Town of Sunapee
Planning Board Meeting
May 7, 2009
Present: Peggy Chalmers, Chair
Robert Stanley
Bruce Jennings
Allan Davis
Peter White
Daniel Schneider
Staff: Michael Marquise, Planner
Camille Holmes, Secretary
Absent: Derek Tatlock, Alternate
Phil Porter, Alternate
Nick Kontos, Alternate
Emma Smith, Ex-Officio
Chair Peggy Chalmers opened the meeting at 7:05 p.m. with Roll Call. The first order of business was the review of the meeting minutes for March 5, 2009. Bruce Jennings made a motion to approve the minutes as amended or not and Peter White seconded the motion. The MOTION was CARRIED WITH FOUR APPROVALS AND TWO ABSTENTIONS.
The next business was the review of the meeting minutes for April 2, 2009. Bruce Jennings made a motion to approve the minutes as submitted and Dan Schneider seconded the motion. The MOTION was CARRIED WITH FIVE APPROVALS AND ONE ABSTENTION.
Chair Chalmers then asked Michael Marquise if he had anything he wanted to contribute and he stated that he wanted to distribute the Economic Development Section draft to the Master Plan and he would have the Utilities draft hopefully in time for the next meeting. He did have the Master Plan map, but said that they should look at that after the hearings.
Peggy Chalmers stated that the next Master Plan meeting, which was going to be a meeting with the Conservation Committee, was being rescheduled to June 18th, so that the Board members could be available to attend a joint town workshop on Workforce Housing to be held at Colby Sawyer College on May 21st at 7:00 p.m. with speakers Ben Frost from NH Housing Finance Authority, Jenny Devorst from UVLSRPC, and Anne Duncan Cooley, Executive Director, Upper Valley Housing Coalition.
7:15 PM - The first item on the agenda Map 133 Lot 88
Town of Sunapee
Old Town Hall forming an expandable Farmers Market selling local produce and products.
Kevin Ricard presented the site plan and presentation for the Old Town Hall Committee (chosen by the Board of Selectmen) to request a change of use. Allan Davis asked who had the money to do this and Kevin Ricard responded by asking if they wanted to do completeness first and the Board members agreed.
Michael Marquise stated that there is a two-step process: 1) the completeness review, the Board votes to determine if the application is complete per site plan rules; 2) to determine if the merits are met and there are two separate votes. The first step, under terms of completeness for this site plan review, Article 5, the application was filed in advance, abutters were notified, and the fees were waived in this case and the notices were posted. Under Article 5, they had the site plan in front of them and there were a couple things that he did not see on there, but he thought the Board could still accept the plans as complete after discussion, that being any outside lighting and any further proposal for landscaping. He stated that there were not a lot of opportunities on that lot for that, but they may want to
address that as part of the hearing. He said that he thought with those two items just being recognized, the application was complete. Allan Davis made a motion to accept the application as complete subject to review of the lighting and landscaping as presented and Peter White seconded. The MOTION was ACCEPTED UNANIMOUSLY.
They had not discussed any proposed signage at this time, but there might possibly be a sidewalk sign. Michael Marquise asked if there were any existing lights and Kevin responded that yes there were. Bruce Jennings interjected that when there were Planning Board meetings in that building, there were outside lights. Kevin Ricard stated that he had not put anything on the site plan regarding outside lighting because they were not proposing to change anything and were going to use what was already there.
Kevin stated that they were taking the existing doors and moving them to the old police station and opening up the middle part on the street level and having a weekly farmers market. He went on to say that although he had put down five, they were really looking for ten parking spaces (determined by the square footage of the building). Peggy Chalmers asked what day of the week they were intending to use for this market and Kevin responded that it may be Saturday, but they hadn’t really decided yet.
Bruce Jennings asked if this was going to be just a Farmers Market or would it include crafts and other things. Barbara Sullivan responded that they were going to fill as many tables as they could with food items and if they couldn’t fill every table with produce, they were willing to take up to three self-producers from the Town of Sunapee, but those items would have to be something that they had made themselves. She also said that there were some Sunapee home gardeners interested in selling their produce and they also had a couple groups of people (who all have gardens) who were thinking about coming together at one table. It would be fairly low-key the first year. Allan Davis asked how many months would the market operate and Barbara said it would run from July 10th through mid-October, for probably 4
hours on whatever day it is open. Mike Durtor commented that it would not be earlier than 7:00 a.m. and no later than 11:00 p.m.
Allan Davis asked them to describe the doorway and Mike responded that right now they had two sliding doors that were part of the old thrift shop, but that the old thrift shop was not going to be used. Kevin interjected that he had put the doors on the plan to open out and allow better accessibility. Bruce Jennings asked if they envisioned the business spilling out onto the sidewalk (with tables on lawns) and they all said that they did not see this happening at this time.
Dan Schneider asked if the building currently had plumbing and heating and Dana responded that it was not going to need plumbing and heating for one section, but that there would be plumbing available and was in the process of happening as they spoke, so that it would be functional by the date of opening. Mike Durtor interjected that to respond to the question of funding, it was coming out of the Charrette fund of monies that were not used yet for any repairs, but that they had to go to the Board of Selectmen to release those funds for the repair and restoration of the building. Barbara Sullivan commented that they were just asking for open space and they would take it as they found it. Peggy Chalmers asked if it was viewed as paying for itself or as a community venture. Kevin Ricard said that it was
community-oriented and that over time the community would see it as something worthwhile.
Mike Durtor commented that combined with the thrift shop, it would be seen as a more viable business place and it would give more exposure for the building itself. Peggy asked what the calculations were for the parking needs. Kevin Ricard said that he had used flea market calculations and that was for 25 spaces for vendors plus 10 employees. He said that he used the guidelines from when the police station was in use and had 30 spaces and measured 23 spaces and five additional spaces for vendors. He said that the bottom line was that there was parking nearby that met the guidelines. There was a hearing scheduled for May 18th with the Board of Selectmen to vote on whether or not to approve the farmers market.
Michael Marquise asked how they intended to handle the loading and unloading of the produce. Barbara responded that they hadn’t gotten that far, but that generally what they do is have people take a number ahead of time and they know what time they can arrive to unload their goods and then they go park their truck(s) somewhere else.
Allan Davis asked for copies of the site plan with the additional inclusions that Kevin had added just before the meeting. If the Board approved the request, they did not have any copies of what was being presented. Kevin stated that he had brought four copies with the new inclusions and passed them around to the Board members.
Peggy Chalmers asked if anyone in the audience had any questions and there were none. Bruce Jennings commented that he had gotten a call from Marie Wiggins, an abutter, who could not attend the hearing, but wanted the Board to know that even though she was not opening the gallery this summer, she was in favor of this proposed market. Peggy Chalmers asked if anyone had any experience with the usage of the thrift shop and Barbara Sullivan responded that if the thrift shop did not want to be open when the market was, then the market would respect their right and would not be open at the same time.
Allan Davis asked how many spaces backed out into Main Street and Michael Marquise replied that there were fourteen. Bruce Jennings said that there was parking by the police station and Coffin Park, which might be a great place for the vendors to use for their parking site. Peggy Chalmers mentioned the SAU, which is not open on Saturdays, as having additional parking available.
Peggy Chalmers asked if the Board was ready to close the meeting to have a discussion among the Board members and it was agreed to do that. She said that there were a lot of unknowns with this proposal, but she felt it would be an additive to the harbor to have this activity. Michael Marquise stated that when approving a site plan, they should be looking at the maximum use and the impact it would have and it was hard to say that this was a tentative approval. The Board could give conditional approvals. Bruce Jennings commented that from his perspective, this was something that should be looked at as a retail space that would allow them to have a farmers market on certain days, a flea market in the fall, and expand to other types of retail activities. He felt that rather than looking at this space an excessive
amount of times, that the Board should look at it as a retail space and permit it whatever they felt comfortable with.
The meeting was reopened and Kevin was asked to determine the square footage that they were asking to use for the market. He stated that the entire Main Street level, which measured 3,475 square feet, (including the old thrift shop and the former police station) was the section of space they were intending to use.
Allan Davis stated that he thought the motion had to be approved at the Town Hall for retail use and that they waive the parking requirement. Bruce Jennings interjected that they should not waive the parking, but state the existing parking was sufficient. He asked if the Old Town Hall group would be comfortable amending their proposal application by saying that they would like the Board to approve the entire downstairs space as retail and Kevin Ricard responded that it would be fine with them to do that.
Allan Davis made a motion to approve the application by the Old Town Hall Committee to change the use of the Main Street level of the Old Town Hall to retail, recognizing that parking is available in nearby municipal parking spots, with hours of operation being no earlier than 7 a.m. and no later than 11 p.m. Bob Stanley seconded the motion.
The MOTION carried UNANIMOUSLY.
Michael Marquise stated that the next item was other business and was not listed on the agenda nor was it a public hearing. He explained for the new members that this was a statement of property usage and what it did on the commercial uses was give the applicant an opportunity to come in informally to the Board and determine if there is actually a change in use at the property that triggers a site plan like they just saw. The Board reviews it and sees if there is anything that alters the use of a business, i.e. increase in the number of employees, an increase in the size of the building, anything that would trigger the use of a site plan.
Peggy Chalmers stated that no application was required. Michael clarified that this was the post office building in Georges Mills. Bruce Jennings asked if there would be any biohazard or those types of things in a dental office and he was assured by Roger Kenney, dentist, that there would be nothing stored onsite, any hazardous waste would be collected by a certified company that takes it away.
Richard Curtis, owner of the building, explained that they were downsizing the tenant capacity of the top floor where the dentist was proposing to go in and it would mean less people in the top floor of the building. There would be seven parking spaces in the rear of the building designated for the dental practice’s use and ten spaces in the front of the building for patients’ parking.
Allan Davis made a motion to waive a site plan approval. Peter White seconded the motion.
The MOTION was CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.
Michael Marquise brought forward a draft of the Land Use Map to show the Board members the three added areas: 1) mixed land use; 2) village residential area; 3) rural residential and conservation area. He stated that what was new that the Board had not seen was the differentiating of the village residential areas, which used to be the purple color of the village but he sketched in the areas that were not quite as intense commercially in Georges Mills and Sunapee. It was a way of identifying those areas such as Maple Street and Central Street that had come up earlier in the year. He went on to say that it didn’t change the covenants in the zoning, but did allow flexibility in recognizing the districts.
He said that he was trying to create a buffer between what was conservation land and commercial uses. Allan Davis asked when were they going to have a debate/discussion about this and Michael responded that he thought it was an ongoing discussion, so the next time they had a Master Plan meeting, that should be part of the broader discussion.
Dan Schneider asked if there was any way to tell if this was adopted what would not be in compliance. Michael responded that the current businesses were allowed to expand up to 50% and the Town was very generous to these uses. Allan Davis commented that they needed to see all the details and make notes and be organized in a work session and have a discussion about these changes. Michael responded that this was just to give everyone an overview of what the changes would look like. Bruce suggested an overlay to show the difference between the old town layout and the changes being made. Peggy Chalmers stated that they had also expanded the conservation area and she thought a good question for the workshop would be if they are supposed to set aside the bulk of the town for workforce housing, and there are
big conservation areas, how do those compete against one another?
There was discussion about sewer lines, density, and lot sizes for development. Allan asked if they could bring this up at the next meeting and close this meeting.
Michael Marquise clarified that the next meeting would be June 4th. Allan Davis made a motion to re-elect Peggy Chalmers as Chair and Bruce Jennings made a motion to have Allan Davis be Vice-Chair. Bob Stanley seconded both motions.
The MOTIONS were CARRIED UNANIMOUSLY.
Allan Davis reported that the issue regarding parking and business activity on Shadow Lane had been investigated by Roger Landry and Michael Marquise confirmed that Roger had not found anything in violation of the ordinances and that the issue was resolved for now, but could be appealed.
With no further business, the meeting adjourned at 8:35 p.m.
It should be noted that this transcript is an approximation of, not a verbatim, report of the Planning Board meeting recording.
Respectfully submitted,
Camille Holmes Approved _______________
Recording Secretary
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Peggy Chalmers, Chairman Allan Davis, Vice Chairman
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Bruce Jennings Derek Tatlock
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Philip Porter Peter White
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Emma M. Smith, Ex-officio Frederick Gallup, Alt. Ex-officio
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