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

DATE: Thursday, September 18, 2014

AGENDA ITEM 1: Call to Order

Chair Clayton Wood called the meeting to order at 7:03 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
Roland Carter (RC), alternate planning board member.

Planning board members absent:
Eric Nilsson (EN), selectmen’s ex officio planning board member, and
Gerard LeDuc (GL), 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 board had two applications from the town (via town administrator Mike Williams) to merge town-owned lots. CW said that he had just discussed these applications yesterday with town administrator Mike Williams and selectmen’s administrative assistant Cara Marston.

AGENDA ITEM 4: Approval of the Minutes of the September 4, 2014 Meeting

BM moved to approve the minutes of September 4, 2014, as written in draft.

PH seconded the motion.

JP requested the following changes:

Agenda item 5, page 7: add a period to the end of “the board’s authority over the shared driveway”
Agenda item 5, page 8: change “a 20-foot lane” to “a lane 20 feet wide”

Vote to approve the minutes of September 4, 2014, with the changes that JP requested: carried 4 – 0 – 0. (Voting “yes”: JP, PH, CW, and BM. Voting “no”: none. Abstaining: none.)

AGENDA ITEM ADDED: Two applications from the town to merge town-owned lots.

The board considered two applications from the town to merge town-owned lots. The first application would merge the following seven lots:

Tax map R-10, lot 7, Greer Lane, M.C.R.D. book 2075, page 0199
Tax map R-11, lot 2, Greer Lane, M.C.R.D. book 2121, page 1097
Tax map R-11, lot 3, Greer Lane, M.C.R.D. book 2121, page 1093
Tax map R-11, lot 4, Greer Lane, M.C.R.D. book 2121, page 1101
Tax map R-11, lot 5, Clough Road, M.C.R.D. book 2121, page 1096
Tax map R-11, lot 17, Shingle Mill Brook Road, M.C.R.D. book 2121, page 1095
Tax map R-11, lot 18, Shingle Mill Brook Road, M.C.R.D. book 2121, page 1094

“M.C.R.D.” means Merrimack County Registry of Deeds.

The second application would merge the following seven lots:

Tax map R-26, lot 8, Rocky Point Road, M.C.R.D. book 2121, page 1100
Tax map R-26, lot 9, Rocky Point Road, M.C.R.D. book 3258, page 0265
Tax map R-26, lot 12, Rocky Point Road, M.C.R.D. book 1916, page 1906
Tax map R-26, lot 13, Rocky Point Road, M.C.R.D. book 1916, page 1905
Tax map R-26, lot 14, Rocky Point Road, M.C.R.D. book 2025, page 0275
Tax map R-26, lot 16, Greer Lane, M.C.R.D. book 2121, page 1098
Tax map R-26, lot 17, Greer Lane, M.C.R.D. book 2121, page 1099

BM noted that only the first resulting lot would have frontage on a town road (class V highway), namely, Clough Road. The second resulting lot would have no frontage on any town road (class V highway).

JP moved the board to approve the first lot merger.

PH seconded the motion.

Discussion: No further discussion.

Vote to approve the first lot merger: carried 3 – 1 – 0. (Voting “yes”: JP, PH, and CW. Voting “no”: BM. Abstaining: none.)

BM said that he voted “no” because he wanted the town to merge all of the lots in both applications as one lot.

JP moved the board to approve the second lot merger.

CW seconded the motion.

Discussion: No further discussion.

Vote to approve the second lot merger: carried 3 – 1 – 0. (Voting “yes”: JP, PH, and CW. Voting “no”: BM. Abstaining: none.)

AGENDA ITEM 5: Review – Proposed Changes to the Subdivision Regulations

The board reviewed the draft subdivision regulations watermarked “Sept. 3, 2014” that JP and CW had prepared.

CW explained that the draft document reorganizes material in the current subdivision regulations and brings the material up to date but does not actually delete much.

The board discussed the two types of design review that the draft regulations propose: (1) design review with the planning board and (2) design review with the building inspector and the planning board’s pre-approval consultant. JP asked whether the board wanted to allow for both types of design review. The board did not decide this issue.

BM asked why the draft regulations refer to site plans in certain sections. For example, section 1, M, Waiver of Requirements (page 14), and section 4, (1) (page 34) refer to “an applicant for subdivision or site plan approval.” BM noted that the draft regulations are subdivision regulations, not site plan review regulations.

JP explained that he had included “or site plan” because the same regulations apply to both application types and because the board may wish to use a single regulations document for both application types. JP said that he had highlighted “or site plan” to flag this term for deletion if appropriate.

BM asked about the definition of “abutter,” which comes from RSA 672:3, and asked how does a person “demonstrate that his land will be directly affected by the proposal under consideration.” (The preceding quote comes from the definition of “abutter.”)

JP said that case law gives guidance on when a person is directly affected by the proposal under consideration and that the big case on the matter is Weeks Restaurant Corp. v. Dover, 119, N.H. 541, 404 A.2d 294 (1979).

CW suggested citing Weeks Restaurant.

JP questioned whether the abutter definition was the most helpful place to cite Weeks Restaurant.

The board agreed to replace the definition of “building” with the definitions of “building” and “structure” in the draft definitions for the zoning ordinance:

BUILDING: “BUILDING” means a STRUCTURE that has a roof and that is intended to shelter or enclose any human being, animal, or object.

STRUCTURE: “STRUCTURE” means something constructed or built that has a fixed location on or in the ground or that is permanently attached to something that has a fixed location on or in the ground.

The board agreed to change the number of copies that an applicant must provide of application plats from 5 to 12. The board agreed that it currently does not get enough copies and that the board needs at least 10 copies. The draft regulations propose 12 copies, and a comment in the draft regulations itemizes the disposition of each copy: “12 = 5 board members + 3 regular alternates + 1 selectmen’s alternate + 1 building inspector + 1 Matt Monahan + 1 public copy. Note: the planning board could have as many as 5 regular alternates plus one selectmen’s alternate. (RSA 673:6, II and III.)” (Matt Monahan is the circuit rider planner from the Central New Hampshire Regional Planning Commission.)

The board agreed to replace “The error of closure shall exceed 1 to 10,000” with “The error of closure shall be less than 1 to 10,000”.

The board discussed deleting references to the “USGS survey elevation benchmark” and the “state plane coordinate system.” JP said that he wanted to understand what a “USGS survey elevation benchmark” is and what the “state plane coordinate system” is before JP supports deleting a requirement that surveys connect to these references systems.

The board agreed to seek guidance from Matt Monahan on the following conditions in the current subdivision regulations:

Condition 1 for Matt Monahan: Section 2, F, 5, Pre-approval Construction Prohibited, page 8 (draft regulations section 1, J, Pre-approval Construction Prohibited, page 13): This section prohibits
1. Cutting any trees or vegetation.
2. Removing any stumps, topsoil, or other materials.
3. Burying any stumps, topsoil, or other yielding material.
4. Leveling or otherwise changing the grade of the land.
5. Constructing any street.
6. Installing any utilities.
Does the board have the authority to prohibit these activities?

Condition 2 for Matt Monahan: Why do the regulations have three separate definitions for “applicant,” “developer,” and “subdivider,” and how does “developer” or “subdivider” differ from “applicant”?

Condition 3 for Matt Monahan: Section 5, C, 5, e, page 17 (draft regulations section 5, A, 3, page 36): “All necessary escrow amounts” seems vague; can we specify the escrow amounts?

Condition 4 for Matt Monahan: Section 6, C, 2, page 23 (draft regulations section 5, B, 10, page 37): Is a so-called on-the-ground boundary survey necessary? BM explained that an “on the ground” boundary survey means an original survey of a property not relying on survey information that previous surveyors have collected.

AGENDA ITEM 6: Review – Proposed Zoning Ordinance Amendment New Definitions Proposed for Article 3, Definitions

The board did not do this agenda item because the board did not have time for it.

AGENDA ITEM 7: Selectman’s Report – Eric Nilsson, Selectman Ex Officio – Gerard LeDuc, Alternate

There was no selectman’s report because EN and GL were absent.

AGENDA ITEM 8: Members’ Concerns

The board did not have a members’ concerns period because the board did not have time for it.

AGENDA ITEM 9: Public Input

No public input. No members of the public were present.

AGENDA ITEM 10: Adjournment

PH moved to adjourn the meeting.

BM seconded the motion.

Vote to adjourn the planning board meeting of September 18, 2014: carried 4 – 0 – 0. (Voting “yes”: JP, PH, CW, and BM. Voting “no”: none. Abstaining: none.) The planning board meeting of September 18, 2014, is adjourned at 8:28 P.M.

Minutes approved: October 2, 2014

______________________________ _____________________
Clayton Wood, Chairman Date

I transcribed these minutes (not verbatim) on September 20, 2014, from notes that I made during the planning board meeting on September 18, 2014, and from a copy that Chairman Clayton Wood made on September 19, 2014, of the town’s digital recording of the meeting.

____________________________________________
Jim Pritchard, planning board recorder and secretary