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VILLAGE OF FAIR HAVEN PLANNING BOARD MEETING January 9, 2018 The Village of Fair Haven Planning Board met at 7:00 pm on Tuesday, January 9, 2018 at the Village Hall. The following members were present: Darrell Uetz, Larry Cosser, Debra Rose and Catherine Byers. The Board still has a vacancy. There were 19 guests present. Since the last Board meeting, the Planning Board has continued to work on updating the “Town of Sterling and Village of Fair Haven Comprehensive Plan,” using and expanding upon the original proposed changes from the Board’s previous meetings. Specific continuing work has focused on the Village of Fair Haven’s Goals and Objectives section, which is pages 60-67 of the Comprehensive Plan. Efforts have been made to inform and involve members of the town and village community in this process, and community members were encouraged to be at the January 9th meeting to help review and comment on the work in progress. Draft copies of the Board’s proposed updates were printed before the meeting and were available to attendees. Also available was a one-page document which recorded local building footprint sizes and square footage, as compiled for the Planning Board by Fair Haven resident Joe Martin. The above two documents had been submitted to the Village Board of Trustees for their review and feedback, prior to their regular meeting of January 8, 2018. Debra Rose relayed information received from Planner John Zepko of the Cayuga County Department of Planning and Economic Development. Since the Village of Fair Haven and the Town of Sterling are updating their Comprehensive plan, as opposed to re-doing it, there are flexible and short-term options for assistance and support from Cayuga County Planning. Most critically, the County Planners are available to help in the essential process of updating relevant parts of the existing Code and Land Use Regulations so they will be in alignment with the goals and vision of the community as expressed in the update. Required as part of an update or amendment of a comprehensive plan is a Cayuga County “GML (General Municipal Law) 239 Review” which is, apparently, primarily to make sure there is no inter-municipality conflict. The Planning Board will continue to work with Mr. Zepko. The Planning Board members read through the proposed “Goals and Objectives” updates point by point. There was open and active discussion and ideas offered from almost everyone in the room. Board members took careful notes for further review and refinement of the updates. Certain questions were raised about the proposed revival of the “Architectural Review and Beautification Committee” – a Village committee formed in 2010. As some original members of the committee happened to be at the meeting, they reported that since the committee eventually concluded their work could not be effectively implemented at the time, they had ceased meeting in 2014. The Planning Board explained that since the original 2005 Vision Plan clearly intended the establishment of both an Architectural and a Beautification committee, and given recent growth, goals of the current ---PAGE BREAK--- visioning, and other developments in the Village, it was decided to state the revitalization and support of the past committee as an objective in the proposed updating. Mayor Jim Basile was present at the meeting, and was able to clarify the situation regarding jurisdiction of the Channel, which is controlled and maintained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE). He also explained the fact that since the Village used to be a Lake Ontario shipping point, it remains as a Port of Call (and check-in). As he pointed out, this is advantageous to Fair Haven. The next section due to be reviewed and updated is “Future Land Use in the Village of Fair Haven,” pages 68 & 69 in the joint Comprehensive Plan. Copies of unofficial notes and ideas pertaining to this section were available for preview at the meeting. Joe Martin reported that one of his Main Street neighbors had just received another letter from the same real estate agent, asking again if they would be interested in selling their house and property. Joe said he assumed it was for the same purpose as had been revealed before – so the property could be used as “frontage access” for an unnamed outside business entity apparently desiring to locate somewhere on or near Main Street, the core of the Village’s small central business district. The Planning Board, Village Board and numerous community members want to see the Comprehensive Plan updating process keep moving forward as quickly and efficiently as possible. The next meeting was set for two weeks away Tuesday, January 23, 2018 at 7:00 pm. Another meeting will probably be set for two weeks after that – Tuesday, February 6, 2018. The Fair Haven Planning Board anticipates they will be able to meet with and update the Sterling Planning Board at that Board’s next meeting of Thursday, February 1, 2018. Minutes of the December 12, 2017 meeting were reviewed and approved. The meeting was adjourned at 9:00 pm. Minutes respectfully submitted by Debra Rose, Planning Board writer