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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPC Minutes 2025-05-29 1 Town of Ithaca Planning Committee Thursday, May 29, 2025 (3:00 PM Aurora Conference Room and on Zoom) Minutes Committee members present: Rich DePaolo, Chair; Rod Howe & Margaret Johnson Board/Staff members: Director of Planning C.J. Randall, Director of Codes Marty Moseley Guests: None 1. Persons to be heard: None. 2. Committee announcements and concerns: None 3. Approval of April minutes: Rod moved the minutes for approval with minor grammatical changes, Margaret seconded. April 17, 2025, minutes were approved. 4. Draft Local Law requiring Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) for Large scale Solar Energy Systems. Rich provided a summary of the prior month’s discussion with the County Director of Assessment Jay Franklin and a draft local law was distributed to require a PILOT for large-scale solar projects in the town. The proposed law will ideally require the value to be equal to what the parcel would generate if there were no exemptions. Rod moved the draft law for consideration, Rich seconded and the motion passed. Attorney for Town added language in the Purpose section B. “…..thereby granting reduced development or operating costs to system developers…”. Rich asked where the reduction would be if the PILOT would be requiring the same tax amount as the value of the parcel if no exemptions? Certainty would be a value to the developers up front to know the amount is valid over the period of time set (unless the project scope changes) and the value would not increase over that set period. All agreed to leave the language as written. The committee next discussed XXX-4 H. The town will require a PILOT at the amount of taxes that would be due if the property was subject to full taxation. Rich asked if there would be a time that the town would want flexibility and the right to reserve a different amount and changing the “will” to “may” would enable that consideration. C.J. suggested the question be posed to the Finance Officer for the Town and noted that the Tompkins County Industrial Development Agency adopted a Commercial Solar policy in 2017 which she will share with the committee. Rod suggested possibly the attorney (Guy K.) could be asked the question, C.J. replied that he reviewed the draft and no changes were made to that statement. The next letter H. also notes that the town may delegate the IDA to be the authority to negotiate agreements on the town’s behalf and Rich asked what would be negotiated if the value is to be the same as if no exemptions? C.J. went into brief detail about the IDA policy, what it offers the developer over the abatement period and how it increases 2% each year and is determined per megawatt. The policy is detailed and it is not clear how the IDA policy would bridge with the Town’s proposed local law to make sure the amount would be the same as the taxes due otherwise. XXX-5 C. Should the town add that the annual payments must be equal or decreasing in value to prevent an unknown projected amount each year? And, how does the Town ensure that these annual 2 payments are of equal or decreasing value? (Rich gave an example of a payment of $1 every year for 14 years with the balance in year 15.) Rich suggested adding the payments must be equal or decreasing along with “notwithstanding the provisions of section D”. C.J. stated she sent the draft to the Town Finance Officer for review and comments. Letter I in this section related to the Host Community Agreement was also discussed and may need more clarification. Projects outside local jurisdiction (over 20 megawatts) that fall under the NYS Office of Renewable Energy Siting (ORES) regulations were also mentioned; there is language included by Attorney for the Town that this Local Law would also apply to ORES projects. The committee was in favor of moving the draft language forward with the questions above being clarified and it only needing to come back to the committee for action if the clarifications came back to be complicated or a largely changed. A second draft and attorney explanations will be shared with the committee. 5. Draft Resolution Adopting a Vision Zero Policy template provided to Tompkins County Joint Safety Action Plan advisory group. A revised draft resolution was distributed to the committee for review. Discussion included Rich asking for the footnotes that were in both versions of the document but not included for reference. C.J. shared an e-mail on screen from the advisory group that explained there was a change in the footnote references, and they will now be numbered 7-10. The reference documents/information were linked in the e-mail text and C.J. offered to share the e-mail with footnote references to the committee. It was noted that these references would not be left in the document by the time it gets to the town board level, they were shared on behalf of the research the group did to prepare the Whereas statements. Whereas #5, “expected” was changed to “encouraged”. Whereas # 7, C.J. noted the term “vulnerable road users” is defined by the Federal Highway National Safety Council. She read the definition aloud for clarification and stated a reference could be added if needed. Whereas # 12, Rich noted the list of those with those who face a “significantly disproportionate risk of traffic injuries and fatalities” does not provide any more or any less motivation to make the road safer for all users. He stated that he did not see how the outcome of the project would change if the statement were removed or revised. Margaret noted it is important to include it as written because different strategies may be needed to make the road safer for different groups. No change was proposed. Rich asked how the town can control the goal stated in the “Now, therefore, be it resolved The Town of Ithaca adopts the goal of eliminating racial profiling and inequitable enforcement of traffic violations” can be realized without having its own police force? Suggested wording change from “adopts” to “supports” was recommended. The Tompkins County Authorization/Resolution to Adopt the Safe Streets for All (SS4A) Joint Safety Action Plan and Vision Zero Goal was distributed to the committee for reference. It also is a revised version of the draft template and will be included in the revised draft version along with the Joint Safety Action to the Town Board for consideration. C.J. noted she can also include the Equity Assessment 3 Methodology memo (dated September 5, 2024) prepared by Cambridge Systematics that includes related statistics and data used for the plan to the committee and town board. 6.Continued discussion of potential amendments to Short-term rental uses in Town Code Chapter 270-219.7 (Zoning). Rich stated that consideration of waving principal residency requirements in conservation zones to parcels over a certain size with existing structures would be consistent with legislative conclusion underpinning the short-term rental law. Reduced densities and larger setbacks result in fewer nuisance issues associated with short term rentals and also achieve the stated purpose of the Conservation Zone to limit development in an effort to preserve open space. The change would not likely result in vacant land having an increase of new structures being built for the purpose of hospitality business. In summary, he supported the proposed change as it would meet the goals and be more conducive to benign outcomes than in denser zones while not incentivizing development of new structures for the purpose of hospitality. A draft revised law was distributed. The new letter (i) in Purpose and legislative intent section that would allow for the adaptive reuse of existing structures in the Conservation Zones was proposed to be removed as the waiver is allowed in existing structures that are already residences so there is no reuse. The date to be entered in the Applicability section (D) 1. would be the effective date of the enactment of the law. The 29 day limit still applies unless they meet the setback and lot size requirements that are affordable to the existing listed zones and also still limited to having no more than 2 permits and only one being allowed as un-hosted. It was noted that the COC is being approached by a resident to consider allowing a hosted rental permit to be unhosted for a set number of days without having to apply for the other permit each time the hosting situation changes. There was no opposition from the committee to this revised proposed language to move forward for town board consideration with County Planning GML 239 review and SEQR. Timeline would be to introduce to the town board in June. 7. Staff updates and reports. C.J. updated that she and Town Planner Nick Quilty-Koval have had a series of conversations with Ithaca College and Cornell University to get an understanding of their internal processes and the information has been helpful relative to the department research on Institutional Zoning. Cayuga Medical Center and PRI are next in the line of discussion for future visions and Institutional zoning code references are being gathered from similar or equivalent communities along with historic research within the town. Way finding and signage is a possible opportunity to enter into adapting the zoning and alleviating unnecessary staff workload. A full report of the research is anticipated for this committee late this summer. The NYS Consolidated Funding Application (CFA) period is open. The town is in need of funding assistance related to the Town Hall Weatherization project. Under the Pro-Housing Supply program, assistance has been requested by South Works for the town to apply for assistance for their proposed first phase of the new residential units. The town being a designated Pro-Housing Community makes the project eligible for funding. Beacon Communities / SouthWorks staff would do the main grant 4 application work with coordination with planning and engineering. All funding applications are due July 31st. An additional meeting is scheduled with the Forest Home Improvement Association regarding maintenance and capital improvement types of projects that could improve circulation and multimodal transportation in the neighborhood. The town board may authorize an application for funding to retain consultants for active transportation planning and engineering services. The groundwork is continuing to be laid out for the GEIS for the South Hill TND project. Meetings have been held with large landowners and development plans have been shared that fit with the rezoning efforts that substantiate moving forward with the detailed environmental review. Flood Damage Prevention Law was approved by the town board. The Landmarks Preservation Commission and the Historic Resource Local Law are anticipated to advance to the town board at the end of June. The agreement document for second application to the town’s Purchase of Development Rights program is advancing between town and applicant attorneys and should be ready for final town board consideration soon as well. The Town Board authorized the agreement with Barton & Loguidice for the East Shore Drive pedestrian and bike safety project and data is being gathered. The project is on schedule and alignment is being made with NYS DOT for their large roadwork/paving project in the same area. 8. Next meeting date and upcoming agenda items: Thursday June 26, 2025, 3:00 p.m. The Town of Ithaca Planning Committee meeting concluded at 3:57 p.m.