps
in Appendix C of the Natural Resources Inventory could be the beginning of
an Open Space Inventory (OSI) and be used to prioritize land for
conservation acquisition. But, what they lack is the overlay of parcels.
Keokosky suggested that West be invited to a session to demonstrate how
ArcGIS can be used to prioritize parcels.
It was decided Zisk would check with West and setup a Doodle Poll for a
meeting to decide how to refine the questions the group wants West to
address with the CAC for around an hour and a half.
Two questions were articulated: how to use GIS for individual properties,
and how to use it to prioritize a range of properties for conservation
easements. Lagaly said she would explain how she used the Tompkins
County Department of Assessment mapping resources on her easement.
Also mentioned was a draft OSI was used to assess undeveloped lands in
the Town. Jake Brenner (then a member of the CAC) ran the project with
the assistance from students in the Department of Environmental Studies
and Sciences at Ithaca College. Unfortunately, we only have the report and
none of the original data, which is by this time out of date.
There was no Executive session
Next Meeting is on February 14, 2023 at 7p.m.
Town of Danby Conservation Advisory Council Minutes Page 6 of 6
Adjournment at 8:48pm
_____________________________________________
Submitted by Elizabeth Keokosky (Secretary)