Town of Huron Planning Board Minutes - subject to approval.
Regular meeting - October 5, 2009
Call to Order: Larry Lockwood called the meeting to order at 7:30 p.m.
Members present: Larry Lockwood, Jack McGuire, Chris Kenyon and Charles Boogaard. Joe Snyder was absent.
Other Officials present: Dave Buisch, Allan Traister and Lois Buckalew - Councilmembers, Laurie Crane - Supervisor and Roger Gallant - Building Inspector
Guests: George Frantz & Student and Donna Traister
The Agenda was modified to accommodate the guest speaker.
1. Master Plan
Mr. George Frantz provided his resume to the board members. He is a visiting lecturer at Cornell. He has a full time Planning Practice and teaches one course each semester called "Planning Field Workshops." Through this course, students are taken into a community to produce a Planning product for the client community. Mr. Frantz stated that they had not done any full blown Comprehensive Plans in awhile but had done what they call "Area Plans" (certain areas that communities wanted to focus on) for some townships in Pennsylvania. Last semester, Spring 2009, they were hired by the Liberty Community Development Corporation in Sullivan County to create a plan for the hamlet of Parksville which had been affected by the new I86 highway. He stated that the reason for a town to do planning is to find out what direction the community wants to go in and to find out what the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats are for the community. He gave some other examples of work done in other communities. He stated that a land-use map is not always necessary. The primary goal could be to come to a consensus of what direction the town wants to go in, which will in turn guide the decisions of the Planning Board, Zoning Board, etc. The students could help start & perhaps create a draft that the board could then work on and refine. On the trip here, he noted that agriculture is an important part of the town and that he has been working with the American Farmland Trust in other areas which could be helpful in Huron.
Charles asked how he finds out what the town wants.
Mr. Frantz said that there are several ways to do it. In Groton, they surveyed the household by mail. They have also gone door-to-door, they have done telephone surveys (9th Ward in New Orleans from their studio in Ithaca) and they have done it with 1 or 2 community forums.
Jack asked if any of the towns had websites that the board members could look at. Mr. Frantz said that the towns they worked with are small and he didn't think they had websites. He offered to put together a CD of several plans for the board to look at.
Jack also asked if he has helped the towns he's worked with find grants and Mr. Frantz said that he had. Mr. Frantz asked if the town had considered the Agricultural Farmland Protection Plan for any funding.
He said the State likes that integrated into Master Plans. He also stated that he has worked with Recreational Trails for towns
Charles asked if he had experience with resort areas.
Mr. Frantz said that he has dealt with the issue with a number of towns where you literally have two different communities. He has experience with the conflicts between modern agriculture and the non-farming community.
Dave Buisch told Mr. Frantz that the town has a Master Plan but it is outdated. Mr. Buisch said that since the town has 3 embayments plus the Lake Ontario shoreline there are a lot of things that should be done but grant money would be needed.
Mr. Frantz said that they could use the existing plan as a starting point; it would give them a snapshot of what the town was like when it was created. They would compare that with what it looks like now. He said that a new plan would provide an inventory of what the town's waterfront assets are today which would be the strengths and opportunities; then you would look at the possible threats to the waterfront. This could then be incorporated into the Comprehensive Plan with one of the goals or objectives being to complete a local waterfront revitalization plan.
Mr. Frantz had stated that his students could produce something as simple as a policy statement for the town and Chris wondered if something as simple as a policy statement could be used to go after grant money. Mr. Frantz said that the statements don't have to be that detailed; in applying for grants, the information gathered or inventory phase of the plan is more important to support the grant application.
Dave Buisch asked what kind of time frame there would be for that kind of study. Mr. Frantz said that classes start at the end of January and they deliver their product to the client by the end of May. Dave then asked about cost. Mr. Frantz said that they ask for $12,000; that amount would cover travel, printing, etc. He said that they would like to have an answer from the Town by the end of November in order to be ready to start at the end of January.
Charles asked if he would send a sample of their work and Mr. Frantz said that he would do that.
2. Recreational Trails
Chris explained to Mr. Frantz what has been talked about previously. Chris said that the next step is to try to utilize existing trails. He said that the trails have really taken off in other areas as tourist attractions. Mr. Frantz said that he could see this as part of the Comprehensive Plan. He has worked on planning trails in the Ithaca area. Chris would like to investigate using some of the State land in the area. Mr. Frantz said that his students could help investigate this issue and other possibilities dealing with trails while working with the town.
The Chairman returned to the original agenda.
Correspondence: Larry received a notice about the Fall Government training workshop coming up in Batavia on Nov. 20th which he passed around to the board members. Larry received another notice from the Genesee Transportation Council calling for projects to be submitted for funding. It did not seem to pertain to the Town of Huron.
Approval of Minutes: Jack McGuire moved, seconded by Charles Boogaard to accept the minutes of September 14, 2009 as written.
Old Business:
3. AT&T Cell Tower
Larry had a letter from Pyramid Network Services. It was a formal request to table discussion of their application until the November meeting at which time all of the revised materials should be available for board review.
4. Outdoor Woodburning Furnaces
Larry read an email that Joe Snyder had received from Attorney Alan Knauf stating that the Town Board is still considering the issue and Alan thinks that they will take it up again at their October meeting.
5. D & L Disposal
Larry asked Roger Gallant if he had contacted D&L and Roger said he would report on it at the next meeting.
New Business:
County Planning Board Monthly Report
Larry reported that the County had looked at the Proposed Local Law #6 from the Town of Huron. The amendment passed pending approval by the Town Attorney. Larry also reported that the Town of Galen, the Village of Clyde and the Town of Savannah had done a joint Comprehensive Master Plan and that the Town of Butler had done an Agricultural and Comprehensive Plan on their own. Supervisor Crane said that she had checked with other towns but none were interested in joining with Huron.
There was no other new business.
Adjournment: Jack McGuire moved, seconded by Chris Kenyon to adjourn the meeting at 8:40PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Kathy Grandjean, clerk
Email communications
During the month of September the following emails were received:
On Sept. 19 from Alan Knauf containing a letter from Verizon's attorney stating that collocation would be allowed.
