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

DATE: Monday, January 6, 2014

AGENDA ITEM 1: Call to Order

Chair Clayton Wood called the meeting to order at 6:36 P.M.

Tonight’s meeting scheduled for 6:30 PM is the planning board’s regular meeting of January 2014 rescheduled from January 2. The chair rescheduled the regular meeting from January 2 because a snowstorm and extreme cold on January 2 made the roads dangerous to travel.

The board has a second meeting scheduled for tonight at 7:00 PM for hearings on the board’s six proposed zoning amendments.

AGENDA ITEM 2: Roll Call

Planning board members present:
Clayton Wood (CW), planning board member and chair;
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:
Pat Heffernan (PH), planning board member and vice-chair;
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 Leo and Betty Aubertin, of 37 Kaime Road, had applied for a voluntary lot merger of tax map U-02, lots 32 and 33. CW has scheduled this matter for the board’s regular meeting on February 6, 2014. CW wrote the Aubertin’s a letter explaining that separating the merged lots in the future would require new subdivision approval and that the currently requested merger would erase all grandfather protection that the lots currently have from zoning requirements, including lot-size requirements.

CW said that he had sent all department heads and board chairs a description of the planning board’s six proposed zoning amendments and a letter inviting them to comment on the proposed amendments, for which the board is holding a hearing tonight at 7:00 PM. The department heads and board chairs can provide feedback at any time up to the hearing.

AGENDA ITEM 4: Approval of the December 19, 2013 Meeting Minutes

BM moved to approve the minutes of December 19, 2013, as written in draft.

EN seconded the motion.

Discussion:

No board member saw any problems in the draft minutes.

Vote to approve the minutes of December 19, 2013, as written in draft: carried 4 – 0 – 0. (Voting “yes”: JP, EN, CW, and BM. Voting “no”: none. Abstaining: none.)

After tonight’s meeting, JP, the recording secretary, noticed that agenda item 9, Adjournment, of the December 19, 2013, draft minutes says, “The planning board meeting of November 7, 2013, is adjourned”, but should say, “The planning board meeting of December 19, 2013, is adjourned”. JP corrected this error.

AGENDA ITEM 5: Proposed Amendments to the Zoning Ordinance.

The board did not address this agenda item. The board will have a hearing on the board’s six proposed zoning amendments at the board’s second meeting tonight at 7:00 PM.

AGENDA ITEM 6: Selectman’s Report – Eric Nilsson, Selectman Ex Officio

EN said that the board of selectmen is working on articles for the town meeting.

CW asked EN whether EN would like CW to go to a selectmen’s meeting to explain the planning board’s zoning-amendment proposals.

EN said that he thought that he did not need CW’s help. The planning board’s description document is clear and concise.

EN said that he liked the division of zoning-amendment material between amendment no. 4 (relating to zoning ordinance articles 5, 6, and 7) and amendment no. 5 (relating to zoning ordinance articles 1, 22, 23 (administration and enforcement), and 24.

AGENDA ITEM 7: Members’ Concerns

BM asked when construction on the library stairs would be finished.

EN suggested that BM attend the next meeting of the library improvement oversight committee on January 9, 2014.

AGENDA ITEM 8: Public Input

No members of the public are present.

AGENDA ITEM 9: Adjournment

BM moved to adjourn the meeting.

EN seconded the motion.

Vote to adjourn the planning board’s first meeting of January 6, 2014: carried 4 – 0 – 0. (Voting “yes”: JP, EN, CW, and BM. Voting “no”: none. Abstaining: none.) The planning board meeting of January 6, 2014, is adjourned at 6:42 P.M.

Minutes approved: February 6, 2014

______________________________ _____________________
Clayton Wood, Chairman Date

I transcribed these minutes (not verbatim) on January 8, 2014, from notes that I made during the planning board meeting on January 6, 2014, and from a copy that Chairman Clayton Wood made on January 7, 2014, of the town’s digital recording of the meeting.

____________________________________________
Jim Pritchard, planning board recorder and secretary