This article shall be known as Chapter
9, Boards, Committees and Commissions, Article
III, §§
9-1 through
9-11, and is entitled the "Town of Farmington Environmental Conservation Board (ECB), Duties and Responsibilities."
The purpose of this article is to recognize the importance of
the Town's natural environmental resources and providing for
an advisory board for protecting them, to the extent practical from
degradation, a specific goal contained in the latest edition of the
adopted Town of Farmington Comprehensive Plan; and to provide technical
assistance to the Town's boards established for managing the
built environment, another specific goal contained in the latest edition
of the Town of Farmington Comprehensive Plan.
The intent of these regulations is to identify the Town of Farmington
Environmental Conservation Board (ECB) as an advisory board established
to provide information to the residents of the Town, the Town Board,
Town Planning Board, Town Zoning Board of Appeals, the Ontario County
Soil & Water District, and the New York State Department of Environmental
Conservation on issues relating to sustaining and promoting natural
resource protection and identify open areas within the Town. Establishment
of the board for conservation of the environment is a necessary step
in fostering unified action on environmental matters. In addition,
this article is intended to:
A. Encourage the wise use and management of the Town's natural
resources through best management practices that support the most
beneficial relationship between the use of land and buildings and
the protection and sustainability of the natural and man-made environmental
setting within the Town; and
B. Provide the Town, county and state departments, boards and agencies
with an advisory body that is comprised of local volunteers who are
focused upon the importance to, or which may impact, the naturally
occurring qualities of the Town of Farmington.
The Town of Farmington Conservation Board, established by the Town Board resolution on March 9, 1976, and identified in §
165-96 of the Town Code is hereby redesignated as the Town of Farmington Environmental Conservation Board (ECB) having those duties and responsibilities set forth within Chapter
9, entitled "Boards, Committees and Commissions," Article
III, entitled "Environmental Conservation Board (ECB) of the Town Code of the Town of Farmington."
Members now holding office for terms established shall, upon
the expiration of their term, hold office until the end of the calendar
year and their successors shall then be appointed for terms which
shall be as specified in the above section.
The powers and duties of the ECB shall include, but not be limited
to:
A. Those powers and duties set forth elsewhere within § 239-y
Subdivision 3 of the New York State General Municipal Law, as may
be amended from time to time by the State Legislature, except as modified
below.
B. The ECB shall maintain the adopted inventory or index of identified
open spaces in public or private ownership within the Town, including,
but not limited to, glacial and other geomorphic physiographic features,
streams and their floodplains, mapped federal and state freshwater
wetlands (including their buffer areas), swamps, unique biotic communities,
scenic and other open areas, so as to provide a base of information
for recommendations by the ECB for their preservation and/or use.
C. The ECB shall review applications, including, but not limited to,
rezoning, subdivision approval, site plan approval, temporary use
permits, and area variances received by the Town Board, Planning Board,
Zoning Board of Appeals, or other administrative body, which seek
approval for the use or development of any open area identified in
the latest edition of the Town of Farmington Open Space Index and
which application or project that is:
(1) A classified Type I Action under the New York State Environmental
Quality Review Act (SEQRA) and related regulations; or
(2) Involves a classified unlisted action under SEQRA having five or
more acres of land; or
(3) Creates five or more building lots.
D. The ECB shall review any other applications that involve land identified
in the latest edition of the Town of Farmington Open Space Index upon:
(1) The request of the Town Director of Planning and Development, the
Town Code Enforcement Officer, the Town Zoning Enforcement Officer,
and the concurrence of the ECB Chairperson; or
(2) The concurrence of the ECB Chairperson and the Chairperson of the
entity receiving the application.
E. The ECB shall perform duties assigned to it by resolution of any
Town Board.
F. The ECB shall participate in the periodic updates to the Town of
Farmington Comprehensive Plan, the Town of Farmington Parks and Recreation
Master Plan Updates and the Town of Farmington Farmland Protection
Plan Updates, and to ensure the Town's Open Space Index is maintained.
G. The ECB shall update the Town's Open Space Index, at least once
every 10 years, identifying and evaluating the open space planning
objectives as stated in the most current edition of the above-referenced
Plans; providing recommendations as to the most appropriate use or
development of open space areas; and recommending land uses that would
be consistent with areas identified in the index and other plans.
H. The ECB may conduct studies, surveys, and inventories of the natural
and man-made features within the Town and such other studies and surveys
as may be necessary to carry out the general intent of this chapter.
I. The ECB may contribute articles for the periodic Town of Farmington
Newsletters.
J. The ECB shall monitor the ECB tab on the Town's website and
provide information to the Town Supervisor's office secretary
for postings.
K. The ECB shall maintain maps, reports, and other publications to support
the necessary research of the ECB into local environmental conditions.
L. The ECB may request the assistance of the New York State Department
of Environmental Conservation in the preparation of any report.
M. The ECB shall present an annual operating budget for the Town Board's
review and approval not later than August 1 of each calendar year.
N. The ECB shall provide assistance in maintaining the environmental
setting along a defined portion of the State Route 332 Corridor in
the manner envisioned within the New York State Department of Transportation's
Adopt-A-Highway Program.
Any matter referred to the ECB for possible review and consideration
shall be transmitted in written form to all members of said Board
as soon as may be practical by another referring board and/or by the
Code Enforcement Officer or Town Attorney, as the case may be. If
the referral is reasonably determined to require the review of the
ECB, the ECB Chairperson shall convene a meeting of said Board and
render its opinion or response to said referral prior to the scheduled
date of the referring board's meeting on the matter. With the
advice and consent of a majority of the ECB members not to render
a formal review, the Chairperson shall so notify the referring body.
Such notification shall be deemed to have discharged the responsibility
of the ECB to act on such referral.
A quorum for meeting of the ECB shall be four members. The ECB
is hereby deemed a public body for the purposes of Article 7 of the
New York State Public Officers Law.
The ECB shall submit an annual report to the Town Board not
later than the ECB's annual organizational meeting, concerning
the activities and work of the ECB during the previous year and that
planned for the coming year.