November 9, 2021 | Town Admin TOWN OF SUTTON Pillsbury Memorial Hall 93 Main Street Sutton Mills, NH 03221 PLANNING BOARD Approved Meeting Minutes for Tuesday November 9, 2021, at 7:00 p.m. Chair Wells called the meeting to order at 7:00pm and took roll. ROLL: Roger Wells (Chair), Chuck Bolduc, Glenn Pogust, Christine Fletcher, Dane Headley, David Hill ABSENT: Peter Blakeman OTHERS PRESENT: Peter Stanley (Land Use Coordinator), Kristy Heath (Recording Secretary), Barbara Hoffman, Linda Park, Gary Watkins, Mike Tardiff, Katie Nelson (via Zoom) Shawn Laliberte, Daniel Muller Chair Wells called the meeting to order at 7:00pm and took roll. There was a quorum. PUBLIC HEARINGS: Peacock Hill Road, LLC, Formal Application for a 7-lot Cluster Subdivision. Continued Public Hearing The applicant asked if the board could continue with their other business as the person who was coming with him who had the necessary information was not yet present. Chair Wells said if the only other item on the agenda was tended to first, it could be over an hour before the board could revisit the public hearing. Glenn Pogust added that the information that had been provided to the board was not done so to allow enough time to review it. Perhaps the continuance should be moved to the next month. The applicant said he understood. Peter Stanley said they received a complete set of plans that move the roadway 25’ to the south which changed lot sizes, as well as drainage. There were three design sheets that were changed. They also got a one-line email from Gary, the developer, and someone from Eversource that said Eversource needed approval from the town before they can put together the utility plans. The applicant said he had not seen that email. Peter Stanley printed a copy of the email and gave it to the applicant. Chair Wells said that the applicant had said a utility plan would only be provided when the subdivision plan was recorded. He found the email that was received from Eversource to be insufficient; it was not on letterhead and was not from anyone with authority. This is not what the board was told would be provided. Glenn asked where the town was with the contracts with the consultants. Peter said the contracts have been signed by the third party review people. The plans have been sent to Nobis engineering with the signed contract and will be reviewed. Stoneridge Environmental also has the information and will be there November 22nd to review it with the board. He has requested that all reports from the consultants be submitted prior to December 14th. Chair Wells said that the town’s regulations call for a utility plan. Before the 15th of November, a utility plan will need to arrive so it is in time for next month’s meeting. It would need to include a review by the engineers. Chair Wells wanted to make this information clear to the applicant. The applicant asked for clarification on the utility plan. Chair Wells said the town wants to see the proposed locations for anything defined as a utility, and they want it shown in a drawing. Chair Wells opened the meeting to the public for comment. Linda Park, 62 East Sutton Road asked if they, as abutters, would be able to see the new plan. Peter said they would. This information would be mailed to abutters. With no other comments, Chair Wells closed the public portion of the hearing. It was moved by Glenn Pogust and seconded by David Hill to reject, again, without prejudice the waiver requested for subdivision regulations requiring a utility plan because the board does not have the plan to grant the waiver. The motion was approved unanimously. It was moved by Glenn Pogust and seconded by David Hill to continue the meeting until December 14, 2021 due to the late filing of the required utility plans and information on the changed plans to review. The motion was approved unanimously. The applicant said he understands that everything needs to be in by the 15th of November and they need something from Eversource on letterhead stating the information about the utility plan. ADMINISTRATIVE: Approval of Draft October 12, 2021, Meeting Minutes. It was moved by David Hill and Glenn Pogust to approve the minutes of October 12, 2021 as amended. Glenn said they needed to include reference to a utility plan on top of page 4 where they rejected the plan without prejudice. There needs to be a reference to the waiver of subdivision regulations for a utility plan in the heading. Those who were present were also not listed as there had not been a list passed around for people to sign. Peter said he would provide a list of the attendees to the best of his knowledge. The motion was approved unanimously. Master Plan Discussion – Regional Planning Commission Mike was present in person and Katie was present via Zoom. Mike said they are pleased at where they are with the master plan. He provided copies of maps for all to see, and said they have learned some things doing this project that they have used for other projects. It has been a good learning experience for them. Katie said she did receive comments from Roger, Glenn and Christine. She asked if there were any more comments. Dane asked on section 3.5 where it talks about tax rates, should they be using full value rates? Glenn said that the tax rate went down when the assessments went up. This was because of a larger base. Dane said no towns are ever assessed at the same time so there are ever-changing equalization ratios. The tax rates are not comparable. They should look at full value for a true comparison. Mike said that they could do this. In the past they used full-value tax rates when the revaluations weren’t done as often. Chair Wells said that there might need to be a brief explanation of this tax value so as not to confuse the public. Katie said any spelling or grammatical things will be taken care of later. She wasn’t ignoring their notes and suggestions having to do with grammar and spelling. Mike said that depending on the set up of the printer and what kind of computer is being used, things don’t look correct. Katie said it was suggested earlier to call this “Sutton Master Plan 2020.” Katie thought it should be “Sutton Master Plan 2021” because that is the year it was completed, and the data was released in 2021. Chair Wells agreed with this suggestion. The next suggestion had to do with where the recommendations are located. Right now they are in chapters 1 and 5. It was suggested to change the color of the font explaining the recommendations. Chair Wells thought if someone only wanted to read the recommendations, they could be prompted to go to page “x” and look for the words in green (for example). Glenn had no issue with this. Mike thought a different font color would be distracting. Chair Wells said perhaps just the heading could be in green and not all the text. Something up front should point people to where the recommendations are listed. Peter suggested perhaps highlighting the text in yellow. Chair Wells thought perhaps putting the recommendations in a shaded box could work. He gave Mike and Katie reign to find a way to call out where the recommendations are located. There had been a suggestion to put in the Covid statistics for Sutton. Katie said she wasn’t sure how the board felt about putting that information in; it is an evolving number. Chuck said they are running into a problem getting statistics because some of the Sutton residents share a zip code with Bradford and Warner. Glenn wondered how this information is important to what they are doing currently. He didn’t feel it was necessary. Others agreed. It was removed from the text. Mike said that the Survey Monkey information was long. Their concern was that it would take a long time to put the extra document in the general appendices. Chair Wells said he has the template, and he would do it. He would get the information to Katie to make sure it was correct. Chair Wells noted that he had already started and is eight pages in. With regards to the comments section of the survey that shows up blank, Katie said that they don’t generally put public response in the surveys as some answers can pinpoint directly who is answering the survey. They could write in a paragraph saying that due to privacy, it is being left blank. Glenn suggested that copies of responses can be made available upon request. Mike said most of the answers were good but some responses could be easily pointed to certain individuals. Katie talked about the order of the maps and where they should be placed. Currently they are placed at the end of the respective chapters. This was done to save space in the chapters. Chair Wells agreed to this practice and asked that a note be inserted in the text letting people know where to find the related map(s). Katie said in transportation section, she would take an acronym out and write out what they are talking about. There was another part where the word “distressed” has to be kept in when referring to a resource document. Chair Wells said he is looking at the map with roads. There are some lines that are very faint and thin and hard to read. He suggested using a symbol or dots to make them clearer. Mike said he would ask their new mapping person to go through and do something to bring these lines out. Katie said she would follow up with Peter regarding the Highway Department equipment to make sure she has the right lists for “needs” vs. “inventory.” She also wanted to consult with him about scrap metal. Chuck had a few mark-ups on a couple of the maps. He would provide those mark-ups to Mike to bring back to Katie for updating. Chair Wells said assuming they are at the point where they will have a final draft, they said they would come back to meet with the groups/departments/committees again to share what has been done. To do this properly, they need to summarize things and put them on a chart and let people comment like they did the last time. He would be fine to generate a first list and then get input from the board on how it can get updated. People will start to talk and get some of this information out into the community. There may be a few changes due to the discussions. Then they should get a 1-2 page spread in the Intertown Record to essentially send out the same information that was discussed in the groups. They would then have a public hearing. Printing is generally done with the corrections department. They will get an estimate for the cost for about 20 copies. Typically, these days, the documents are kept with people digitally in PDF so a large quantity of paper copies are not needed. Mr. Tardiff and Katie left the meeting at 7:52pm. Other Discussion Glenn heard that the Country Club of NH was going to be up for sale. Chair Wells thought it would be good to meet with them and let them know what the Town is thinking about with Zoning and making a PUD area in the land surrounding the golf course. Dane thought it was a good idea. Chair Wells thought that this conversation could be made with the two or three other owners of land in town who own hundreds of acres. Chuck said one area there has some important water resources included. Glenn and Chair Wells said they would reach out to see if they could make a contact. With no other business, Chair Wells called for a motion to adjourn. It was moved Glenn Pogust and seconded by and David Hill to adjourn. The motion was approved unanimously. The meeting adjourned at 7:58pm. Respectfully submitted, Kristy Heath, Recording Secretary Town of Sutton