WASHINGTON PLANNING BOARD

Master Plan Update Subcommittee – Working meeting Minutes

September 16, 2014

Committee members present: Lolly Gilbert, Jean Kluk, Jim Crandall, Carolyn Bullock, Bob Williams, Annie Bissonnette and Nan Schwartz.

Visitors: None

1.0 The meeting was called to order by Jean Kluk at 2:30 PM, in the Town Hall.

2.0 Kluk asked if there were any suggested changes for the minutes of August 26^th. There were no changes.

3.0 Kluk thanked everyone for their input on the Master Plan Forum document and said she just received the updated version, which she forwarded on to everyone by email. She said that the majority of suggested changes were made and she will get them to send us 12 hard copies now. We will put a copy at the Library and the Town Hall for the public and we will post it online. Schwartz will send out a News item and a Nixle announcement when it is posted.

4.0 We discussed the sample Master Plans Kluk sent out for us to look at and the Table of Contents, that she put together. She said our goal is to choose the structure we want to use for our document. Bullock pointed out that some of the plans had inconsistencies in their format. Gilbert pointed out that sometimes the documents had conclusions included in the chapters and sometimes they were at the end of the document. Williams thinks we may not be able to stick to our standard form throughout the document because you may have different kind of content in each chapter. Bissonnette said her take away was that most documents had vision, objectives and recommendations and she wanted to know if we have to do the same old thing or could we just do an executive summary (shorter document) that people will be happy to read. We could say here is the situation and the community input. Williams said that the departments’ input is the third piece for the input we are seeking. Gilbert commented she liked Newport’s prioritizing of goals and action items. Kluk said that the Vision and Goals statements are like an executive summary. Williams said that people will read the parts they are interested in and use it as a reference document. He feels the chapters should stand on their own and restate the goals. Gilbert mentioned that a couple of the plans had a section in the introduction stating what had been achieved since the last plan, somewhat like a report card. Kluk asked the group if we wanted to do that. Bullock felt it wasn’t necessary. Williams feels the current situation needs to be reported in the overview. Crandall doesn’t like the idea of a report card. Bissonnette said that the format of the last MP didn’t really have an action plan so it would be hard to do a report card. Crandall and Bullock both liked Newport and Stoddard’s. Williams liked the inclusion of the History of the town in the Goshen MP and feels we should include this in a separate chapter. Kluk pointed out we have a historic overview (Chapter 6) in our present plan, she said to also look at pages 4 – 8 as goals (they are called priciples), the Vision statement is not strong enough, too general. We should tweak the statement into goals and vision statements and make a correlation. Kluk cut and pasted the old Master Plan into the applicable chapters in a new Table of Contents, that she will share with us. Williams thinks we may or may not reuse but it is good for reference. Bissonnette feels the summary of community input could be cumbersome. Bullock said we should include charts and graphs from the survey in the chapters. Williams asked about the Vision Statement. Kluk said that the Vision Statement and goals are the higher view of the story and the chapters are more specific. Williams feels our template will change as we go along so we just need to start and see where we end up. Kluk said we will add the Historic chapter and priorities of action (recommendations) to the end of the document. Bissonnette asked how we are going to approach the committees for input, is it secondary? Are we asking about the content with specific requests? Gilbert used the Transfer Station as an example, the community is happy with it but Ed Thayer may have specific thoughts about the facility and goals for his department. Bullock added that the input could be included or not then after the chapter is written we could run it by them for final input. Crandall asked what do we do if there are conflicts? Kluk said we would have to reconcile them in the end. Williams said that not everything they give us will be used, it is all part of the process. He feels we don’t need to give them the final chapter because we will have public hearings and a comment period.

We decided we would ask each relevant committee/department or commission for their current situation, their vision, goals and recommendations. We will share the 2006 Master Plan, the community survey and the Workshop report with the committee. Crandall asked if we should test it on one department to see how it works. Kluk said by law the required parts are the Vision and Land Use and Zoning sections, she wondered if we want to do these first. Bullock suggested doing the first three chapters. Kluk said we also need to work on the vision statement. Williams said that a lot of data analysis needs to be done. Kluk suggested we break into groups for the chapters. Bissonnette asked if we need to tie budget to the goals. Everyone felt there shouldn’t be any budget because it is not relevant to the Master Plan.

Kluk suggested we look at the list of chapters and see who would like to work on them.

Vision chapter – MPUC, Bissonnette will do a draft.

Land Use and Zoning – input from PB and ZBA, Kluk and Gilbert will work on this chapter.

Community Facilities – MPUC with input from PWD, Fire, Rescue, Police, Library, Parks and Rec, School Board and Selectmen, Williams, Steve Terani and Crandall will work on this chapter.

Economic Development – PB, Farmer’s Market Group, Artisan’s group input

Natural Resources – Conservation Commission, Forestry Committee input, Schwartz and Bullock will work on this chapter.

We agreed to send a letter a within the week and Kluk will send us a draft to use, we will attach the mentioned documents and give everyone an October 24^th deadline. We will copy the Selectmen on all the request emails.

5.0 Our next meeting is next Tuesday, October 21st at 2:30 PM at the Town Hall.

Meeting adjourned at 4:00 PM.

Respectfully submitted,

Nan Schwartz

Planning Board Secretary