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Planning Board Meeting Minutes - 05/08/06

Board Members Present           Public Present
James Clunan, Acting Chairman   Tony Smith
Heather Jones, Secretary                Barbara Hamblen
Joseph Tracy                            Sarah Hinckley
Patti Reilly, alt
Jerry Miller
Jim Bright

Kim Keene, CEO; Hope Rowan, Assistant; Darcel Winslow, Recording Secretary

I.      The meeting was called to order at 6:00 p.m.

II.     The draft minutes from the April 10, 2006, meeting were unanimously approved as amended. Jerry Miller not voting.

III.    Public Hearing
A.      NAME: Town of Mount Desert; Tony Smith, agent
LOCATION: Wastewater Treatment Plant, Sinclair Rd, Northeast Harbor
TAX MAP:  27  LOT:  34           ZONE:  VR2
PURPOSE:  To construct a 40 foot by 60 foot pre-engineered steel building to be used for maintenance and storage.
Site Inspection:  5:15 P.M.

        No conflict of interest was reported. The regular members present are the voting members for this hearing. Patti Reilly not voting.
        
        Site Inspection was attended by Heather Jones, Kim Keene and Tony Smith and reported by Heather Jones.

        Mrs. Jones reported that the location of the proposed building is approximately 40 feet behind the already existing building. The building will be emerald green in color and parking will be on the westerly side. The road facing side of the building will be 40 feet and will go back 60 feet; it will have a shed roof. The setback from the property line will be approximately 20 feet and minimal land clearing will be done.

        Tony Smith stated that about 1/10th of an acre total will be cleared and the big trees on the property will be saved, if possible.

        MOTION to approve by Mrs. Jones; seconded by Mr. Tracy.

        Tony Smith explained that this is a pre-engineered steel building with a shed roof with a height of 15 feet, 4 inches on the west and a height of 12’ feet on the east. The roof will have a 3 foot pitch over a 40 foot roof span. The building was originally designed by an engineer and then builder Ken Shea worked with Mr. Smith to build this building within the Town’s budget.

        Mr. Bright asked if there are any houses or summer residences in the area.

        CEO Keene explained that there are not any houses close to the project area. [She pointed out the area on the map of the closest house]

        Mr. Clunan asked about fumes, noise, dust, smoke, etc.

        Tony Smith explained there will be no more fumes, dust, smoke or noise than there is currently. The building will be used to maintain pumps and blowers. He indicated there will be some noise such as the garage doors going up and down but the building will be well insulated to muffle as much noise as possible.

        Mrs. Reilly asked if there will be paved areas.

        Tony Smith stated the parking area will be paved and the run off will stay as it is currently [through an existing ditch. Per CEO Keene]

        CEO Keene explained that there was a concern raised from one neighbor stating they would like to see more of a buffer put in. She explained the neighbor can not see the satellite dishes that are already on the property and CEO Keene feels additional buffering is not necessary.

        Tony Smith stated he had spoke to the neighbor that was concerned and had walked the property and took photographs to show them exactly what they are planning and where. He indicated that the explanation and pictures he supplied to them seemed satisfactory.

        The Standards of Section 6 of the LUZO, as amended March 8, 2006, were reviewed and found to be in conformance; the application was found to be in conformance.

        A VOTE was called to approve this application; it was unanimous in favor.


B.      NAME:  Alfred Ford; Barbara Hamblen, agent
LOCATION:  30 Dodge Point Rd, Seal Harbor
TAX MAP:  1    LOT: 16-1   ZONE:  SR2
PURPOSE:  To fill in existing swimming pool and install a concrete slab.
Site Inspection:  4:30 P.M.

        No conflict of interest was reported.  The regular members present are the voting members for this hearing. Jim Bright not voting.
        
        Site Inspection was attended by Heather Jones and reported by Heather Jones.
        
Mrs. Jones explained that it was only she and Mrs. Hamblen at the site inspection. She explained that the swimming pool is not used and it costs a lot to maintain it. Gott’s will be doing the work and will be doing the removal of materials by land, not by water. They will use a conveyor belt to remove and add material to the land. They plan to install a drain in the pool and add a flapper; they will then fill it with rock and finally cement. Vegetation will not be removed or disturbed. The cement that is added will be level with what is currently there; creating a cement patio and the existing rail poles will be removed.

MOTION to approve by Mr. Tracy. Seconded by Mr. Miller.

Mrs. Hamblen explained that water sometimes comes right up and splashes the house, it takes 900 gallons of gas a year to heat the pool and no one uses it, in fact, she explained that the dogs use it more than people do. They have no neighbors down on this point and are fully aware that this type of project could never be put in this location again because our LUZO would not allow it. They use mostly ocean water to fill it and then top it off with fresh water, the pump takes over from there.
        
        Mr. Clunan asked how many cubic yards of fill will be needed to fill in the pool.

Mrs. Hamblen stated approximately 300 cubic yards which is equal to about 20 dump truck loads.

        The Standards of Section 6 of the LUZO, as amended March 8, 2006, [CEO Keene asked the Board to address Section 4.3, for non-conforming structures with a change in use] and the Standards of Section 4.3 of the LUZO were reviewed and found that the proposed non-conforming use is no more adverse than the impact of the current non-conforming use. Therefore, the application is found to be in compliance.

        A VOTE was called to approve this application; it was unanimous in favor.


IV.     New Business

A.      Designate standing positions for new members.

A lengthy discussion followed and it was determined that the standing order of the new members will be as follows,

        Patti Reilly named Regular member
        Jim Bright named Alternate member
        Jerry Miller named Alternate member

A VOTE was called to approve, it was unanimous in favor.

B.      Importance of complete applications, the procedure.

A lengthy discussion followed and it was determined that applications that were submitted to CEO Keene were to be checked and returned to the applicant if not complete.        


C.      & D.  Proposal that applicants need to include Section 6 and Section 3.14 with their original application before the application will come before the Planning Board.

Discussion followed on how to implement this new procedure and what would be the most effective way of doing so. It was suggested that those two sections be added to the application packet.

CEO Keene volunteered to design a new application packet with these two sections of the LUZO added.     
        
        E. Finding of Fact procedure.

        The discussion of finding of fact was brought up due to the ZBOA stating the Board is not doing a thorough job of this. Several suggestions were made as to what finding of fact should consist of. A few concerns were brought up of the time constraints of reading each section of the LUZO word for word and voting on them individually. A suggestion was made by Mrs. Jones to have the minutes of each meeting typed verbatim.

        The need for a laptop computer for the Planning Board secretary Mrs. Reilly was discussed; a letter to the Board of Selectman will be submitted by Mrs. Jones.

        It was decided for now that each section would be read aloud and voted on individually as the Board has been doing for some time now.

        F. Officers of the Planning Board were voted on and approved unanimously as follows,
                Chairman                Heather Jones
                Vice Chairman   James Clunan
                Secretary               Patti Reilly

The members were told they would now need to be sworn in again at the Town office for their new positions.

V.      Meeting adjourned at 8:25. p.m.  The next scheduled meeting/public hearing(s) is at 6:00 p.m., Monday, May 22, 2006 in the Meeting Room, Town Hall, Northeast Harbor.