Washington Planning Board

Meeting Minutes - Draft

June 5, 2018

0.0       Assembly:  6:30PM, Town Hall

0.1       Members present: Crandall, Hatch, Krygeris, Dulac and Schwartz

            0.2       Alternates present: Terani

0.3       Members and Alternates Absent: Kluk and Russell

0.4       Visitors: None

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

1.0       Minutes:

May 1st meeting – Crandall asked if there were any comments on the minutes. No comments were made, Hatch made a motion to approve as written, Krygeris seconded the motion and all voted in favor.

2.0       New Business:

2.1       Public Health Regulations - Crandall commended Schwartz for her hard work on this issue. Hatch recalled a reference to this issue in the BoS minutes. Krygeris said that the state recently sent out a guidance document that started a process to tackle the ongoing issue. Krygeris asked if we had talked to towns who had implemented a regulation and was there grandfathering of existing nuisances. Crandall said he hoped that there is no grandfathering of junk. He said there are problem yards and maybe people need help cleaning them up. He thought maybe the town could offer help and volunteers or DPW employees to help get a clean up started. Schwartz said maybe a dumpster could be put on site to help them, it can be overwhelming to deal with the mess. Crandall said that East Washington seems to have a lot of pride in their properties. Terani said that the worst areas seem to be coming in on Rte. 31 from Newport. Crandall feels people need help. He brought up the situations in Windsor and Hillsboro where the Feds had to come in to clean up the toxic waste. Crandall said that the regulations would be run by the town’s attorney, then a hearing will be held for public input and then it can be implemented. Hatch was surprised it was so simple and didn't have to go to Town Meeting. Krygeris said the town has a property on Rte. 31 south and they are negotiating to have a trailer removed from the property. Dulac asked if the game plan is to keep this as a health regulation or move it to the LUO. Krygeris said that the Health Officer has a lot of latitude to go on people's property and deal with these issues. Schwartz said she looked at several towns’ regulations to guide the writing of the document. Hatch asked if complaints trigger a response? Krygeris said yes, complaints drive things but they can't do them all at once. He said people have been complaining for a long time and they have taken some property owners to court. Terani feels the second paragraph should end with “including Town owned properties”. Hatch thinks the agriculture exception is a big loophole; he wants to see a definition of "farm" be included. Dulac had a question on prohibited conduct; open pickup trucks going to the transfer station are different than commercial trucks going through town. Schwartz will make a distinction. Krygeris wants a simplification of one line. Schwartz will make the corrections and will pass to the BoS for review and they can send to NHMA and Matt Serge for comment.

3.0 Old Business:

3.1       Business permit application, application for site plan review, Anna Annelli, 181 Smith Pond Road, Tea and tea party business –

Crandall said he had attended the open house on Saturday and that the pastries were very good. He reported we had a site walk on June 1st at the property and looked at the property and applications. He feels the application is complete. He said we could vote tonight to accept the application as complete and set a date for the hearing. Hatch asked about the rooms and meals tax. Schwartz said Annelli would take care of collecting those. Krygeris asked if we need a letter from the State Health Department. Crandall will call Annelli about health department contact. Dulac motioned to accept the application as complete; Crandall seconded the motion and all voted in favor. Crandall set the public hearing for July 3rd at 6pm and Schwartz will do the noticing.

3.2 Town Center Vision – Crandall said that we held our first meeting as a get to know each other session and tomorrow we will be holding a white board session to identify problems and put them in categories and figure out what to tackle first. Hatch said the second piece is how achievable the fixes are. Dulac said the Crandall had recommended a group of 5 or 6 plus PB members and he doesn't agree with the structure of the subcommittee, he feels Crandall shouldn't chair and wants us to consider that if we want to get things done and we should have less representation of the PB on the subcommittee. He thinks we should just get recommendations from them and act on them. Crandall said that no one wanted to chair the subcommittee. Krygeris said that unless you get serious townspeople working on it, it wouldn’t go anywhere. Crandall said we have alternates that can't be at every meeting but they still want to be involved. Hatch said the reality is that there is a dearth of people who will step up and we have a great group of people and we are responding to public comments by doing this. Hatch may not be able to be at all the meetings but will be involved as much as he can. Schwartz said we need to be supportive to the group and help guide the process. Hatch suggested listing the meetings in the BoS minutes.

3.3 Municipal Buildings project update:

            Krygeris said that when the Town hall is completely done the Schoolhouse would be looked at. Schwartz asked Krygeris if he took the insulation decomposed dust in for lab testing. Krygeris said he was having trouble getting a sample but will do that soon. Schwartz said that the Safety building group is meeting tonight and will report back to the BoS. Krygeris said that partial completion of renovation is the BoS’ goal. Hatch said that he is glad that FD/Rescue members are now allowed to be involved.

3.4       Master Plan – this is a placeholder. Schwartz said she feels we are doing a good job of moving things forward.

3.5       Collection of data from ZBA on non-conforming lots and setback information from other towns – Hatch said that he met with Deb and they found most of the records and minutes of the ZBA. He explained to the other ZBA members at their meeting last week what the status of our inquiries was. They have a full board now but no alternates as yet. He spoke with them about the change of minimum acreage from 2 to 4 acres a few years back and how that made things less burdensome for setbacks (at least on new lots). He spoke with them about special case reductions and they felt they had no appetite for a change in the ordinance. They aren’t going to consider the decisions of the last 5 years as precedents. Krygeris said that Williams wanted lesser setbacks in the LUO. Hatch said the ZBA is not looking for that. Schwartz said we should let the ZBA do their job on a case-by-case basis; every situation is unique and needs to be looked at carefully. Hatch thinks the ZBA doesn’t want to drive this forward, we should leave things as they are and let them deal with it. He said Valley Road properties are the predominant concern. Crandall thinks the town has voted to increase lot sizes and they don’t want to deal with development on smaller lots. Hatch said that a problem is that DES is being lax in giving out permits and it is a problem, people think if they get their wetland or shoreland permit they are all set but they don’t understand that the town can be more restrictive and still say no to a project. Krygeris thinks new property owners should get a packet of information from the town to inform them about what is allowed.

4.0 Driveway Permits: None

5.0 Mergers:

5.1       Joseph and Barbara Szymanski, Jefferson Dr., TM 14-96 and 14-117, deeds provided, fee paid, Crandall motioned to approve the merger, Dulac seconded the motion and all voted in favor. The new lot number is TM 14-96. Schwartz will send the paper work to the Registry of Deeds.

6.0 Communications:

            Intent-to-cut, Niven, TM 17-15, Smith Pond Road, Krygeris asked about the acreage of the cut and Schwartz said it was not specified on the form but the lot is 145 acres.

7.0 Meeting date for next Planning Board meeting, July 3, 2018, at 6:30 PM, at the Town Hall, we will hold the Annelli Business Permit Hearing at 6:00 PM

8.0 Adjournment:                       Time: 7:55PM

            Motioned by Hatch, seconded by Dulac, all voted in favor.

Respectfully Submitted,

Nan Schwartz