HomeMy WebLinkAboutAG Minutes 2016-01-26 Town of Ithaca Ag Committee
Tuesday,January 26,6:00 PM,2016
Final Minutes
Members Present: Lisa Ferguson, Russ Wedemeyer, Sharon Tregaskis, Devon Van Noble, Christianne
White, Claire Forest, Dean Koyanagi
Town Representatives: Mike Smith (Senior Planner), Bill Goodman (Town Supervisor)
Guests: Laura Johnson-Kelly, Chris Fournier and John Lewis
1. Persons to be heard: none
2. Member Announcements/Concerns: none
4. Approval of Minutes: During review of July 28 minutes Lisa Ferguson reminded us that she has many
more requests for internships than she had internship slots. She had 10 requests just today. They are
mostly from college-aged kids who will work in exchange for room and board, for 10 weeks, they work 4
hours/day. Discussion ensued re triggers for unemployment, minimum wage requirements, obligations
that go with contractual work over$600. Farmers have gotten penalties from labor department.
Farmers may be transitioning away from the blurry lines of internships to straight paid wages. There are
6 or 7 criteria to weigh. Lisa has considered this very carefully and has names for anyone who would like
to offer internships.
The July 281"and November 171" minutes were moved by Sharon, seconded by Claire, to approve both
sets of minutes.
3. Chair and Coordinator Reports/ Updates: Mike Smith reports that Town of Ithaca got a grant to do
tree inventory. The project is to inventory along all Town roads, walkways, parks and preserves. The
Town Conservation Board has been looking at deer management. They have sent a letter to the Town
Board, and will be discussing it with them soon. Ideas include setting up a new program like
Trumansburg or Lansing, for culling. In practice, it is almost impossible to get nuisance permits. You
must prove$10,000 in damage. Could town set up program that would mitigate the difficulty in getting
permits? McGowan Farm at Cornell has plans to install an eight foot fence to keep deer out of 22 acres.
Town recently received two grants. The first will involve replacing playgrounds at Grandview and
Hungerford Heights Parks. The second will pay for a feasibility study to prepare a strategic plan along
Elmira Road within the Town of Ithaca. This corridor serves as a gateway into the Ithaca community for
tourists, visitors, residents, and commuters.They got fewer dollars than they asked for, but still got
something.
5. Review goals/recommendations from the Town's Ag Plan: Town newsletter is no longer sent out in
paper form and the Town has very few(about 200 out of possible 4,000) addresses for the electronic
version so they are looking at better option for distributing news. There is a Facebook page for
Conservation Board. The Town is interested in exploring social media to communicate with Town
residents. Ithaca Voice accepts press releases.
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It was noted that the definition of a 'farm' can be found in the Town Zoning Ordinance. Sharon will
email us the definition, which includes a minimum size of three acres and allowable structures and
equipment. The Town got a request for a farmer's market stand in a light industrial zone from
Greentree Hydroponics...they were told that the market must be associated with the store in some
way...using soil they manufacture or something. This will be discussed at the February 8 meeting.
Now that the Comprehensive plan is complete, the Town will be reviewing zoning and codes so we
should be reviewing those Ag Plan recommendations soon.
6. Ithaca Town Board Report/ Update: Update on sign law;the Town Board was supposed to start to
discuss comments from Ag Committee, Planning Board, Zoning Board of Appeals, and Conservation
Board on 1/25 at their study session but didn't. They would like to address some of the concerns
expressed during the farm tour but don't want to violate first amendment concerns.
7. New Regulations for Chickens: Sharon Tregaskis wonders what our purpose is. Since farms are
exempt from the proposed chicken rules, what role does anyone on the ag committee, which is
comprised of farmers, have? So we, as individuals are bringing our comments to the committee?
Devon Van Noble said that he was glad farms were exempted from the rules. He feels 3 acres to define
a farm seems like an arbitrary limit. Food production is a priority so why restrict the promotion of food
production? We should encourage people to own poultry and produce some of their own food.
Chris Fournier attended as an interested guest. She and her husband moved to Ithaca with
homesteading in mind and checked out Town rules re. domestic animals and would be seriously
disappointed if their rights to own animals were taken away or reduced. Code as it stands allows
domestic animals in low density zoning, when kept and maintained for personal use. Their guinea hens
are at issue.
Claire Forest feels that the noise made by the guinea hens across the road from her property negatively
affected her u-pick raspberry venture. Claire read from her letter.
Laura Johnson-Kelly, also a guest of the Ag Committee,was generally pleased with the current draft
regulations. She understood it was meant to promote more ownership of chickens. She lives in LDR,
but it is very rural in nature and it would make no sense to limit her to six hens. She's had between 25-
50 hens at any one time, and a rooster, who serves a protective and social flock role. She cannot define
herself as a farm and does not claim an ag exemption, but certainly is not in a densely residential area.
Christianne White commented that concern for noise and odor seem to be behind the proposed rules
for chicken ownership but the proposed rules do not really'solve' either issue. Proximity to residences
would be a factor in the noise and odor presence but the rules refer to distance from property lines
because that is a more measurable quantity. White mentioned that chickens can serve a beneficial
'clean up' role and one would often like to have them clearing out debris and leaf litter that tends to
accumulate along hedgerows and property lines in order to reduce tick populations, so keeping them
away from property lines seems unhelpful. Limiting the number of roosters doesn't really address the
noise problem as one rooster can make plenty of noise, and it will be hard for people to control the
number of roosters they end up with if they buy straight run. Even if people order female chicks only
they often receive roosters as the sexing assessment is difficult and imperfect.
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Sharon mentioned that of genuine concern would be people raising fighting game roosters, so there
might need to be additional language added to restrict this inhumane practice which has nothing to do
with providing local food. If noise is a concern, why not include other animals? Sharon noted that
beagles can be just as annoying as guinea hens or roosters. There is no mention of the possibility of
fixed vs mobile coops. Some people will want to move their coop if their birds are 'pastured'. Sharon
says if you have a mobile coop you can raise more birds in a given amount of square footage, under
humane conditions. Sharon asks, what is 'primary user Let's not have code enforcement officers
defining and evaluating this. Who will adjudicate disputes?
Lisa mentions that a concern that domestic animals attract predators might be misplaced. She has a
coyote living in her hedgerow who has never bothered her goats. That kind of predator is good to have
around.
White mentioned that if the Town has concern that the poultry be treated humanely, then requiring
people to build predator-proof coops would be a fine improvement to ordinance, as most people start
their hens in vulnerable housing until they lose the birds. Why does the language only refer to chickens?
Shouldn't the language refer to other domestic poultry like ducks, turkeys, quail, and geese?The
requirement to come into line with the requirements may be hard to accomplish in 60 days if the
ground is frozen or too wet, making it difficult to move coop, electric fencing. Language asking that
changes be made when reasonably able would be better.
The language allowing six roosters seems fanciful...at most Steep Hollow ever had been four roosters for
100 chickens and that was not by design or intention. Can't imagine why anyone would need six
roosters. The more roosters, the more crowing. The aggressiveness of roosters to people may be
minimized by allowing people to have more than one...in our case, three seems the perfect number.
They keep track of each other and go after each other instead of humans, when in defense of their hens.
And they have fewer opportunities for mating which may keep their testosterone lower, also reducing
their aggressiveness. Why should chickens be invisible? People seem to like seeing ours. The restriction
to keep them in back of house may not make sense on lots where house is towards the back of the
property.
John Lewis attended the committee meeting as a guest. He suggested that the restriction for low
density residential is not helpful. He prefers no regulations and has had chickens on and off for years.
Bill explained that the noise ordinance refers mostly to construction noise and controls when
construction may take place; between 7 AM and 9 PM, generally. There is some reference to
restrictions on habitual barking under the sections about dog control and licensing. The Town contracts
with the SPCA to control dogs.
Bill Goodman acknowledges that Town must think long and hard about imposing restrictions which did
not exist before. The town considered measuring distances to residences when considering nuisance
smoke from wood-burning stoves and furnaces, but dropped those proposed regulations as being too
difficult to impose. Currently in low density you can have any number of chickens. Anyone is free and is
encouraged to send comments to the Codes and Ordinance Committee. He does not need the Ag
Committee to take a position on this. In reference to zoning, every parcel does have to have a 'primary
use' and it might be residential or farming or something else. Perhaps we need a new category for
homesteaders, who are farming on a smaller scale. The City of Ithaca has decided to do a pilot program
before installing any permanent rules on chickens.
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Ms. Fournier stated that her chickens are 400 feet from any property line.
Claire Forest's read Debbie Teeter's email and made a recommendation that would include Debbie
Teeter's recommendation, which would exclude any roosters or guinea hens.
Sharon Tregaskis made a motion that the Ag Committee supports the Town's efforts to allow the
residents of Town of Ithaca to raise their own food and would encourage the code and ordinance
committee to allow legal poultry husbandry in medium density residential zones. No second.
The next meeting where this will come up is end of March. Codes and Ordinances is working on a draft
recommendation which would then go to the Town Board. Ag Committee has been allowed to
comment fairly early in the process. The Town Board does not have to follow the recommendation that
will come from the Codes and Ordinances Committee.
Adjourned at 8:27 pm.
Minutes prepared by Christianne White
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