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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPC Minutes 2026-01-15 DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING 215 N. Tioga St 14850 607.273.1747 www.town.ithaca.ny.us TOWN OF ITHACA PLANNING COMMITTEE THURSDAY, JANUARY 15, 2026 at 3:00 P.M. Meeting Location: Ithaca Town Hall, 215 N. Tioga Street, Aurora Conference Room (Enter from the rear entrance of Town Hall, adjacent employee parking lot.) Members of the public may also join the meeting virtually via Zoom at https://us06web.zoom.us/j/6750593272. AGENDA 1. Persons to be heard. 2. Committee announcements and concerns. 3. Consider approval of December meeting minutes. 4. Circular Construction and Reuse Resolution proposal presentation by CR0WD (Circularity, Reuse, and Zero Waste Development). 5. Green New Deal Action Plan Overview presentation. 6. Review initial Draft 2024 Town of Ithaca Greenhouse Gas Inventory for Government Operations. 7. Staff updates and reports. 8. Discuss next meeting date and upcoming agenda items. A quorum of the Ithaca Town Board may be present, however, no official Board business will be conducted. 1 Town of Ithaca Planning Committee Thursday, January 15, 2026 (3:00 PM Aurora Conference Room and on Zoom) Minutes Committee members present: Rod Howe, Chair; Diana Sinton; Dave McCune. Board/Staff members: Director of Codes Marty Moseley; Director of Planning C.J. Randall; Senior Civil Engineer Justin McNeal; Town Sustainability Planner Hilary Swartwood. Guests: Introductions were made around the room. Guests and Circularity, Reuse, and Zero Waste Development (CR0WD) partners Finger Lakes ReUse, Department of City and Regional Planning as well as Historic Ithaca included: Christine O’Malley, Jenni Minner, Andrew Boghossian; August Guba (Cornell Student and Just Places Lab); Susan Holland of USC Builds. 1. Committee announcements and concerns: None from the committee. C.J. noted the pre-review application for the NYS Rt. 96 pedestrian upgrades project under the Transportation Alternatives Program will be submitted that afternoon. 2. Persons to be heard: None. 3. Approval of December minutes: Rod moved the minutes for approval as presented. Dave seconded, minutes were approved. 4.Circular Construction and Reuse Resolution proposal presentation by CR0WD. The Committee received an information packet that included the background on CR0WD, an overview of the circular construction economy and sample resolution language for the town to consider which will affirm a commitment to reuse, deconstruction, and material recovery. The City of Auburn, Town of Dryden, and Tompkins County have adopted similar non-binding resolutions. Along with the sample resolution language, CR0WD members offer support with case studies from peer municipalities and technical assistance and connections to reuse and deconstruction resources. Christine went through a presentation titled “Building a Circular Construction Economy through Deconstruction and Reuse in the Town of Ithaca” that was put together by former Town Planning intern and Cornell student Daniel Winters for his Master of Regional Planning degree along with Finger Lakes ReUse, Historic Ithaca, and Cornell’s Department of City and Regional Planning. A key takeaway was the largest amount of waste that goes to the landfills in the U.S. comes from construction and demolition debris. The conclusion of the presentation was that there is a strong foundation in the Town of Ithaca that includes local reuse infrastructure, business support and regional partnerships to build a successful deconstruction program. This will help meet carbon goals, foster economic development and model circular economy leadership for other communities. Andrew from Finger Lakes ReUse briefly shared how their non-profit works with contractors and business owners for building material donation and resale as well as many other types of donations for reuse. The overall goals are to reduce waste, teach transferable skills and maintain a reused material 2 center. Their Deconstruction program includes pre-deconstruction consulting, contracting, and project assistance and logistics. Jenni shared more information from the CROWD website as well as NYS initiatives to establish standards for the reuse of deconstructed building materials. The Central NY Technical Assistance Program/Circular Construction Economy was mentioned as a new program to offer free planning support to local governments in Tompkins and Cortland counties to address key questions and develop pathways for implementation of circular construction goals. The steps for participation are to pass a deconstruction resolution, complete a survey, designate a lead participant for one year, and work with regional colleagues on shared goals and initiatives. Lead contact for this technical assistance program is Gretchen Worth and her Christopherson Center contact information was shared. Committee members were in favor of moving forward with the non-binding resolution and participation in the Technical Assistance Program. Hilary mentioned a matrix that was developed by the intern phased out a process for when the town moves forward. Once the resolution is passed, the matrix can be used for a direct and intentional approach with coordination between Marty and codes staff to move forward. C.J. offered to draft a town specific resolution with the template provided and circulate it back to the committee for follow-up. 5.Green New Deal Action Plan Overview presentation. Rod gave a brief history about how the city and town both adopted a Green New Deal Action Plan. The town plan identified three major goals, and an ad hoc committee was formed to follow up on the initiative goals. A separate committee was deemed not needed as updates are presented at the Planning Committee. The three goals are to achieve an equitable transition to carbon neutrality town-wide by 2030; meet electricity needs of town government operations with 100% regionally sourced renewable electricity by 2025; and reduce emissions from the town fleet vehicles by 50% from 2010 levels by 2025. Hilary the Town Sustainability Planner prepared a brief overview presentation on the Green New Deal (GND) action plan process, the GND and Town Comprehensive Plan goal connections, the GND Action plan for 2025-2026 and a summary on what role the sustainability planner has in the GND process and overall, in the town. Twelve out of the 17 actions in the 2025-2026 GND Action plan have been completed or partially completed. Highlights included passing the Energy Code Supplement, Community Choice Aggregation (T-GEN) launching with community outreach and education in February, anticipated passing of a deconstruction resolution, Greenhouse Gas inventory and other actions in progress. Resources were included for the committee with direct links to the main documents mentioned as well as the Town’s recently updated Sustainability webpage. C.J. noted that the Town Comprehensive Plan was adopted in 2014. In 2024 as part of a 10 year look back, all departments helped prepare a summary report on the implementation of the goals in the eleven policy areas in the Town that the plan identified. Hilary noted that the GND Action plan is designed to be over a two-year period, however it is being updated annually. Should the plan be made to be over a one-year period or the updates be made bi- annually? Changing it to an annual plan was suggested and there were no disagreements. 3 6. Review initial Draft 2024 Town of Ithaca Greenhouse Gas Inventory for Government Operations. Hilary submitted a draft Greenhouse Gas Inventory report which is a tool used on two of the 2025-2026 GND Action Plan and Town Comprehensive Plan goals. The first inventory was based on 2009 data, followed by 2017-2019 data and the most recent inventory is using 2024 data. The previous inventory methodology and data varied and is used as a baseline for the current data, making the reporting challenging. The 2024 inventory is specific to the Town vehicle fleet and Town owned buildings. One of the conclusions in the inventory report is changing the baseline to a more current year where the data is more accurate. A graphic designer will be formatting and providing visuals for the inventory report as it will be a public facing document that should be engaging. Additional data pieces will be added before finalization as well. Hilary briefly mentioned ICLEI - Local Governments for Sustainability USA, which is a nonprofit organization providing sustainability assistance to local governments. ICLEI has tools for climate action planning and implementation, such as the ClearPath platform for greenhouse gas inventory analysis. She will use the tools as a resource in the future as well for energy and climate change matters and possibly deconstruction. 7. Staff updates and reports: As helpful information for the two new board and committee members, C.J. gave an overview of the difference between the Town’s Planning Board and Planning Committees, how planning intersects with zoning, engineering, public works and how the permitting process works. Marty and Rod added helpful information about the Planning Board and Zoning Board, respectively, and how they are independent of the Town Board and what the board roles are. Typical land use items that come before the Planning Committee are large rezoning projects. The South Hill Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) is beginning the environmental review process and may come back to the Planning Committee if needed before the project is over. Other law amendments occasionally come up as part of planning and zoning reviews such as Short-Term Rentals that can come by way of Planning Committee as needed also. 8. Next meeting date and upcoming agenda items: Rod noted for the new members that the meetings are on the third Thursday each month at 3:00 p.m. A calendar invite should have been sent for the year. No upcoming agenda items were noted. The Town of Ithaca Planning Committee meeting concluded at 4:24 p.m.