Planning Board December 10, 2015
Draft Minutes
Present were Scott Badger, Betsy Harding, Dick Bennett, Sarah Kimball, John Allen, Larry Siebert, Bea Davis, Kathy Dougherty. Daren Levitt was unable to attend.
Attending were Jerry Dougherty III, Frank Benesh, and Hank Benesh was filming the proceedings on Jacksonflicks.com
Sarah motioned to accept the minutes of November 12th, 2015 as amended, and it passed unanimously.
Chairman Bennett asked if there were any public comments concerning anything not on the agenda, and there were none.
Chairman Bennett then opened the public hearing at which the ZBA chairman Frank Benesh felt that the public notice in the paper failed to meet the requirements of the law as it did not adequately describe the ordinances proposed as well as the URL given directed people to an old website page that was inaccurate.
With this Chairman Bennett immediately dissolved the public hearing so that there would be no conflicts or possible litigation going forward.
Continuing on with the exact wording etc. for the ordinance amendments Frank Benesh asked if we could put a preamble to outline the exact intent, to help the ZBA in future court cases.
Several members of the board did not feel this was necessary and could be achieved within the minutes and within the Master Plan which the Planning Board is in the process of finishing.
Frank also had concerns with reducing the front setback as well as letting people increase build up within a setback. The members of the board took some time to describe the various reasons for coming to these amendments, including repeated requests from the building inspector, school officials, and the office to work on affordable housing for younger couples to allow for future growth of our school, fire department, and Town in a healthy manner.
There was significant discussion and time spent on the wording for measuring the front setback from the centerline. The board realizes that we can never cover every situation or even know every situation in town where
a road on paper and the existing road do not line up, but have determined that this method is easier for the building inspector and is more fair to the home owner in most cases. Where there may be a question in measurement or bounds the ZBA is available for relief in any discrepancy.
Scott made a motion to remove the wording, "right of way", in 4.3.1.2 and
4.3.2.3, Sarah seconded and all approved.
After much back and forth we rescinded Scott's motion and working towards greater clarity Sarah motioned to finalize the wording:
#1 " from the centerline of the travelled way of any public or private road". Larry seconded the motion and it passed unanimously.
In zoning ordinance amendment 2.2.3 again the board spent considerable time clarifYing the intent of the wording. John Allen proposed the wording:
A non-conforming Structure or Building may be moved, enlarged, altered, or replaced within the boundaries of the lot it occupied at the time this
ordinance took effect, providing that the change does not make the structure more non-conforming in any way. See sections 4.3.1.2, 4.3.2.3, and Section
4.1.3.
Larry made a motion to accept this wording it was seconded and approved unanimously.
We agreed to post the public notice for our next meeting on January 14th,
2016, along with a description in E-News and the town column as to why we are proposing these amendments at this time.
Finally, the board took up the voluntary merger of Lots 11 and 12A on tax map R-17, owners Samuel and Elizabeth Harding at 356 Carter Notch Road. After perusing the tax maps and speaking with the applicant the board saw no problems with the merger and voted unanimously to approve the merger, with of course Betsy Harding abstaining from the vote.
Respectfully submitted, Larry Siebert
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