Albany Pine Bush Preserve Discovery Center

Albany-Schenectady Conservation Advisory Council Roundtable – November 10, 2015

Albany Pine Bush Preserve Discovery Center

Notes:

CAC Panel Discussion:

Kathy Moore

Bob Ulrich

Mary Werner

Kathy Moore:

Examples of two recent projects that CB in Berne had undertaken. After Irene, hired an intern because of flooding, erosion and damage to municipal infrastructure. Assessed worst places for erosion hazard (intern’s task). Berne has steep terrain and a lot of water. Joe Cleveland was intern – drove every road in the town and documented all sites where erosion was occurring, presented to town on how to mitigate erosion hazards. The town has actually implemented some of the recommendations. Next summer hired to update the wetland inventory. Updated inventory and provided other useful information such as water detention areas in the town. Highlighting the importance of wetlands in the town, as well as the importance of keeping water from moving down their roads and destroying property.

Maps are a useful resource for the CB and the Town Board.

We are a CB, achieved status in 1980 following a NRI that was done in the town

Spend their time doing site reviews for ANY planned action within the town

Tries to get the planning board to let them know any actions that have come before the board and then they decide if they need to go take a look. Lot line adjustments, subdivisions, etc.

Pipeline project – Tennessee Gas – walked the entire town to see what the impacts would be to the twon, provided public comments to FERC. They wanted to say what the impacts are and have a say in remediation

They have helped secure green space – fox creek park, got a few member items from NYS Assembly, mitigation project – Switzkill park?(name?)

Who is on the board: she’s been there since 1998 – farmers, citizen scientists, environmental lawyer with an expertise in wetlands, Emma Treadwell nature area director. They are all concerned citizens and bring their varied expertise to the table. They have no regulatory or environmental enforcement mandate. Occasionally individuals may contact DEC if they observe what they suspect may be a violation of ECL.

Bob Ulrich:

6 members on their board who are elected (appointed) – 3 members are here tonight, besides their normal role with the TOC, they are involved in other meetings throughout the year. At least one member tries to attend. They attend every planning board meeting to find out what is going on in the town. They are sent the specs on all the jobs, but they like to hear at the meetings what is going on. Member reports back to the board what they hear – sometimes the project looks good, but then you hear what the public feels about it and you look at things another way. They are advisory, but the TOC does respect their recommendations.

Whole Foods, Cabella’s – want to get some good companies in to support the economy, but also want to save the environment. It is a balancing act.

They get plans and look at things like green space, wetlands, topography, water, etc.

Volunteer group – but they try to look at every site. In the future they plan to visit every site and make recommendations.

They were created under General Municipal Law. Only thing that is missing is that there is no plot of available land in the TOC. The planning board has some suggestions.

Conservation Day – May 1st of every year, give away 1,500 trees, people line up early and by 10:30 trees are gone. People love it, we hvave people come from Cornell, the Pine Bush, etc, they tell people how to plant trees. This year Cornell will analyze the soil from people’s property for them. People have been coming for years.

Besides the trees, we have educational opportunities available – last year info on Emerald Ash Borer provided.

Talk to the town about changing some things – keep these trees, move the building, etc. well received by the town.

Last year, put in a passive park.

Toughest thing is that they are an advisory committee – would like their ideas and opinions put into place. We just found out that one of the laws on our books has not been upheld as it should. We do have citizens that take their time to show their concern over the destruction of trees in our town.

He’s leaving, but sat his group down and said what are we doing, what can we do to become stronger. Worked with Planning Board, Joe LaCivita, to see how they look at things and what they can do to empower the town. Trying to get something in place before it comes as a site plan review or concept plan that it is evident before the planning process begins that there is a protected area.

Supervisor has shown an interest in moving forward with their recommendations on how to put more strength in their laws.

Haven’t seen results yet, waiting on attorney

Burden – as a landowner you can clear your property before you come to the planning board, trees are gone. Looking for recommendations. (Audience member responded that he had some suggestions and will talk to him about them later – Barry Pendergrass)

Two bulletin boards at the town that the members update monthly to include something of interest, such as recycling, firewood, emerald ash borer, etc., an opportunity to reach the public and residents that you can’t reach by other means. Good response to these ideas from their public.

Mary Werner:

Representing, SCEAC

As a county group we operate a little differently. As a county the responsibilities are different

Operate under County Local Law – mirror what is in the state law. 12 at-large members, appointed by the county legislature. Representatives from municipalities. Operating continuously since 1972 – activities of the council has changed from the 70’s to what they are now. Energy and Climate Change committee did not exist in the 70;s/

Most work is accomplished by committees –

Air/Energy and Climate Change – advise and help the county to do a GHG inventory and climate action plan. They are in place and current committee charged with monitoring progress on that plan. One of their major accomplishments. This committee looking into solarize project.

Last year – developed comments on the federal regulations on oil trains, submitted to legislature and legislature submitted comments.

Land Use and Open Space – one of their big projects is open space map.

Dave Geisinger – open space inventory completed a year ago. Currently working on an open space map. Five towns and one city – will plan on working with these communities – developing draft maps for the towns and will go back, refine the maps and seek town official approval. Maps will be brought together and complete a county open space map.

This committee monitors the trails – county forest and two preserves. Monitor the trails for new signage or work they recommend that the county undertake. They also do financial management plans for the preserves.

Recycling Committee – one of the reasons that our advisory council is so successful is due to Jeff Edwards, he gives one day a week of staff time, and without that, could not do much of anything. Jeff is a recycler down to his core.

Jeff Edwards – we have been lucky to have Debbie Jackson chairing our Recycling Committee – she gets out there and does education projects, American Recycles Day. She also initiated a survey of businesses to see how to improve business recycling. Survey was to find out what they were doing currently, project will be expanded to include schools. Also looking at statewide project to inventory textile boxes, to let people know about all of the things they can recycle, such as fabric, unwearable clothes, most of the clothing collection boxes, the unusable fabrics can be recycled into rags, etc.

New Committees:

Water – Kathy Czajkowski is the Chair, comment: we are recruiting

Brownfield – Val Washington

Transportation Committee – Smart Streets program

Policy and Procedures – John Greenthal, environmental attorney, writing a diversity plan and policy. How diversity policy will impact recruiting, etc.

Enabling legislation requires annual report and state of the environment report.

Communications committee – started a new on-line newsletter, have 400 people directly and Kathy sends it to another 700+

Also work with ECOS, the Environmetnal Clearinghouse and Union College on sustainability conference.

How do you react with planning board or local governing body – we interact with legislature. We haven’t figured out how to get them to interact with us. The current strategy is to meet with the county executive to see if that is a better way to build a relationship and have a stronger voice. Do other CAC have the same trouble?

Gretchen – sounds like the Colonie and Berne groups have good relationships with their local boards. KM – it depends on who the chair is, it has been a source of contention and conflict in the past. At the moment it is going pretty smoothly. In small towns, especially rural towns, the people who have expertise in planning are the real estate agents, so that means there is a built in friction there. That is not the case now, we are doing pretty well. Someone brought up communication, that is what it boils down to, communication. Not uncommon to hear “no one told me about that.” We often find that the planning board will approve a project without the input from the CB.

Audience questions:

Jeff Edwards: What kind of staff support do you have:

BU – elected citizens – paid volunteers – (not much, not much)

JE: Support from the planning board?

BU - Yes, any plan that goes to the planning board comes to us, The PB chair’s secretary will send us a note reminding us to comment. They got reprimanded that they were not getting back to them enough on the proposals. The board wants to know whether there are issues or not, wants to hear from the CAC. New projects and re-development comes to them as well. We want to see redevelopment projects – for example Wolf Road Diner.

JE: Do any building officials attend?

BU: Yes, they have and still do. You will get a call from a group that they want to get involved in a project, but then they never show at the meeting. Meetings are open, posted on the website. So far the town has been good in getting us the plans.

David Barnet: So in addition to your activities of mapping natural resources, wetlands inventory and commenting on projects, can you provide examples of where you are in the position to promote conservation of areas that are deemed as such, through promotion of local laws.

Berne: it is really only the first two activities. The CAB has had a lot to do with securing green space and has taken on stewardship roles - it’s not like Berne has a parks department, so they will do trail maintenance even though it is not what they are tasked with officially. They have been involved in land conservation as well. Also, as a side consequence, remembers a subdivision that had 9 spaghetti lots, minimum road frontage, ½ mile deep, they could have said that it was a planning board issue, but there were some nice features such as a waterfall as well as some erosion issues, they were able to get them down to 4 lots rather than 9.

Gretchen Stevens: That is the value of CAC’s and similar councils -- they can encourage conservation on every piece of land that comes before the town. There is opportunity for conservation on every development parcel in the way the development is designed, the lot layouts, setbacks and large contiguous areas that need to be configured. Conservation needs to happen not just on conserved land, but on every piece of land.

BU: Town of colonie does listen to us, one of their good points. Case in point, Latham Mall – wanted trees left around the border of the property. They agreed, and trees remain. Our role is not just looking at plans and specs, but it is also education – spring planting, conservation day. The problem that you run into a lot of the time with the town is that there is a big difference between preserving and landscaping. We are trying to get that idea through the planning board more. Most properties left are not “prime properties” anymore – you look and it seems that there isn’t much there, but when it is cleared you see more. Developer will come in and say we are going to clear the lot and put in 150 trees, but that is landscaping it is not preservation. We are also trying to connect barriers to properties, trying to keep corridors connecting properties so wildlife can move. Trying to push that through the town, fewer parking spaces, etc.

Jeff Edwards – there is somewhat of a difference, the state law sets up two different types of environmental councils – councils and commissions. Colonie and Berne have review authority, but others do not have review authority, they are strictly advisory. Schenectady City’s council was set up to be that way, they are defunct, but that is what they could do. Not every council has review authority.

Gretchen – Conservation Board and Conservation Council

Ingrid – thank you for raising that point. In our experience there are many councils that even thought that isn’t their role, they do cultivate relationships with the planning board and can still have that advisory function even though it is not their official role

Gretchen – they can have quite a powerful role in reviews and in providing advice if they have established a collaborative relationship with the planning board.

Audience member – as a planning board member, I’m trying to get a handle on the role of CAC – should they really be advising the planning board on projects? Not sure they have the expertise to provide recommendations until they have completed a thorough inventory of the town.

G – that is up to the planning board, who you recruit to the CAC, what type of expertise you are seeking. It helps the credibility of the CAC/CB if it has members who have experience and expertise, people whose professional knowledge is related to the advisory work they will be doing.