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HomeMy WebLinkAboutLP-02/16/2016 LAND PRESERVATION COMMITTEE MEETING Minutes & Discussion Notes from Meeting held on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 at 7:00 p.m. Town Hall Annex Executive Board Room Members Present: John Sepenoski, Chairman Anne Murray Sam McCullough Lillian Ball Members Absent: Eric Keil Peggy Dickerson Maureen Cullinane Also present: Melissa Spiro, Land Preservation Coordinator Melanie Doroski, Land Preservation Secretary Tim Caufield, PLT Vice President Commencement: • The meeting began at 7:07 p.m. with four LPC members present. Adoption of Meeting Minutes: • HOLD -Acceptance of LPC meeting minutes from January 12, 2016. No quorum. Land Preservation Applications and Inquiries: • SCTM#1000-73.-1-1 and 73.-2-4(THE VINES) Review status and Planning Board request re: Agricultural Building Area Mary C. Wilson, Esq. is representing the Town on this project. Contract has been sent to landowner. Planning Board requested that LPC review possibility of including rights-of-ways and Agricultural Building Site within the Easement Area to keep from making separate tax map parcels. Planning Board's conditional Covenants and Restrictions in regard to Agricultural Building Site were discussed. LPC favorable to Easement including all of Lot #1 with terms for Agricultural Building Site as per Planning Board's conditions and for area to be designated within Easement. Town's purchase would still be based on the 28.1 acre development rights easement purchase area. ® SCTM #1000-96.-5-12.1 (ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH OF THE SACRED HEART) Appraisal review [executive session] LPC favorable to preserving currently farmed land. Parcel will need to be included in the CPPP List of Eligible Parcels. The LPC members entered into EXECUTIVE SESSION. Appraisal reviewed. MOTION made by Sam McCullough, seconded by Anne Murray, to direct Melissa Spiro as Land Preservation Coordinator, to present a purchase offer to landowner, Roman Catholic Church of the Sacred Heart, for the purchase of a development rights easement on the farmed portion of SCTM #1000-96.-5.12.1 at a cost per buildable acre in accordance with the appraisal. Offer is subject to landowner applying for and receiving Planning Board approval of a lot line change resulting in a 50' wide right-of-way that will provide legal access to the easement area and applying for and receiving Planning Board approval to subdivide the 23± acres from the remainder of the property. LPC will not restrict the location or allowance for agricultural structures within the easement area. In addition, Melissa directed to make an appointment to review this project with the Town Board before presenting offer to the landowner. LPC will allow for appraisal to be shared with landowner/agent. Motion carried: 4/0 • PROJECT STATUS UPDATES [executive session where applicable] Land Preservation Coordinator Melissa Spiro presented status updates on new and pending projects. END OF EXECUTIVE SESSION Applications & Inquiries for Uses or Structures on Preserved Property None Stewardship and Management: None General Land Preservation Items: • NEW RULES—AGENDA ITEM AS PER CHAIRMAN, JOHN SEPENOSKI Chairman John Sepenoski provided hand-out of document he authored entitled "New Rules as of 2/16/2016" (see attached document). • FINANCIAL UPDATE [executive session where applicable] No report given. Next Regular Meeting: • The next regular meeting will be on Tuesday, March 1, 2016 Adjournment: • The meeting was adjourned at 8:55 p.m. by the four attending LPC members. Respectfully submitted by Melanie Doroski, Land Preservation Secretary New Rules as of 2/16/2016 Problem: Over the past four years the Land Preservation Committee meetings have focused more and more on informational agenda items that LPC never takes any formal action on and never will take any formal action on because they do not relate to anything that LPC is required to act on. In addition it has come to light that the LPC has overstepped its authority on multiple occasions and this has resulted in LPC time being spent on inappropriate agenda items. This has gotten to the point where it appears that the time being spent on these informational agenda items and items that are not part of the LPC's duties are being discussed at the expense of important agenda items that involve the duties of the LPC and require LPC actions. The purpose of the New Rules outlined in this document is to focus LPC meetings on official LPC business that requires the LPC to take actions and eliminate actions where the LPC oversteps its authority. Meetings From this point forward LPC meetings will focus solely on official LPC business and there will be no more informational agenda items discussed nor will anything outside of the LPC's authority be discussed. When the official business has been concluded the meeting will be closed. At this point there will be an optional study hall period where LPC members may discuss any topics they choose. This will not be mandatory and lack of attendance will not count against any LPC members. No official business will be conducted during this period nor will any minutes be kept. It is anticipated that rarely will any LPC members choose to stay for this period. However, it is suggested that any LPC members that have missed prior meetings or have fallen behind on certain projects use this period to review past minutes, the status report and/or discuss projects with staff as moving forward there will be no more rehashing of ongoing projects or issues for members that have missed meetings. Official LPC business shall be as follows: 1. Items that require the LPC to vote. Examples include approving minutes,recommending appraisals and recommending offers or counter-offers. 2. Items that require a response from the LPC. Examples include responding to a Planning request for comments on a conservation subdivision where the Town intends on purchasing development rights and responding to a Town Board request for comments on proposed legislation that may impact the preservation program. 3. Discussions directly related to and that will result in an LPC vote or response as outlined above. The purpose of this point is to acknowledge that in some cases it may take multiple meetings before LPC comes to a conclusion on a matter and therefore it can still be official business without a vote or response being generated immediately. At the same time it also is meant to avoid lengthy discussions that at first appear to be leading to some action but never actually do. 4. Items that are of educational value to the LPC and related to the LPC's duties. This can be open to abuse so here are examples to illustrate the intent: a. PLT's presentation of Larry Indimine's appraisal analysis is acceptable because appraisals are a normal part of the program and the analysis showed how easements can devalue property which is of legitimate educational value to the LPC. b. As it played out in the past Andy Senesac's mile-a-minute presentation would NOT be acceptable because it had nothing to do with any formal committee business at that time. It would have been acceptable for the study hall period. c. Had the Town Board requested LPC to comment on a mile-a-minute policy they were considering then Andy Senesac's presentation would have been acceptable because the request would require an LPC response and learning from an expert would have strengthened the response. 5. Items related to the administration of the LPC. Examples include meeting schedules, term expirations, interviews for new members, etc. At this point it is important to note and comment on several items that will typically not be considered official committee business to be covered at the meetings. It must be noted that this does not mean the following items are not important, they certainly are, but they typically are informational only and do not require any formal action by the LPC. There are cases where the following items may serve as important supporting information for official business in which case they can certainly be presented as part of the official business but they typically will not be official business in and of themselves. 1. The status report. LPC has never acted on the status report because there is never anything on it to act on as it simply notes the status of each project where this means the applicant or other entities have work to do and not LPC. Typically the status report notes where the project stands or why it is not moving but this information is statement of fact and there is nothing that LPC can act on to change the status. Also, when the project does in fact move to a step that LPC must take an action on the same information on the report is often presented anyway so there is no reason for the LPC to discuss this report as a committee. 2. The financial model. Like the status report the LPC has never taken an action on the financial model although in this case the first presentation of the model was certainly acceptable as official committee business since this was educational and important for the LPC to know about. Beyond this it is really supposed to be a tool for staff to use and while it might need to be presented as part of a discussion about revamping the program when we no longer have a bank balance there is no need to discuss it on its own. 3. Monitoring reports. Again, while these are important, especially if violations are discovered, the fact is there is nothing that requires LPC to process these in any way so there is no need to discuss them as a group. If violations are found,they are to be handled by staff and this goes whether the violation was discovered by LPC members as part of the normal monitoring or any other Town staff or members of the public that report them. 4. Structure requests. All structure requests will be reviewed by staff to determine whether the request was necessary and if so whether they are allowed by the easement and responded to appropriately. Note that this means if the structure does not require any review the applicant will be notified of this. The staff reports on these matters are always thorough and always make it obvious whether the request is allowed or not so there is no reason for the LPC to be involved in this. This information will be made available to all LPC members upon request. Agendas Agenda items will note details on what the potential action or actions of the LPC may be, for instance "review new application", "respond to counter offer received". This will serve to help eliminate unnecessarily re-discussing earlier elements of the project. Any agenda items that are not covered at a meeting due to time constraints will be moved to the top of the next meeting's agenda, the only exceptions being high priority or emergency situations. Minutes Minutes will be kept for the official committee business part of the meeting but not the optional study hall. When the LPC votes on an issue the minutes will record the topic of discussion without any details of specific comments made by LPC members during the discussion, the motion offered, vote and any individual member's comments for the record made at the time of the vote. When the LPC prepares a formal response the minutes will note the topic of the discussion and then reference a copy of the formal response. When the LPC only discusses a vote or response the topic of the discussion without any specific details will be noted and language noting that the LPC did not make any decisions and will be taking up the matter again in the future will also be included. General Clean Up For a preservation project to be on the agenda the Town must have a formal and complete application submitted by the owners or their authorized agent. One exception to this will be if the project involves a potential preservation partner willing to provide funding, outreach, etc.