Town of Warner –Planning Board

Work Session Minutes

June 21, 2010 7:00 PM

Warner Town Hall, Lower Level 

 

Members Present:             Barbara Annis, Paul Violette, Rick Davies, David Hartman and Ed Mical.

Members Excused:             Dan Watts

Members Absent:           Hank Duhamel

Members Arriving Late:   None

Alternates Present:          Peter Wyman and J.D. Colcord

Alternates Arriving Late:  None

Alternates Excused:           Aedan Sherman

Alternates Absent:  None

 

OPEN MEETING AT 7:05 PM

ROLL CALL

The Roll call was taken at 7:05 PM. Barbara Annis opened the meeting. Barbara Annis elevated Peter Wyman and J.D. Colcord to Full Board Members. 

1. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT CHAPTER OF THE MASTER PLAN

    Guest Speaker: Vanessa Bittermann, Central NH Regional Planning Commission 

Barbara Annis introduced Vanessa Bittermann of CNHRPC (Central NH Regional Planning Commission). Barbara Annis turned the meeting over to Paul Violette, Vice Chairman of the Master Plan. 

Paul Violette stated as advertised Vanessa Bittermann would be discussing the Economic Development Chapter of the Master Plan. 

Vanessa Bittermann asked the Board if each member had received a copy of the Draft Economic Development Chapter of the Master Plan. The Board Members all had a copy that they had reviewed. 

Vanessa Bittermann asked if the Board had any questions or comments on the Draft packet. She said she would particularly like to talk about the Economic Development Goals and Objectives as well as recommendations. Vanessa Bittermann wanted to be sure she included all the objectives and priorities of the Town of Warner.   

David Hartman stated that he thought Vanessa Bittermann did a great job incorporating all the resources, surveys, meetings and hearings into the document. 

Barbara Annis said she found the document to be very well written.  Barbara Annis pointed out that the Fall Foliage Festival is its own entity and is not part of the Chamber of Commerce. 

The president of the Chamber of Commerce confirmed that the Fall Foliage Festival is a separate entity within itself. 

The Board reviewed the Draft Copy of the Economic Development Chapter with Vanessa and had a few questions and comments including: the Chemical District (area between I89 and Warner River from Mill Street up to the Intervale area) is not mentioned which could be a possible future commercial development area; the well head protection area was mentioned; the possibility of creating an Economic Development Committee to advise, implement, and coordinate economic development efforts in Warner that would be separate from the Planning Board (it would be a separate Town committee);  Ed Mical offered to help Vanessa Bittermann update the Table ED-2 Warner’s Top 25 Employers chart using  the Hazard Mitigation Plan; the state sign policy was discussed; a lengthy discussion was held regarding a TIF, how it works and the pros and cons; a discussion was held regarding the Existing Conditions map needing to be outlined more clearly to be able to see the District boundaries more clearly; a question was brought up regarding the placement of the points on the New Buildings 1999-2008 and Existing Building Distribution by Zoning District maps. Vanessa Bittermann explained the points are centrally located on each parcel and are not exact locations on the parcel, they would need to be manually placed which would be extremely time consuming and would take an extensive amount of research to place them in the exact spot on the parcel. There is a disclosure on the maps disclosing dots do not represent exact building locations. 

The Board agreed that Vanessa Bittermann did a great job incorporating all the information. There will be a few changes in verbiage and some further updates to graphs and maps will be looked into. 

2. CONTINUED DISCUSSIONS ON SITE PLAN REGULATIONS 

Barbara Annis asked the Board if they would like to approve the Draft 5/17/10 Appendix B Street and Road Sample Drawings. 

J.D. Colcord made a MOTION to ACCEPT the Draft 5/17/10, Street and Road Sample Drawings. David Hartman seconded the MOTION and all were in favor. 

Barbara Annis stated Dan Watts had sent his proposed verbiage for the definition of “Major Subdivision” in the Town of Warner Zoning Ordinance. The Board agreed to talk about the definition at a later meeting when the Zoning Ordinance is discussed. 

3. COMMUNICATIONS AND MISCELLANEOUS 

Barbara Annis stated that she and Ed Mical were going to meet to talk about the current procedure for conceptual consultations in the Site Plan Review until a letter was received from the Local Government Center stating: 

… if the Planning Board has designated two people to work together on a recommendation for an issue within the board’s scope of authority, then those people would constitute an “advisory committee” and be bound to follow the Right To Know Law requirements for meetings of public bodies when they communicate on that issue. Individuals working alone do not constitute a committee.

 

Therefore, Barbara Annis and Ed Mical did not meet as planned. 

Rick Davies asked if they could discuss the interpretation of the letter. He stated that the letter references two people to get together to give a recommendation. He asked if gathering data and seeking information without giving a recommendation would be a different situation. David Hartman thought if two people from the Planning Board wanted to get together to look at some type of problem or issue they could do that because two people would not be a quorum; if 5 or more people get together that would form a quorum therefore a posting would be necessary as well as minutes. If Barbara Annis appoints a sub-committee of the Planning Board to take on a particular project it would be necessary to post the meeting 24 hours in advance and take minutes. 

Ed Mical stated that if a couple people get together and gather information to bring back to the Planning Board it would be a grey area and could be considered an advisory committee. J.D. Colcord agreed it would be a grey area and should probably be treated as a subcommittee. 

Barbara Annis asked J.D. Colcord to join the subcommittee along with Rick Davies and Paul Violette. Rick Davies, Paul Violette and J.D. Colcord agreed to work together gathering information for the possible expansion of the Davisville area to bring back to the Planning Board. Rick Davies will present some aerial photos of different areas. Paul Violette stated he would gather information on different building sizes in commercial areas in other towns. The subcommittee will continue to talk about creating a C-1 vs. C-2 District. 

Ed Mical made a MOTION to call the subcommittee “Commercial District Planning Committee”. The MOTION was seconded and all were in favor. 

4. SUBCOMMITTEE REPORTS

Ed Mical said the CIP (Capital Improvement Program) will be meeting Wednesday June 23, 2010 at 7:30 PM. Committee members were selected from the Budget Committee and the Board of Selectman. Ed Mical said the goal is the have a Public Hearing at the Planning Board’s September 13, 2010 meeting and then to have a presentation to the Budget Committee and the Board of Selectman at the Planning Board’s September 20, 2010 Work Session meeting. 

Barbara Annis stated that the Transportation Sub-Committee met Thursday, June 17, 2010. The committee members agreed that a combination RFQ/RFP letter to be sent to various Engineering firms would be the best option. Paul Violette agreed to draft the combination letter and forward it onto the committee members for review as well as to Jim Marshall of NHDOT. Engineering firms that will be receiving this are the ones that received it several years ago when the Planning Board was searching for a firm that had expertise in traffic research plus the list that the Selectmen’s Office used for the Connors Mill Bridge Project. 

Since roundabouts are fairly new it was decided to contact New London, Meredith, Goffstown, Keene and Concord who currently have roundabouts to get their opinions.  Laura Buono will compose an email to be sent to town administrators (cc to both the Fire Department and Police Department) seeking answers to a number of questions. 

A brief discussion was held regarding the size of roundabouts and maneuvering a roundabout with larger trucks and emergency vehicles especially during the winter months. 

5. PUBLIC COMMENTS

No public was present.

 

6. ADJOURN 

J.D. Colcord made a MOTION to ADJOURN, Peter Wyman seconded the MOTION and all were in favor. The meeting adjourned at 9:30 PM.