[Adopted 9-26-2023 by L.L. No. 5-2023]
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."
A. 
The ECB shall consist of seven members, all of whom shall be residents of the Town of Farmington. The members shall be appointed by the Town Board in accordance with the provisions herein. The Town Board shall appoint members for a term of office so fixed that four members terms shall expire at the end of their fourth calendar year in which such members were initially appointed. The terms of the remaining members shall be so fixed that three members terms shall expire at the end of the third calendar year thereafter. At the expiration of the term of each member first appointed, his or her successor shall be appointed for a term which shall be equal in years to initial term of appointment.
B. 
There may be one alternate member appointed by the Town Board to serve the needs of the Town of Farmington Environmental Conservation Board (ECB).
C. 
The alternate member shall substitute for a ZBA member in the event such member is unable to participate because of a conflict of interest.
D. 
The alternate member may not be substituted for a ZBA member for purpose of constituting a quorum of the board.
E. 
All members of the Town of Farmington Environmental Conservation Board and any alternate member shall be residents of the Town of Farmington and at least 21 years of age.
F. 
One Town Board member shall serve as liaison to the ECB.
G. 
ECB members and an alternate ECB member shall receive training and be reimbursed for their expenses incurred while attending such training but only when recommended by the ECB Chairperson and authorized by the Town Board.
H. 
Members of the ECB shall serve without salary.
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.
A. 
The Town Board shall appoint the ECB Chairperson who shall serve a term that expires on December 31 of said calendar year.
B. 
The ECB each year at its' organizational meeting shall designate the date, time and place of the ECB meetings for said calendar year.
C. 
All ECB meetings shall be subject to the provisions of the State's Open Meeting Law.[1] Meetings shall be posted on the Town's website calendar each month.
[1]
Editor's Note: See Public Officers Law § 100 et seq.
D. 
Additional meetings may be called by the ECB Chairperson as needed.
E. 
The Town Board shall appoint a clerk of the ECB, who shall be paid an established hourly fee, for preparing and filing approved meeting minutes along with any correspondence for said Board.
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.