The official copy of the Planning Board minutes are available at the Town Clerk’s Office. These minutes may differ from the official minutes in formatting or spelling. For more information contact:
Town Clerk:
Bambi Hollenbeck
Address:
93 East Main Street
Dryden, NY 13053
Phone:
607-844-8888
8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday – Friday (excluding holidays)
E-mail:
townclerk
Town of Dryden Planning Board
June 16, 2005
Members Present: Chairperson Barbara Caldwell, Jim Crawford, David Weinstein, Joseph Laquatra, Russell Beck and Joseph Lalley
Also Present: Henry Slater, Debbie Gross, Gary Wood, Ted Lauve, Kelly Damm, Kristin Strickland & Amber Guernsey
Agenda: (1) Trudeau Public Hearing
(2) Wood Road Subdivision Sketch conference
(3) Howser Meadows Phase 2 proposals
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(1) Trudeau Public Hearing
7:07 Chairperson Barbara Caldwell opened the public hearing by reading the notice published in the Ithaca Journal regarding the final plat approval of a proposed 13-lot subdivision within the 300-500 block section of Etna Road Ithaca, NY 14850 within the Town of Dryden.
G. Wood To the best of my knowledge we have done everything that you have asked us to. We changed the driveways to the two lots to put them together. I’ve been out and dug the holes for the perk test. You have the long EAF form in which you have.
J. Lalley We had some issues with lots 9 & 11
G. Wood We talked about making that double and you the board in the end said NO, that is not necessary, the access can be between lots 3 & 4 and there is no reason to make access over on this other end. We were concerned that there didn’t need to be a long road. My distinct impression was that you the board were not as concerned about that as I was.
B. Caldwell We were saying what is to happen 30 years from now.
G. Wood That was the reason for combining the two between 3 & 4.
D. Gross It may have been because lot 10 has quite a large wetland area.
B. Caldwell Any other questions from the planning board?
D. Weinstein So we essentially have for 9, 10 & 11 they are all going to have their independent road cut.
J. Lalley I think he has met our requests
J. Laquatra I agree
B. Caldwell Any other questions?
J. Lalley Moved to close the public hearing
J. Crawford Second
B. Caldwell All in favor – 5
Public hearing closed at 7:15 pm
J. Lalley Read the Short Environmental Assessment form into the record dated June 6, 2005 with the changes below:
Project description B. 1. f. Page 5 was changed to 12-36.
Number 4. Page 5 change ½ acre to 4½ acres.
Number 6. Page 6 change n/a to 36 months
Number 7. a. change to n/a
Number 15 not answered – board answered “NO”
Number 21 eliminate to NYSEG
Number 25 Approvals req. NO to Town Board
NO to Local Agencies
NO to Regional Agencies
C. 2. change to RB-1
C. 5. N/A
C. 7. RB-1 with farm nearby
C. 9. a. change to 2.0 acres
Submitted by Gary L. Wood
B. Caldwell Any other comments
R. Beck I would like to add that as soon as yard work is started you will realize you will be over your 5½ acres. I would be interested in the end result.
J. Lalley Moved to select option A, which would be a negative dec.
D. Weinstein Second
B. Caldwell On this motion for Negative Dec.
All those in favor – 5
Opposed – 0
Motion carried
On the proposal as a whole?
H. Slater You have 3 options, you can approve it as submitted; you can disapprove it as submitted; or you can approve it with conditions. If you choose to approve it with conditions you must include a condition of conformance with the County Health Department regulations as they apply to this project. A decision needs to be made within 45 days.
D. Weinstein If the health department approves some lots and not others what happens then?
H. Slater Then they applicant needs to come back and ask for another final hearing relative to the one approved.
J. Lalley Part II SEQR, Reviewed and answered all questions, with this review we have no answers that are potentially large impact and I suggest that we do not need to fill out part III of SEQR.
Moved to accept SEQR Part 1 and Part II as amended
D. Weinstein Second
B. Caldwell All in favor – 5
Opposed – 0
J. Lalley Moved that we approve the plan as submitted subject to the conformance with the Tompkins County Health Department Regulations.
D. Weinstein Second
B. Caldwell All in favor – 5 Opposed – 0 Carried
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(2) Wood Road Subdivision Sketch conference
T. Lauve Introduced himself, representing Matrix Energy, who is proposing a 45-lot subdivision. We have another sketch plan to address some of the issues that came up at the last meeting. We did look at moving the entrance up to the north. The new amount of lots is now 44 with 1 large common area. The reason for that is our original wetland delineator missed this 13-acre wetland. Mr. Lauve went on to explain why the sketch plan was divided into 9 different sections of the subdivision. In doing that the road would be built as the subdivision was extended into the next section. Test wells will be installed and per the health department perk tests at the suggestion of John Andersson we will be doing 1 perk test for each lot in the first section. The storm water will comply with both water quality and quantity control. We will be over the 5-acre disturbance criteria. We will have storm water ponds on both sides of the creek.
B. Caldwell How will these be maintained?
T. Lauve We will set it up the same as we did in Best-run Subdivision where the lot owner will maintain those ponds. It is not a protected stream so it does not require a stream disturbance permit for a crossing. We will maintain a 50-foot wooded buffer on each side of the stream and any septic system will have to be 100-feet.
D. Gross Mentioned a letter sent from J. Andersson of the Tompkins County Health Department.
T. Lauve The issues he mentioned on lots 13 & 14 being combined with the septic system being moved. We sent a copy of this to J. Andersson to get this worked out.
B. Caldwell I did have a question about the number of trips, I think that your number is low.
T. Lauve I figured that answer on a trip generation manual 1.02 times per lot per hour.
J. Lalley Any concerns on only having one entrance.
J. Crawford Concerned about fire.
J. Lalley Looking back a Paragon Hollow…we widened the road with a sidewalk with a mountable curb. So that with obstruction there would still be a lane open on the side walk. That might be something we should consider. Also this would also provide safety for the school bus stop. I would be comfortable with a single entrance provided that we have a sidewalk with a mountable curb.
T. Lauve One other point was that 2 endangered species were identified by DEC one 1918 and one 1887. Looking at the habitats of the species, we will not be disturbing those habitats.
D. Weinstein Made the comment that these species could be beyond that 100-foot buffer.
J. Lalley Who has the title to the abandoned railroad? The Town?
T. Lauve I am unsure. I will find that out as far as I know it is owned by the owner of the subdivision.
D. Gross Wanted to discuss an email received by John Andersson stating that they would like to see a 100′ buffer from the watercourse to the sewage systems to be shown on the plan. Also that each lot would need to be investigated for adequacy for sewage before each section is approved.
T. Lauve That is the reason we have separated the division into sections. There would be detailed investigations on all the lots on Section 1, do a well installation and well check, submit that and then get the approval from the health department and file it with the county.
B. Caldwell Situations may come up with the drainage on some particular lots. Substantial modifications may need to be made.
J. Lalley Back to the sidewalk issues, I would want to require this after section 1. We would only need to have provisions for this with section 1. There would need to be a plan for it but not actually required until section 2.
D. Gross Discussion on wetland and soil conditions.
T. Lauve Reassured the board that the proper reports would be provided next time when they are required.
D. Weinstein Discussion on the soil conditions. There is a possibility of building a house without a basement.
D. Gross Storm water issues.
B. Caldwell Any other questions?
T. Lauve Next submittal will have more information.
B. Caldwell Do you Mr. Lauve have any questions for us?
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(3) Howser Meadows Phase 2 proposal
Kelly Damm Representative for Mr. Gutmann set out maps for the proposed Howser Meadow Subdivision. Explained that the first 21 lots were approved and there are only 2 left to sell.
H. Slater Some of these lots have been sold as double and triple lots.
K. Damm Most of them were sold as more than one lot. There are 6 new lots all with frontage on Hollister; all six lots are bigger than what is required by zoning. More acres and frontage than required, they are said to be keeping in the nature of development in the Town of Dryden.
J. Crawford Access to lot 29 would be off of what road.
H. Slater There is an issue with frontage for lot 28 and lot 31; this is part of the Phase 3.
J. Lalley Have a right of way for a road for Phase 3. The site has potential to support more development being close to Ithaca. If we work it so that we permit the installation of a road in some future date with driveway access.
D. Weinstein What you are saying is that they would not have to have a road now, just make it a possibility to build one in the future.
K. Damm The owners are looking to impose the similar restrictions that they had in phase 1 and build consistently with the neighborhood that is currently there.
B. Caldwell Are they going to be building or selling lots for people to do as they want?
K. Damm Selling lots. They are looking to commence a homeowners association this summer for phase 1, which would potentially include phase 2 once the lots are sold. They would ensure that the recreational area, which were mapped out. This area would never be built on and there will be a minimal charge to the homeowners to maintain this area. This is located at the bottom part of phase 1.
B. Caldwell Any questions at this point?
D. Weinstein Is this area fields?
H. Slater Yes, it is currently harvested about once a year as hay.
D. Weinstein Were there any issues that came up with phase 1 during the building aspect.
H. Slater No.
J. Laquatra Drainage was an issue.
D. Weinstein Asked the different types of soils mentioned and determined that the soil was gravelly based, which is a good building soil.
J. Laquatra Mentioned that a road would not necessarily be a good idea.
J. Lalley We need to allow for the potential some day.
H. Slater They should be able to find road frontage elsewhere.
D. Weinstein Does anyone besides me have and concerns about the flag lots being created?
B. Caldwell Any other questions for Kelly?
J. Laquatra Next time when this is brought before us to please have it more understandable possibly on an easel so that we can see where things are.
B. Caldwell Joe could you give us where we are going to be next time as far as training.
J. Laquatra For those of you who weren’t here, Henry was going to use some of our summer meetings. For our required continuing education of 3 hours per year. I have material that I presented at conferences including the NYS Planning Association. I can do this at the next meeting.
J. Lalley Wished Henry the best in his procedure.
B. Caldwell Also the best of luck to Debbie and thank you from the entire board. Any recommendations you may need would be provided.
J. Laquatra Distributed an article on open space in Putnam County, I ask that you read this article and that maybe we can communicate to Barbara that this is something that this planning board is interested in and would like the county to consider.
Meeting closed at 9:06 PM
