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

DATE: Monday, January 27, 2014

AGENDA ITEM 1: Call to Order

Chair Clayton Wood called the meeting to order at 7:07 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 (arrived at 7:24 PM);
Jim Pritchard (JP), planning board member and secretary;
Bill Miskoe (BM), planning board member; and
Eric Nilsson (EN), 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:
Paul Nickerson, 12 Norris Road, Pittsfield, NH.

“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 reminded the board that the town will have another all-boards meeting on February 8, 2014, from 9:00 AM to 12:00 PM in the cafeteria of the Pittsfield Elementary School.

AGENDA ITEM 4: Hearing on the Planning Board’s Proposed Zoning Amendment No. 2

CW read the notice of public hearing on amendment no. 2 and discussed the reason and purpose of the amendment as stated in the board’s description document. The description document explains as follows:

“Article 10 contains building codes, which, as building codes, should not be in the zoning ordinance, and which are superseded by the NH state building code (RSA 155-A). Removing the building codes reveals certain cases when mobile manufactured housing may be used or kept. Article 10 also states permitting conditions for manufactured housing parks, which article 10 should not do because the use table in article 2 prohibits manufactured housing parks in all zoning districts.

“The revision proposal for article 10 is (1) to remove the building codes, (2) to remove the permitting conditions for currently prohibited manufactured housing parks, and (3) to set forth clearly the current cases and conditions for using or keeping mobile manufactured housing.”

The proposed ballot question is as follows:

“Are you in favor of the adoption of Amendment No. 2 as proposed by the planning board for the town zoning ordinance as follows: revise article 10, Manufactured Housing & Manufactured Housing Parks, as follows: (1) eliminate building codes superseded by state law RSA 155-A, (2) eliminate specifications for currently prohibited manufactured housing parks, and (3) change the title of the article to just ‘Manufactured Housing’?”

CW explained that the board was having a second hearing on amendment no. 2 because of an error in the version of December 19, 2013, which the board presented for hearing on January 6, 2014. In the version of December 19, 2013, the board had revised the definition of “manufactured housing park” to agree with the state’s definition of “manufactured housing park” (RSA 205-A:1, II), and, in revising the definition, the board accidentally opened the possibility of permitting multi-unit displays of manufactured housing, which the zoning ordinance currently prohibits as manufactured housing parks. (The town’s current definition of “manufactured housing park” includes multi-unit displays, but the state’s definition excludes multi-unit displays.) The board made a compensating entry, multi-unit manufactured housing display, in the zoning ordinance article 2, table 1, use table, and this compensating entry triggered a requirement for another hearing. (RSA 675:3, IV.) The board’s intent in amendment no. 2 is to avoid making any changes regulating manufactured housing.

CW opened the hearing to public input.

Paul Nickerson asked for confirmation that the new regulations would continue to prohibit manufactured housing parks, as the current regulations do.

CW and BM said yes.

Paul Nickerson asked about the conditions to grandfather manufactured housing parks.

JP said that manufactured housing parks established before the town adopted the zoning ordinance would be grandfathered and that manufactured housing parks established in the Rural District when manufactured housing parks were permissible there as special exceptions would also be grandfathered if any such manufactured housing parks exist. Manufactured housing parks are currently prohibited town wide. JP said that the board’s intent in revising article 10 was to leave manufactured housing regulation the same as it is now and just to remove building codes and to remove permitting conditions for manufactured housing parks because manufactured housing parks are currently prohibited.

Paul Nickerson asked about the 50-foot setback from lot lines and street boundaries that proposed article 10, section 7, specifies for unused and parked manufactured housing units. Paul Nickerson noted that zoning ordinance article 2, table 2, Dimensional Regulations, specifies front, side, and rear setbacks of 25 feet each in the Suburban District and in the Light Industrial/Commercial District.

JP read current article 10, paragraph 5, sentence 3: “Any manufactured housing unit stored on a parcel of land must be set back at least fifty (50) feet from all property lines.” JP said that he had interpreted “property lines” as including street boundaries.

BM noted that the setback for a stored manufactured housing unit is more restrictive than the setback for an ordinary single-family dwelling.

JP agreed and noted that the 50-foot setback is for a stored manufactured housing unit, not for one used as a single-family dwelling.

CW said that manufactured housing units used as single-family dwellings are treated the same as any other single-family dwelling.

PH arrived at 7:24 PM.

CW closed the hearing to public input.

CW moved that the final form of amendment no. 2 shall be the same as the currently proposed amendment no. 2, dated January 6, 2014.

EN seconded the motion.

Discussion: No further discussion.

Vote that the final form of amendment no. 2 shall be the same as the currently proposed amendment no. 2, dated January 6, 2014: carried 5 – 0 – 0. (Voting “yes”: JP, EN, PH, CW, and BM. Voting “no”: none. Abstaining: none.)

AGENDA ITEM 5: Public Input

Paul Nickerson referred to article 1, section 9, Penalty Clause, of proposed zoning amendment no. 5 and asked what a “natural person” is.

BM explained that a “natural person” is a human being, as opposed to, for example, a corporation.

Paul Nickerson asked about the procedure to amend the zoning district map.

CW said that the board would be looking at the zoning district map in February. CW invited Paul Nickerson to participate in the process.

Paul Nickerson asked for clarification of the “official map” cited in current article 24, Miscellaneous.

JP said that the official map is not the zoning district map. An “official map” means a map where highways are or could be. (RSA 674:10 and RSA 674:11.) Pittsfield has not adopted an official map. Concord is the only municipality in New Hampshire that has adopted an official map.

Paul Nickerson said that the Route 28 bypass is a limited access highway and that the state will not allow curb cuts to it. Therefore, the area on the north side of Route 28 should not be zoned for commerce requiring access to Route 28.

JP said that Paul Nickerson had important plans of the Route 28 bypass construction and that Paul Nickerson had agreed to let JP copy those plans. JP said that the board should study those plans.

AGENDA ITEM 6: Adjournment

BM moved to adjourn the meeting.

EN seconded the motion.

Vote to adjourn the planning board meeting of January 27, 2014: carried 5 – 0 – 0. (Voting “yes”: JP, EN, PH, CW, and BM. Voting “no”: none. Abstaining: none.) The planning board meeting of January 27, 2014, is adjourned at 7:37 P.M.

Minutes approved: February 6, 2014

______________________________ _____________________
Clayton Wood, Chairman Date

I transcribed these minutes (not verbatim) on January 28, 2014, from notes that I made during the planning board meeting on January 27, 2014, and from a copy that Chairman Clayton Wood made on January 28, 2014, of the town’s digital recording of the meeting.

____________________________________________
Jim Pritchard, planning board recorder and secretary