January 10, 2023 | Town Admin TOWN OF SUTTON Pillsbury Memorial Hall 93 Main Street Sutton Mills, NH 03221 PLANNING BOARD Draft Meeting Minutes for Tuesday January 10, 2023 at 7:00 p.m. Chair Pogust called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm. He called roll and found there was a quorum. In the absence of Peter Blakeman, Chair Pogust asked Kristin Angeli, alternate, to step in as a voting member of the Board. ROLL: Glenn Pogust (Chair), Kristin Angeli (alternate), David Hill, Jason Teaster (alternate), Christine Fletcher, Dane Headley, Roger Wells (Vice-Chair), Chuck Bolduc ABSENT: Peter Blakeman ALSO PRESENT: David Grinsell (observer), Mike Tardiff (Central New Hampshire Regional Planning Commission) ADMINISTRATIVE: Review of Minutes of December 27, 2022 David wanted to note that there were “no” other people who attended the meeting. It was moved by David Hill and seconded by Christine Fletcher to approve the minutes of December 27, 2022 as amended. The motion was approved unanimously. Discussion – Creating Village Districts & Creating Bonuses for Senior and Workforce Housing Chair Pogust said the discussion would be informal and was meant to get some ideas on the table. Mike from the Regional Planning Commission thought they should look at the application for grant funding for the housing discussion/work which the RPC could help the Town with. This grant is offered under the “Invest New Hampshire” program. A colleague of his, Matt Taylor, had filled out the application for Sutton and the next step was to tailor the application to make the most sense for the Town. Mike said that this grant is part of a $100 million housing program for the State of New Hampshire. Chair Pogust said that he could sign the grant application but thought Peter Stanley should be the contact between the Town and the program. Mike thought it would be great to have both Peter and Chair Pogust in contact with the program for their follow-up questions about the application. Chair Pogust agreed. Chair Pogust said that he recommends that the Board work on creating provisions in the Zoning Ordinance for a Village District Zone, which would have different zoning requirements and allowances than the Residential and Rural/Agricultural Districts. David asked for the sequence of how this new zone would be requested/implemented. The first step is to define all the parameters and details of a new Village District, and then the proposal would be presented for a vote at Town Meeting in the form of a warrant for a Zoning Ordinance amendment. If approved, the zone would be implemented as part of the Zoning Ordinance. Chair Pogust said that coming up with bonuses for senior and workforce housing will be complicated and may be a hard sell. It may be difficult to educate the public about the advantage of the new cluster ordinance, and the bonus concept is different enough that people will need to be educated so there is no cause for alarm. There will be a lot of opinions and it will be important to find the best approach that the people in Sutton will accept. The Board needs to communicate the reality of what workforce and senior housing means for the Town of Sutton and how it will benefit the Town. What does a Village District Look Like? Roger printed out a map to pass around which shows the buildings, what area is open, trees, etc. in Sutton Mills as an example of how to begin the process. The orange, yellow and dark green areas show the slopes of the land. They wouldn’t want construction happening where those colors are. Pale green is the existing residential district. The even paler green that goes down to Village Road is land in conservation. Surrounding the stream is a hatched area which represents the flood plain. The other wiggly lines show wetlands. As a beginning, Roger suggested putting this information on a map that is much bigger so the Board could work on it together at a reasonable scale. Mike wondered if they are looking to infill or grow a little. Roger thought both. Chair Pogust thought it would be nice if they could grow residentially away from the roads and use some of the buildings that are close to the roads for appropriate mixed uses that would support the residences. Roger showed some possible locations where this kind of residential development could be made in the future. Mike said that he could help with a map and providing the information about the lot sizes, etc. Chair Pogust said they could see what would work in Sutton Mills and then see how it could be applied to the other villages. Sutton Mills is the only village district that is not built around Route 114. There is no other village that is “off the beaten path.” Roger thought they would need to know what other rules there are about community water and septic. Mike said that would be a big part of their conversation. They do need to discuss what those constraints are, as is necessary when they start talking about density. Roger thought it made the most sense to start with small-scale plans and if it worked and people didn’t mind it, the idea would gain credibility and then someone might then be able to build something larger. Chair Pogust said it isn’t easy to do anything within the villages right now. The opportunity needs to be created for people to be able to do modest things. He said it is important there are parameters to make sure that people such as healthcare workers and teachers are among the people who are able to move into the housing. David thought they should come up with some kind of bonus to encourage the senior and workforce housing. He opined that this should be the Board’s priority right now. Jason thought they should survey other towns to see what they have done in these instances. Chuck thought they should pursue cluster development. He thought a large-scale development would not be wanted in the town, but a cluster might work. Creating rules for the village districts made sense to him. Christine was concerned that anything of this nature could be approved, but felt it was worth the effort. Kristin thought the biggest thing in the village district comes down to its definition: What is it? What are the permitted uses? How do you feel when you walk down the road? Wilmot has a village district (Wilmot Flat), they have a commercial district too. There might be opportunities created in the districts but they also need to protect the privacy. Kristin said people fear change so they have to be assured that their investment and livelihood will be protected. Chair Pogust said when he and Roger went to talk to the golf course people (months prior), the owners were unsure about what they wanted to do with their land. However, he got an email the other day from the owners asking what the Town was going to be doing with the zoning. Chair Pogust said he replied that he would be open to their ideas and would discuss them with the Planning Board. Dane didn’t think that seniors who want to downsize would want to live in a three-family subdivision and maybe they should try to develop something bigger for their first project as it would have the most impact. Chair Pogust said they are looking at expanding on the cluster ordinance so it can provide some incentives and look at what can be done in the villages. They can always decide as they move forward, with the help of an Economic Development Committee, to change their direction. They can also look at some things that can be done in the villages in upcoming meetings. Chair Pogust said they need to give people something to look at so they can really understand what some real examples will look like for Sutton. Mike said that there is no reason the Planning Board cannot be looking at both possibilities over the next year and then decide how best to proceed on one or both concepts. The consensus of the Board was that they need to obtain more information about the possible approaches and engage in more discussions with interested residents of Sutton. Chair Pogust said the next meeting will be held on February 28th. He would like to hold a public information session the first week of March to help explain why they want to adopt the cluster ordinance. This would be a week before the election. An advertisement would be run in the Intertown Record again (perhaps not a whole page) to invite people to this March meeting to talk, listen and ask questions. It was moved by Roger Wells and seconded by David Hill to adjourn the meeting. The motion was approved unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 8:22pm. Respectfully submitted, Kristy Heath, Recording Secretary Town of Sutton