Washington Planning Board

Meeting Minutes - Draft

November 2, 2021

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

0.1 Members present: Hatch, Crandall, Kluk, Revane and Schwartz

0.2 Alternates present: Kapteyn

0.3 Members and Alternates Absent: Terani and Chidester

0.4 Visitors: Roger Cullen, Barbara Skuly, Jed Schwartz

Hatch opened the meeting at 6:30PM.

1.0 Minutes: October 5^th meeting, – Hatch asked if there were any changes needed to the minutes, Kluk suggested changing a word on 2.2, Schwartz will make the change. Crandall made a motion to approve with the change, Kluk seconded the motion and all voted in favor. Site walk – October 15^th, no changes requested, Kluk made a motion to approve as written, Crandall seconded the motion and all voted in favor, Working session – October 15^th, Crandall made a motion to approve as written, Hatch seconded the motion and all voted in favor.

2.0 New Business –

2.1 Barbara Skuly, ARLAC, Hatch welcomed Skuly to the meeting and introduced the board members to her. She spoke about ARLAC and the Ashuelot Corridor Survey that they conducted in 2001 and updated in 2006, they are now in the midst of updating the survey once again. She mentioned that ARLAC comments on any waterfront development that takes place in the corridor. She said they don’t have any representation on the committee from Washington at this time but they work with our Conservation Commission on shoreland permitting in our town. She asked what our concerns are. J. Schwartz said the CC went for a paddle up the northern end of Ashuelot Pond and into the river section and saw some erosion causing trees to fall into the water. They plan to get to the dam side and take a look soon. Revane said the BoS always looks for proper Shoreland/wetland permitting on Construction Permits and our LUO is pretty specific and does a good job. Hatch commented that LAE has some further restrictions and the town has good oversight with the CC. There is an open permit to do the dam work on the Marlow side but it hasn’t been done yet. Skuly asked about the deep drawdown done every few years. She spoke about the watershed and other concerns. Hatch asked when the update will be done and she hopes it will be next year. We can adopt it into the Master Plan once it is updated.

2.2 PB Budget – DeFosse sent last year’s budget and asked us for our budget numbers for 2022. We discussed each line and decided to hold to the same (2021) amounts for 2022. Schwartz asked if we need a legal budget line and Revane said we are covered by the Town’s legal budget line. Kluk made a motion to hold the budget to the same numbers as 2021, Hatch seconded the motion and all voted in favor. Schwartz will let DeFosse know.

3.0 Old Business:

3.1 Capital Improvements Project (CIP) – Schwartz said she has received the requests for 2022 and will have the document finished soon. She has a few more figures to get from DeFosse. She will send it out to members once it is done.

3.2 Roger Cullen, Site Plan Review – Schwartz had sent out the latest site plan provided by Ferwerda this afternoon, he had added the on-site electrical and updated the soil information. The plan is still not stamped. We went through our compiled list of needed information and plans from the checklist review. Hatch shared the list with Cullen and we went through it line by line. Hatch said there is only a week before the Public Hearing so we will consider it to be non-binding and preliminary in scope and present his latest plan to the public for comment and input. We discussed continuing the hearing to a later date so we don’t have to re-notice abutters. Kluk commented that we can hire an engineer to review the plans for the board, if needed. Cullen brought up that one abutter was left off the abutter list for noticing. Schwartz will notice that abutter by regular mail and this will make it so we need to re-notice the next hearing to make it legal; the hearing can’t be continued to a later date. Cullen said that Ferwerda’s surveyor is going to stamp the plans. Schwartz said that an engineer needs to do the stormwater plan, etc; there need to be several pages of plans. Schwartz will get FD, PD, DPW and CC comments in writing.

3.3 Town Center Vision project – Crandall said we have met with Costello and have worked through several versions of a preliminary plan that have also been run by the BoS. It is moving forward with multiple revisions. The BoS have asked us to focus on the rear parking and walk/stair way for this round. He is getting a ball park estimate from Chidester for the walk/stair way from the rear parking lot. BoS has coned off the drive in front of the Town Hall to see how traffic flows.

3.4 Old School House project - Revane said the BoS have advertised for a contractor for the SH work, they are having trouble getting anyone to bid on the work. The windows are off getting rehabbed. They are waiting for the plumber to come back and Granite State Communications. He thinks they have enough funds to finish the work.

3.5 Master Plan – this is a placeholder.

3.6 ZBA Report – Hatch said they met last week without any cases to hear. They have a case coming up that Hatch has to recuse himself from. They have a previous member who will step in to hear the case, giving them a quorum.

3.7 UVLSRPC – Hatch said they held an in-person meeting recently that he attended and it was very procedural. They are still looking for us to be a part of the Rte. 10; multi-modal transportation study they are conducting.

Discussion - Revane brought up the ARPA funds that the federal government sent to NH towns. They have received half of the funds ($57K now and another $57K next year) and the Board has decided to spend the money on Camp Morgan Lodge and upgrade the town’s emergency shelter and equipment. Schwartz asked about putting solar on the building. Revane was not in favor of this but Schwartz asked them to work with Hatch on any plans they are considering. Revane said it is a federally audited project so they want to hire a construction manager to write the specs and oversee the project.

3.8 LUO Issues – Schwartz is working on a draft of all the decisions/changes that we made at our working meeting. Kluk still wants to look at the commercial setbacks.

4.0 Unresolved Business

4.1 Georgann Casey – No news.

4.2 Kathryn & Steve Becker and Jane Shamaly – No news.

4.3 Desclos – It was brought up that the state recommends 5 acres for creating a new lot to accommodate a septic system. We will look further into the state regs. We allow 4 acre lots.

5.0 Driveway Permits: None

6.0 Mergers: None

7.0 Communications:

7.1 Letter received (anonymous) from abutters of Cullen project, in opposition to the project.

8.0 Meeting date for next Planning Board meeting – December 7, 2021, at 6:30 PM, at 2^nd Floor at Town Hall. Public Hearing on Cullen project - November 9^th at 6:30PM, at 2^nd floor at Town Hall.

9.0 Adjournment: Time: 8:48PM

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

Respectfully Submitted,

Nan Schwartz