Town of Warner – Planning Board

Minutes of Work Session

Monday, November 17, 2008     7:00 PM

Warner Town Hall , Lower Level

 

Members Present:      Barbara Annis, Paul Violette, David Hartman, Hank Duhamel, Ed Mical, Dan Watts, Rick Davies

Members Excused:      None

Members Absent:       None

Members Late:            None

Alternates Present:    Harold French

Alternates Excused:   Robert Ricard

Alternates Absent:     None

Alternates Late:         None

Presiding:                    Barbara Annis

Recording:                   Jean Lightfoot  

Open Meeting at 7:00 PM

Roll Call  

Ms. Annis called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.  

Ms. Annis said the following letter was received from Mike McChesney and it is reproduced below:  

“Town of Warner

“Warner Planning Board

P. O. Box 265

“Warner, NH  03278-0265  

11/4/08  

“Dear Warner Planning Board,  

“We are writing you to notify you of a business change that we are planning at Brookside .  The Woodsum Art Gallery will be closing shortly and in place of it we are planning on renting out small booth space for temporary and long term small businesses.  The grouping of these booth rentals will be called “Kearsarge Market” and will be an indoors farmers and artisans market for locally made products.  

“We do not see any real change of use on the swop [sic] of businesses as Woodsum was open most of the week and weekend and Kearsarge Market will only be open Sat. and Sun. 9-3.  We also know we have more than plenty of onsite parking to accommodate the use as we have only begun to use a very small fraction of our parking lot.  

“I would also like to note that the Market will be an excellent opportunity for the local producers as well as the community since it will be a one stop shop for many locally made goods.  We have introduced the idea around town to a broad spectrum of people and the enthusiasm has been unanimous.  

“Thank you for your time and consideration.  

“Sincerely,

“Michael & Gatia McChesney /s/”

 

Ms. Annis said that she told Mr. McChesney that if the Board has a problem with this idea, then they would call him in for the December meeting.  She added that she personally sees no difference in having little booths in a room and having a room that you hire out.  However, she said, if the Board wants, he can be called in.  She said he’s hoping to get it started and open for Christmas sales.  Mr. Violette said this would be like an indoor farmers market and he would think someone would be there everyday to supervise so no one would walk away with anything.  Mr. French asked what they do there now.  Ms. Annis said there is a massage person and he had an art gallery.  She said they are moving to Florida so they have decided to take a different approach.  Mr. Violette said there will be more tenants in number using smaller spaces.  Mr. French said it sounds like a group shop for antiques where they rent out booths for $40 a month but not all of them will be there all the time selling their things personally.  He said he thinks there’s no real change of use.  Mr. Mical asked about food.  Ms. Annis said he does not discuss food.  Mr. Mical said if food is being prepared inside the building, it’s different from an art gallery.  He said that cleanliness and sanitary conditions would need to be considered.  He said if they are just selling food that is brought in and not prepared there, then there is no problem.  There was some discussion about this issue.  Ms. Annis asked if it would be appropriate to say, “Based on your letter, we can see no changes, however, please clarify the fact that food will not be prepared and consumed there on the premises.”  The Board agreed to this wording and it was agreed that a letter would be sent to the McChesneys to this effect.  

Ms. Annis said that the Board members all received a copy of the article from the Farm Bureau magazine related to the State Building Code and barns.  She said that there is a workshop coming up on Impact Fees in Derry on December 17th if anyone is interested.  

Ms. Annis said there are no applications for the December meeting and asked what the members would like to do at that meeting.  She added that it cannot be cancelled because it is in the Planning Board rules that there will be regular meetings held on the first Monday of each month, unless otherwise posted.  She said that by law the Board must meet once a month.  There was a short discussion.  Ms. Annis said that the Building Code and Ordinance Committee has enough to do that they can meet on December 1.  She said that there also must be a public hearing in December.  Mr. Violette said that the Master Plan Committee would probably not meet because there is the Visioning Session on December 8th, so they could join the Building Code and Ordinance Committee on December 1.   

Ms. Annis said that she and Mr. Duhamel attended the NHMA annual meeting.  She said it was good and she brought some booklets back to share with anyone who is interested.  She said that one of the court updates is an ADA court case that involves sidewalks and snow removal.  She said that the future construction of sidewalks could be impacted by this case.  She said in New Hampshire sidewalks are incorporated in the transportation system.  Sharon Wason said that the Federal Highway Administration takes the position that any sidewalk that is adjacent to a road built with federal money must be maintained as the road is maintained.   

Ms. Annis said if the Building Code discussion is finished early enough tonight, some other potential items may be considered to add to the Zoning Ordinance since the full Board must approve the wording and then the Public Hearing will be held on December 15.  She said that one of the things she would like to consider is workforce housing.  She said that these appear to be for 5 or more units and she read:  “Although the municipality must allow some multi-family housing, defined as a building containing 5 or more units. . .”  She said that our Zoning Ordinance describes less than 5 units, so that may be addressed.  Mr. French asked what constitutes workforce housing.  Ms. Wason said housing that is for sale or rent to a household of 4 making 120% of the median income.  Ms. Annis said it must be available.  Mr. French said those primarily are built where water and sewer are available.  Ms. Annis said that right now a multi-family is not allowed in the R-1 district where there is water and sewer.  Mr. French agreed and said that is where it’s needed.  Ms. Annis said that because of this, the Zoning Ordinance related to this may be reviewed tonight after the Building Code.   

Ms. Annis asked Mr. Duhamel if he had anything to add about the meeting in Manchester .  Mr. Duhamel said he met an attorney who has experience in writing statutes, who said that he could bring Planning and Zoning Board members up to speed on the various statutes.  He said that he would get about $250 for a night’s session.  

Mr. Mical said that the Capital Improvements Program presentation to the Budget Committee is scheduled for Thursday night at 6:00 p.m.   He said it would be good to have a few members of the Planning Board in attendance.  He said they will receive the presentation and then they will discuss the capital outlay budget after that.  He thought it would take an hour or a little more.  He said he plans on preparing a Power Point presentation for the Budget Committee.  He said that two years ago when it was presented, it did not go well.  He said that Capital Improvements Program is a Planning Board function that they can disagree with, but they cannot disapprove it because it is the Planning Board that approves it.   

Mr. Mical said that the Hazard Mitigation Plan has been conditionally approved by FEMA and at the next meeting of the Board of Selectmen, a public hearing will be held to accept it.  He said there were no changes by FEMA and it was accepted as it was presented.   

Ms. Annis said that NH OEP has said that there are still some corrections to the Flood Plain Ordinance due to an error in what they sent to the town for correction last year.  These will be added.  

Mr. Hartman said that there will be a single stream recycling presentation tomorrow evening at 7:00 p.m. in the Town Hall.  He said the Selectmen asked the Regional Co-op to come and do a presentation preparing for Town Meeting when a vote will be taken on whether we want to be in it or out of it.  He said that not only Warner but neighboring towns have been invited to attend, as well.  He added that the presenters will be Jim Presher and Liz Bedard.  He added that he had gone to the Municipal Association meeting last week, too. He said he attended a session related to dealing with termination of employees and one related to buying fuel.   

Ms. Annis said she had attended the court cases and updates and potential legislation sessions.  She said she was very disappointed in the Highway Safety session.  She said he was finished about 45 minutes before he was supposed to be through, the acoustics were bad and she did not get how to apply for  and how to qualify for the highway safety.  Ms. Wason said there are no rules yet on how to get HSIP money.  There was some discussion about roundabouts and dangerous intersections around the state.   

There was no further business.  The meeting was adjourned at 7:35 p.m. and the members broke into two committees:  the Master Plan Committee and the Building Code and Zoning Ordinance Committee.