September 27, 2007
Planning Board Minutes
Meeting to order: 7:03 P.M.
Meeting Adjourned: 8:56 P.M.
Members Present: Cindy Hoogs, co-chair; Stephen Rose; Laurily Epstein; Janet Cahthcart; Maggie Leonard; Alan Salamon
Public Present: David Hellman; Rob Akroyd
· Board opened mail: Memo from the Selectboard requesting an update regarding the status of the capital grant that the planning board is working on and that was presented to them. It was decided that Maggie will handle the information regarding that. The Great Barrington Selectmen will hold a public hearing regarding a permit request to open a home based day care from Melissa Higgins. The Sandisfield ZBA will be holding a public hearing. The Berkshire Regional Planning Commission minutes were received.
· Bach Project Presentation- David Hellman and Rob Akroyd of Greylock design presented a redefined plan for the Judy Bach site on Mount Hunger Road. The first order of business for them was to state that Judy was not aware of the blasting that was originally going to take place. The board learned of this plan at a previous site visit. As a result of the negative feedback regarding the blasting Rob Akroyd of Greylock Design abandoned the original plan and has drawn up a new plan dated September 26th, 2007.
· Mr. Akroyd has physically located the boundaries of the ledge as well as the stream on the Northern bank of the site. They will create a new subdivision road coming off of the existing logging road. This will result in no frontage on Mt. Hunger road. They will bring the road all the way down to the original lot one. The North side of the lot has 213.3 feet of frontage. Lot number two has 338 feet of frontage and lot number three has 200 feet of frontage which is outside of the buffer zone. There is 223.7 feet of frontage for lot number four which has 18.7 acres.
· The newly planned 637 foot subdivision road eliminates the need for blasting the ledge. The property lines have been reconfigured as well as the building sites. Using the common driveway application means only having to cross the wetland once. There will be a shared leach field yet each lot will contain an individual well.
· One question that arose from the board was if lot number three had actual access to a building lot. Is there access from the road frontage to the proposed building site? It was determined that this was not depicted on Mr. Akroyd’s current plans. Rob Akroyd will reconfigure lot number four lines to accommodate frontage for lot number three. The 223 feet of road frontage for lot number four results in 23 feet to play with.
· There will be a maintenance and covenant agreement concerning the common leach field as well as the road and the common driveway. Due to the length of the common driveway and the fact that it is serving two lots as well as the length of the road the board would like to see plans of the grade and width of each of the common driveways.
· The width of the entry way on the subdivision road is 15 feet. The board expressed concern over this. Rob agreed to widen it to 16 to 17 feet. This will require a waiver of the subdivision law which states that the entry way should be 24 feet.
· It was requested by the board as part of their conditions that they receive detailed specs on the common driveways. Rob clarified that in the subdivision law, section 5a it states that a minor road can be surfaced with a material other than concrete. Maggie concurred that that is true.
· David made a request that the board gives approval with the preliminary plans rather than waiting for the definitive plans. According to the bylaws, that is allowed if the board sees just. As a result the board decided that they will make another onsite visit to the Bach property to view the new location of the road. Also the original time line for the board to make a finding was October 7th, 2007. The board requested an extension of that and David agreed. The new time line is as follows; the board will wrap up their discussion concerning the plans on October 11th. David and Rob will return to the October 11th meeting and the board will vote and give
them a decision. The board will then have until October 25th to write up their findings.
· Requested Waivers- The waivers that are Rob Akroyd is asking for regarding the Bach project are as follows; a waiver for the width of the travel way, a waiver for the width of the subdivision road and a waiver for the monumentation.
· Special Permit Application- The special permit application filed by Sara Steiner from Creative Building Solutions will be granted a public hearing on October 16th, 2007. The board agreed that there was no increase in non- conformity. Maggie will write up the findings.
· Meeting Minutes from 9/13- Motion to accept meeting minutes from September 13, 2007 granted with the correction of one error.
· Alan was successful in meeting with Mr. Pollard. Mr. Pollard is still researching the board’s questions. At meeting time Mr. Pollard had no definitive answers.
· Common Driveway Bylaws- The question arose among the board: Can we legally impose guidelines for the common driveway in the Bach project? It was decided at this time to impose the conditions and terms required by the highway department. The board will grant common driveway with special conditions.
· In the upcoming meeting the board will discuss the two documents that were constructed by the board concerning the common driveway bylaws.
· Also in the next meeting accessory dwellings will be revisited. The board will work on providing data of actual statistics regarding accessory dwellings. This will be included in a Master plan that the board intends to develop in the upcoming months.
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