HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-06-27Page 1 of 6
Planning Board
June 27, 2013, 7PM
Members present: Joe Lalley (Chairman), Joseph Laquatra, David Weinstein,
Craig Anderson, Thomas Hatfield, Marty Hatch, Wendy Martin (excused)
Town Board Liaison: Joe Solomon
Town Staff: Jane Nicholson and Nick Goldsmith
Guests: José Guisado
The meeting was called to order by Chairman Lalley at 7:05.
Review and approval of minutes from 23 May 2013.
Minor corrections were suggested and approved; M. Hatch motioned to approve the
minutes, D. Weinstein seconded the motion and the minutes were approved. M. Hatch
abstained.
José Guisado, GA Architects, PLLC
He is representing the Finger Lakes Library System. They recently bought the building
next to Treeforms into which they are going to be moving their headquarters for this
area.
The building was built around 1968 and will be fully renovated. The structure is in good
condition. Part of the existing building will be storage, the main section will become
offices, kitchen, bathroom, etc. and the new wing will be for more offices and class
rooms for training. They have three vans that they use to move material (books, etc.) to
various locations within the system. Mr. Guisado described the FLLS as the Information
Technology center of the Ithaca Library. To assist with that capacity they are going to
add a classroom and training facility but most of the building will stay the same.
As a not-for-profit organization, the Library is receiving grants from the Federal and
State governments. This is going to be a 2 phase operation; they are hoping to get
approval from the Town of Dryden and have everything in place by October 2013 so
they can begin construction/renovation next spring. The project has to be finished in
about a year and a half because the FLLS needs to be out of their current location by
fall 2014.
Mr. Guisado said they would like to get a permit from the Town to start renovating the
existing part into storage. Then they will work on the addition next year.
J. Nicholson said the Planning Department will probably split the building permits
although the Planning Board will have to do a full site plan review first.
This isn’t a public building per se. It is primarily offices, not a library. This building will be
used primarily for sorting and organizing. Mr. Guisado said he fe els that there will be
plenty of parking.
D. W einstein asked about how much traffic will be in and out of the facility. Mr. Guisado
said that most of the traffic will be the vans that are going to be picking up and
delivering books to various libraries within the system.
J. Lalley asked how many employees will be working in the building? Between 20 and
25.
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Mr. Guisado said that a feasibility study has already been done and no red
flags/concerns have arisen from that study. There are already two road cuts for the
parking area. He has already talked to the Town and the State highway departments.
Everything needed is already there – water, sewage, etc. via Monkey Run.
J. Laquatra asked about asbestos? Mr. Guisado said that was something they needed
to check but based on the structure and former use of the building, the walls are fairly
bare, just the structure without much insulation.
D. W einstein asked about the significant slope that exists where part of the addition will
be placed. Mr. Guisado pointed out that they will have to fill in about 5-6 feet in depth
but for the most part, the building will be on level ground with the rest of the building.
The classroom spaces will be heavily used; people come from all over Central New
York to attend training there.
D. W einstein made the point that with 20 + people working at the building and only 30
parking spots, what do you do for parking when the classes are in progress? Mr.
Guisado doesn’t think that will be an issue due to the manner in which the employees
arrive at work; TCAT stops in that area and many of the employees car pool.
M. Hatch suggested talking to Treeforms about the possibility of sharing parking space
the few times a year that the number of employees/students is above normal . He isn’t
as concerned about parking spaces as much as he is about the place looking junky
because of the huge amount of pavement.
D. W einstein questioned the need for two road cuts and wondered if Mr. Guisado can
bring it down to one road cut, one access for the entrance and exit. Mr. Guisado said
the two cuts are for safety purposes.
T. Hatfield commented on the changes in the tax roll; the project is a not-for-profit so
that means the property gets taken off the tax rolls which is a topic for the Town Board
to discuss.
The next step requires the submission of supporting documents to the Planning
Department this week and next month the Planning Board will do a Sketch Plan Review.
At this point, the PB members agree that a full site plan and public hearing is probably
not necessary, the public probably won’t have any concerns.
D. Weinstein said he was going to look closely at the run off situation based on the fact
that there is a natural area below the site. The Board members were in agreement
regarding their concern about having a significant parking area with asphalt. The
suggestion was made to use a permeable material. M. Hatch said a green lot is difficult
to maintain but the other members advocated for the idea. One of his concerns is the
difficulty a green lot presents for plowing and maintenance. D. Weinstein suggested a
rain garden or rain pond.
Joseph Lalley announced he will be vacating his position as Planning Board Chairman
as of the July meeting. The group discussed the transition in terms of the next Chair and
Vice Chair. J. Laquatra is currently the Vice Chair and he agreed to assume the position
of Chairman. Martin Hatch agreed to be the next Vice Chairman. Assumption of these
positions is pending Town Board approval.
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Open Space Plan – J. Nicholson announced that the Planning Department is hoping to
have a joint board meeting with all of the Boards (Conservation, Planning, Recreation,
Agriculture) the second week of September.
J. Nicholson said the Planning Board needs a directive from the Town Board; it is not
typical that Boards have a choice in what they do. They don’t generally get to decide on
their own what they want to work on.
D. W einstein thought that the last time, the PB did it on their own; they decided that it
was time to start working on updating the Comprehensive Plan.
T. Hatfield said he thinks there was an action taken because they needed funding to
gather information. The Town Board is responsible for allocating the fiscal resources
and they need to get us some input on what they expecting and what are the limits. If, in
the process of updating the Comprehensive Plan, it is determined that funds are needed
to proceed, the PB needs to have some direction and understanding from the Town
Board.
D. W einstein surmised that we do want to be involved in the directive that will eventually
come from the Town Board.
T. Hatfield agreed, pointing out that we don’t want them to give us a charge that we
can’t complete because we don’t have the budget.
J. Solomon reminded the PB that the budget season is starting soon.
J. Nicholson reminded everyone that at this time, they are not going to get a charge for
updating the Comp Plan but rather for a proposal about how the Comp Plan is going to
be updated. We are not to the update yet, that is more than a year out.
T. Hatfield reminded the Board that they hired some consultants pretty early in the
process the last time but J. Nicholson doesn’t think they will be needed for a while yet,
we are not ready to update the plan yet.
M. Hatch said that when he joined the board, he was given the Open Space Inventory,
the Water resources inventory, etc that were refered to in the Comp Plan. He said that
we need to decide if they need to be redone in which case we might need a consultant.
If we are saying that those documents are intact…..
T. Hatfield joined in with the observation that that is part of what has to be determined.
That is what the proposal is about. We need to review the documents and determine
which ones need to be updated and which ones are fine. He feels that having a
consultant come and talk to the Planning Board might be a good idea even if it is only
for one night to give the PB some insight on what is going on out there.
M. Hatch pointed out that person would have to familiarize themselves with the
documents that were done for the last plan, the plan itself and then say, “I know this
Town well enough to say we need to update this or that.” Or have them come in and say
that this is what another Town in NYS is doing, why don’t you do that? He does n’t like
those ideas and agreed with T. Hatfield that they need to figure it out (how they want to
approach the proposal for the Comprehensive Plan update) b efore they put in a budget
request.
J. Nicholson doesn’t think that we need to put a budget reque st in and that this project
can be done in house. We have two planners on staff and we are assessing …..
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J. Lalley stated that it is a whole lot easier to have it in the budget and not use it than to
not have it and need it.
J. Nicholson said that coming from the Planning Department, they don’t have the money
to hire a consultant.
J. Lalley pointed out that J. Nicholson has asked for the Planning Board’s input….
M. Hatch asked J. Solomon “when is the budget time?” Mr. Solomon responded that the
requests go out in late August, early September. M. Hatch continued with the
suggestion that by the time the Board meets in July, the members should have
reviewed some of the documents and come to the meeting ready to say these are out of
wack…..
J. Lalley asked J. Nicholson to bring information regarding how much was spent on
consultants the last time the Comprehensive Plan was updated. The Planning Board is
going to be looking to define what resources they might need for this scope of work.
And it might not be 2014 but we may need it in 2015, we should start thinking about this.
J. Nicholson reiterated that most of the work is going to be done “in -house” and thus the
monetary requirements are not an issue. She questioned whether she has expressed
herself well enough; the proposal is an assessment of our current Comprehensive Plan
based on other reports, new reports, and other comprehensive plans that are out there
that address the bigger issues. Then we need to take a good look at what is missing
from ours and what will be addressed in the update and how we go about doing that.
They have spoken with Supervisor Sumner who thought that it would be a good idea to
look at the County Plan, the Cleaner Greener Southern Tier Plan and the Greensboro
Plan. Ours might be outdated or missing things and we need to take an objective
comprehensive look at it so at the end of the year, they can come up with proposal so
they will know how to move forward with the update.
D. W einstein asked if they could set a goal to take a first cut at the next meeting. To put
in writing what the Planning Board proposes they are going to go through, the steps that
they are going to take. J. Nicholson thought that was a great idea; how the Planning
Board is going to review the Comprehensive Plan in August, September, October. She
strongly encouraged the members to review other documents. It might be easy to go
through the goals and objectives and see what we have accomplished but much harder
to see what we haven’t. Looking at other plans will give the Board members some ideas
and background.
C. Anderson asked J. Nicholson to send links to the websites containing the other
documents that she wants them to review.
She agreed to send the links so that next month the Board can put together an action
plan. She then asked what lens we are going to be looking through, she doesn’t want to
use the term sustainability.
C. Anderson suggested reading over some other plans and then see what might work in
our Comprehensive Plan. The other plans might give us an idea of what needs to be
changed.
D. Weinstein asked that by the next meeting, the members be ready to do a comparison
of goals and objectives from each of the plans.
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C. Anderson suggested a more general discussion of all three plans – what do we like
about this plan and that plan?
M. Hatch asked at what point do we figure out where public input comes in? There
have been periods in the past several months when discussions in Town Board
meetings regarding the Comprehensive Plan have included comments that the Plan is
based on a few people’s ideas. Although that is a misrepresentation (we have the
backgrounds and education to say what is useful) but at what point do we test it with the
public?
J. Nicholson said that shouldn’t be an issue now. Right now we just trying to identify
some of the bigger picture issues that might be missing or that we need to address and
does it require a full or partial rewrite. Once we get to the actual update, then we will go
through the normal process with public outreach and input.
C. Anderson pointed out that it might be very minor changes that are being made.
M. Hatch suggested one of the things we might have to do is let the public know that we
are going to start working on the rewrite and maybe we should invite input from the
public, even in the early stage.
D. W einstein said that we got criticisms the last time because people got upset when
they didn’t get feedback on their comments and we are not ready for that. J. Nicholson
agreed that we might not be ready to open up f or the public yet.
M. Hatch felt that the discussion regarding sustainability got cut off last month and he
wanted to make sure the Nick Goldsmith had the chance to finish his presentation.
When N. Goldsmith indicated that he was at the meeting to answer questions, M. Hatch
asked how do you think the Tompkins County plan would have an impact on a
Comprehensive Plan from eight years ago? If we had public discussion and we all said
“Public, do you want the Town of Dryden to have a sustainable plan for how it will
develop?” How do you frame that for the public?
J. Lalley suggested looking at sustainability as a broad thing and the Planning Board
can have focus areas in which we are trying to maintain sustainability. Transportation or
energy might be options. Open Space could be another.
He suggested chopping the topic down to targeted efforts that will allow people to focus
and develop goals and objectives. He offered these ideas as a methodology not as
elements of the focus areas.
D. Weinstein said there is a plan on the Town of Dryden website that lists the chunks
that have been identified for Dryden, the areas of sustainability. Basically there is a
framework so we could validate those areas and how does the comprehensive plan
address those areas? Go through them one by one and you will cross the finish line.
M. Hatch feels we need to have a discussion about resource allocation and how do we
translate into a better guideline with newer answers.
N. Goldsmith pointed out that they will have a better ide a after looking at the three plans
mentioned previously. One area that needs to be addressed is energy independence.
The Varna Plan already includes many of the ideas that need to be addressed in the
Comprehensive Plan.
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There being no further business, J. Laquatra motioned to adjourn the meeting. C.
Anderson seconded the motion and the meeting was closed at 8:14 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Erin A. Bieber
Deputy Town Clerk