January 19, 2002 Meeting Synopsis

General Business:

K. Mathews who is coordinating the Directory passed out supplies and the members assisted in stuffing envelopes. Data entry is being organized so that the Statewide Directory should be up on the website by March, 2002 with Webmaster Jeremy's assistance. It was discussed that the data should be sorted by location, including county. We should provide a statewide county map and update on a regular (annual/twice a yr.). Downstate Chapter web page will link with NYSCLA and upstate needs to also. Inquiries for Directories should be directed to the respective.

Executive Summary:

Submitted in writing with discussion provided including:

• Most recent Legislative report submitted
• Joint Design Professions Meeting Jan. 23 to be attended by D. Conklin and B. Rodriguez
• Lobby Day 2002 -Landscape Architects and Architects have jointly combined efforts and Feb. 7 meeting will review - B. Rodriguez to keep us updated; none of the 2001 Legislative programs passed and all will carry over into this session; zoning issues may be added, and if so, support/input is needed by Feb. 15 to put Legislative packet together for next May; State Board for Architects will meet again this coming March
• ASLA/CLARB Model Law for Licensure to be given to B. Rodriguez for Certification of Authorization effort; Certificate of Authorization requires that a Licensed Landscape Architect must be an Owner of a firm in order to get a Certificate of Authorization; currently a firm can provide services without it but cannot market their firm as an LA firm; during recent ASLA Licensure Summit in Nov. '01, a Committee has been formed consisting of ASLA/CLARB/CELA to advance the Model Law and streamline Licensure efforts.
• Light Pollution - by mid/end of Feb. a draft of light pollution bill will be done.

Old Business:

Revived discussion on approach for Lobby Day with the conclusion that we should maintain our regular Legislative package, focusing more on assisting Chapter membership on lobbying. We should have a NYSCLA member approach each Chapter to assist them in training how to lobby their local legislators. Also, key NYSCLA members will continue to be a part of traditional Lobby Day effort, to maintain active participation with other design professions.

New Business:

• Several issues were discussed regarding the Downstate Retreat on Jan. 26. This included the need to educate local legislators on issues important to LA's. There should be an examination of local exemptions re. what Landscape Architects apparently can not do, per local law. We should also begin to prepare for the continuing education issue and need to set up a framework for moving forward on regional issues of choice, specific to localities.
• Night lighting legislation is currently on the Governor's desk and the Governor has concerns about it; this is important legislation re. the design of lighting (see www.darksky.org which has model ordinances); we should support this legislation yet point out that there is no such thing as a "lighting engineer", Landscape Architects and Architects also do this type of work, and therefore, the legislation should include LA's as being able to perform the work.
• There was a Chapter/NYSCLA issue discussion about the case in the Hudson River Valley of siting the Athens power generation site and the St. Lawrence Cement plant in context of the related Landscape Architectural and Visual Assessment work, especially as related to mitigation issues.
• Article 10 expires this year and has been comprehensive in reviewing Visual impacts carefully. Streamlining might curtail the process, which would make environmental review in the future less comprehensive. Downstate members were wondering who to contact to get more info as it is important for Chapter members to understand all of the proposed elements of a visual impact assessment and the mitigation plan, prior to forming a decision and or issuing comments. NYSCLA also needs to understand what's happening with Art. 10 this yr. We will continue to monitor.
• WTC info on the web site will be removed soon. Updates should start to come more often.