NOTTINGHAM PLANNING BOARD MINUTES
DECEMBER 21, 2005
PUBLIC SESSION
*The Planning Board did not get a quorum at this meeting so they were unable to make any decisions. The following is just a record of their discussion.
PRESENT: ABSENT:
Mr. David Smith, Chair Mr. Jon Caron
Ms. Mary Bonser, Selectmen's Representative Mr. Scott Curry
Mr. Peter Gylfphe Mr. Bill Booth
Ms. Sandra Jones
OTHERS PRESENT:
Ms. Kelly Tivnan, Planning Board Secretary
Mr. James Bolduc, Presenter
Mr. Larry Morris, Presenter
Ms. Cynthia Copeland, Strafford Regional Planning Commission
Mr. David McDermott
Mr. Bolduc gave a power point presentation on Open Space. He discussed the cluster philosophy and he talked about a development in Stratham. He said that with the development they were hoping to reduce sprawl. He explained the goal and objective of the project and he gave the Planning Board Secretary a printed copy of his power point slides. He showed some pictures of the project and he explained what it looked like. Mr. Smith noted that the development had 75 homes and he said that if had not been a cluster development it would have only been allowed to have 41. Mr. Bolduc said that it would have been allowed to have 41 houses if they were all 4 bedroom houses but he said the 75 houses were a combination of 2, 3 and 4 bedroom homes. He discussed the 3 types of bonuses and he said that there was a
calculation that was used to determine how many homes would fit on a site. Mr. Gylfphe asked if the project had town water and sewage. Mr. Morris said no. He said that each home had a well and he said that they had built wastewater treatment into the project. Ms. Bonser asked if there was a homeowners association agreement. Mr. Bolduc said yes. He said that this project was good land planning. Ms. Bonser asked if it was possible to have mixed income housing. Mr. Bolduc said that there was the opportunity to encourage the builder to build more affordable housing. He said that the houses in the project had sold for $400,000-$600,000 each. He said that there was open space which would be perpetual. He said that the open space would be beneficial to the town. He said that the project had a forestry management plan and a sprinkler plan in case there was a problem for the firefighters getting in to the development. He used the example of a tree falling in the road but he
noted that was unlikely to happen because the forestry management plan would not allow trees near the road to get that big. He noted that there were advantages to cul-de-sacs. He cited less burglary and slower traffic. He also showed the Board the locations of the cisterns and the fire ponds. Mr. Smith asked about the road cut. Mr. Bolduc said that there was a 60 foot right of way. He said that the homes were built to order. He noted that the bonuses were at the discretion of the Planning Board. He said again that there were different types of bonuses. He said that each house had separate wells and separate leech fields. Ms. Bonser asked if this development was being phased in. Mr. Bolduc said that there was a 3 year phasing program. He said that phasing was voluntary in Stratham and there were no impact fees. Mr. Morris said that there had been much interface with the community regarding this development
project. He said that it had taken 4 years for the Planning Board to approve it. Mr. Bolduc said that there had been some trepidation about this project on the part of the Stratham Planning Board. He said that it had only been the second project done under their new ordinance. Ms. Bonser asked if Durham gave bonuses since they required open space. Ms. Copeland said no. Mr. Bolduc said that there were other advantages for developers who put in open space. He said that many of the ideas used in the project had come from a book called "Growing Greener." Ms. Bonser said that NROC had done an overlay of what Nottingham would look like if they kept the 2 acre zoning. Mr. Bolduc said that bigger was not better and in other towns bigger lots had caused the taxes to go up. Ms. Copeland said that she was not a fan of bonuses but she liked the idea of preliminary conceptuals.
Ms. Bonser expressed concern about impact fee ordinances and she said that someone could own land in town for 30 years and pay taxes on it but not impact the town. Mr. Gylfphe said that someone like that could request a waiver from the impact fees. He said that buildable lots should be grandfathered. Ms. Copeland said that there could also be a waiver from school impact fees for elderly housing since elderly housing would not be expected to have an impact on schools. Ms. Bonser said that the impact fees should be based on the number of bedrooms. Ms. Copeland said that if impact fees were based on the number of bedrooms people would build houses with 2 bedrooms, a den, and an office. She said that the den and office could then easily be changed into bedrooms with minor work or decorating. Mr. Smith
said that impact fees would be expensive. Ms. Copeland said that the Capital Improvement Plan documented increases and she asked how the town would pay for those. Mr. Smith said that the Planning Board needed the basics of zoning so that they could work with those. He asked whether an impact fee ordinance could sit and not be used until the town was ready.
Ms. Bonser said that she thought the sign ordinance which had been suggested by the Building Inspector was complicated. Mr. McDermott said that he thought there should be two sets of sign ordinances, one for Route 4 and Route 125 and another for the smaller roads. Mr. Gylfphe said that the size should be 32 square feet. He said that signs should not have internal lumination and that changeable copy needed to be part of the main sign. Ms. Copeland said that internally lit signs were controversial. She said that many people used a spot light so their sign could be seen in the dark. Mr. McDermott said that his sign was only lit once a week for 2 hours. He said that this was a safety issue. He said that people would not see his sign if he had a spotlight. He said that his sign needed to be
visible because it would not be safe for people to slow down on Route 4 to look for it. He said that he had started his business in 1991 and he had tried to do everything correctly. He said that his sign predated the lighting ordinance so it would be grandfathered. Mr. Gylfphe said that he did not think signs with moving text should be allowed. Mr. Smith said that the part about signs should be removed from the lighting ordinance. Mr. Gylfphe said that the idea was to control the signs on Route 4. He said that they should increase the size of sign allowed to 32 square feet. Mr. Smith said that currently commercial signs were more restricted than signs used for home businesses. He said that didn't make any sense. Mr. McDermott said that he was worried about having to tear up his parking lot to put his cord underneath. He said that he did not have the money to do that. Mr. Smith said that was part of the building code
and so it was under the jurisdiction of the Building Inspector. Mr. Gylfphe said that running an extension cord was not the proper way to light a sign. Ms. Bonser said that the Planning Board could exampt portable signs from needing to get permits. Mr. Smith said that even if the sign didn't need a permit, it would still need to be correct according to the building code. He said that the code could not be grandfathered and people always needed to do things according to the building code.
The Board members went home at 9:15pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Kelly Tivnan
Planning Board Secretary
| 
