July 13, 2021 | Town Admin TOWN OF SUTTON Pillsbury Memorial Hall 93 Main Street Sutton Mills, NH 03221 PLANNING BOARD Approved Meeting Minutes for Tuesday July 13, 2021, at 7:00 p.m. CALL TO ORDER: Chair Wells called the meeting to order at 7:00pm. ROLL: Glenn Pogust, David Hill, Christine Fletcher, Charles Bolduc, Dane Headley, Roger Wells. Also attending were Mike Tardiff from CNHRPC, Katie Nelson from CNHRPC via Zoom, and Peter Stanley, Planning and Zoning Administrator. ADMININISTRATIVE: Approval of Minutes from June 22, 2021 It was moved (Glenn Pogust) and seconded (David Hill) to approve the minutes of June 22 minutes, as circulated. The motion was approved unanimously. MASTER PLAN DISCUSSION: Mike Tardiff and Katie Nelson from the Regional Planning Commission were present to give an update on the Master Plan. Katie said that there were six survey responses which prompted some changes. Katie thanked Glenn for going through all four chapters and providing feedback. She has incorporated some of his changes. Building trends were updated to include 2021 building trends and to make things more clear. The Current Land Use section was updated to explain why Current Use is important. Chair Wells asked how the collected taxes went up tenfold when the current use acreage had been increased only a bit. Katie said that the taxes are collected when land goes out of current use. She got the numbers from Elly. Chair Wells thought this may be confusing to the average person reading the information. Some suggestions were made on how to make this clearer for the reader to understand. Chuck wanted it clarified that current use has nothing to do with temporary protection of land; it is a temporary tax savings. Glenn felt it is an incentive not to develop land. Mike said it is offers a step to keep people from developing land; one has to make an effort to take it out of current use. There was some discussion about steep slopes being mentioned and making sure the references to them were correct. Katie said a change that was requested was to update the information in section 4.4 with regards to the Zoning Ordinance. Chair Wells said they would review this and get back to her with their responses. Katie said for the key action items in 4.5, they separated elderly housing and housing for new/young families. Chair Wells said if they are going to use the term “sustainable” they will need to explain what they actually mean. He said itt means that the three main goals of the town are addressed. Mike agreed. Chair Wells said most people think that sustainable means it is environmentally sensitive. Glenn suggested adding that sustainable development includes their three objectives and then say there are a number of tools and approaches to achieve sustainability. Glenn wondered if the term “sustainable progress” would be better. Christine thought maybe the word “sustainable” was the problem. Chair Wells suggested the term “take measures to insure a sustainable community.” This was favored by Mike. Katie said the last chapter (recommendations) includes a table. They will have all the priorities, and who is responsible for them. She thanked the board members who took the survey to help guide her in this area. Chair Wells suggested that the columns with the X’s could be smaller to allow more room for the bullets; more words and less visual. Katie went through the list of priorities and timeframes. The board members commented on how they’d like the timeframes and other details changed. There were short, medium, long and ongoing timeframes that would be used. Chair Wells said the aquifer in one area shows a recharge area also. There was some discussion on the validity of the mapping of this and whether or not it was an aquifer or a recharge area. Chair Wells hoped that Mike and Katie would be able to continue working with Sutton to help implement the changes put forth in the Master Plan (meeting with groups, hearings, etc.). Mike said he thought that was possible. It was noted that they do not need to bring the Master Plan to Town Meeting. Mike said there is a lot of education that needs to be done. Glenn said they will need to educate the public on the zoning changes. Chair Wells estimated it would take a year before they could introduce zoning changes at Town Meeting. Mike asked the members of the Planning Board to look at the land use map over the week and send their comments to him. There was some discussion to make the maps clearer to read with more contrast. Chair Wells wanted to be sure there are definite separations of the village and the business districts. Katie said there are 22 scenic viewpoints in the Natural Resource appendices. She wondered if they could review the list and let her know if any need to be removed. Chair Wells said the board would review the list. Chair Wells wondered if they could create a subcommittee to review the grammatical aspects of the text. He said he would sit on the committee and was looking for one more individual. Glenn Pogust volunteered to be on the committee. It was moved (Roger Wells) and seconded (Glenn Pogust) to create a subcommittee, consisting of Roget Wells and Glenn Pogust, to review the entire Master Plan document for grammatical changes, as needed, which would then be reported back to Mike and Katie. The motion was approved unanimously. Chair Wells figured that this work would help speed up the rest of the Master Plan project, and welcomed anyone who had any grammatical issues to send them his way for review. ADJOURNMENT: It was moved by Roger Wells and seconded by Glenn Pogust to adjourn the Planning Board meeting of July 13, 2021 at 8:05pm. The motion was approved unanimously. The next meeting was scheduled for August 10. Respectfully submitted, Kristy Heath, Recording Secretary Town of Sutton