Pittsfield Planning Board
Town Hall, 85 Main Street
Pittsfield, NH 03263
Minutes of Public Meeting

DATE: Thursday, January 17, 2013

AGENDA ITEM 1: Call to Order

Chair Clayton Wood called the meeting to order at 7:01 P.M.

AGENDA ITEM 2: Roll Call

Planning board members present:
Clayton Wood (CW), planning board member and chair;
Pat Heffernan (PH), planning board member and vice-chair;
Jim Pritchard (JP), planning board member and secretary;
Bill Miskoe (BM), planning board member; and
Gerard LeDuc (GL), selectmen’s ex officio planning board member.

Planning board members absent:
Peter Dow (PD), alternate planning board member, and
Larry Konopka (LK), selectmen’s ex officio alternate planning board member.

Other town officials present: None.

Members of the public appearing before the planning board: None.

“Members of the public appearing before the planning board” includes only members of the public who spoke to the board. It does not include members of the public who were present but who did not speak to the board.

AGENDA ITEM 3: Agenda Review

CW said that the purpose of tonight’s meeting is to vote on a new date and time for the citizen zoning petitions. The rescheduling is necessary because the planning board did not post proper notice as required by RSA 675:7, I. The board advertised the notice in the Suncook Valley Sun but did not post the notice in two public places. The board originally scheduled the hearings for January 24, 2013, 7:00 PM, at the Pittsfield Town Hall, 85 Main Street, Pittsfield, NH.

CW said that the board would meet on January 24, 2013, for two reasons: first, to apologize to any people who did not learn of the rescheduling, and second, to begin discussing how to close the Stagecoach Station development of AHG Properties.

CW said that, before January 24, 2013, he will meet with Matt Monahan of the Central New Hampshire Regional Planning Commission to discuss closing Stagecoach Station.

AGENDA ITEM 5: Citizen Petitions

The agenda had items 3 and 5 but not 4.

CW moved to reschedule the citizen zoning petition on road frontage to February 4, 2013, 7:00 PM, at the Pittsfield Town Hall, 85 Main Street, Pittsfield, NH.

BM seconded the motion.

Discussion: None.

Vote to reschedule the citizen zoning petition on road frontage to February 4, 2013, 7:00 PM, at the Pittsfield Town Hall, 85 Main Street, Pittsfield, NH: carried 5 – 0 – 0. (Voting “yes”: JP, PH, GL, BM, and CW. Voting “no”: none. Abstaining: none.)

CW moved to reschedule the citizen petition to repeal the zoning ordinance to February 4, 2013, 7:00 PM, at the Pittsfield Town Hall, 85 Main Street, Pittsfield, NH.

BM seconded the motion.

Discussion: None.

Vote to reschedule the citizen petition to repeal the zoning ordinance to February 4, 2013, 7:00 PM, at the Pittsfield Town Hall, 85 Main Street, Pittsfield, NH: carried 4 – 1 – 0. (Voting “yes”: JP, GL, BM, and CW. Voting “no”: PH. Abstaining: none.)

CW moved to use the notice of public hearing for the frontage petition on February 4, 2013, as written in draft by JP.

JP seconded the motion.

Discussion:

BM said that the notice of public hearing should include the whole frontage amendment in addition to the topical description.

CW said that including the whole amendment in addition to the topical description is not the board’s usual practice. Including the whole amendment in this case would raise fairness questions for future amendments: when should the amendment be included in the notice, and when should the amendment not be included in the notice. Some amendments are many pages long. Publishing these amendments with the notice of public hearing would be expensive and impractical.

JP said that the petitioners’ topical description omitted nothing of substance.

Vote to use the notice of public hearing for the frontage petition on February 4, 2013, as written in draft by JP: carried 4 – 1 – 0. (Voting “yes”: JP, PH, GL, and CW. Voting “no”: BM. Abstaining: none.)

GL said that he voted “yes” because the board’s publication of the amendment on the planning board web site makes inspecting the amendment very easy.

CW moved to use the notice of public hearing for the repeal petition on February 4, 2013, as written in draft by JP.

GL seconded the motion.

Discussion: None.

Vote to use the notice of public hearing for the repeal petition on February 4, 2013, as written in draft by JP: carried 4 – 1 – 0. (Voting “yes”: JP, GL, BM, and CW. Voting “no”: PH. Abstaining: none.)

CW said that he had written a letter to the Suncook Valley Sun explaining the board’s notice error and rescheduling. CW will also tape a copy of this letter to the window next to the entrance to the town hall.

CW said that the board would meet on January 24, 2013, to apologize to any people who did not learn of the rescheduling. The board will not discuss either citizen petition at that time.

AGENDA ITEM 6: Members’ Concerns

BM said that the selectmen’s meeting on January 15, 2013, had been the most arrogant piece of government insensitivity that he had ever attended.

PH said that the board of selectmen had been arrogant and condescending. The board of selectmen did a giant disservice.

JP agreed that the board of selectmen had been very arrogant.

GL said that the conduct of the selectmen’s meeting was not what he had expected. GL had expected that the abutters to Stagecoach Station would discuss their questions and concerns with the selectmen’s experts: the town attorney Laura Spector-Morgan and the Central New Hampshire Regional Planning Commission representative Matt Monahan.

BM asked GL why GL had not objected to Linda Small’s decision to exclude public input.

JP said that Linda Small, as acting chair, controlled the meeting.

BM said that the planning board should “regroup about how we’re going to deal with this Stagecoach thing. It’s entirely clear that we will get no support from the select board. It’s entirely clear that I was told, ‘oh, the planning board is the problem, they’re not using what they have available.’” BM said that the planning board needed to ask themselves, “What do we need, what do we have available, let’s use it, and stop waiting for somebody else.”

JP said that the board of selectmen had again asked the town meeting to convert the currently elected planning board to an appointed planning board. JP asked GL to discuss the selectmen’s request.

GL said that he had never liked the elected planning board. GL said that he had always worked better with appointed planning boards. For these reasons, GL said, he had requested the town meeting article to convert the planning board to appointed members.

AGENDA ITEM 7: Adjournment

PH moved to adjourn the meeting.

BM seconded the motion.

Vote to adjourn the planning board meeting of January 17, 2013: carried 5 – 0 – 0. (Voting “yes”: JP, PH, GL, BM, and CW. Voting “no”: none. Abstaining: none.) The planning board meeting of January 17, 2013, is adjourned at 7:34 P.M.

Minutes approved: January 24, 2013

______________________________ _____________________
Clayton Wood, Chairman Date

I transcribed these minutes (not verbatim) on January 18, 2013, from notes that I made during the planning board meeting on January 17, 2013, and a from copy of the one Town tape that Chairman Clayton Wood made on January 18, 2013.

____________________________________________
Jim Pritchard, planning board recorder and secretary

one Town tape.