TOWN OF SUTTON

Pillsbury Memorial Hall

93 Main Street

Sutton Mills, NH 03221

PLANNING BOARD

Approved Meeting Minutes for Tuesday March 23, 2021 at 7:00 p.m.

 

CALL TO ORDER: Chair Wells called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.

 

ROLL: Roger Wells (Chair), Glenn Pogust, Dane Headley, David Hill, David Angeli

 

OTHERS PRESENT: Peter Stanley (Planning & Zoning Administrator), Mike Tardiff and Katie Nelson (CNHRPC), Chuck Bolduc (new member to be sworn in), Reed Gelzer from Newbury, Christine Fletcher (new member to be sworn in)

 

ADMINISTRATIVE:

  1. Approval of draft February 9, 2021 Meeting Minutes.

It was moved (Glenn Pogust) and seconded (Dane Headley) to approve the minutes of February 9, 2021 as circulated. The motion was approved unanimously.

OLD BUSINESS:

  1. Master Plan

Chapter 1 – Katie showed her screen to show the layout of the re-worked intro page. The key themes are rural atmosphere, sense of community and historic villages. The pages begin the conversation about how things have changed since 2005. Right now the chapter is six pages. This chapter lays out the action plan and key action items for the entire master plan. Mike wondered about the length; is it short enough?  He felt this length was readable. David Hill felt like the red text in the chapter was promoting positive things the town could do. Others agreed. Mike said they worked very hard to get this section down to six pages.

 

Chair Wells said he would like to see where they are as a package; he has seen parts of the draft but would like to see how it all goes together so far. Mike said that they are close to this. Getting it together in one format is the next step.

 

Glenn said this chapter is the narrative that is setting the stage for the rest of the document. He hoped it would set the stage and the process a little more. He worried that the bullets might make the facts get lost. This chapter will draw people into the master plan. If they are uninterested and don’t understand it, they won’t continue reading. Glenn said he doesn’t want to pare it down any more.

 

David Hill asked if the new potential members had received this information. It was noted that they had received Chapter 3. David Hill asked if it would be appropriate for these candidates to make public comment as far as readability and whether it draws them in. Chair Wells said they have only seen Chapter 3 and they are welcome to comment when this chapter is reviewed.

 

Mike said he would send the updated Chapter 1 to the board for further review.

 

Katie shared Chapter 3 on the screen. It is 11 pages long and includes natural resources, transportation and community facilities. David Hill said he has identified a few errors in the text and wondered if proofreading was part of the process. Mike said it was. This would occur later in the drafting process and to a greater extent.

 

David Hill said the Bridge Condition map had words on it that were not legible. The Development Constraint map was clear and concise. However, the wetland was identified as light green and he couldn’t find any of that color in the actual map. It was possible that it was David’s monitor that didn’t identify the different shades. Mike also commented that some PDF fonts don’t carry through all versions of the PDF program, so perhaps that is why David’s looks garbled.

 

Katie said they are trying to focus on the priorities, opportunities and challenges. She thought it may be too wordy for the likes of the Planning Board. There is a one-page summary from the resident survey, as well as recommendations and objectives at the end of the chapter. Glenn pointed out some information that could be moved to the appendix to free up space in the chapter. The appendix would be referenced in the text for those interested in learning more.

 

Glenn said the text should be highlighting problems or potential solutions in a brief way, and the reader can be forwarded to the appendix to learn more. The appendix is where the details can go. Chair Wells said the key is to try and keep people “entertained” and interested in continuing reading through the document.

 

Mike suggested pulling more information out of the chapter and including it into the appendix. Once this is done, they will send the revised chapter to the board.

 

The Planning Board would meet again in two weeks to review these changes.

 

David Hill asked Charles, a member of the public, what he thought of the chapters so far. Charles said he liked the format and the tables that break up the text. If there was text he was less interested in, he would look at the table. It provides a way for someone to go through the report and be able to get a lot of information without reading every part of it.

 

Christine said she had only read the old chapter 3 but it helped her learn a lot about Sutton. She was curious to see where this information is leading; what are the recommendations?

 

Chair Wells said he is very pleased at how this Master Plan has gone so far.

 

NEW BUSINESS:

Glenn said that Christine and Chuck, once sworn in, will fill seats 6 and 7. There is still room for one more member. He hoped to get both sworn in so they could start participating soon.

 

ANY OTHER BUSINESS:

Dean Headley said someone has contacted the town about community solar systems. They

look for towns that have underdeveloped or vacant land where they might want to let a solar developer put up a solar farm. They pay a lease amount per year to the town for the land as well as offer reduced electric rates for the town. He would send the information to Peter to forward to the rest of the board.

 

ADJOURNMENT:

With no other business, Chair Wells called for a motion to adjourn.

 

It was moved by David Hill and seconded by Dane Headley to adjourn the meeting.

The motion was approved unanimously.

 

The meeting adjourned at 8:15pm.

 

The next meeting would be held on April 13, 2021 at 7:00pm via Zoom.

 

 

Respectfully submitted,

 

Kristy Heath, Recording Secretary

Town of Sutton