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HomeMy WebLinkAbout06-07-2016 CSAC meeting approvedConservation and Sustainability Advisory Council meeting Minutes of June, 7, 2016 meeting Present: Roxanne, Bara, Robert, Sue P., Darby, Andy Hillman Absent: Brice Meeting called to order at 6:00 Introductions, with each person saying a little about their background expertise and experience, and why they are interested in serving on the committee / particular topics of interest to them related to Conservation and Sustainability. Clarified the preferred way for communication – email; as much paperless as possible. • We decided to use DropBox to post reference information of interest to the committee and related to meetings and projects we are working on. Roxanne will set this up and send an email invite to everyone; will also notify Town Board members and Darby once the DropBox is set up as they may want to be invited. Discussed a regular meeting schedule, while recognizing that we may need to schedule other / special meetings depending on current projects and deadlines or requests for input from the Town Board or Zoning Steering Committee. • Third Thursday of each month, 7 pm start; no meeting in June since it is 2 weeks from this one and we need to review information and will be working on the draft zoning law revision for Ag from the consultants in July. • Third Thursday in July is the first night of GrassRoots (Darby, some others may not be able to attend). Tentatively set next meeting for July 11, pending RM’s possible conflict. RM will confirm with the committee. • Bara offered to take abbreviated minutes at the meetings (THANKS!!) Reviewed the purpose of the Council, from the enabling resolution passed by the Town Board April 26, 2016. RM distributed paper copies of the memo and document from Nancy Zahler outlining the communication structure for giving input to the Zoning Steering Committee and the Town Board. RM will put this in DropBox as well. • Short discussion of this project, and when the draft might be available for our committee review; Darby reported from the last ZSC meeting that the draft should be coming in July sometime, with outreach and feedback July – Aug. • There was some thought that the mechanism of privilege of the floor for a representative of each of the advisory boards invited to give input to the ZSC was a bit awkward and rigid, and would be more constructive if the representatives could participate respectfully in the discussion, if there were particular points or pieces of information they felt were of value to contribute and missing from the discussion. RM gave a short update on activities and possible opportunities for sustainability initiatives in the works with the County, TCCOG (Tompkins County Council of Governments), and the Town: • For the latter, RM reported on the discussion at the last TB meeting about the Town Hall heating and cooling issues and further discussions she had with Tom Myers (on the way to meeting in Binghamton). The committee felt it was important and timely for the Board to consider air source heat pumps and other solutions that can lower the fossil fuel use of the building in addition to increasing comfort and functioning of the heat and AC, after a comprehensive evaluation of the building distribution system. Council members were interested in participating in discussions / reviewing options developed as the Town Board might find helpful. Tom Myers said he would welcome our participation in the discussion. Several members of the committee have knowledge of and experience with heat pumps in their homes. • TCCOG plans to have any interested folks meet for an hour after the monthly regular meeting (4th Thursday), to discuss energy and sustainability issues and possible collaborative initiatives; RM will try and attend these. Discussion of near term work plan focal topics: • Zoning law revision – draft of Ag section to review and comment on (by formal resolution to the Town Board) July into early August (? need to confirm with Darby/Nancy/Liz) • update and upgrade of Town Hall heating and cooling system (Tom Myers) • Look at local law #3, 2015 on Solar and compare with other model laws and other criteria and see if revisions are needed (especially related to Ag district and zoning and sustainability). Misc related activities: RM attended (with Tom Myers) the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority’s (NYSERDA) NY-Sun PV Trainers Network / Southern Tier Solar Works -- Shared Solar 101 workshop on Community Net metering, for local public officials involved in the planning, permitting, inspection, or approval processes for solar photovoltaic (PV) systems, at the Broome County Public Library on June 7, 2016 RM participated in Community Choice Aggregation webinar with MEGA; MEGA also presented to the Town Board on June 14 (did not know in advance but have asked to be informed of any presentations related to our Committee, so that I can pass them on).