ဟံၣ်My WebLinkဘၣ်ဃးဒီး06-09-16 EMC Final Minutes 1 Final Minutes of the EMC 2 3 Date: June 9, 2016 4 Time: 4:00 p.m. 5 Location: Old Jail Conference Room, 125 E. Court St. 6 7 Attendees: 8 Name Representation Linda Spielman P Village of Dryden Ron Szymanski A Village of Freeville Roger Yonkin A At-Large Dooley Kiefer P Associate Member Scott Doyle P EMC Coordinator Dan Klein P Associate Member Anna Kelles P Legislature Liaison Pam Pariso P Planning Staff 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Guests in attendance: Fernando de Aragon, Ithaca-Tompkins County Transportation Council 17 (ITCTC), Executive Director. 18 19 Call to Order– The meeting was called to order by Steve Nicholson at 4:02pm. 20 21 Privilege of Floor – None 22 23 Presentation: Fernando gave an update on the Ride Share program. Tompkins County had 24 funding ($18,000/year for three years) to develop a program, but that funding ended. Now, the 25 challenge is how to continue the program without that funding. One way the ITCTC seeks to 26 overcome this is to make it more regional to share the expense with neighboring counties, 27 businesses and agencies. Once new funding is in place, it will need to be publicized and 28 promoted to encourage its use again. Cheaper gas makes it easier for people to ignore ride 29 sharing, and that’s the trend now. Ithaca still has all the negatives of car dependency with 30 emissions and traffic congestion. Some 80 percent of people drive into Tompkins County alone 31 in their cars: Fernando would like to see that cut to 60 percent. 32 33 The old phone app for Ride Share and the software is still there, but Enterprise now owns it. 34 Public awareness of the program faded with funding cuts. There was a discussion on the history, 35 data gathering and effectiveness. Originally it started as an app created by a Cornell student. 36 Zim-Ride was working with universities at first, but Tompkins County asked them to develop it 37 Name Representation Steve Bissen P Town of Dryden Kenny Christianson P At-Large John Dennis A Village of Lansing Brian Eden P Village of Cayuga Heights Bill Evans P Town of Danby Pegi Ficken P Town of Groton John Hertzler P Town of Ulysses Roy Luft P At-Large Jim McGarry E At-Large Vladimir Micic P Town of Ithaca Steve Nicholson P Town of Caroline Susan Riley P At-Large Tom Shelley P Ithaca CAC as a community portal. Now the challenge is how to continue it. Fernando explained that the 1 County bought it with the previously-available funding, and end users got it for free. Anna asked 2 what if it went to a program where people paid for the app? Fernando said the goal was always to 3 have no cost to the end user. 4 5 ITCTC hopes to rekindle the program. Vladimir asked about potential incentives for people to 6 share rides, such as parking privileges or car share spots. Roy Luft suggested that perhaps the 7 new parking meters could take a code for giving parking incentives. Many innovative ideas have 8 been discussed, but it’s tough to get people to buy into the concept of ride sharing. 9 10 Changes to Agenda and Approval of Minutes – Because the May 12 meeting minutes were 11 distributed to the membership today, their approval will be accomplished at the next EMC 12 meeting. 13 14 Committee Reports and Member Questions: 15 16 Energy – Brian spoke about his frustrations with communicating with the membership on the 17 accelerating pace of climate change and asked for suggestions on how to engage folks to take 18 action. Dan Klein said he appreciates Brian’s emails to the committee, and said perhaps the 19 committee finds the volume of information overwhelming. He suggested that he focus on a few 20 core issues where we could all work together to make an impact. Anna suggested that it would 21 help if EMC were in the subject line of committee emails. The committee also discussed making 22 the committee larger for added energy and involvement. Ten seats are vacant -- five “at-large” 23 are vacant, and five of sixteen municipalities are vacant, which are voting seats. Recruiting was 24 discussed. 25 26 Brian discussed the Climate and Community Protection Act which he lobbied for in Albany. It 27 passed the Assembly but needs more Senate sponsors to pass the bill in that house. He’s hopeful 28 it will be passed. Last Monday, Brian went to Syracuse on a bus with other local folks to 29 comment on the proposed Clean Energy Standard. The NYSPSC plan considers nuclear plants to 30 qualify as clean energy because they do not emit carbon dioxide. The Maplewood 31 Redevelopment project public hearing for the EIS scoping will be held at the Town of Ithaca on 32 June 24. Ian Shapiro of Taitem is presenting on a green energy incentive proposal before the 33 Tompkins County IDA as we speak. The rollout of the 2030 District program will occur at a 34 reception at Holt Architects on June 28. 35 36 Environmental Review – Since John was not in attendance, Brian reported on the NYS plastic 37 bag legislation to prohibit the charging of a fee for single-use plastic bags. Since the adoption of 38 such a fee by NYC, he said there’s been a big push-back from the plastics industry. Plastic bag 39 and shopping industry representatives argued that public sentiment used to oppose using paper 40 bags to save trees, now we oppose plastic bags. They further stated that reusable bags “present a 41 public health risk” because they contaminate food and surfaces in the store. The legislation has 42 passed the Senate but is still in committee in the Assembly 43 44 Brian thanked Susan for collecting data for the environmental review annual report. Comments 45 are due on the newly promulgated NYSDEC solid waste regulations by July 15. 46 1 Unique Natural Areas – Linda Spielman and Steve Bissen mentioned that the UNA Committee 2 will meet next week to finalize the boundaries for the proposed Sapsucker Woods UNA changes. 3 • The committee then reported on the Lake Street foreclosure parcels in the City of Ithaca and the 4 many community members in addition to the EMC that gave input to support the demolition of 5 the abandoned house there. The motion carried to demolish the house at the base of Ithaca Falls 6 and to add it to the City’s Natural Area. 7 8 Executive Committee – Steve Nicholson apologized for missing so many meetings due to 9 family obligations. Brian reported that he, Steve Bissen, Pam and Scott met about updating the 10 website. Much needs to be updated and restructured. The County used to have a full time person 11 covering all committees, now Pam’s a half-time employee. The Annual Report also needs to be 12 updated. 13 14 Legislation Liaison Report – Anna Kelles reported on a recent PDEQ meeting to discuss the 15 state’s scrutiny in taking back renewable energy credits (RECs). Two resolutions came from that 16 meeting. First, the committee resolved to urge the State to reject steps to take back REC credits 17 from entities that had received NYSERDA incentives for their renewable energy projects. A 18 second resolution was proposed but not passed, which suggested that the County contribute 19 funding for a lawyer to research and lobby against this proposal. Much discussion followed, and 20 it was suggested that this would be a great future presentation topic. 21 22 Staff Report – Scott Doyle reported five County Planning Department updates: 23 1. Annual Report will be drafted as soon as the ERC reports are provided. 24 2. Green Infrastructure program currently being drafted – would like to discuss more with 25 EMC in the future. 26 3. Update on recommendations for the 2016 Foreclosure auction including parcels with 27 UNAs. 28 4. Two grants currently being worked on: 1) Flood mitigation for Lansing / Ludlowville 29 2) Agricultural easement for a Lounsberry farm in Caroline. 30 5. Boat tour event coming up June 21-22. Floating classroom trip on water quality/ 31 microplastics. 32 6. Greensprings Natural Cemetery recently put out a request for volunteers for maintenance 33 and burials. 34 35 By-Law Revision Committee – Members are needed for the By-Law Revision Committee. 36 Steve Nicholson said the By-Laws used to state the EMC can receive property. Scott said that’s 37 section still remains. Brian said the 1996 By-Law version on the EMC website were not 38 modified after 1999 local law passed by the legislature. If interested in serving on this 39 committee, please let Brian know. Dooley and Tom volunteered. 40 41 Presentation – Bill Evans gave a presentation on artificial outdoor lighting and its effect on 42 birds. He’s an ornithologist who specializes in nocturnal bird life. When TV towers went up in 43 the 1940s, they had red lights for aviation obstruction which killed thousands of birds, including 44 songbirds. In the 1980s, there was a shift in consciousness where some long-term bird studies 45 reported a reduction in songbird population, and sentiment shifted to determine the man-made 1 hazards that caused this and rectify the situation. 2 3 Bill did personal research from his Danby home on what lights bothered birds – red, blue, white 4 and flashing or continuous. He showed the results of his study including the spectrum of lights 5 and how they affected nocturnal birds. He gave an overview of what research is showing today 6 on how different lights affect bird migration patterns and navigation. He also discovered, 7 anecdotally, how night lights affect local moths. Locally we have about 1,000 different species 8 of moths, and bright night lights affect them too. Light spectrum, wavelength and direction all 9 affect bird and moths. 10 11 Bill showed a photo of Ithaca lit up at night. The Ithaca City Code contains no language limiting 12 the spectrum of lights, and perhaps there should be some recommendations from the EMC 13 committee based on Bill’s findings. He discussed how Flagstaff, Arizona, has done research and 14 set precedents that perhaps Ithaca could follow. For example, if there’s a push to go to LED 15 street lights, they should have a short wave length in order to save bird and moth life. Down-16 shielding of light is known, but light spectrum is mostly unknown bird species. Bill said if Ithaca 17 switches to LED lights, which is the new trend, it could make Ithaca six times brighter at night in 18 some areas. This could negatively affect the local bird and moth population. This may be a good 19 subcommittee and project for the EMC. 20 21 Member Items – None 22 23 Adjournment -- The meeting adjourned at 5:55 PM. 24 25 Respectfully submitted, 26 27 Pamela Pariso, Administrative Assistant 28 Tompkins County Planning Department 29 Approved by Council on July 14, 2016 30