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Jackson Planning Board
MINUTES –January 16, 2014 – Worksession
Call to Order: The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm by Dick Bennett, Chair. Attending were: Members John Allen, Larry Siebert, Scott Badger, Dave Treadwell, Sarah Kimball, Betsey Harding and Dick Bennett, and Alternates Bea Davis, Kathleen Dougherty, and Daren Levitt. Also attending were Tara Bamford, Planning Coordinator at North Country Council, and Hank Benesh, who was filming the proceedings.
Tara distributed three items:
- The Build-out Analysis Draft Report
- A map of Jackson indicating the layers used for data collection (showing all lots and with a key indicating the River Conservation District, the Village District, Public Lands, Conservation Easement lands, and Existing Commercial Use lots)
- Policy Note: The People of NH (a collection of statewide demographic data).
Board members reviewed the map in some detail verifying conservation easement lands (& finding that one such easement was not listed, Betsey agreed to provide Tara with that information). Tara indicated that white slivers shown on the map (for example, along borders of conservation easement lands) simply result from minor differences in the way the easement and tax map lines were drawn. She also pointed out that we may wish to make changes to our zoning ordinance as a result of this review; for example, she mentioned that our zoning might allow one to believe that a lot at the boundary of Village District and Rural Residential District may currently be developed entirely for commercial use, rather than just that portion of the lot located within the Village District. In addition, Tara questioned our
interest in continuing the current Village District zoning north on Route 16, seeing the potential for us to encourage growth in the area closer to the core of the Village; she said we might consider setting up as many as four districts, after getting a sense from voters on how they would prefer to see Jackson develop. Betsey suggested possible districts could be named: Village Commercial, Village Residential, Rural Commercial, and Rural Residential; she added that Jackson’s current districts leave many lots in town non-conforming. Do we wish to have our inns, restaurants, and other businesses located outside the Village District remain non-conforming, knowing that, for example, a significant fire might prevent rebuilding? Changing the zoning of the Route 16B loop, for example, to permit hotels, inns, a ski resort, a school, etc., might help the town continue to thrive. Members agreed that we should give consideration to such changes in the future.
Tara also suggested that we change the way our zoning requires calculating how commercial lands can be developed; at present, we use a gallons-per-day calculation, but most towns use a square footage, impervious surface and lot coverage calculations. In addition, Jackson’s ordinance relies on High Intensity Soils mapping, a system no longer in use; she recommends that we change our requirements to Site-Specific Soils Zoning, noting that it probably wouldn’t change the results, since both are based on soils of the lots.
We decided to hold another meeting with Tara to review a draft report that would add the following four pieces of information:
1. How many of the potential units at build-out in the Village District are north of Eagle Mountain Road?
2. How many units are in the Village District now?
3. Compare number of units now and at build-out in the already developed core of the town vs. the surrounding areas.
4. Map distribution of undevelopable soils.
In addition, Larry had requested information on home values, and Tara will bring it to the follow-up meeting. The next discussion of the draft report will be part of our regular meeting on February 13th.
There being no further business, it was moved and seconded to adjourn the meeting at 8:15 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Betsey Harding
(Note: an audio-visual record of the meeting may be found on Jacksonflicks.com)
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