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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2006-04-20Town of Dz -yden Planning Board April 2011h,2006 Members Present- Chair. Barbara Caldwell, Tam Hatfield, Jim Crawford, Joseph Lalley & David Weinstein Others Present: Dan Kwa.snowsid, Charles Guttman Agenda; Hews er Meadows Subdivision - Preliminary /Final Approval Phase II Chair Caldwell Read the pu C. Guttman Began by ex and that all regulations, proposed. B, Caldwell Asked if the blic hearing into tl plaining that each of the lots were in They were asking lots were goiniz to 3e record. lot had the proper road frontage compliance with zoning for the approval of the lots be sold separately rather than built upon. C, Guttman Replied that yes they were going to be sold Individually and then individual purchasers will build, we are not intending to build the houses. D. Weinstein Asks Ld if a letter has been received from John Anderson {TCFHD) about the acceptability of . , .. , , C. Guttman The perk tests were done and appeared to be, satisfactory. Once the final plat is in place and acceptable to the Board he would write his approval right on the plat as opposed to writing a letter. So therefore it uFould be stamped on the plat when it is filed. If you would like a letter I will request that for you. D_ Weinstein The wet area on lot 27 is not identified as a wetland because it was reviewed? C. Guttman in terms of wetleuji ds they are designated by the )Federal Government at this point and they have not at this point identified that as a Wetland, It Is Swampy but it is not a wetland. D. Kwasnowski It is a wetland_ Th ey delineated what was available on the Fish and Wildlife Services NL:Ltienal Wetland Inventory Maps but they do not include everything_ It is surprising that they missed what is on lot 27, There is definitely enough room on that lot 2 7 the way the h€�use its laid out_ The question for the Board is whether they au-it this actually delineated especially since they are intending to later sell the rest of the land that adjoins lot 7, The question is do you the Board want the buyer to be aware that there is a wetland on that lot. JC}. Weinstein That would be nine if there is a way of identifying as a warning to the buyer, C_ Guttman What it is showing on the map is a swampy area. It is not a federally delineated wetland. *L i f D. Kwasnowski By the National Inventory Wetland that has been done by aero photography and is not very accurate. Does the Board want is them to do a field survey? C. Guttman What would you want in addition to the survey map showing a wet swampy area? If you want to be sure that someone see the area you should know that this map if approved by the Board will be filed in the Clerk's Office. Any attorney that does real estate work is going to request a copy of this map or have seen this map as part of the standard title search you have to prove to that this subdivision has been approved. They will receive this in practice. T. Hatfield I don't think that they need to do any more considering that it does say wet swampy area on the map. D. Weinstein I do not disagree with that. I am only concerned that the future owner could get into trouble by doing something in that area without knowing that it had an official designation but since it does not then I am not worried. C. Guttman Lot 27 has a lot of frontage is 4 acres and could have been two parcels but it is not. That is why the house site is where it is and the driveway off of Hollister Road. Chair Caldwell Any other questions from the Board? There were none. Do any of our public have any questions? There were none. T. Hatfield Moved to close the public hearing. J. Lalley Seconded that motion. All in favor. Chair Caldwell Closed the public hearing. The Town Board has asked us to look at Renewable Energy facilities and Dan has provided us with the ordinance. Does this only address wind or are we going to consider a broader thing of alternative sources? D. Kwasnowski It is a. Renewable Energy Conversion Systems Ordinance but the bulk of it is regulations on wind power. In the draft ordinance I sent out there was an exemption section that exempted solar, geothermal sources. Chair Caldwell I can see the safety issues on solar systems. What would regulate my putting a dam in the creek and having waterpower? D. Kwasnowski The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission. If it was small enough you could be exempt but you still have to have review by . If they washed their hands of it then the state would have detailed requirements for it. Chair. Caldwell Should that at least be noted in anything we adopt? D. Kwasnowski There is almost 0 local control over hydropower. D. Weinstein If you had a situation that we met all the requirements of the Federal regulations but there may still be something that this community would not like to see we do not have any way of regulating that? D. Kwasnowski We have no control. The state has no control. S. St. Laurent Wind and solar seem to have uncertain status in the Town right ® now and I am a little nervous about seeing geothermal heat pumps. What is the zoning status on those right now? D. Kwasnowski Technically yes. Under the state unified code any furnace or heating system has to have a building permit. However, that is very difficult to track. J. Lalley When did we adopt the new code or has that been around for a while? D. Kwasnowski I think that was before. Glenn Peters A comment from the public was that no -town seems to have an issue with solar energy but wind on the other hand it seems that every town in the state has its own preferences. There are areas in the Town that could satisfy NYSERDA in terms of requirements in the amount of wind that you get and they are being able to get money towards putting it in. Then they ask if the Town says if it is OK. They're all different types of setups depending on the town. What I would like to do is to provide any information that we can to help you make determinations. On the solar side I do not think that there are any problems. In terms of wind there is a bit of a challenge. I would like to offer our services for any information you may need on safety, birds, bats or any thing else that might be endangered by propeller going around or to satisfy your requirements. I would like to be able to help the information process along any ® way I can because there was tremendous interest at the home shows that we had in Binghamton, Syracuse and Ithaca. It is critical at this point to get these renewable energy resources in place with the cost of rising fuel. D. Weinstein Do you not only provide information and you also install the systems. You have vested interest. I agree with the fact that it is a good idea but we as a Board have to be concerned about is having an ordinance which would be lineate enough to allow a lot of people to rush and install a lot of systems. But then to find out that these systems are not net suppliers and we end up with relic systems all over our landscapes that are abandoned because the owners found out that they really did not work as they were hoping. They then may become abandoned. G. Peters The amount of power that can be generated is information being provided and the rate of return is also information out there. There are also restrictions on distances. I have given information to Henry. We would be happy to make a presentation for you. There is a house on Etna Road that has solar panels. I did not know that there were restrictions on solar power in this town. One of the jobs I did was a pole stand. D. Kwasnowski There really is not a restriction on solar there is an administrative glitch. G. Peters The article said that solar power is forbidden. I would like to participate in this process in a constructive way. D. Kwasnowski Our zoning ordinance is an inclusive ordinance which means we include the uses aloud in certain districts. A solar panel can be interpreted as an accessory use structure being it is a residential use. D. Weinstein It could be put on a 60' pole. D. Kwasnowski We have no height restrictions in the Town of Dryden. It has always been that if it is not included then it cannot be done. Another opinion is that this not really the intent but that if it is not included in the zoning ordinance than it is not regulated but you would still have to get a building permit and may have to go to the ZBA for determination. T. Hatfield There has been a couple of different ordinances in the past one being cell towers which would be an excellent road map to follow. It is the process that needs to be followed. With this it puts the burden on the applicant and not the town. We need to look back at the process of the cell tower ordinance was created. From this boards perspective I think we are in an area here where the Town Board has asked us to have this discussion. I think the Town Board should follow the process that was taken to create the cell tower ordinance. The original ordinance which was 8 to 10 years ago, it was looked at to minimize the intrusion and to maximize access to technology. G. Peters This is a residential ordinance not an industrial. I appreciate your time and I will be getting the information to Henry and Dan. B. Caldwell Getting back to Howser Meadows. We now have the SEQR form. The Planning Board read through the SEQR process completing Parts I, II &, III (attached is copy of SEQR documents). D. Weinstein Moved that the SEQR be accepted for a negative declaration. T. Hatfield Seconded that motion. B. Caldwell Asked for any discussion and with no discussion the motion and all were in favor. Motion carried. J. Crawford Motion made to approve the Subdivision as proposed with conditions of a 239 L & M Review by Tompkins County and Health Department approval. T. Hatfield Second All in favor The discussion began with the question whether to lump all alternative energy resources into one ordinance or segregate them into different ordinances. The discussion started with including all types of alternative sources in this ordinance. There was a concern that people were going to come up with all sorts of things to use for alternative resources. There needs to be restrictions and different review processes for each of the ® sources. The idea of proposing this draft is to start a mechanism for dealing with renewable energy. The wind turbine seems to propose the most environmental impact that we have seen to date. The board's comment was to be specific and address the fact that some other sources may need to come to a special permit review so they are there and you have the procedure. The comment was made that we are presuming that there is going to be an impact until you do a study and find out that there is not. Another way to go is to presume that there is not going to be an impact until someone has an issue. There are studies going on all over the Country watching these things. The fact that there is going to be community impact means it is going to be fairly well established as technology emerges but there is going to be emerging technologies over and over again and the presumption is that we are going to have ordinances and regulate things until we find out there is no impact. Until we are educated more about things to know the impact it may have on the community and to be able to say no. It could be a dangerous issue. It was brought up that there are also lawsuits that need to be considered. Board Member Tom Hatfield ® mentioned that the Town Board could put a moratorium on renewable energy until a study was done and it was determined whether or not the Town would then allow this activity. This would be a way to survive the legal system. A member in the audience made the comment that the problem right now is that the Town Government has decided that they do not have the right to say yes to any of the projects of renewable energy. This circumstance has been done for years and there have been permits issued. I also believe that it is only from the Cornell Wind Turbine Project that the stance has been taken that what is not allowed is now forbidden. It was agreed that some renewable energy has been done for years. It is a fact that fossil fuels are more expensive and may continue to be that. The idea of a moratorium was further discussed. Dan mentioned that there will be a public meeting sometime in June or July, Barbara asked about multiple wind towers on one property and was concerned that it would become a wind farm. Dan explained that the turbines were not as big as the industrial size turbines. • The total height versus the fall zone was then discussed. The biggest impact is the aesthetics. The noise level was discussed. Chair Caldwell asked the Board if they were all in agreement that there needs to be an ordinance. The Board agreed. Chair Caldwell mentioned that within the ordinance maybe a provision should be written that when some of the other renewable sources are proposed there should be expert input so that the Town Board would not have to rely on their own knowledge or to have to go back and rewrite everything. This would be similar to us now relying on the engineer to give us a report. Meeting Closed