Master Plan Committee

MINUTES

April 14, 2015

Present: Jean Kluk, chair; Annie Bissonnette, Carolyn Bullock, Lolly Gilbert, Bob Williams

1. Jean began the meeting at 2:00 p.m. She explained that Steve, Nan, and Jim would not be at the meeting, but that Nan and Jim had sent comments. Nan’s comments had been incorporated in the drafts that Jean had sent out.

2. As follow-up from the January 22^nd meeting, the next day Jean had sent out information from other towns’ reports related to how they had incorporated community input (e.g., Newport). She had also sent out information from the state RSAs related to Master Plans.

3. Copies of the draft chapters are due to the Planning Board by April 18. The Planning Board has scheduled a review of these chapters at their May 5 meeting. Jean believes this will go smoothly since three of the Planning Board members are Master Plan committee members. A public hearing of the chapters that are completed is scheduled for June 2^nd at 6:30 p.m. (Chapters will be published on line as they are completed.) We have already voted on and approved the Vision Statement and the Introduction (although they will require final editing for style and consistency of format).

4. We worked on final content additions and corrections to those chapters that had been sent out to everyone, with the understanding that Jean and Lolly (and maybe Nan) will do a final copy edit of these chapters (checking punctuation, grammar, style, spelling).

A. Land Use & Zoning

1). Subdivision Table, p. 3 – Jean went over these figures with Arline France. The Highland Lake Shores subdivision total lots should be 250 and built lots, 170. That changes the totals for these columns to 1,166 and 683, respectively.

2). In the Goals and Recommendations section, Goal C, point 2, farming and recreation were added to designated land uses. Under Goal E, we deleted (i.e., mother-in-law apartment) from point 2. After a great deal of discussion, we decided to leave Goal F as written.

B. Natural Resources

1). Jim sent in some suggestions that Nan incorporated in the draft of this chapter.

2). While some editing suggestions were noted, no content changes were suggested for this chapter.

5. We reviewed and discussed the following chapters:

A. Economic Development

Jim had commented that this chapter was a good one, noting that it is a difficult topic to explain.

1). Overview -- Annie suggested moving paragraph three in the Overview section to become paragraph two. Other suggestions for the Overview section follow:

· Revise the first sentence to read: “Washington’s early economy was shaped by pioneering residents who relied on the natural resources at hand: water, woods, granite and fields with a few boulders. They developed agriculture...”

· Add a source for the “average 45-minute commute” figure.

· In the first sentence of the second paragraph, change “should” to “must.”

· In the third paragraph, the largest employer should be Town of Washington instead of the Highway Department.

2). Employment – page 3.

· First paragraph, delete “the majority” (line 3).

· Make travel time consistent with page one and cite the source.

· Jean will spell out the abbreviations (NHES –ELMI) used in the second table.

3). Income – page 4.

· In the first sentence add “Median” before “income levels,” and add “average” after U.S. at the end of that sentence.

· Delete “and/or poverty” at the end of sentence 2.

· We discussed and then decided to add median incomes of surrounding towns to the table on page 4.

4). Summary of Community Input

· In the chart on page 5, third item (Manufacturing), change “chose” to “agreed”—“Almost 60% agreed to discourage.”

· On page 6, Priorities, delete #4, paramedical services. Reword the last sentence to read “Encourage businesses to locate downtown and create cottage (home) businesses in neighborhoods where they blend in.”

5). Goals and Recommendations -- page 7.

· Reword the end of #2 to read: “our vast natural resources, agriculture, forestry and tourism.”

· Add a #5 – “Establish an agricultural commission.” Nan had sent Jean a note about this from the NH Municipal Association.

· We spent some time discussing promoting tourism as a significant economic asset.

We agreed to pass on to the Economic Development Committee the list of Washington businesses compiled for the Master Plan Update meeting rather than to include it in this chapter; perhaps it could be in the appendices.

B. Recreation

1). Overview

· We rewrote the first two sentences as follows: “Growth within the region and the Town of Washington is due in large part to the high quality environment, scenic beauty and recreational opportunities of the area. Washington is in the center of an extensive system of well-maintained trails used by hikers, snow-shoers, cross county skiers, snowmobilers, hunters, fishermen and horse riders.”

· The second paragraph, still found in some draft copies, has been eliminated here and is now in the Natural Resources chapter.

2). Recreational Resources

Page 3 – Winter Recreation

· Delete the first clause of the first sentence (about Mt. Sunapee).

· Delete “with a vertical drop…and two tow bars” after “Newbury” in sentence 3.

· In sentence 4, delete the rest of the sentence after “Henniker, NH.

· Delete sentence 5.

Page 4 – Sightseeing – delete “Town bandstand.”

3). Goals and Recommendations – page 7

· Goal A – clarify who makes the decisions regarding scheduling and use of Camp Morgan.

· Goal C -- #2 – change to “Encourage development of new activities and programs.”

C. Cultural and Historical Resources

1). Historic Background

· First paragraph, last sentence, change “eight school districts” to “10 schools.”

· Second paragraph, delete the first sentence.

2). Community Input

§ Page 2 – Old School House date should be 1883.

§ Page 3 – Weaknesses – delete first item “Traffic problems …” also delete the buildings that are not maintained that are listed in parentheses.

3). Goals and Recommendations

· Goal A, #1, change “Establish . . .” to “Explore designating. . .”

· Goal B, #4, change to “Identify and promote families with generational roots in Town.”

· Goal E, #2, change to “Share information in a creative and timely way through a variety of media and channels.”

D. Population

Jean noted that the Lake Sunapee Regional Planning Commission had reported that between 1990-2010 only seven communities had added more than 50 students to their school district and that Washington was one of those seven. She thought this was significant and should be added to the Population chapter. It was agreed that this would be a good thing to do.

These changes/corrections will be made to the chapters, and they will then be sent to the Planning Board. We will also try to have the copy editing done as soon as possible. Chapters still to be completed and reviewed are those on Services & Facilities, Utilities, Housing and Energy. Drafts of these chapters should go to the Planning Board by mid-July. We are targeting a public meeting on all completed chapters for September 8.

The next meeting of this committee was scheduled for June 16 at 2:00 p.m.