September 9, 2020 | Town Admin TOWN OF SUTTON Pillsbury Memorial Hall 93 Main Street Sutton Mills, NH 03221 PLANNING BOARD Meeting Minutes 9/9/20 CALL TO ORDER: Chair Wells called the meeting to order at 7:05pm. ROLL: Roger Wells (Chair), Peter Blakeman, Glenn Pogust, Dane Headley, David Hill, David Angeli, Mike Tardiff and Katie Nelson (Planning Commission Consultants), Peter Stanley (LUC) ABSENT: Jim Lowe, Debbie Lang ADMINISTRATIVE: Approval of draft August 11, 2020 Meeting Minutes. Mr. Stanley said he didn’t send the minutes to everyone until about 20 minutes before the start of the meeting. Chair Wells suggested reviewing the minutes for the next meeting. The others agreed that this was a good idea. OLD BUSINESS: Continued Review of Draft Master Plan Existing Land Use Maps Chair Wells said he was not able to drive all the roads of the town since the last meeting, but did drive the most populated areas. He tried to see if what he saw matched what was on the consultant’s maps. Category 1290 on the consultant’s maps are an issue as they are residential homes that appear to be commercial because of outbuildings. This needs to be looked at. Also, open fields were being considered as agriculture, which is not necessarily correct. There was discussion about what these fields should be called. Some are in current use, some are conservation, some are agriculture. Chair Wells said the golf course of NH is larger than the actual course. He thinks it is a worthy discussion to see if they could make another village there at some time. Chair wells said he thinks parcel lines should be added to the map to help with understanding where the lots connect. Mr. Stanley said that roads that go from a proper road to a class VI road, should have a dash line that is heavier to be distinct where the road goes. Chair Wells said that the town’s class VI roads aren’t all labeled, which is something he noticed while driving around. Peter Blakeman recalled a road study that had been done in the past which showed the classes of the roads and how wide they were. It was assumed that the road agent likely has a copy of this, which could be helpful with the GIS program. Review of Land Use Constraints Maps Chair Wells said on the restraints map, there is an obvious error showing a flood plain that is on top of a mountain. This should be fixed. Mr. Blakeman said there is actually a significant wetland in that area. Chair Wells agreed that it could be a wetland but it shouldn’t be labeled as a flood plain. Mr. Tardiff said he would look into this. David Hill and Betsy (Forsham?) joined the meeting via zoom at 7:25pm. There was discussion on how to identify conservation land on the land use maps. Mr. Stanley offered that the colors being used between maps should remain consistent. The same colors should be used to identify the same things. Chair Wells said if it involves water, it should be blue. Land should be green. Residential should be yellow. Continued review of Master Plan Survey Summary Mr. Pogust had sent some suggestions on wording for this section of the Master Plan. Chair Wells was the only one who had been sent the suggestions, through Mr. Stanley. Chair Wells asked Mr. Stanley to forward the document to the rest of the Planning Board to review for discussion at the next meeting. What’s next? Chair Wells asked what the next step was in the Master Plan project. Mr. Tardiff said that they will now begin discussing each topic and they can start anywhere they want. Once he understands how the members feel about the topics and the feedback from the survey or the meetings that were held with certain groups throughout the town, he will put some language together for review. Mr. Tardiff suggested starting with economic base and housing at the next meeting. Chair Wells thought this was a good idea. He asked for an outline of the topics the members of the Planning Board should anticipate discussing. Mr. Tardiff said he would do this. He suggested that soon they review the conservation strategic plan as it is good and it is important. Mr. Stanley said that he would send the members a link to the plan and also explained where it is on the town’s website. There was discussion about workforce housing and how it is difficult to determine what is required by the state, and most towns don’t have an inventory of what they currently have available. Mr. Stanley said having an inventory is important to give a starting point when challenged by the state. When asked, Mr. Tardiff said that Sutton is too affluent to qualify for a community block grant for workforce housing. Mr. Pogust wondered why workforce housing wouldn’t be an incentive to invite business to town. Chair Wells said that a developer would need to come into town and find it an attractive opportunity. Otherwise, that kind of housing cannot be created easily when having to abide by the acreage and septic requirements for dwellings. NEW BUSINESS: Warner River Local Advisory Committee request. (Notice of activity within ¼ mile) Mr. Stanley said the committee has sent a request via Debbie Lang that they would like to discuss something with them. There is a small loop of the Warner River that comes into Sutton and down back into Warner. The committee would like to be noticed if there is any activity to be done within ¼ mile of the river. It would be a courtesy but isn’t a requirement. Mr. Stanley said he reviewed the statutes and didn’t see a mechanism that makes this something that, legally, they have to do. They will need to be prepared to discuss this further when the committee wants to talk further. They will need to change a lot of paperwork. Mr. Hill said the area is where the Lane River joins the Warner River. There is one house now and a right of way for high voltage, but there would be no houses on that side of the road. The only one to be concerned about is the house on the corner. They own all the way about ¼ mile around the corner. It was noted that the committee would need to come before the Planning Board to make this request. ANY OTHER BUSINESS: There was none. ADJOURNMENT: IT WAS MOVE (Glenn Pogust) AND SECONDED (Dane Headley) to adjourn the September 9, 2020 Planning Board. THE MOTION WAS APPROVED UNANIMOUSLY. The meeting adjourned at 8:05pm Respectfully submitted, Kristy Heath, Recording Secretary Town of Sutton