Town of Otisfield
Planning Board Meeting Minutes
January 20, 2015
1. Call to Order: The regular meeting was called to order at 7:03 PM by Chair - Karen Turino.
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2. Attendance: Members present were Chair – Karen Turino, Vice Chair - Beth Damon, Herb Olsen, & David Hyer - Alternate. *Motion for David Hyer to move up as a voting member.
(Absent: David McVety, Rick Jackson, Stan Brett – Alternate)
Code Enforcement Officer: Richard St. John
3. Announcement of Quorum: Board had a quorum.
4. Approve Secretary’s Report:
A. Regular Meeting Minutes December 16, 2014 *Motion to accept minutes. DH/BD – Unanimous.
5. Discussion & Comments from public:
A. None.
6. Residence - Based Business Applications:
A. None.
7. Shoreland Zoning Applications:
A. None.
8. Site Plan Applications:
A. Community of the Resurrection: Jason Potter sent a letter requesting the application be tabled until February. *Motion that we table this application until February. BD/HO – Unanimous.
9. Upcoming Dates:
A. Planning Board Meeting, February 17, 2015 at 7:00 PM.
10. Discussion & comments from Code Enforcement Officer:
A. None.
11. Discussion & comments from Board:
A. Manual Updates:
1) Comprehensive Plan: Needs updating from B&W to color maps. PB requested (9) new copies
of the entire Plan. *TT provided at tonight’s meeting.
2) Shoreland Zoning Ordinance for 2011: Need (9) new B&W copies. *TT provided.
3) Subdivision Ordinance: Need (9) copies of the cover page dated 11.09, *TT provided.
4) Definitions: Need (9) copies of 01.20.2010 version. *TT provided at tonight’s meeting.
Discussion: Karen requesting to have old material returned and destroyed. All new copies have been set aside for Stan Brett, David McVety and Rick Jackson. Karen will provide new copies to these members so that she can collect old material at that time.
B. Ordinance Change: Suggesting a change to the Building Ordinance that will allow the Planning Board, at its sole discretion, to lower the structural setback from the road, within Shoreland Zoning only, to be 25 feet rather than 50 feet when the Board’s priority is to move the building back away from the water. Public vs. Private roads, driveway lengths, vehicle lengths, snow plowing and safety were discussed. The Boards intent is for the Road set back to be reduced only when the PB’s opinion is that the reduction in road setback will allow the structure to be located further from the water which reduces the environmental impact on the water resource. The PB members and CEO Richard St. John all agree
that getting the structure away from the water is more important than meeting the setback from the road. AVCOG and MMA can be used as sources to consider the exact verbiage needed. Selectman Rick Micklon: You are not a precedent setting Board, but it may bring some controversy from applicants outside of Shoreland Zoning who may feel they should be allowed a reduction in setback. He suggests the Board consider an environmental impact even if outside SZ; i.e.; water resources such as intermittent or delineated streams, wetlands, etc. CEO: DEP takes precedence over what PB suggests and should be able to cover that issue rather than the Town’s Building Ordinance. RM suggests detailed site walks and findings prior to conclusions and approved applications. The PB all agreed that the road setback change should only apply to SZ applications and only for non-conforming structures because our concern and reason for the change is protecting the water. If the PB begins to get
requests for road setback reduction in non SZ applications, they will revisit expanding it beyond SZ. CEO: Will forward PB minutes to MMA and have them wordsmith it. Rick Micklon suggests not reducing it from 50 to exactly 25; but “up to 25”. PB states that is their intent. *Motion to request CEO contact MMA for verbiage for this proposal. BD/HO – Unanimous. Once the verbiage is accepted by the PB it needs to be submitted to the BOS to be put on Town Warrant. Rick Micklon: Clarifies that if passed by the voters, it needs to be changed in writing and on the web site. This is the PB’s responsibility to see that all old ordinance verbiage/documents are discarded and only new ones are available for review and
distribution. They have the resources of the CEO and TT to assist in the process.
12. Adjournment: With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:20 PM.
Respectfully submitted,
Tanya Taft, Secretary
Approved by: Karen Turino, Chair
Otisfield Planning Board
Approved on: February 24, 2015
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