TOWN OF RUTLAND
PLANNING BOARD
Minutes 3/27/18
Note: The 3/13/18 planning board meeting was canceled due to inclement weather.
This meeting was recorded for the secretary’s records.
Location: Town Hall Annex 246 Main Street
Open: 6:31pm
Present: Norm Anderson (chair), Marilyn Sidoti, Shawn Moore, Tim Nahrwold, Dick Williams, Ron Barron (town planner)
Guests: William Cassanelli, Jason Taylor, Dan Travers, George Kiritsy, Esq., Clea Blair, Jr., Seth Knipe, George Lussier, Jason Dubois, William Senecal
Jason Taylor, a Rutland resident, came to the meeting to propose an idea for a living skills program including a physical therapy center for children under the age of 18 with special needs. He would like to open this facility at 191 Barre Paxton Road. . Their clients will pay through insurance and there will be no out of pocket expense for parents. The facility will work on social skills for children with autism. Norm said that, since there is no new construction for this project, the planning board does not need to approve it. Norm recommended that Mr. Taylor go to the board of health and to the building inspector. Will Cassanelli, the town building commissioner, questioned if the building has fire protection. Mr. Taylor said he is putting in new smoke and carbon monoxide detectors
and that there are fire extinguishers. Will asked what kind of heating the building has. It has oil. Will wanted to know the occupancy load. They are anticipating 10-15 people. The building has 2 exits. One is in front and one in the back. Dick said that it is already zoned for business. Mr. Taylor is hoping to have the business up and running by May 1st. The state will need to inspect the building prior to opening.
The board reviewed the minutes from the 2/27/18 meeting. Shawn motioned to accept the minutes. Tim 2nd. Tim, Shawn, Marilyn and Norm voted favorably. Dick abstained.
Public Hearing Continuation: Lussier Self Storage Facilty 232 Barre Paxton Road
Open: 645pm
Present: Norm Anderson (Chair), Tim Nahrwold, Dick William, Marilyn Sidoti, Shawn Moore, Ron Barron (Planner)
Guests: Jason Dubois, George Lussier
The board reviewed the revised plans.
An email from Carl Hultgren from 3/9/18 was referenced. In the email Carl states that issue #4 from the 2/13/18 Quinn Report has been resolved. This was the last outstanding item to be addressed.
There was conversation about trees for screening. Dick stated that he would prefer Sugar Maples to be planted. Lussier was aggregable to this.
Dick motioned to close the public hearing. Shawn 2nd, all in favor.
Closed: 6:53pm
Dick made a motion to approve the special permit for Lussier’s Self Storage facility at 232 Barre Paxton Road. Marilyn 2nd. Norm asked if there were any special conditions. Dick would like the Maple Trees as a condition. A revised motion to approve the special permit with standard conditions was made by Shawn. Dick 2nd, all in favor.
The board will work on the notice of decision at our next meeting.
Dan Travers, resident from 51B River Road, stopped in. He wanted to know if we had the plans for his common driveway from 2017. He is upset because there are regrinds everywhere up and down the street. Norm said that the planning board has no requirements for a certain surface to be used for common driveways. Tim read from the Zoning Ordinance page 50 Section 15 2f, “The Common Driveway construction shall conform to the Planning Board’s Regulations and shall be approved by the Department of Public Works Superintendent prior to the issuance of a certificate of occupancy The Planning Board may require certain standards of subsurface preparation, drainage, and surfacing.”
Public Hearing Continuation: Lussier Mixed Use Property Town Center 211 Main Street
Open: 7:20pm
Present: Norm Anderson (Chair), Tim Nahrwold, Dick William, Marilyn Sidoti, Shawn Moore, Ron Barron (Planner)
Guests: Jason Dubois, George Lussier, Seth Knife (Fire Chief), William Senecal
The applicant is still going back and forth with Mass DOT at this time. They requested a continuance.
Dick motioned to continue the public hearing on 4/24/18 at 7pm. Marilyn 2nd, all in favor.
Meeting Recessed: 7:22pm
The invoice for Quinn Engineering was given to George Lussier. He said that he would mail in the payment before our next meeting.
Bear Hill: George Kiritsy was asked by Blair to submit a request to the Selectboard to lay out the road. Norm stated that the planning board will not recommend acceptance of the road until the issues on the Quinn report have been resolved. Tim wants the select board to have a copy of the latest Quinn report so they understand the work that still needs to be done. Discussion ensued about corrections that need to be made to the bridge. In particular, expansion joints need to be added at each end of the bridge.
Brintnal Drive Proposals: 3 proposals were presented by Kiritsy on Blair’s behalf. The first option is the one that Blair would really like to do. It has estate lots and common driveways. The board does not like this option because the 2 common driveways are next to each other and have the appearance of a road. Seth Knipe also does not like option 1.
Option 2 is an open space subdivision. This is the only option that Tim likes. This option has several ANRs. Tim liked that it has a town road, open space and it has less houses than option 3. It has a turnaround for emergency vehicles.
Option 3 is a conventional subdivision plan with 27 lots.
Norm said that option 2 has almost as many houses as option 3. He spoke to Gary regarding town sewer and water hook up for these potential subdivisions. Gary said the nearest tie for water is approximately 1 mile away. A loop would be required as a dead end would cause stagnation. Kiritsy said they could put in private wells. For sewer they would probably have to go to the Bear Hill pump station and would require an upgrade to the pump station. The Miles Road pump station would need to be upgraded as well. Britnal road is a scenic road. Gary would require paving the road and installing drainage for the entire 1.19 miles from Pommogussett to Campbell Street. Due to the degradation of the road now due to increased traffic from Grizzly and Bear Hill it cannot handle addition
traffic with these proposed developments. As the road is scenic, there is a requirement of a public hearing for road improvements. Gary’s last comment was a reminder about the issue in the summer months that they are over the permitted draw from Muschopauge. Kiritsy thinks they just need to request to increase the draw amount. Knipe said that he could require fire hydrants, sprinklers or a cistern for fire protection. Shawn agrees with Tim and likes the second option. Knipe doesn’t want the center cul de sac. He wants it all paved. Clea arrived at this point. He was surprised that Gary wants him to upgrade the pump stations. He said they were sized for Bear Hill and Brintnal. Clea said he did not think the town would approve paving the road. Norm said that he would require considerable improvements to be made to the road, although not necessarily paving it. The overall consensus of the board was a preference for option 2.
Glenwood Place: Clea spoke to Gary and told him he wanted to extend the public portion of the road by 374 feet. He indicated that he wanted to speak with the planning board before giving his decision. Clea said he is going to petition the select board to lay out the road. Gary has not yet spoken with the planning board regarding this matter. Two of Clea’s customers on lots 5 and 6 are ready to close in one month that believe they are on a public road, but they are on the private way in reality. Tim wants something in writing from Gary before recommending extending the public way. Kiritsy said he drafted a letter to the selectmen asking that the portion of Glenwood Place from its current terminus to the point where they mistakenly believed the public road to end to be accepted as a town
road. Dick questioned whether there was something recorded requesting that the town not accept the private portion of Glenwood Place as a public way. The answer is yes, however, Tim brought up the fact that the planning board and town counsel were both under the false assumption of the location of end of the public way. The intent was to not accept the road beyond that point.
Bear Hill: Dick is upset with the number of errors on the as built plans. Tim assured him that the planning board will not accept the as built plans until the errors are corrected.
General Discussion: Tim would like to have a business meeting. Dick wants to make amendments to subdivision rules and regulations. Ron suggested they work on updating Common Driveway requirements.
Bylaws: Marilyn presented the new Finance Committee, Town Meeting, Membership Requirement and Stretch Energy Code Bylaws. Norm went through the proposed changes to the bylaws. Shawn motioned to forward the proposed bylaw changes to the board of selectmen with the planning board’s favorable recommendation. Tim noted that he does not agree with the town meeting changes. Dick 2nd, all in favor.
Shawn made a motion to close. Dick 2nd, all in favor.
Closed: 9:49pm
Respectfully submitted,
Laurie Becker, Secretary
Minutes approved on 4/10/18
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