Washington Planning Board

Meeting Minutes - Draft

May 2, 2023

0.0 Assembly: 6:30PM, on 2^nd floor of Town Hall

0.1 Members present: Crandall (on zoom), Martin, Revane and Schwartz

0.2 Alternates present: Douglas, Kluk (on zoom) and Florence

0.3 Visitors: Patrick Dombrowski, Tim Kendrick, Nick Cashorelli

Crandall called the meeting to order at 6:30PM.

1.0 Minutes: April 4th Meeting – Crandall asked if any changes were needed in the minutes, no changes or additions were mentioned Crandall made a motion to approve the minutes as written, Revane seconded the motion. All voted in favor.

2.0 New Business:

2.1 Marshall Resignation – Crandall said he was shocked to receive the resignation letter from Tom Marshall. We appreciated that he ran and attended his first meeting. Crandall said that we need to appoint someone to take his place on the board for a year. Crandall made a motion to have Fred Douglas replace Tom Marshall as a PB member. There being no further discussion, Schwartz seconded the motion and all voted in favor.

2.2 Crandall subdivision – Crandall was hoping to have a preliminary discussion on a minor subdivision he is thinking of doing on a lot on Faxon Hill Road. He owned a 45-acre lot on Faxon Hill Road and a few years ago he subdivided it and donated 26 acres to the New England Forestry Foundation as conservation land to be added to their Clark Robinson Forest. This left him with an 11.85-acre lot. His intent now is to build a house for his son but he wants to divide this lot again into a 5.2 and a 6.6 acre parcels. He explained that as per the subdivision regulations - because it hasn’t yet been 10 years since the last subdivision (of this parcel) it has take the previous subdivision into account and making it a major subdivision. Patrick Dombrowski (Crandall’s surveyor) passed out copies of the proposed plan. Kendrick (an abutter) looked over the plan and asked Dombrowski a few questions for clarification. Dombrowski said that in reading through the application the major subdivision applies to big subdivisions with roads and water runoff issues and requires elevations and more items to be provided. Martin asked if the land is in current use. Dombrowski replied that it is. Crandall said he has no plans for the other lot and he will continue to own both lots after he builds on one of them. Dombrowski said that the land can stay in current use until it is conveyed and only the developed portion comes out of current use. Kendrick commented that the conservation piece was not subdivided to build on it. Douglas asked if Dombrowski needed anything else from us. Dombrowski sais he has copies of 2 applications (major and minor), an abutter’s list and the original survey of the property to give us. Schwartz asked members whether they think this application should be considered a major or minor one. Kluk said she is not comfortable calling it a minor, if Crandall wants to move forward it is a major subdivision or he can wait for the 10-year period to be up. Revane agreed. Douglas made a motion to consider it as a major subdivision, Revane seconded the motion and all voted in favor. Schwartz asked Dombrowski to write a list of requested waivers from the requirements of the major subdivision application that he feels are not applicable to this subdivision. He will provide this at our next meeting and we will go through the list then.

2.3 Janeway subdivision – Dombrowski had another minor subdivision to discuss with us. He passed out a plan to subdivide a 4.05-acre lot (containing a circa 1830 house) from a 45-acre lot on Ayers Pond Road. The house and lot are on the class 5 “summer maintenance only” portion of Ayers Pond Road and the road becomes class 6 after the property line. He said that he needs to obtain a permit from the state and also do a test pit for a septic design for the lot. Dombrowski was seeking feedback from us. We discussed the plan with him and Dombrowski will return to the board when the plan and permits are in place.

2.4 Phil Byers – Schwartz said that Byers has been promoting his landscaping business on Facebook and now needs a business permit. She will send him a business permit application to start the process.

3.0 Old Business:

3.1 Lucky 7 Farm – Revane had a flyer that Lucky 7 Farm had posted at the Post Office about their farm stand and other offerings. We checked their file and they are permitted to have the farm stand. Revane said they are talking to the BoS about expanding and if they do we will ask them for a letter to put in their file.

3.2 Town Center Vision project – Crandall said he talked to Arin Mills (Community Garden), Parks & Rec and Peg Carney (Library) and they are all happy to be on the TCV subcommittee. Florence, Crandall and Schwartz said they would also join. Crandall plans to pull a meeting together soon.

3.3 Old School House project – Revane said they are working on the upstairs bathroom and finishing the window rehab. He said the Police are coming up with a punch list for the downstairs office space.

3.4 Master Plan – Florence said he went through all of Kluk’s materials from the last update and offered them to anyone else who would like to read through them. Douglas took the materials to take a look at them. Florence said that the 2013 project plan for the previous update (2015) had a 2-year time line. He thinks we need to start soon to use a similar timeline. We will discuss a start to the process next month.

3.5 ZBA Report – No report but Florence said he wrote an AI software program to use for transcribing their meetings from an audio file and it also writes a shorter recap of the meeting.

3.6 UVLSRPC – No report.

3.7 Nick Cashorali – Cashorali said he was here to learn and was not looking for anything right now. He said he has lived here for about 5 years. He asked about the Land Use Ordinance (LUO) and wanted to know when and why it was created. He asked if there was a risk to not having an LUO. Schwartz answered that the LUO was first created in 1979 and has been updated as needed. Florence said that there are few towns in NH that do not have LUOs. Crandall explained that we are guided by the Master Plan that we are required to update every 10 years. It states that we should maintain the rural character of the Town. Revane said that in the 60s “camp” lots were created on Highland Lake that people now want to have year-round houses on, this creates problems with setbacks, wells, septic systems and water quality. He said the LUO is a living document that can be changed over time. Cashorali asked if he needs a building permit for a chicken coop or a dog house. Schwartz said that the Select Board handles building permits and that there is a no fee permit for small buildings. Requiring permits helps the town keep an eye on building setbacks protecting abutters. Crandall thanked Cashorali for attending and said he is welcome to attend any of our meetings.

4.0 Unresolved Business:

4.1 Crestwood Business Permit – Schwartz said that we need to update Chidester’s business permit for his new location. We may need to hold a new hearing for abutters. Schwartz will send him a letter.

4.2 Bruce Putnam Business Permit – No word from Putnam to date. Revane will contact him.

4.3 Zach Ordway – Business permit - Nothing more has been received to date.

4.4 Driveway Regulations – Florence wanted to comment on the driveway permit. He did some research on this along with looking at Kluk’s previous research and he came up with a document which he passed out. We will read through his document and discuss next month.

4.5 Rules of Procedure – Crandall would like us to look at the rules again regarding meetings, quorums and zoom attendance. Schwartz sent a copy of the latest document to members. Florence said that the ZBA has updated their Rules of Procedure and he will share those with us next month.

5.0 Driveway Permits:

5.1 Barkie, TM 11-27-3, Lempster Mountain Road, permanent driveway for logging and home. Ed signed off, Crandall looked at the site and the the culvert and riprap was already in place (prior to the permit being signed) and it is an active logging site. He said the application for the home driveway is not complete (no drawing/plan). Crandall called Barkie and let him know that the permit was not yet approved. We discussed the situation and decided that we will approve the driveway for logging but Barkie will have to reapply for a driveway permit for the house with a map and plan for this driveway Revane said there may be issues with wetlands so the Conservation Commission was asked to look at the site but without a map they couldn’t ascertain where the driveway was going to go. Crandall will draft a letter to Barkie and send to Schwartz.

5.2 Teves Brighton, TM 15-70-1, Faxon Hill Road, permanent driveway for home. Ed looked at the site and approved, requiring a culvert. Crandall will go look at the site over the weekend and will sign the permit if he doesn’t see any problems with it.

6.0 Mergers:

6.1 Brian and Linda Kerrigan, 139 Jackson Drive, TM 14-230 and 14-231. Schwartz said that the paperwork was complete and deeds were provided. Douglas made a motion to approve, Crandall seconded the motion and all voted in favor. The new tax map number will be TM 14-231. Schwartz will sign as clerk and send to the Registry of Deeds.

7.0 Communications: None

7.1 Intents to Cut forms, NEFF -TM 15-42, Faxon Hill Road, Mata – TM 5-1, 2-1, 2-2, Halfmoon Pond Road, Brighton – TM 15-70-1, Faxon Hill Road, Barkie – TM 11-27-3, Lempster Mountain Road

8.0 Date for next Planning Board meeting – Tuesday, June 6, 2023, at 6:30PM, in the upper hall at Town Hall.

9.0 Adjournment: Time: 8:01 PM

Motioned by Revane, seconded by Martin, all voted in favor.

Respectfully Submitted,

Nan Schwartz