Town of Sunapee
Planning Board Meeting
April 2, 2009
Present: Peter White
Bruce Jennings
Daniel Schneider
Emma M. Smith, Ex-officio
Nick Kontos, Alternate
Michael Marquise
Absent: Peggy Chalmers, Chairman
Alan Davis, Vice Chairman
Fred Gallup, Ex-officio Alternate
Roger Landry, Zoning Administrator
7:00 p.m - the meeting was called to order by Bruce Jennings.
Bruce Jennings gave an overview of the processes of the Planning Board so that the newest members of the Board could understand: 1) first fifteen minutes of the meeting, they review the minutes from the last meeting to keep them up-to-date; 2) at seven fifteen, the Board begins to hear the people who are scheduled. The Board asks Michael Marquise to present to the Board what their application includes; the Board would have a discussion to see if it included enough information to open on and if so, the Board would go into the merits of that application and ask the applicant to present to the Board what they wanted to do. The Board would ask everybody’s opinion, discuss it among themselves, and make a decision. He then asked if Daniel Schneider had any questions, to which Daniel responded that he did not.
Peter White asked Mr. Schneider if he had served on a Planning Board previously and Mr. Schneider said that he had, but it was a long time ago.
Bruce Jennings stated that one of the things each member goes through is the learning curve and it takes a while to learn how decisions are made. There is a background of shared information around which decisions have been made in the past and the Board always tries to go back to that in their thinking so that they can try to be consistent. He then asked the Board to go over the minutes from the last meeting. Michael Marquise interjected that most of the minutes were related to the Master Plan and did not need to have the Board go over a lot of detail on them unless something was terribly out of place.
Peter White moved to accept the minutes as presented and Emma Smith seconded the motion. The motion was passed unanimously.
Bruce Jennings then presented certificates of appointment to be signed by the Board members for Nick Kontos, Phil Porter, and Derek Tatlock, who were moving to be Alternates.
Michael Marquise said that (for the new members) the Board had two weeks: the first meeting (the first week) of the month where public hearings or business occurs and the second meeting (the third week) is where they do actual planning and that they were working on the Master Plan now. He went on to say that in two weeks they planned to have Jeff Taylor, who helped with the Master Plan two years ago, come in and look at the whole community design in the village. Since it was going to be a site visit, Michael thought that if everybody could do it, they should meet an hour earlier so they would have plenty of time before dark to get out and look at the area they were talking about. Bruce asked if there was an itinerary for the walkabout and Michael stated that he assumed they would start at the
Harbor, look at the old town hall loop area, come down Main Street, go all the way down to the river and talk about that area and a little segment of Route 11. The Board agreed to meet at the Town Hall on April 16th, at 6:00 p.m.
Bruce Jennings asked Michael if he had heard anything regarding the boats and the trees on Route 11 and Lower Main Street and Michael replied that he had not heard anything from Roger Landry yet.
Peter White asked when the spring Planning and Zoning Conference would take place. It is a one day workshop in Manchester and suggested that Dan and Nick attend as it would be a terrific way to get to know the zoning and planning processes. Michael stated that the Town would reimburse the registration fee. He asked for Dan’s email address so he could send him the notice of the date and time of the workshop.
Bruce stated that the SAU was not coming to the meeting and asked if they had rescheduled. Michael responded that they had requested a postponement for Thursday, April 2, they had not set a future date yet but would contact the Board when they did have one. Bruce explained to the new members that other towns did not require town-owned offices to come in before the Planning Board, but Sunapee has agreed to ask everyone come in and have it reviewed same as any other applicant.
Bruce moved on to the next item, Map 133 Lot 26 . Michael said there were handouts stating the property uses. He explained to the new members that statements for the property uses are presented to the Board under the existing commercial uses where there is a proposed change in use. The reason this is done is to make it clear that there are not new use(s) or an increase in use(s) that would require a site plan. This puts the Town on notice and the applicant on record as to what they are doing and it’s the Board’s function to determine whether or not this would need a site plan or if it’s effectively the same use and would not need a site plan.
Ronald Sullivan Map 133 Lot 26
Retail Sales and Shipping 5 Garnish Street
Peter White stated that to his understanding the building used to be Deck and Dock with retail sales and didn’t have a delivery catalog or anything like that. It then went to a clothing accessory store. Peter stated that the application indicated retail sales and shipping of products made in New Hampshire and New England. There would be no manufacturing and not more than three employees at any given time. There did not appear to be any increase/change in parking onsite and there would be basically the same hours of operation as previous businesses had. The shipping would involve products sold in the store and not involve any warehousing/storage. Bruce Jennings suggested that the application be amended to say ‘clothing, accessories, gifts,’ in order to avoid any
confusion down the road. Peter White said it should state ‘products made in New Hampshire and New England’, which would include some clothing, but would not be predominantly clothing and Bruce agreed.
There were no public comments and Bruce asked for a motion. Peter White made a motion to accept the application as presented based on the stated property uses in which no site plan is required by the Board. Emma Smith seconded the motion. The motion was passed unanimously.
Bruce went on to the next item which involved site plan parking regulations on Shadow Lane off of Bay Point Road. Mr. and Mrs. John McDonald were requesting that there be some type of enforcement of the zoning regulations in their neighborhood, specifically their cul-de-sac, where their neighbor had parked heavy equipment and construction equipment and had placed large boulders that were blocking the right of way. Mr. McDonald stated that he had spoken with Roger Landry earlier today and he said that Roger stated that he would get this put on the agenda for tonight’s meeting as well as be present at tonight’s meeting, neither of which happened. Mr. McDonald explained that he has been repeatedly referred back and forth between offices with no results and would like someone to take some type of action
instead of allowing this to continue. Michael Marquise stated that Roger had updated him a little bit about this and said that approximately 8 or 9 years ago the neighbor had obtained a subdivision approval for his building lots from the Board and he didn’t think there were any other specifics to it. Michael went on to say that Roger had mentioned that there were issues concerning parking on it (Shadow Lane). However, the Board does not have enforcement powers and can only make recommendations to the Board of Selectmen. Peter White asked if the violation was an actual violation of subdivision regulations and Mr. McDonald responded that he believed it was because the regulations (Rule 15-12) had specific requirements that were not in place at present. He said that there was no 100 x 50 foot turn-around, there are boulders in the right of way, and cars parked in the hammerhead.
Bruce Jennings asked if Shadow Lane was a private road and Mr. McDonald replied yes, it was. Michael stated that the Town did not have direct jurisdiction and that it sounded like it was more of a civil matter. He asked how the road was held, by covenant or some type of restrictions regarding maintenance, etc. Mr. McDonald said that it was somewhat of a grey area because when he purchased his property, covenants were included with the property, but that the neighbor maintains that he doesn’t have any covenants since they weren‘t extended out at the time of his divorce.
Bruce Jennings stated that it was rare for the Board to address off-site parking, although it has come up a number of times, usually in a project that comes in for a site plan review, with a commercial application. The Board will address parking onsite and parking off-site if the property isn’t big enough to accommodate the uses, an example being a business on Route 11, where the Board would make a note that there can’t be any parking on Route 11. If the question of what happens if someone does park on Route 11 is brought up the Board responds that they are not an enforcement agency. If the terms of the subdivision agreement are violated, that goes back to the Selectmen and they have to make a decision about enforcement.
Emma Smith suggested that Mr. McDonald come to the Selectmen meeting on Monday and present it to them for consideration. Dan Schneider asked if Mr. McDonald had put any of these specific violations in writing and Mr. McDonald responded that he had and had taken pictures as well copies of which he had given to Roger Landry. He said that Roger had taken his own pictures onsite on the 16th.
Bruce said that it was necessary to clarify what the violations were; if there were commercial applications being used on one of those residential lots, the Board could ask for a review of the usage of that lot.
Mr. McDonald stated that a cease and desist had been ordered, but the neighbor had stated that his LLC business address had been moved to a post office box in Newbury and he no longer used his home address for that purpose.
Bruce stated that is was beyond the scope of the Planning Board to enforce because it was an existing subdivision. Michael said that the only thing the Board could do would be to revoke the subdivision which would invalidate everyone‘s deeds and most likely would not happen. But if the physical aspect of the business was being run at the home in Sunapee, regardless of the post office box address, then that could be cause for a site plan review (which deals with the commercial aspects) that the neighbor would have to bring before the Planning Board.
Bruce stated that he thought it was fair to have Roger pursue the issue and report back to the Board with his findings so that the Board could have some resolution to this. He asked Michael if he had the name of the individual who was causing the problem and Michael responded that it was Alex Kish. Bruce also stated that it was the Board’s position that if Roger found that there was cause for Mr. Kish to come before the Board with a site plan review, then Mr. McDonald would be notified of the hearing and could attend and comment as an abutter to the Kish property. The Board was in agreement that Roger should pursue it.
Michael stated that he would do some more research and agreed to take it to Roger so that Roger could have a report ready by the next first Monday meeting night in May. He also said that he would be sure to include it on the agenda for discussion and that Mr. and Mrs. McDonald could attend the meeting so they would know what was being determined. The outcome would also be posted in the meeting minutes.
Michael said that he had a couple of handouts for everybody to review:
1) Master Plan Sections IV & V
2) copies of the zoning ordinance (for Bruce & Emma)
He reminded the Board that the next meeting would be April 16, at 6:00 p.m.
Bruce asked if there was any other business and there being none, asked for a motion to adjourn. Peter White moved to adjourn and Emma Smith seconded the motion.
The meeting adjourned at 8:30 p.m.
It is to be noted that this transcript is an approximation of statements made at the meeting and not a verbatim report.
Respectfully submitted,
Camille Holmes
Recording Secretary, Town of Sunapee
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