ANTRIM PLANNING BOARD
Regular Meeting
July 19th, 2018 MINUTES
Members & Staff Present:
Janet McEwen (Chair), Chris Condon (Vice Chair), William Bryk (Member), Lynne Rosansky (Member), John Robertson (Ex-Officio), Steve MacDonald (Alternate); Carol Ogilvie (Consultant Planner), and Kristin Bixby (Assistant to Land Use Boards).
Members Absent: Mary Allen (Member), Bob Holmes (Member)
Others Present:
CTO: Chair McEwen called the meeting to order at 7:00 PM and introduced the Board and staff. Chair McEwen seated Mr. MacDonald as a full Board member for the meeting.
I. Minutes
- Minutes from June 7th, 2018.
Motion: Vice Chair Condon moved to read the minutes for approval, seconded by Mr. Bryk.
Discussion: It was clarified that “CTO” stands for Call to Order.
Motion: Mr. Bryk moved the motion/seconded by Ms. Rosansky for approval of the minutes as amended.
Vote: By a voice vote, the June 7th, 2018 minutes were approved as amended. Mr. MacDonald abstained from voting due to absence.
- Minutes from June 14th, 2018.
Motion: Vice Chair Condon moved to read the minutes for approval, seconded by Mr. Robertson.
Discussion: Line 133 had a typo of the word “downtown.”
Motion: Mr. Bryk moved the motion/seconded by Mr. Robertson for approval of the minutes as amended.
Vote: By a voice vote, the June 14th, 2018 minutes were approved as amended. Ms. Rosansky abstained from voting due to absence.
II. Master Plan
Economic Vitality Workshop Discussion and Takeaways
Chair McEwen explained her three main takeaways from the recent forum as being the Town website, business directory, and an assessment of commercial spaces available for lease or purchase.
Mr. Robertson said that he had had a further discussion with Ray Ledgerwood pertaining to the website. He said that he and Mr. Ledgerwood would like to help revise the website. They had started brainstorming some ideas, noting that when somebody searches Antrim, the website could be “alive,” with a voice that says welcome to Antrim, and has a personality.
Vice Chair Condon said he disagreed with the insinuation at the Forum that the software the Town currently has is appropriate to build and update the type of website the community and Boards want. He asked Ms. Bixby what software system and website provider the Town currently has. Ms. Bixby explained that the website services come from Virtual Towns and Schools [which just recently formed a merger with CivicPlus and now go by Civic CMS], and that the software that the Town is still using is First Class. The company had since updated their software format to Drupal 7, but the Town has not yet payed to switch over to the more updated program.
Mr. MacDonald noted that his place of work had recently looked into updating software, and were choosing between Drupal and Word Source as platforms. He said that Drupal was good as long as the “off-the-shelf” standards are what one would need. If it is realized after that something may need to be modified, it is very complicated and the modules would need to be modified by coders. Also, every time there is a software update, it would overwrite any of those modifications.
Vice Chair Condon stated that the website needed to be a separate committee from the Planning Board, and supported by the Select Board. He asked that in order to get the task done, would it be best for the Select Board to create a task committee. Mr. Robertson said that would need to go through the next budgeting committee process.
Ms. Rosansky noted that the Board will need an entire proposal presented, possibly by providers outside of the current one so that software, design, and costs can be compared. She said that the Board can talk as consumers about what the website should be, but only a few members really know what to ask and look for. She was also curious as to why this cannot just be handled as a Request for Proposal form the Planning Board.
Chair McEwen added that in terms of the website not being up to date, especially with the business inventory, she believed that people are not aware that they can put their businesses on that page. She said that she would not mind putting something in The Limrik about making sure businesses are contacting the Town.
Discussion: Vice Chair Condon moved for specified group, consisting of himself, Steve MacDonald. John Robertson, and Ray Ledgerwood, to spearhead a new website campaign to discuss further along with a staff report from Ms. Bixby at the next Planning Board meeting. Mr. Bryk seconds the motion.
Vote: By a voice vote, all Board members agreed.
Chair McEwen noted that Rick Wood and a few others had mentioned helping in developing a new business guide. There was a brief discussion about whether a virtual business guide would be adequate for the community or if a new brochure should also be made for businesses to give out. Vice Chair Condon said that, in terms of time, this was not the most important thing to worry about. Chair McEwen volunteered to start focusing on updating the business inventory. A discussion on assessment of commercial spaces will wait for a future meeting.
Vision Statement/Vision Chapter Discussion
Chair McEwen requested that as a homework assignment, the Board members could look over the original master plan session, the vision statement that was begun in 2010, and the new survey data and Forum data to see what needs to be changed within the vision statement.
Ms. Rosansky recommended that the Planning Board should get beyond the vision and start on other sections of the Master Plan. Vice Chair Condon noted that the next logical chapter to update is the land use chapter. Chair McEwen added that the Conservation Commission could update their section. While looking through the Master Plan, the Board also agreed that the implementation plan needed to be updated.
Vice Chair Condon added that all of the sections are large and wordy. As a group, the Board could go through and say what to keep and update, or move to an appendix and update, or forget/delete. From this, a task list can be created. Mr. MacDonald added that the format for Manchester’s Master Plan is better, since the general viewer won’t read a lot of text. The Board should choose visual images that are thematic and metaphorical.
Motion: Chair Condon moved/MacDonald seconded to write in the Planning Board Bylaws that during the first meeting after elections, a date needs to be set for when the Master Plan Implementation Section is reviewed.
Discussion: Mr. Robertson asked for clarification on which election. Chair McEwen stated that the motion referred to the Town’s election of officers on the Town Election ballot each March.
Vote: By a voice vote, all Board members agreed.
III. Land Use Application Fee Revisions
Ms. Ogilvie lead the conversation, claiming that this was long overdue. When the Board completely revised the site plan and subdivision regulations in 2013, the fees on some of the applications never got completed. The memo (Addendum I in the minutes) explains overarching changes. One overall application fee will now cover administrative costs. Newspaper and certified mail amounts listed seemed higher than real costs. These issues were reflected in the change.
Chair McEwen asked if there were any costs that were raised, noting that she was worried about excavation fees increasing. Ms. Ogilvie said that the only higher cost is the basic application fee, as will now offset other fees, and that the excavation costs went down.
Motion: Chair Condon moved/Bryk seconded to approve the new application fees.
Discussion: There was no discussion.
Vote: By a voice vote, all Board members agreed.
IV. Land Use Assistant Updates
Workshop: Mary Pinkham-Langer
Mary Pinkham-Langer of NH DRA has been asked to give a presentation on excavation and sandpit regulations, as well as land use regulations. She will be made tha main agenda item for the Planning Board Workshop scheduled for Thursday, September 20th, 2018. Her presentation, including time for questions, should run for about an hour.
Chair McEwen added that it may be a good idea to invite all individuals with active sandpits in Town to attend the presentation.
Website
Conversation has been started with Civic CMS about the costs associated with upgrading the software and appearance of the Town of Antrim website. More updates will follow after more discussion takes place with the Town Administrator.
Possible Upcoming Cases
The only case that the Board should look out for is the formal Site Plan Review/Public Hearing for a property at 51 Old Hancock Road. There has already been a Preliminary Consultation with the Board, but no plans have been submitted yet for the formal, publically noticed Site Plan Review Hearing.
Minute-taking
In lieu of the position vacancy of the Land Use Assistant, it was suggested that a Board Member (either full member or an alternate) take over the responsibilities of recording the minutes until a new staff member is hired. Ms. Bixby suggested that Jeanne Cahoon, currently an alternate for the Planning Board, would make a good interim minute taker. She had reached out to Ms. Cahoon since she could not be in attendance at tonight’s meeting, and Ms. Cahoon had already agreed that she would have interest in accepting the role. She added that she had previously taken Planning Board minutes, so she is used to the procedure.
V. Additional Business
Chair McEwen asked about when is it necessary for Carol Ogilvie to be in attendance for Board meetings. Ms. Ogilvie said that she is used to doing work at home for Board, and although it is not a problem to drive to Antrim for meetings, she would be fine with not coming if there is a light agenda.
Chair McEwen noted that it would be helpful on getting more specifics on who is going to be delegated to taking care of the other administrative tasks of the Land Use Assistant in interim.
VI. Correspondence – Southwest Region Planning Commission
SWRPC Newsletter – June 2018 Update. The Board had no questions about the May update.
Adjournment:
Motion: Ms. Rosansky made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Mr. Robertson.
Discussion: There was no discussion.
Vote: By a voice vote, all Board members agreed.
Meeting Adjourned: 8:14 PM
Respectfully Submitted,
Kristin Bixby
Assistant to Land Use Boards
Addendum I:
MEMO
TO: Antrim Planning Board
DATE: July 16, 2018
RE: Application Fees
This memo is to inform the Planning Board that I have been working with Kristin to update the fee schedules for all of the land use applications. When the Subdivision and Site Plan Review Regulations were amended in 2013, we never did complete the fee schedule; furthermore, since that time, other costs have changed, so it was necessary to get the forms up to date.
There are in total seven application forms, each with various fees, some the same, some different. The basic components of all applications are the filing fee (intended to cover staff time in processing applications), certified mail, newspaper notice, and then the County filing fees. Some of the applications have different filing fees, even though the effort involved in processing an application is basically the same. So I have settled on one consistent number for the filing of an application – regardless of the type, and the actual (or very close estimate) of the other costs; these are spelled out below:
Application Filing Fee: $150
Certified Mail: $4.00 per letter
Newspaper Notice: $90
Plat Filing: $9 - $24 based on size of plat
LCHIP: $25
Notice of Decision Filing: $20
In addition to these basic fees are a per-lot fee for subdivisions and a square-footage fee for site plans for all building footprints and/or disturbed land.
These changes do not need a public hearing because they are administrative in nature only, although the Board should certainly be aware of them and we can discuss at the July 19th meeting.
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