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HomeMy WebLinkAboutPC Minutes 2019-11-21Town of Ithaca Planning Committee Thursday, November 21, 2019 Committee members: Rich DePaolo, Chair; Rod Howe Absent: Pat Leary Board/Staff members present: Bill Goodman, Town Supervisor; Sue Ritter; Marty Mosely Others: None 1. Persons to be heard: None 2. Committee announcements and concerns: None 3. Consider October meeting minutes: Approved as drafted. 4. Continue to discuss and consider potential modification to rental registry law: The committee focused on finalizing language modifications to the rental registry law. Discussion focused on how to handle language pertaining to cooperative corporations and recommendations provided earlier by Susan Brock. After some discussion, at approximately 4:15pm, the Planning Committee went into Closed Session to seek legal counsel (via phone). At approximately 4:45pm the Planning Committee came out of Closed Session. Subsequent to the closed session, and after further discussion, the committee agreed to the following language: D. Residential dwelling units that are owned by cooperative corporations and subject to proprietary leases under the Cooperative Corporations Law. For the purposes of this article, a dwelling unit shall not be considered a residential rental dwelling unit when a house sitter occupies an owner's principal residence while the owner is away, the house sitter provides security, maintenance and/or pet care, and the house sitter pays no money or other financial consideration to the owner in exchange for the occupancy. For the purposes of this subsection, for a dwelling unit to qualify as an owner's principal residence, at least one of the property owners must reside in the dwelling unit for a minimum of 185 days per year. No other owner(s) shall own a larger percentage, collectively or individually, than the owner-occupant(s)." Committee will pass this language on to Susan for any needed finalizing. 5. Staff updates and reports: Sue provided an update on the 96B sidewalk project and reported that the final draft design is under review by Town staff and NYS DOT. The Town Board will be asked to authorize the signing of an easement from Ithaca College for a strip of land needed for the sidewalk. Gateway Trail – Property owners on Buttermilk Falls Rd. have expressed concern with filling-in the box culvert opening under the trail. They are concerned that it will exacerbate future flooding problems on their property. They also stated that they have access rights to the other side of the box culvert, but according to deed records, those rights were extinguished when the land was transferred to a subsequent owner years ago. Maple Hill Apartments – the apartment property is being transferred to Cornell earlier than had been anticipated. The apartments are now vacant and Cornell is securing the site with fencing and evening securing guards. Rich mentioned wanting to look into issues with the gun range off Burns Rd, including its use as a state- wide police training facility. Bill and Rod will raise the issues at their next meeting with City officials. Rich would also like to Susan Brock to investigate the legal issues. 6. Discuss next meeting date and upcoming agenda items: The December 19th meeting is tentatively cancelled.