Town of Buxton Planning Board Meeting
Minutes of October 22, 2007
Prepared by: Hilda Lynch
Members Present: Barbara Elwell, Keith Emery, Jeremiah Ross, III, Caroline Segalla, and David Anderson
Members Absent: James Logan and Harry Kavouksorian
Others Present: none
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Call to Order
Chairman Jeremiah Ross, III, called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m.
CEO Report
No report.
Approval of Minutes:
September 24, 2007 – p. 3, bottom of pg 3 – Add Keith. A motion was made by Keith, seconded by Dave, to accept minutes as corrected. The vote was unanimous in favor of accepting the minutes as amended
October 8, 2007 – Keith moved, Caroline seconded, to approve the minutes as printed. The vote was 4 in favor – 1 abstention (Barbara abstained as she was not present).
Approval of Bills:
· Mainely Media, LLC in the amount of $30.40 for advertising the time change of the Planning Board meetings (ad ran twice in Gazette). Keith moved, Barbara seconded, and the vote was unanimous in favor of paying the above bill.
· Portland Press Herald in the amount of $22.00 for advertising the time change of the Planning Board meetings (ad ran twice). Caroline moved, Keith seconded, and the vote was unanimous in favor of paying the above bill.
Communications
Flyer from Maine Municipal Assn. about a planning board workshop – November 29 – Please let Jere know if interested; there is some money in the budget for workshops such as this.
The Board received a letter from Fred Farnham regarding the sign locations for Captain’s Way. He had a couple of questions when he and the road commissioner went to inspect the road. Jere wanted to know if the Board needed to tell them where the signs should be, and Keith stated that the Board did not. He thought the Road Commissioner would make that decision, and Jere was in agreement. Barbara questioned the “No Parking” signs, and Jere and Keith stated that it had to do with the fire hydrants and parking in the hammerhead. The Fire Chief, Police Chief or Road Commissioner should determine where the signs should go, Caroline thought and Jere agreed. There was some discussion about the fire hydrant signs, and it was thought
that this was an ordinance enforced by the Selectmen. Barbara asked about placing speed limit signs on a 900 ft. road. Jere and Keith both thought that town roads would probably all have to have speed limit signs.
For the second item in Fred’s letter, Jere’s opinion is that any road that doesn’t have an outlet onto another road should have a “Dead End” sign, and Keith and Caroline agreed. Keith thought that anyone requesting a subdivision with a road should be given a list of signs, and they should then go to a sign company to get those signs. Caroline wondered if information regarding the signs could be placed in the approvals needed for subdivisions. Jere thought that they would need to go to the fire chief, police chief, and road commissioner to get signs approved—make the applicant responsible for getting these things signed off on. Jere thought this could be added to the driveway entrance permit that people need to get to
the road commissioner through Fred. Jere also thought that for any access involving more than three houses there would need to be approval from the road commissioner, fire chief, and police chief on signage. Jere thought that any signage in the right of way should be determined by the town officials and maintained by them. Keith thought that the first set of signs for a subdivision would need to be put in by the developer, since the road is still a private one. Keith thought that signs couldn’t be set in the same place in every subdivision since the road layout would have to be seen before the determination of signage could be made.
Dave doesn’t see any reason why signs couldn’t be placed on the subdivision plan, and he gave an example of one in which they had done this before. Jere referred to Section 13.4.D.1 of the Ordinances regarding signs. Dave said that developers could be compelled to put up a sign if they want to be approved as a town road. Safety signs and others would be appropriate to put in a plan upfront, Dave thought. Jere thought that this was part of the Selectmen and Fire Chief’s authority.
Jere wanted to know if a paragraph should be added to 13.4.D. Signs need to be put up when the subdivision is built, Keith stated. He made the point that the developer should pay for the first set of signs because he doesn’t believe that the taxpayers should be responsible for paying for these. Fred, in his letter, referred to the “Access to Lots” section of the ordinance and wondered if there should be something added. Jere thought that something should be added to “Access to Lots.” (10.1.D) He will work on the wording. Dave mentioned that there’s a fine line, since you can’t think of everything so don’t want to be too specific. The Board will come up with wording as they work on
ordinance changes.
An e-mail was received from a volunteer from the Wat Samaki Buddhist Temple regarding the procedures for the Buddhist Temple. Jere thought he’d leave that up to Fred to determine the answer. Dave wondered if this was something that was going to come before the Board. Jere’s understanding is that there should be no meetings in the building until they’ve come before the Planning Board. The house has been approved for monks to live in at this point. Dave wondered if there was a time limit on “pending” applications. Jere was agreeable to allowing it to stay “pending” at this time. He didn’t know if there was a preliminary application because he wasn’t on the Board at that time.
Dave thought there was an application at one time, and Barbara thought it may have come before the Board more than a year ago. Jere thought that there had been some change in leadership. Keith thought they were trying to draw up plans the last time he talked with Fred. Jere saw a letter that Fred had sent them regarding their coming before the Planning Board if there were to be any meetings at the temple. Jere would ask Krystal to have Fred provide an update for the next meeting.
Other Business
None.
Moved by Keith, seconded by Caroline, to adjourn the meeting to a workshop. The vote was unanimously in favor of adjourning at 7:35 p.m...
The Board Workshop Session would be to discuss proposals for ordinance changes and shoreland zoning changes. The Board has to update the entire shoreland zoning ordinance for the Buxton zoning ordinances by July, 2008. There are about 30 or 40 pages that have to be worked on. It has to go to town meeting, so it would probably have to be done by March.
Respectfully submitted,
Hilda E. Lynch
Approval Date: __________________
_________________________________ _______________
Jeremiah Ross, III, Chairman Signature Date
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