Washington Planning Board

Meeting - December 6, 2011

 

0.0       Assembly:  6:30PM

            0.1       Members present:

                        Cook, Crandall, Marshall, Schwartz,

            0.2       Alternates present:

                        Terani and  Kluk

            0.3       Members and Alternates Absent: Chute, Dagesse

            0.4       Visitors: Rick Niven

 

Cook called the meeting to order at 7PM with Terani sitting in for Chute.

1.0       Minutes: November 1st meeting minutes were not available as they were misplaced, Schwartz and Dagesse are working on reconstructing them from member's personal notes from the meeting and will send them out to members as soon as possible. Crandall motioned to approve the Public hearing minutes, Terani seconded and all voted in favor. Schwartz motioned to approve the minutes of the November 4th working meeting, Marshall seconded the motion and all voted in favor.

 

2.0       Driveway permits:

            2.1       Larry Poole, 3554 E. Washington Rd, TM 13-16, permanent driveway for logging, Ed had checked the site and approved with suggestions for a water bar, no culvert was needed, Tom visited the site also and didn't have a problem with it. Schwartz asked why they wanted a permanent drive and not temporary, as it is for logging. She felt they already had 2 permanent drives on the property and that was all we allow. We checked with Poole by phone and he said he wants to be able to go back in and do more logging through the years. Since the temporary drive is only good for six months he was asking for a permanent drive. Cook said we have two options, we can approve it as a temporary drive or make it permanent with a restriction for logging only. Crandall made a motion to approve as a permanent drive with restriction for logging only, Terani seconded, all voted in favor.

 

3.0       Mergers:

3.1       Town of Washington, TM 16-75, TM 16-83, Crandall motioned to approve, Schwartz seconded, all voted in favor. Cook determined that the new lot number will be TM 16-83.

 

3.2       Town of Washington, TM 16-101, TM 16-102, Kluk asked if the lots were being merged and then offered to abutters or sold on the open market? The minutes from the working meeting confirmed that it was being offered to abutters first. Cook determined the new lot number would be TM 16-102. Schwartz made a motion to approve the merger, Crandall seconded, all voted in favor.

 

3.3       Town of Washington, TM 25-88, TM 25-89, Cook determined the new lot number would be TM 25-89. Crandall motioned to approve the merger, Marshall seconded, all voted in favor.

           

4.0       Old Business:

4.1       CIP 2012:

We discussed planning in general for Town Buildings and planning for energy projects for town buildings. Schwartz made a list of the recommendations from the recent energy audits and suggested we could pick a project or two to go into the budget for next year. She felt that working to make the buildings more efficient would save money in the long run. Marshall felt that the Selectmen are trying hard to keep the budget down. Terani asked if there were grants available and maybe money could be found that way to pay for the suggested projects. Kluk commented that we need to come up with a consolidated progress report and status for all the town buildings. The Task Force report identified many problems and needs and the energy audit uncovered other projects. She suggested a group work on this next year to give the town a better idea of where things stand with the buildings. Everyone thought that was a good idea. We all agreed we will continue discussing the ideas.

 

4.2       Business Permits:

Mike Morin sent in a business permit for his carpentry business. Schwartz said he lives in Ashuelot and they have deed restrictions on businesses. Marshall said he builds garages and always works at the customer's sites. Marshall will check to see if he has outdoor storage or not. This would put him up a level into home business and require a site review. We tabled it until next month.

 

4.3       Cell Tower:

No news, Schwartz said the town attorney was reviewing the proposed lease language.

 

4.4       LUO and Site Plan Review changes on businesses:

Kluk spoke about the need to make things consistent and clearer in the LUO and Site Plan Review in regard to cottage industries and home businesses. She researched and found that we could make some small changes to the existing documents. She said that the main difference between the two types is that cottage industries should be invisible to the neighbors, except for an allowed sign, to preserve the character of the area. Home businesses are allowed some outdoor storage, parking and customer activity and require a site plan review. We went over the suggested changes. Terani suggested changing the word "home" to dwelling in the documents, all agreed. Cook asked if we want to move this forward, Marshall made a motion to hold hearings and put the changes forward, Schwartz seconded, all voted in favor. Schwartz will speak with Michelle about scheduling hearings. Kluk will make the suggested changes to the document and send it to Schwartz.   

 

4.5       PB conference information:

Terani spoke about some issues that were covered at the planning conference that he, Kluk and Chute attended at LGC. At the conference they spoke about the "Right-to-know" laws and there was emphasis on email. He suggested we keep all email pertaining to PB issues archived. He said they talked about operating procedures and that we should go over our procedures now and then to make sure we follow them. They said that boards shouldn't try to use "Robert's Rules", just use your own procedures. They talked about noticing for meetings. Schwartz said we are careful about doing this by the book. They talked about how Planning Boards need to do planning and not just react to what comes at them. We all agreed. Kluk mentioned that they said you should update the master plan every 5 to 10 years. Schwartz said we are due to work on this next year. She also said that they mentioned that you can delegate working on the CIP to a subcommittee.

4.6       Subdivision regulations update:

Tabled to next month.

 

5.0       New Business:           

5.1       Planning Board Budget:

We discussed our budget for 2012 and set amounts for our budget lines. Schwartz will forward to Dagesse by the December 8th deadline.

           

5.2       It was brought to our attention that Jerry Klohs needs a business permit. Schwartz will ask Dagesse to send him an application.

 

6.0       Communications:

            6.1       Notice of intent to cut, Fred Pieczarka, Highland Haven, TM 16-6

            6.2       Notice of intent to cut, Poole, East Washington Rd., TM 13-16, 13-16-1, 13-17

6.3       Copy of plan from Peter Mellen, relaying out Sandy Knolls Road      

6.4       Business permit app. from Mike Morin

6.5       Copy of Wetland Permit for Mill Street Culvert, Town of Washington

 

7.0       Meeting date for next Planning Board meeting, January 3, 2012, at 6:30PM

 

8.0       Adjournment:  9:05PM

            Marshall motioned to adjourn, Schwartz seconded, all voted in favor.

 

Respectfully submitted,

Nan Schwartz