PLANNING BOARD MEETING MINUTES
TUESDAY – JANUARY 10, 2006
356 Main Street – Farmington, NH
Members Present: Charlie King, Don MacVane, Hiram Watson, Jim Horgan, Jason Lauze - Alternate
Absent: David Kestner – without notification
Charles Wibel – with notification
Selectmen’s Rep: Paul Parker
Staff Present: Paul Esswein, Doreen T. Hayden
Public Present: None
Chairman King called the meeting to order at 6:15 p.m.
Continuation: 2nd Hearing: Adoption of Road and Driveway Regulations, Design and Construction Standard.
Chairman King advises this is a continuation from last meeting as we had run out of time; Chairman King turns the floor over to Paul Esswein, he has 1 item for discussion; page 3 of 15; Paragraph 2 makes reference to Table 1A; this Table is not available as yet, we can continue to go through these regulations/standards. Paul Parker asks what the hold up is? Paul Esswein advises that he has not gotten the specifications yet.
Don MacVane motions to approve less the completion of the referenced Table; 2nd Jason Lauze, discussion; Paul Esswein would like Paragraph 2 from both I & J to be removed to a later date for re-insertion; Chairman King leave it as is and the Planning Department could insert at a later date, Jim Horgan, Hiram Watson, Don MacVane vote to leave out, Chairman King, Jason Lauze and Paul Parker not in favor; Don MacVane motions to remove Paragraph 2, from Sections I & J on page 3 of 15; 2nd Jason Lauze, no further discussion, all those in favor, motion passes.
Don MacVane asks for clarification from Paul Esswein on the chart referencing “Under Major Local Street” “400-1500 average daily traffic”; Paul Esswein replies these are State standards we use.
Don MacVane also questions the surface width, Paul Esswein comments that the State has higher standards than what the Town of Farmington uses.
Chairman King opens the floor to the public for comment, no public in attendance.
Don MacVane motions to accept the revised Road and Driveway Regulations Design and Construction Standards document and to put it in place immediately, 2nd Paul Parker, no further discussion, all those in favor, motion passes.
Continuation of Discussion: Zoning Ordinance Amendments – For March 2006 Town Meeting:
Chairman King turns to Paul Esswein for discussion on density in the Village Center District; Paul Esswein replies - we should not reduce density, by reducing density it increases acreage required and reduction would be detrimental to the downtown foot traffic. The petition as presented will go on the Town of Farmington Ballot.
Discussion regarding the petition and its meaning on density and how the petitioners did not really understand how to correctly write the petition to the actual request that they wanted.
Discussion on what a downtown district would benefit from.
Discussion on the suggestion of Paul Esswein in the realignment of all the Town of Farmington zoning districts, Paul Esswein places his plan on the easel for all the board members as well as the FCTV viewing audience to review and goes into detail explaining where has made his suggested realignments.
Discussion reverts back to the proposed increase to the Village Center previous discussion; Jim Horgan comments that he is not inclined to change the Village Center boundaries or the density; Hiram Watson does not have a problem and would hope people would be notified if such change took effect. Hiram Watson feels that more discussion is needed, as well as the towns’ people being notified.
Don MacVane agrees with both Hiram Watson and Jim Horgan, comments that this discussion has been going on for many years, feels there should be a lot more discussion as well as thought process to this. The Downtown Committee and The Economic Development Committee should be involved, I am in favor of the idea, but needs some massaging.
Chairman King feels realistically not enough time for discussion; agrees with Paul Esswein on past discussions regarding the Village Center District and is somewhat in agreement; Chairman King would also like to see the density changed for the Urban Residential District by having higher unit per square feet. Chairman King comments this discussion needs to be continued and to into the 2007 Town of Farmington Vote.
Jason Lauze agrees with others; has his own interpretation of petition to put forth a warrant article; feels there is a lot of misunderstanding on the ¼ acre versus ½ acre; Chairman King asks if the petitioners can withdraw; discussion is yes they can withdraw once on the floor.
Jim Horgan mentions he remembers last year the Zoning Ordinance being shot down – too much information and not enough time for circulation and understanding.
Hiram Watson asks if the Selectmen take a position, Paul Parker – no it would be on a recommendation of the Planning Board.
Paul Esswein agrees with the members of the board, not an opportune time and should bring others in for discussion.
Chairman King makes a suggestion of offering some type of incentive to the properties in the Village Center that would be subjected to such realignment.
Jim Horgan motions to put this expansion and consideration of density onto the April 2006 Work Session, 2nd Paul Parker, no further discussion, all those in favor, motion passes.
Discussion turns back to density; specifically in the Urban Residential District and Chairman King asks Paul Esswein for his thoughts regarding that Zone; Chairman King is not upset with the density, just the way it gets developed.
Jim Horgan states that the density issues need to be put to bed and we need to concentrate on the document that is before us this evening.
Chairman King voices his opinion and ideas on revamping the density of the Urban Residential District to what it was 3-years ago when it had a different density requirements.
Don MacVane joins the discussion on the Urban Residential Zoning District; and relates his issues as water and sewer being the biggest issue for him.
Hiram Watson speaks about the petition being signed and wants to bring this back up in the April 2006 Work Session as Jim Horgan offered.
Don MacVane motions to leave the density to the later date of April 2006 Work Session, 2nd Paul Parker; no further discussion, all those in favor, Jim Horgan – opposed (??), motion passes.
Discussion now reverts back to the Zoning Ordinance.
Chairman King refers to the T. O. P. U. on page 23; and in our last meetings did we agree to remove Expansions of existing Manufactured Housing Parks.
Discussion between the Board Members regarding the T. O. P. U.
Chairman King refers to page 24 of the T. O. P. U. under “institutional” using Hospitals as an example, feels the Zoning Ordinance T. O. P. U. is to restrictive in some areas and that maybe next year we could put together a more comprehensive list. Paul Esswein is in 100% agreement and elaborates that as a professional he feels this T. O. P. U. is not effective, but this is not the time to take on this as it is a huge undertaking and believes that outside professional consultation on this subject matter would be helpful.
Chairman King asks if there are any other potential changes for discussion; Paul Parker adds that under the Special Exception for all Districts he would like to see that a S. E. is more in-line to the use and not to cover all uses; and suggests that this be reviewed after we have had outside profession consultation.
Don MacVane comments that on page 4 of the Zoning Ordinance; item (5) we should add “a” after The request for “a” waiver……
Chairman King questions the change on page 40, under 3.01; asks Paul Esswein for clarification; Paul Esswein replies this allows “me” to clarify the 3.01 definition.
Paul Esswein suggest that under Section 3.09, paragraph “B”, page 45, wants to add the definition of the word “temporary” as “shall mean 30 days” to the end of the paragraph (B) (1); Don MacVane motions to add this definition, 2nd Jim Horgan, no further discussion, all those in favor, motion passes.
Don MacVane wants to go back to Section 3.01, page 40 for discussion purposes.
Paul Esswein advises the Board Members that the warrant articles as Adopted in November 2004, i.e. S.O.B, Phased Development, and Cluster Development will be inserted into this document with the correct sections updated.
Chairman King asks Paul Esswein how do we present warrant articles? Paul Esswein replies – we should break down into individual discussions; I will bring to next weeks meeting my suggested layout for warrant articles.
Chairman King presents to each of the Board Members his revised version of Rear Lot Subdivision Regulation and reads through his revisions in comparison to the version by Paul Esswein.
Discussion on Chairman Kings’ suggested changes on the Rear Lot Subdivision Regulation.
Paul Parker comments that he has not been 10% sold on rear lot subdivision, some zones okay, some zone not at all; I’m not fully comfortable on a whole, but okay with the suggested changes by Chairman King.
Discussion continues on the Rear Lot Subdivision Regulation and interpretation of such; as well as 3.01 interpretations, driveway cuts also were a topic of discussion, variances that could be granted from the ZBA for not having the required frontage was also discussed.
Jim Horgan motions to accept the Rear Lot Subdivision Regulation as revised, 2nd Chairman King, Section 3.04 of the Zoning Ordinance on Rear Lot definition is discussed, Paul Esswein read the existing definition, question asked “do we want to replace Chairman Kings’ Rear Lot Subdivision Regulation to the section of 3.04 of the Zoning Ordinance, Chairman King asks if that would cause problems, Paul Esswein replies No; no further discussion, all those in favor, motion passes.
7:50 p.m.
Jim Horgan motions to adjourn, 2nd Don MacVane, no further discussion, all those in favor, motion passes.
APPROVED AS WRITTEN 02-07-2006
__________________________________ __________________________
Charlie King, Chairman Date
Farmington Planning Board
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