HomeMy WebLinkAboutMin- 1-19-11
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CODES AND ORDINANCES COMMITTEE
MEETING MINUTES
January 19, 2011
MEMBERS PRESENT: Bill Goodman, Pat Leary, Eric Levine, Eva Hoffmann.
OTHERS PRESENT: Susan Brock, Attorney for the Town; Bruce Bates, Director of Code
Enforcement; Sue Ritter, Director of Planning; Chris Balestra, Planner; Dan Tasman, Assistant Director
of Planning; Salvatore and Rosalind Grippi.
MEMBERS ABSENT: Fred Wilcox.
Chair Bill Goodman called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m.
Agenda Item No. 1 - Member Comments/Concerns: None.
Agenda Item No. 2 – Approval of Minutes from the December 15, 2010 meeting:
Minutes were approved with no changes. Eva moved and Pat seconded the motion to approve the
minutes, all in favor.
Agenda Item No. 3 – Approval of the Remaining 2011 COC Meeting Schedule (potentially changing
meeting start time to 6:30pm):
Bill asked the Committee if the 6:30pm start time would work for everyone. One Committee member
might have difficulty with the time, so the Committee decided to try the 6:30pm start time for February.
Agenda Item No. 4 – Discussion of Draft Revised Conservation Zone Amendments:
The Committee continued to go line by line through the redlined version of the new draft amendments,
beginning where we left off at the December 15, 2010 meeting on page 4, Section L (3). No changes
were made to page 4.
On page 5, Section L (3)(h) [the text highlighted in yellow by Susan Brock]. Susan explained that she
was looking at the consistency of the law and asked the Committee if they wanted to allow clearcutting in
a timber harvesting plan and if that would include preserving a sustainable stand of trees within the plan.
The Committee went back and forth regarding clearcutting and types of trees to keep or cut down,
preserving healthy trees, mature trees, limit of area, heritage trees and application for a permit under
(3)(h), page 5, Section L.
On page 6, Section L (5)(a), which also mentioned clearcutting under the “Standards for Sustainable
Forest Management Plans”. The Committee agreed that the regulation should be consistent and discussed
the pros and cons of allowing clearcutting in timber harvest/forest management plans.
Bruce brought up the question: ‘do we want to say what healthy mature trees are, would clearcutting be 6”
or more in diameter, what would a mature tree be – 24” or 12” since we would have to enforce this’?
Bill went back to page 5, Section L, (3)(h) to review language.
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The Committee decided to allow clearcutting, but placed a percentage limit of 20% on the amount of
clearcutting allowed for every 10 acres or less and 10% for parcels greater than 10 acres, in order to
preserve a number of large healthy trees in a plan.
Susan Brock said she’d work on new wording for Sections L (3)(h) and (5)(a) that reflected the
Committee’s decision.
The Committee also decided to clarify the definition of clearcutting so that it pertains to parcels and to
deal more thoroughly with preserving large trees on properties when they work on a future overall tree
preservation plan for the Town.
The Committee then turned the discussion back to page 4, Section L (2)(i); the cord to board feet
conversion that they did not resolve the last time. Bruce stated that he did a lot of research on calculating
board feet from cord wood and that the calculations were different depending on which method one used.
For example, 10 cords of wood equaled 15,360 board feet using the international ¼ log rule, but other
methods used calculated less than 15,000 board feet. The Committee decided that the Town should
follow the international log rule standards.
The Committee left off on the discussion of cords to board feet and will determine the standard numbers
to use in the law at the meeting in February. The Committee also left off on page 6, Section L (5)(b) of
the redlined document, and will pick up there at the February 16, 2011 COC meeting.
Agenda Item No. 5 – Discussion of Comments Received Regarding the Draft Limited Historic
Commercial Zone Regulation:
The Committee went through the memo provided by Chris that was included in their meeting material,
which included Planning Board comments regarding the Limited Historic Commercial Zone regulation.
The only changes the Committee decided to make to the Limited Historic Commercial Zone regulation
based on the Planning Board suggestions were to fix the suggested typos, to delete the “electronic repairs”
on the list of principal uses allowed by special permit (270 -142.5 (H)(7)), and to delete the word
“auxiliary” in the supplemental limitations section of the regulation (270-122 (E)).
Susan Brock will work on wording that will replace “electronic repairs” with something that allows small
uses with hand tools.
The Committee also discussed the emailed comments from historic preservationists (via Bruce Brittain)
and decided to make no changes to the regulation based on the comments.
The Committee decided to bring the law (with those changes agreed upon) to the Town Board for
consideration of adoption.
Agenda Item No. 6 – Continued Discussion of Revisions to “Garage” and “Accessory Building”
Definitions and References in the Town Zoning Code:
The Committee moved this agenda item to the February 16, 2011 COC meeting.
Agenda Item No. 7 – Discussion of the Proposed 2011 COC Work Plan:
The Committee moved this agenda item to the February 16, 2011 COC meeting.
Agenda Item No. 8 – Other Business:
None
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Agenda Item No. 9 – Next meeting date and agenda scheduled:
For the February 16, 2011 COC meeting starting at 6:30pm:
- Discussion of Proposed 2011 COC Work Plan.
- Continue Discussion of Revisions to “Garage” and “Accessory Building” Definitions.
- Continue Discussion of Revised Draft Conservation Zone Amendments.
Meeting adjourned at 9:15pm.
Respectfully Submitted,
Chris Balestra, Planner
Sandy Polce, Administrative Staff