HomeMy WebLinkAboutPC Minutes 2024-08-15 Town of Ithaca Planning Committee
Thursday,August 15,2024
(3:00 PM Aurora Conference Room and on Zoom)
Minutes
Committee members present: Rich DePaolo, Chair; Rod Howe. Absent: Margaret Johnson
Board/Staff members: Director of Planning C.J. Randall; Director of Codes Marty Moseley;
Nick Quilty-Koval, Town Planner; Dave O'Shea, Senior Civil Engineer; Justin McNeal, Civil
Engineer.
Guests. Maplewood 11 project team on Zoom and in person including but not limited to: Michele
Palmer, Jacob von Mechow and intern Niel, Whitham Planning Design Landscape Architecture;
Henry Weinberg, CBT Architects.
Conifer-West Hill TND Team Including but not limited to: Scott Whitham & Mary Martin,
Whitham Planning Design Landscape Architecture; Kevin Day, Conifer; Bear Smith, Holt
Architects; David Herrick, TG Miller.
Laura Schneider, environmental guest.
1. Persons to be heard: None.
2. Committee announcements and concerns: None
3.Approval of July meeting minutes: Rich moved, Rod seconded. The July 18, 2024, minutes
were approved with one minor correction. 2 Ayes.
4. Proposed amendments to add Town-owned sewer infrastructure exemption to the Town
Zoning Code.Dave O'Shea submitted a memo noting the existing (2017)provision for Town-
owned water infrastructure to be exempted from certain requirements of the Town's Zoning
Code. The proposal is to amend 270-230.2 to include Town-owned sewer infrastructure as well
as to allow Zoning Code provisions to not be applicable to Town-owned water and sewer
infrastructure. Rich proposed to recommend this change, Rod agreed. C.J. stated she will prepare
the local law draft and send it to the Attorney for the Town for review and refer it to County
Planning for proposed Town Board action.
5. Continue review of Maplewood II development Planned Development Zone (PDZ)
rezoning proposal. Michele Palmer of Whitham Planning Design presented a memo with
another revised redlined draft PDZ language proposal to show the changes from the previous
committee meeting along with an explanatory memo regarding the Level of Service
measurement of driver experience relative to traffic analysis. Level D was confirmed by a traffic
engineer as an acceptable level of service and most of the intersections were at an A-B level.
Discussion with TCAT is ongoing and no formal commitments have been made. Bike Share and
Car Share are also interested in a possible commitment. The existing carpooling program
available at Cornell was noted and Greystar will notify residents of the program. The NACTO
bike safety and urban bikeway design, and it had led to the exploration of a bicycle boulevard
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with set standards for the connection between Maplewood 1 and Maple Ave. Michele will
forward that document electronically.
271-18.3 B. 1 Clarify this language. The half-acre area removed was an imaginary lot line or site
envelope calculation around each building. Proposed to now have square footage assigned within
the civic building for community center use. The "community open space calculation does not
include the following list" on page 4 should be clear that the building footprint is excluded from
the calculations.
The language related to"site envelope"that was carried over from the first phase was removed
and more conventional descriptions for setbacks, coverage and separation between buildings is
suggested. A column was added to the building"type"table for the bicycle storage
sheds/accessory buildings which are currently under design.
271-185.A Performance standards. The site envelope elimination and addition of Performance
standards was explained in detail. How the height is measured was discussed in detail. The tallest
proposed building was shown on a slide. Marty asked if slab on grade was the proposal? (yes).
He noted height is from the lowest point of measurement and up, not an average. The
mechanicals on the top will need to be addressed, measuring to the top of the elevator shaft was
also mentioned. Marty suggested not to exceed height from the lowest point to the highest point
including the elevator shaft. Each building could have height not to exceed number spelled out
independently, due to the different stories/height proposed. Parapets are proposed to obscure the
view of the mechanicals (not included in the height calculation); however, will need to be
visualized from different vantage points. The right of way was explained (in this case the
property line is the centerline of Maple Avenue) and the front, rear, and side yards.
Ground coverage will need to be defined or changed to Building Area which already has a
definition. Change NYS Fire Code Reference to NYS Uniform Code.
The facade will be broken up, an indent will articulate the 2' offset on the street facing wall and a
more dimensional illustration was shown for clarity that was not rendered as clearly at the past
presentation. Further articulation and how it would affect the floor plan and budget was briefly
noted. The length of the street-facing wall without the required offset can be reduced from <175'
to <100'.
271-18.5 E. Parking. Rich wants assurance that there are enough EV charging stations available
to all onsite residents and not based on the residents who have paid extra(via a paid permit
unbundled from rental charges) for priced parking at a particular space with a charger. The
language indicates> 5% of off-street parking spaces will be provided with EV charging stations
at project opening with another 20%having the provisions to have future stations added as
needed. On-street parking and off-street parking differences were discussed, designated trail
access parking was mentioned as being requested by the town. Interior spaces being for
rent/assigned or available to all residents was discussed as something further for Greystar to
weigh in on. The intent was initially that they are for rent and assigned/not for anyone to use,
other than a couple visitor spaces and the Town requested spaces designated for trail access
parking.
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During the Sketch presentation, the Planning Board asked for the new buildings proposed in
Phase 2 to be put into context with the existing Phase 1 for visualization, that rendering will be
provided to the Planning Committee as well.
Staff was comfortable with the progress so far with the proposed PDZ language and C.J. noted
the site visit scheduled for Wednesday,August 21st from 1:30-3:00.
6. West Hill (Conifer) Traditional Neighborhood Development Early concept review
proposal presentation and introduction of New Neighborhood Code rezoning request.
Kevin Day of Conifer began with an introduction to the Conifer company and their existing
developments in the town and goals to provide a mixed-use village/full traditional neighborhood
development of up to 400 housing units on an approximately 50 acres site on West Hill off
Mecklenburg Road. The project proposed a compact mixed-us neighborhood that is pedestrian
friendly, and human-scale designed while offering mixed income housing options with
transportation connection networks, green space and access to adjacent town parkland.
Mary Martin of Whitham Planning, lead project designer, presented an overview and memo
regarding the proposed Conifer West Hill TND early concept review. The submission included a
project narrative, charrette structure, public outreach letter, Charette Boards including concept
plans, draft municipal approvals schedule, and public outreach mailing list.
The proposal includes twenty-five (25) one-to two-story single-family homes; thirty-five (35)
two-to three-story townhomes, fifteen (15) three-story small apartment buildings, and two(2)
large (four-story) buildings would make up the neighborhood and the small-scale commercial
space(s)would be the street level of the two large apartment buildings. Essential services like
caf6, deli, hair salon, etc. for the commercial space.
The first design charrette is scheduled for Wednesday, August 28th from 5-7 pm with the
stakeholders to inform and get feedback on the concepts. The second design charrette is
tentatively scheduled for September 26th to confirm the feedback previously received and get
additional feedback to inform design development for the formal Regulating plan application.
The project timeline is conceptual review this month,Nov 2024 for the Regulating plan, January
2025 for re-zoning, June 2025 for subdivision and Spring 2026 construction kick off. Project
completion is anticipated in the Fall of 2028.
The team indicated that the funding is anticipated through tax credits and the single-family
homes would likely be the first phase with the variable funding sources.
Town Engineering initial comments were that the water system can support the additional
development, the sewer is the initial concern. The road network and dedication of the
infrastructure will need to be looked at closely. Road access was discussed, secondary
ingress/egress via Oakwood Lane in addition to Mecklenburg Rd. is a possibility of using an
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existing fire access road. Rich asked for the building heights to be accurately projected and
noted the timeline for rezoning seems to be ambitious.
The charette materials did not need formal approval or acceptance by the Planning Committee,
staff will review for compliance with the New Neighborhood Code. The information for the first
design charrette will be on the Town website for information and town staff and board members
who attend will not be there for formal active involvement, participation or presentations, only
viewing as guests.
Follow-up with the Planning Committee after each respective charrette is anticipated.
7. Staff updates and reports.
C.J. updated on the following:
The Town is working closely with Tompkins County Planning & Sustainability to better
understand NYSDEC's work with Cornell Institute for Resource Information Sciences in the
transition from the current regulatory maps to the new informational maps relative to the major
NYSDEC Wetlands updates mentioned at the previous meeting which will reduce the threshold
size from 12.4 to 7.4 and being in new wetlands under State jurisdiction. Wetlands of Local
Importance is a new classification. Dave noted that it won't have to be mapped, the current DEC
regulations indicate it is only a State jurisdictional wetland if it is mapped. It will create more
work for town staff to determine when they are referred to DEC under the new regulations.
January 2025 will begin the implementation of the new regulations.
Conifer West Hill TND Design Charrette date noted, shared townwide in newsletter, and also
Ithaca Voice article which will get the information out to the public. Possibly there is a local
listsery that could be used for the West Hill neighborhood also.
South Hill TND continues to be in conversation, no changes or progress has been made.
8. Next meeting date and upcoming agenda items: Monday September 16, 2024, 3:00 p.m.
The Town of Ithaca Planning Committee meeting concluded at 4:20 p.m.
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