Planning Board
August 7, 2012
Approved December 18, 2012
Members Present: Bruce Healey, Chair; Tom Vannatta, Vice-Chair; Bill Weiler, Russell Smith, Members; Jim Powell, Ex-officio Member; Rachel Ruppel, Advisor.
Mr. Healey called the meeting to order at 7:04 p.m.
Minutes
The Board reviewed the minutes of June 5, 2012 and made corrections.
Mr. Smith made a motion to approve the minutes of June 5, 2012 as corrected. Mr. Vannatta seconded the motion. All in favor.
Administrative Business
Land Use Coordinator
Mr. Healey stated that he spoke with the town administrator and the land use coordinator in regards to how applications will be handled while the land use coordinator is out on vacation at the end of the month. It was agreed that Meg Whittemore (Recording Secretary for the Planning Board) will receive training on accepting planning board applications during the week Denise is on vacation.
Mr. Healey said he also spoke to the land use coordinator regarding being more vigilant with getting the proper abutters on each application submitted to the planning board. He said there was some wrong information regarding abutters on the Palace Pizza application.
Mr. Smith asked if a direct abutter means land to land or also includes neighbors across the street. Mr. Healey said it does include people across the street.
Well Head Protection
Mr. Healey stated that the Board received a letter from the NH Environmental Services got in touch with the Board recommending that the Board add well head protection to the Newbury ordinances. He believed that Chalk Pond might be the only well head that might need protection. He spoke to someone on the Board of the Chalk Pond Association and they said that the water supply well had been recently updated. Mr. Healey said that he also received a follow-up email from DES offering assistance with zoning protection.
Ms. Ruppel said that currently the only system that this would pertain to is the Chalk Pond area. She said that if the elderly housing project goes in, this could be a shared system as well. Newbury allows fewer potential contamination sources than compared to the state regulations.
Mr. Powell asked what the definition of a community well is since the elderly housing is one structure. Ms. Ruppel said that if it has 25 connections or more, it will be defined as a community well.
Mr. Vannatta said that he thinks a committee should be created to look at this. Mr. Powell asked about The Trading Post. Ms. Ruppel said she will need to look at the regulations because there are different guidelines for each category.
Mr. Powell said he does not think the Board needs to do anything now regarding this issue because there is not a lot of development in Newbury. Mr. Healey said the Board will table this issue and consider it down the road.
NH River Council
Mr. Healey announced that there will be a focus group conducted on August 15, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. in Lebanon. He said the NH River Council planned to talk about the potential of having separate regulations for lakes and rivers. Ms. Ruppel said that with the revision of the shoreland water quality protection act that went into effect last year, there were concerns that there could be better ways to protect NH rivers. The council wants to know if the public agrees that there should be different standards for rivers than lakes. Mr. Healey said that he will email the flyer to all of the Board members.
Planning Board Application Fees
Mr. Vannatta reported that he has been the liaison to the Zoning Board of Adjustment(ZBA) in discussing the two Board’s fee structure. He said that the ZBA liked the new fee schedule and will have the same fees regarding the abutter’s fees.
Mr. Weiler asked specific questions regarding the individual fees. Mr. Vannatta gave an explanation as to how the fees were established. He has spent time with the land use coordinator to create the new schedule. Mr. Vannatta said the increase in costs is due to postage, letterhead, office labor and advertising.
Mr. Powell said that the Board of Selectmen looks at the budgets for the planning, zoning and code enforcement officer and the reimbursement is always lagging to the actual costs. Mr. Weiler said that he wants to make sure the Planning Board is not over-charging the residents. Mr. Powell said that it is his belief that the pricing is fair. Mr. Vannatta said that being on the budget committee and also submitting the Planning Board budget to the committee, he is aware as to exactly what the costs are and that helped him in determining the new fee schedule.
Mr. Vannatta said that he would like this new fee schedule to take place as of September 1, 2012.
Mr. Powell made a motion to accept the new proposed fee schedule. Mr. Weiler seconded the motion. All in favor.
Steep Slopes
Ms. Ruppel said that at the last meeting it was discussed how to break up the steep slope definition. There is no change to the definition or the parameters, just a way to break it up so it is easy to follow. Discussion followed regarding the angle of the slopes. The Board discussed the verbiage of the definition.
Mr. Weiler said he would like to change the word “will” to “shall”. It occurs in three places in the definition. Ms. Ruppel said she will make these changes.
Mr. Powell said he thinks the new definition is better than what was in place.
Ms. Ruppel will draw a three dimensional diagram to go with the definition. She will also change the “20 ft. or greater” to read as 20 ft. is the minimum. It will now read, “in order for a slope to qualify the minimum is for it to be 20 ft. high, 80 feet long and 30 ft. across”.
CIP
Ms. Ruppel said the CIP update meeting with the town administrator will take place on August 24th and August 28th.
Town Website
Mr. Powell asked the Board members what their thoughts were as far as the town department pages on the website. He wanted to know if they feel it is the responsibility of the town administrator’s office to be responsible for updating the data on these pages, or if the departments should be contacting their office when they know of changes. Mr. Healey said that he believes each department head should be responsible for ensuring the accuracy of the department’s content on the town website. He said all changes should be reported to the webmaster (Wayne Whitford) so that he can update the website as changes are made.
Mr. Smith made a motion to adjourn. Mr. Powell seconded the motion. All in favor. Meeting adjourned at 8:26 p.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Donna Long
Acting Recording Secretary
| 
