Town of Rochester Environmental Conservation Commission
Attendance: Ellen Rodriguez, Amy Fradon, Chris Hewitt, Claude Suhl, Tom Ryan, Dan Davis, Kristen Marcel, and Max Finestone
Date: April 14
Start: 7:05pm
A: Sue Terpening will join us next month to discuss noise complaints -Claude said the noise issue seems difficult because sides have been taken with the Speedway.
-Max said the Speedway has its own code.
-the ECC has introduced the noise issue to the town board three times; the board has refused to address it.
-the ECC was asked to do research, got samples from other towns. The meeting was packed during discussions.
-Max said this issue should wait until after the election.
Amy: Can we urge mediation on the issue?
Max: It seems the first step is passing a law to be enforced. It hasn’t worked since 1971.
-Chris will call Sue for next meeting.
B. Old business
1. Dark Sky Initiative
-Claude thought about Mohonk finding funding to retrofit their lighting.
-He also called Kevin Cahill’s office; there’s no active pursuits to get state bill on track.
-Claude said we should wait for the outdoor lighting code from the Dark Sky website to create legislation because it’s perfect.
-In the meantime we can peruse existing documents (including neighboring town codes).
-Tom suggested contacting code enforcement officials for information.
-Claude would like help finding the info; like applicability, enforcability and legality (penalties), and acceptibility.
-There may be existing codes for highways, for example.
-Claude will email the documents that he has and will tell us how to help.
2. Planning and Zoning Committee
-Dan attended 2 PZC meetings (Kristen is also involved)
-The committee wants to make progress with Comprehensive Plans, starting with open space plan; through natural resource inventory–groundwater, surface water, aquatic habitat, wetlands, and related biology (critical species and habitat).
-We’re trying to relate this to economy (parks, agriculture).
-The PZC split into four committees: natural resources inventory, rural preservation/open space, demographics, and economics.
-The ECC group thought that since the commission is already tasked with creating a natural resource inventory, it would be perfect to help the PZC work on that aspect.
-We need to identify and assemble info. A lot it already done by the Ulster County Open Space Committee; also Steve Winkley.
-The Natural Heritage Committee has GIS maps, county by county.
-The ECC can attend the Hudsonia Biodiversity Assessment training. Different towns are coming together for the meeting with Karen Strong on April 18
-Dan asked if the ECC would like to do this inventory. Amy asked how do we start?
-Dan will find what’s out there and will administer tasks to the ECC group.
*Karen Strong asks, “What are your goals?” She will be speaking about economic reasons for biodiversity assessment.
-Kristen said that at the Open Space Committee meeting in Marbletown, other towns were saying that using Conway School of Design for consulting was great because it was economic and efficient (the workers are students working on professional degrees).
-Ellen said that public outreach is very important.
-Everyone agreed.
-Amy said that she’d like to create a layman’s explanation of this whole process for the website.
-Kristen thought that the PZC was working on this.
3. Jack Dawson letter
-We will be revising Amy’s letter to Jack Dawson to offer education and advice on sustainable development practices..
Dan: What is our goal to get him to listen?
-Amy will revise and send out to Jack after comments from the group.
4. Davis Farm
-Peter Davis said that he’d be deciding by the end of April about which offer to take on his farmland: the developer’s or Open Space Institute’s.
5. Town website
-Max thought we should have a history of the ECC.
-Dan suggested posting minutes.
-Chris will email the minutes to Marge Bonner for posting.
-Max wondered if the new law about the ECC, which spells out the acronym as Environmental Conservation Commission, takes precedence over the old law, which spelled it out as Environmental Commission (EC).
-Chris will find out.
**About the festival that we’ve mentioned in the past, Amy wondered what we’re thinking about this. The group thought that maybe we can coordinate with another town festival in order to get our info out to the public.
C. New business
1. Weed wacking of town roads
-Claude researched actual allowances the Highway Department can use, and the road is determined, “by the actual size of use.”
-Wayne Kelder claimed he has 25 feet from the center of the road.
-Amy said it grows back, but it’s devastating. Kelder said you can do it yourself if you want.
-Claude read quotes from the attorney general.
-Dan said this sounds like a good opportunity for education, letting people know their options.
-Max and Chris thought it would be good to let the town board play this out, as they have been discussing it.
-Amy said how about a letter from us to the board.
-Claude said it should be a statement about rural character and keeping trees.
-Chris said this is also a “traffic calming” issue: the wider and clearer the roads are,the faster the cars will drive on roads that are supposed to be 30 mph.
Adjourn: 9:00pm