TranscriptPlanning Board Meeting ~ May 7, 2025

[Music] Heat. Heat. least. George. There you go. Thanks, watching. Really? It was up a second ago and then it just faded out. Oh, let me try it again. It's back on. George, you may have to stay there. It's your aura that keeps it working. It seems to be working. Okay.

I don't have it up anymore. Hold on just a second, George. Yeah, we still got one minute. say Testing. Testing. It's Testing. Not sure it's working, George. over there. I think it is now. There we go. There's this really long delay. I've got to It's good delay.

What's that? I'm David. Okay. We got a couple of things. administrative things that we Yeah, absolutely. But we'll call you up welcome to the Wednesday, May 7th, 2025 Town of Durham Planning Board meeting, regular meeting. So, we have a quorum. There are four members here. Uh, and we

will, we've done the roll call. We will do the pledge of allegiance. Please stand and join me. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

acceptance of meeting minutes for the April 2nd, 2025 uh meeting. Any comments on or recommended changes on the April meeting minutes? Seeing none, I will take a motion to approve or reject. A motion to accept as presented. A second as amended. as presented. Oh, present it. Presented. All right. Okay. Do I have a second? I wasn't here. So, remember I wasn't here either. I will second it. Uh, can we do it with just two votes? Uh, all those in favor, uh, please raise a hand. Uh, two nothing. Okay, we're on toformational exchange on non-aggenda items. Starting with town officials. Mr. Bars, I have no nothing new to add other than what's on the agenda tonight. Holy smokes. Okay, this is going to go fast. Uh, any residents want to talk about something that's not on the agenda? Seeing none, um, non-residents?

Seeing none, we'll move on to no continuing business and new business. Request for conditional use approval. Uh, go ahead, come on up and, uh, I'll read this and then ask you to name give your name and address. Yes, absolutely. So, request for conditional use approval for a seasonal outdoor wedding and event venue at 335 Newbrook Road, Mat 5, Lot 61. Uh, there will not be public comment tickets. So, sir, if you would, your name, address, and your relationship to the project. Uh, my name is David Thompson. My address is 335 Northbrook Road, and I'm the owner, well, the I

guess the member of Castle Rock Development that owns the property. Okay. So you're a representative of that. Okay. Yes. Uh Mr. Targe, would you give a brief your introduction and then we'll have you make any comments you want to add to that? Yes. Uh please, Mr. Chairman, members of the board, the applicant is seeking a conditional use approval for seasonal a seasonal wedding venue and under the current land use ordinance, there is a uh that is not a permitted or a conditional use specified in the table of land uses. So, it will fall under section 3.1.31 which has other commercial services not otherwise listed. So that is how the town has dealt with these types of u uses that are not specified in the in the land use table. Uh and those can be pro approved as a conditional use. Uh the applicant owns uh 47 a 47 acre farm on the south side of Newbrook Road and is proposing to use an open field for the seasonal wedding

venue. Uh there is as indicated in the agenda packet notes and uh photo in those notes uh an existing dot approved temporary entrance and speaking to the code officer I understand that that was approved for wood harvesting purposes. Uh and I think based on the applicant submissions that is intended to be the access for the wedding venue which will be going back in the field. Uh, I've suggested that the board try to clarify what the surface from that point will be going through as indicated in the photo back through the woods. There's kind of a trail through there. Uh, based on the diagrams, my understanding is that is how the guests will enter the uh the wedding venue. I did uh encourage the applicant to get in touch with the fire chief. fire chief went out and uh indicated that if he has to access the property in an emergency, he would go through the driveway by the existing house rather than through that. So, he

apparently based on his memo that's in your packet is satisfied that he can access it for for emergency purposes. I I also indicated the board should consider uh and inquire whether or not the temporary uh MDOT permit for the uh

current curb cut is still valid uh and if not what the applicant uh intends to do in terms of getting a permanent MBOT entrance permit which is required and I did based on the applicant submissions uh prepare a set of draft findings that you can consider when you get to a decision.

Uh, you heard a couple of comments that that George made, but tell us a little bit about what you want to do there. Uh, speaking of the driveway or the entrance way there, I did contact Van Terrell of the main DOT and uh, he confirmed what you said that it was uh, it was certified for forestry use only. So, we have put in an application for a change of use and they said they've got 15 days before they can before they have to respond. Okay. So, uh so I'm waiting on that response. Excuse me. Uh but I included the application they had plus I also sent them the same packet that you have so that they could kind of see where we're at. Uh it is it's pretty

basic plan uh as far as the entrance way through the forest. Uh, currently it's 20 feet wide. Uh, it's more than I I couldn't measure vertically. I mean, it's more than 18 to 20 foot tall. Excuse me. But, uh, I do want to

once hopefully, if approved, I'm wanting the under the what's under the trees there. I'm wanting to fill that in with stone and make sure it's a good solid base, maybe some fabric just to keep it from because right now it's holding a little bit of dampness and it just I wouldn't drive through it yet, but I didn't want to sink a bunch of money into it if if it wasn't what was approved, but uh yeah, I mean it's the as far as the entrance onto the roadway, you know, it's a I think I measured it at 24 ft wide. So the entrance itself, you know, with the culvert is plenty wide enough. Matter of fact, that's where our garbage is picked up. Okay. Um the MD worked with him once before. He'll tell you how wide Yes. that can be and the you know what you can do inside the way. Yeah. He's going, they're going to do a driveby, I guess, because I've got to mark it with flags, he said, so that I can actually come out

and take a look at it. Okay. Okay. In that case, um, oh, and one more thing. I'm sorry. Uh, I brought, excuse me, all of my butters. I didn't, uh, that I gave them all the information and I was, uh, according to the website, I was supposed to bring these out to y'all, uh, the signed copy showing that that I did notify all of them. Okay. So, I don't know who to give this to. Uh, just give it to Mr. Just leave it there. We'll collect it up afterwards. So yeah, there's a all of all of my butters have signed copies as well. Okay. Um well, for the board members, uh my thought on this is before we get too far into it is um because of the impact on neighbors, I appreciate the fact you notified them. Um, but I think this, in my opinion, this would should require we should do a public hearing because you're talking about music, fireworks. No fireworks. No fireworks. No fireworks. No. Okay. Yeah. Music wouldn't stop at 9:30 p.m. I saw

that. And then I would we need to you one of your comments on the find these fact was you would have them if they were licensed fireworks. Well, if that would be I'm not big on fireworks. That was that was one of my wife's things. If they ever do need fireworks, they have to be licensed. Okay. Which is not the same as no fireworks. So when we get to that. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So fireworks, no fireworks. We still have some kind of music noise going until 9:30. Mhm. So my

thought would be to do a public hearing in our June meeting. Okay. We'll see if there does everybody agree with that or is that okay? Okay. So, quick vote then to hold a public meeting until our June meeting or to have it at our June meeting. What's the date on that? Just looking for

hearing. So, mistress the barge can tell you what you need to do for announcements and the deadline to get them out to uh to the abuters and all that other kind of stuff. I know you've done some development, but have you participated or seen a public I have not. No, I've not participated in a public meeting. Okay. So, for the public meeting, your neighbors or others who have an interest will have the opportunity to speak in favor of against or against the project. Okay. and we'll take in what they say into consideration. Yeah. So that will push the final vote to at least the June 4th meeting. Okay. Uh so what I would like to do then uh board members is to go through the uh findings of fact here

and the the performance standards and we won't vote on them this evening but we can give Mr. Thompson feedback on any concerns that we have that he can think about be prepared for the next meeting such as the MDOT permit is there. So we will water through the uh through the uh I guess conditions of approval. Thank you. And um so Mr. Thompson, if you will bear with me, there's a kind of a long list of conditions of approval and we'll go through those and I know Mrs. Devarge prepared a formal formal draft based I think probably on your input, Mr. Chairman. Yeah. I just have a procedural question. Please ask. Um, so Castle Rock Development is the owner of the property. Yes. Um, is that is that you or is it a group of people? No, it's me. It's all It is a single member LLC. Okay. Thank you. I just I'm curious as to whether or not we need a letter from the owners. No, no, represent portion. I'm the only I'm the only member. Okay.

Thank you. Fair question. Any others before we get into the findings of fact? Okay. So, we've got a list of them. I think you have responded there as well, but so the first one up is the proposed uh public health impacts. the proposed use will not create and so we won't vote on these until the next meeting I guess is what I started to say there. So uh the findings are portable toilets and sanitation service will be contracted uh by the event organizer using licensed lenders. Yes. So that begs the question I think of what is your role and obviously you're the land owner or Castle Rock is. Yes. Who so you've got a piece of open land out there. Are you putting up a tent that they rent or we we will not provide any tents or restroom facilities. Uh their their event organizer, whoever is a wedding planner or whoever, they will have to contract their own tents and literally we're just providing a space. Okay.

Okay. So, that may lead to questions as we're going through this. Um and will you have a contract with them? Yes. that says you have to you're responsible to get all this stuff and uh pick up trash, all that other kind of stuff. Absolutely. And Okay. So, any of

the other members have questions on the first finding factor? There are A through I would say on that is um the location of the portaotties I think is important and the direction they face. Yes. And all that other kind of stuff. But it is a porta one event portaotty. Correct. You don't have to worry about pumping it after nothing staying. Okay. It's still it's still a working farm. So literally this would just be uh one event per week or per weekend I should say. Okay. So the next one, traffic safety impacts. The proposed use will not create unsafe vehicular or pedestrian traffic conditions when added to existing and foreseeable traffic in its vicinity. And this feeds into is off of Route 9, Newbrook Road. So board members, any comments on uh the findings

that are there? Grant that a lot of that is related to parking and you had mentioned about your concern about that one low area under the trees. And if this is approved, at what point would you be addressing that? Oh, immediately. That would be my first concern. Okay. because that the uh the entryway my proposed entryway which goes under the tree line there and into the back what I call the back meadow uh that is where parking will be and that's also where my proposed uh portaotties will be my trash dumpster will be moved back there once I get that once I get all that approved. Okay. Because I use private trash services. What does the maximum of 50 vehicles per event um include? Uh that would just be your guess. I mean uh no more than 50 vehicles. I I can't imagine, you know, we're just want to do small weddings. Nothing major. So that doesn't does it include caterers, tent installers? Well,

I don't expect them to be there normally throughout the entire thing. Caterers. Yes. uh you know the uh the catering may even use my driveway, the paved driveway because if you can see on the map uh my home is near my paved driveway is near the tent location. So it would also be a prime location to set up for caterers or anything like that, you know, depending on if there's a food truck. Just really being flexible with it. Uh 50 I figure 50 vehicles uh two two guests per vehicle normally, no more than 100 guests. So coming in and out of the road on a typical event, 50 guests or 50 vehicles for guests plus additional vehicles for caterers, etc. And the tents would be set up prior to it. So they wouldn't be there the day of the event. They should be there the day before the event. But caterers would cater. Yeah. Flower delivery. Exactly.

And all that's normally there before the guests even start arriving. So they should they should be well gone before any guests get there except for the caterers. Okay. Just wanted to yeah understand whether or not you wanted to increase that number based on the uh

support services that we Yeah. I mean I don't want to go too big. I I like small small to medium size events. you know, the uh the larger events uh you know, it's it's a beautiful piece of property and I think, you know, my wife really wants everyone to enjoy it, but uh I'd like the smaller events. Thank you. Whether that question kind of leads to if you someday have a you change your mind or your wife changes your mind and you start having big events, right? You can't have more than you know what you're committing to is max of 50. Exactly. So, I would need if ever if ever, you know, the business if ever just expands and blows up, you know, and I was speaking with the fire chief, uh maybe one day a year, you know, once this is approved and I and I really see how it does, one day I may apply for a change of use and, you know, make the barn part of it, you know, but right now it's not, you know, right now

I keep rabbits in it. So, okay. Well, that was going to be my point. If you go above 50, you're going to have to come in for a change condition, you know, change the use. Okay. know the terms that they use. Um we'll get to safety a little bit later. Um then maybe the next one. So uh

the next one, public safety impacts. There are three findings concerned about where you show parking and then there's a walk to the tent. Yes. If it's dark, and it could be in uh March or May or October or whatever, if it's dark, what kind of lighting are you going to have? Oh, we're going to we're doing solar lighting. I've already got some of those purchases. As a matter of fact, we're going to do like path path solar lights. Okay. But no, but no

large. These will be ground ground mounted, not big flood, correct? Flood lights. Yeah, basically they're pathway lights. Okay. because that that's two questions. One is safety and the other one is impact of lights on neighbors.

commitment event staff will direct vehicles and ensure safe I'm going back one on you. Yeah, that is fine. Who's the event staff that's going to direct traffic? Uh well, if needed, I have daughters uh who are willing to help uh as far as working for me. They're willing to uh to work for me for a weekend or two. Okay. So, yeah. uh adult daughters I should say. Okay. Because when you say stuff event staff will direct. Yeah. That becomes a commitment. Yes. Absolutely. So is we would want someone especially at the mouth of the entrance you know making sure that traffic can flow in and out easily. Although there is a 500 I think my minimum distance of line of sight is 511 ft. I still would want someone there. Okay. Uh, and you might also talk to the MDOT guy because I'm not sure what you're talking about directing traffic there. No, not on the property. They can't they can't Okay. They can't stop,

right? Okay. Yeah. No, I'm talking about on the property itself. I got you. Okay. Public safety. Moving on to environmental impacts. Uh, there are four um findings there. Go back to the public safety for a moment. Okay. Okay, we've we've talked about the entrance and are you going to have some signage there saying event entrance or it'll be temporary? Yeah. With each event? Yes. Okay. Now, I do have a sign for uh and I'm actually glad you brought up signage because uh I a year ago I bought a Wonder Wild Farm sign uh just for my house. Uh and I didn't know if I needed it's uh I think it's twoft by two foot. I didn't know if I needed permission to put it up or not. Probably the best guy to ask is the code enforcement guard. Okay. He's sort of the king of sign, so he can tell you, you know, what you're allowed to have. That's that's further down the road. But I was just wondering, but since was brought up, I would go

ahead and ask now. Oh, okay. Yeah, you ask the code enforcement guy now so that you're not surprised when when the time comes. Fair enough, Mr. Targe. Signage, code enforcement guy. Mhm. Okay. Uh moving on. Anything else on the first couple? On to environmental impacts. The proposed use will not result in sedimentation, erosion, or have an adverse impact on water supplies. And there are four possible findings there.

sedimentation, but you're going to uh why don't please explain. You've already got a road sort of created. Yes. But I suspect the forestry people put that in. You're saying that's not good enough for for somebody's I just want I just want to stabilize it and eventually plant grass on it again and just make it all meadow again. And just like they they actually had a staging area where my proposed parking is and grass is starting to grow back there again. But so I wanted it all to be you know meadow parking and meadow drive. So as you're working you you will follow our building

codes rules on erosion control. Yes. So if you know you have to put up a fence you have to you know the erosion control fence and all those kinds of things. Yeah. I mean, I won't be taking any soil out as far as erosion control. I just be adding grass seed and more and more soil. So, you're not going to dig anything or I wasn't planning on it. No. Yeah. No, I was just planning on adding to what's there, you know, stabilizing it. Uh planting, you know, heavily plant grass.

can Okay. guys? If not moving on to scale and intensity of use. The proposed use will be compatible with existing uses in the neighborhood with respect to physical size, visual impact, intensity of use, and proximity to other structures. Uh and there's four findings there. Uh any questions on that one, folks? And this one will if if the neighbors are concerned, we will take take their concerns, you know, if they say um too noisy, too close to me,

whatever it may be. I do have a concern just looking at a picture that as you're coming out of your entrance, the light shine directly across Newbrook into someone else's house. Uh well, not the proposed entrance. It's directly across from the graveyard, right? Yep. Oh, I'm looking at it on Yeah, my my my current paved driveway does face Roger's house across the street. So, we're trying not to, you know, they're great. I love them. We're trying not to interfere with them at all. I will make an assumption that those in the graveyard at 9:30 at night are either not supposed to be there or will not complain. Correct. Okay. Scale. So, that scale intensity of use. Was there anything else, Jens?

So, you've kind of made a commitment to uh 50 vehicles and 100 people, correct? Okay. And that will be in the contract. Okay. Well, we'll hold you to it. Nobody's going to go out on Saturday and count. But, right, if you get a complaint that, hey, there's 300 people here or whatever it may be. That was actually one of my concerns. Uh, one of my neighbors I'd never met. Uh, whenever I introduce myself and was telling him about it, he was like, "How big? Are you talking a thousand guests? are you talking, you know, and he was very, you know, how big are we talking? And I was like, no, no, small, small. 100 guests, 52 cars, and he was fine with it. Okay, he'll have a tally sheet. I won't mention any name. Um, it is being televised. Um, so noise

and hours of operation. The proposed use will be compatible with existing uses in the neighborhood with respect to the generation of noise and hours of operation. Four findings here. The operating hours music is amplified music announcements are shut down by 9:30. Um, okay. So, the fireworks one when you come back next time. Now, that is uh prohibited unless performed by licensed vendor and licensed vendors would have to do everything through the city. Correct. No, I don't. No, I don't think the town town had does not have an ordinance statement. So, um but what I'm

leading to is when you come to the next meeting then if you want to do that, we'll vote on whether we want you to have fireworks. I can make it simple. Let's just let's just nyx that right now. Okay. Yeah. Well, actually, we'll just make it fireworks prohibited. Period. Period. Yeah. I'm not crazy about them. Like I said, it's an operating farm. Uh, and you know, chickens don't much care for all the noise. It'll make it much easier with your neighbors, but you can exactly certainly try.

question would be on the neighbors. I It's less of an issue that you prohibited fireworks. Um, and so you're going to notify the neighbors whether it's by email address, you're going to give them the year schedule, you're going to give them schedule a notice the week before. Yeah. And we're doing No, once I as we get them, I'll email them updates basically. Okay. Yeah. All I need is uh and they'll provide their email addresses. I'm sure most of them I I have their phone numbers. Okay. Um and at least 30 days in advance. Yeah. Well, as much advanced as we have. So if it's if at least 30, but you know, if it's uh six months in advance, then I'm assuming that would be okay, too. Yeah. I mean, put you're committing to at least 30 days. Yes. Yes. Yes. I'm sorry. Okay. That that's if you do it six months and remind them. Yeah. Then that's fine. Any guys, anything else? Um the only comment I have on this one is that I think the

last time we had a venue looking for um to have weddings on it was Celebration Tree Farm. I think probably and I don't recall whether or not we gave them a restriction on or what the restriction was on music. Uh whether it was 9, 9:30,

10. I haven't done the homework on that. There was a restriction and I don't remember Georgia. Maybe we could just dig out celebration. I think it was part there was and they they made a commitment earlier than that. That's something we can decide if we want it to be earlier than 9:30. There's another there's another one that we approved. It's on Stackpole Road.

Uh believe it was what is Lizzy believe is um farm. Mhm. Yeah. It's before my time, but we could go back and look at that one as well. There's two examples. Yep. Yeah. I just think it should be equitable, consistent. Thank you.

we'll try and get you what others have so you can come in. Absolutely. And u commit to it or not. U and then right title of interest I think we saw a uh D to Castle Rock Development. Correct. Y uh any questions on that one? Comments? Financial and technical ability. The applicant has a financial and technical ability to meet the standards of this section and to comply with the conditions imposed by the time board person too. Um so you've got four

three costs in there. Uh parking prep, insurance, permits and fees. Will the parking prep include whatever you're going to do to the engine drive? Uh, well, as far as the the lom and the and the grass seat, yes, but the equipment operating, I'll be doing it myself. So, that's I'll be saving cost on that. The cost? Yeah. So, the cost for parking lot uh parking prep, the road drive will go. It's got to be drive. Yeah. Does that include the area which you would you said it was kind of long, right? Yeah. It is literally it's going to be mostly loan stone and grass seed. Okay. Yeah. Not not a huge cost. Okay. And you do the work? I do the work myself. Yeah. I've been a heavy equipment operator since my early 20s. Okay. Um startup funding is secured through private sources. So I'm not too worried about $2500, right? Give or take, but others.

Okay. Whether if it was a bigger project, you want to have a bank statement saying you're good for it basically. Um, and then you've got experience and wonder well for just because if we approve this doesn't mean we we would say you have to be successful. Well, I don't want you to think that we're I will tell you, you know, that you be successful because we voted for it. If if you approve it, I I'm pretty sure my wife will force the success. Okay, Mr. Chairman, on the issue of financial and technical capacity, I suggest you may want to ask to see a copy and keep it in the record of the contract that's going to be man required. That's a good point. Yeah, copy, please. Uh would you mind sending it to George ahead? Absolutely. That way we'll have a chance to look at it before the meeting. Correct. All right. Thank you, George. Okay. compliance with uh we're on a 7.4B compliance with Lanny's ordinance

standards. U so there's two of them and you've just committed to giving us a copy of the the contract you're going to use. Mhm. Um and then the a venue meets all zoning performance standards and I sure I would use land use land use ordinance standards related to noise access frequency and sanitation. [Music] Um that we good with that guys?

conditions. This is one where we would put uh conditions like a copy of the contract and some of the other stuff that we've talked about um in and we would vote on that on the on the conditions and then we'll have a final vote uh on conditional use. Sounds good.

Okay. All right. Is there anything else, guys? George, anything else we need to cover that I've missed? Nope. Okay. So, we won't vote on anything. We voted on the public hearing. So, um if you would get that word out, George will give you the status for the letter and when it's be mailed and actually, Mr. Chairman, the notice that was sent or the sign off indicated that should have indicated that the meeting was being held tonight. Correct. So, they're on notice and they can if they were interested, they could come still hold a public hearing, but I don't think he has to send out a separate notice notice. Let's double check it. Yeah. And I would kind of like to make I don't think it'll hurt because you only got about 12 of them. Uh six, I think. Six or seven. Okay. Yeah. I mean, I feel more comfortable, George, if we went ahead and asked you. Now, do I need to get signed copies again or just the

way I did this? I actually just drove to each of my neighbors and handed them one and then they signed one for me. That would have worked. I think you can do the same thing. That'll work. Absolutely. And I hate to come up with extra requirements, but that way there's no no questions. No doubts. And it's not that I don't trust you. It's just that I don't mind I don't mind talking to my neighbors anymore. Okay. Okay. So, we're good. We'll see you next month. Awesome. And uh Mr. Barge, uh should I contact you via email uh to give you the contract? And uh does that is there a particular standard of notice I need to give them or just similar to what I did? Yeah, it's uh I think did I send you a copy of the standard? I don't remember. I'll send it to you. Okay. Yeah, please make sure you meet that so we don't get caught and some you sent the you gave the notice out too. Yeah. Yeah. Now, I went I used the uh website

information a lot. So, that was very helpful. And just get their signatures on the like you did. Yeah. Excellent. Okay. And you cannot contact the board, right? All communications has to go through Mr. Absolutely. Sounds good. Good. Okay. We'll see you next month, gentlemen. Thank you very much for your time. Thank you too.

agenda read it is a request for extension of Bowie Hill phase 2 preliminary approval map 10 lot 38 public uh comment. So, this is just they've asked for a six-month extension because they haven't gotten their I think it's a D approval. So, this is not obviously about the merits of the project or anything else. It's do we want to give them a sixmonth extension and I think George gave me things that we should probably uh make as part of the I can make it as part of the motion. Uh we must make the finding the applicants made due progress to preparing the final plan application and pursuing outside agency approvals. I think they've done that. The board must also make findings that no changes the unit has been made that would impact the proposed development and George I think in his notes said that that is in fact there have been no changes that would impact their design.

that none of the amendments to the zoning process from the town meeting impact the proposed development and uh he did submit a reason why which was the D uh protection. So if we're ready I will make a motion and I will try to incorporate these five things. So, I make a motion that we approve a six-month extension for Bowie Hill phase 2 preliminary approval uh on map 10 lot

uh 3B and that that in this mo motion include the fact that the planning board made findings that the applicant has made due progress in preparing the final plan application and pursuing outside agency approvals. We I will the find the vote will include the fact that we uh not notice that there identify there are no changes to the ordinance that would impact the proposed development that the changes to the land use ordinance from April 5, 2025 have no impact on this project and he did uh submit an application for the reason for the delay which is D. And so George, I don't know if we need to you need to put that all in writing, but at least it's on record that we can we will put it in writing. Okay, I'll second that. Moved and seconded. Any comments? Any additional comments? If you vote to approve, please raise your hand. 40. And that's the things we've got on the agenda for this evening. And

is the status of cotification efforts and George I would ask you to George and I have talked about this and uh George will give us a introduction to the codification changes that are recommended by the consultant um and also the process uh that may be

used going forward. Uh the select board is meeting on May 27th or at their May 27th meeting, the select board will u determine that the process they want to use, but I think it will be very similar to what George is going to talk to us about tonight. And um I think the intent was that we not get too far ahead of the select board, but the chair uh liked the

idea that we're going to at least get it introduced to us and uh and start the thinking about uh the process. So a couple weeks ahead of when they will act. So sometime after that May 27th meeting, um I would expect guidance from the select board similar to what they did last year, which is uh and George go through some of the things that the how we how they would like to see this being done and uh which um of the changes that

uh they want the planning board to take on versus maybe another committee. So, George, I turn the podium over to you. Okay. Just for uh benefit of those who might be watching in the public, uh the town has a contract with a company called General Code Corporation and they do codification of ordinances and the process is to digitize the current ordinance and to go through a what they call a editorial and legal analysis where they look at the uh the verbiage of the of the ordinance and the provisions to make sure that correcting uh typos, um grammatical errors, inconsistencies within the document as well as uh legal consistency with state uh code code requirements. So, they're they've gone through they've already reorganized the format to the digitized. They did that back in August of last year. They have now completed their editorial and legal analysis and have provided the town with a report that

identifies 139 different uh parts of the land use ordinance that they believe need to be corrected uh or amended and they are mostly technical and legal issues. Um I can give you a sample of a few of them just to give you a sense of what's involved. Uh, question three points out the varied use of the terms registered versus licensed professionals. And so they ask the town to pick one and stick with it rather than jumping back and forth and someone might think they're two different creatures. That's one example. Uh, second one is in the definitions. They suggest that the town update the business service definition to match the SIC manual, which is a standard industrial code I think it stands for. So there are codes that deal with different industry sectors and ours

is completely updated. So that's another technical um the currently the ordinance has definitions for the same thing but if it's different regulations such as streams. So under shoreland zoning a stream is defined one way. under the natural resource protection act. Other streams are defined by certain criteria. And so right now you have two different stream definitions and one says shoreland zoning. What they are proposing to do is combine those into a single stream definition and then have subheadings so that you only have one definition of a stream. Um the under administration enforcement the town there are currently penalty and enforcement provisions in multiple sections and in part that came about because we incorporated other ordinances in to this land use ordinance but didn't really rework them when we did that back in 2019 I think it was. Um, so for example, the uh addressing when the town

adopted, like most towns, adopted the E911 requirements where people had to change their addresses to to try to soften the blow, they put in like a $5 violation fee. Uh, and then you have other land uses that are $100 and under state law can be far more significant than that. So, they've suggested the town consider having a single enforcement provision that applies the same uh penalties across the board for all zoning violations and make that consistent with state law. So, I've asked the town attorney to look at that and make recommendation for that. Um, under there are typographical

errors in the space and bulk requirements table. Um question 42 is this is something we've identified is a need to clarify. The current ordinance says that access management rules apply to driveway entrances on town roads. But what is a town road? Is a town road a road in town or is it a road that the town maintains? And so it's unclear if the road commissioner has authority to require a driveway permit in a subdivision. It all depends on whether you classify that as a town road. It's not a town owned and maintained road. So just clarifying those things which have been confusing for the staff to know where it is required and isn't that would be another type of technical u the uh automobile graveyard and

junkyard has an outdated statutory reference. Question 51, question 58. Right now you have we have lighting standards as a general lighting standard and then there are site plan review lighting standards and where do those apply? The ordinance needs to be clear. Where do do these different regulations apply? Um under subdivision regulations, there's a typo of a missing word. And uh last one I'll give you is uh question 78. We currently use the DP manuals for storm water erosion and sedimentation control and phosphorus management. So those are those are manuals what they call best management practices that D uses and the general code people say you can't put that into your ordinance. It's not in ordinance framework. It's a lot of recommendations as opposed to ordinance standards. So, I've asked the town attorney to look at that one as well to number one, make sure that they're enforceable as standards because we're

applying them to subdivisions. But, so these are examples of the technical aspects of this project and my recommendation has been that you let the staff work through those technical issues over the over the between now and July 25th. Everything that goes into general code will come back in a preliminary report with all the proposed changes. We'll have a public participation process where everybody will get to look at all that and then indicate whether you think additional changes need to be made. But it's hard to have a committee process to go through 139 technical uh questions and issues. So, what we've we're going to propose to the select board is that we the staff, which would be the myself, the town attorney, the code officer, uh the road commissioner, and the fire chief go through the ordinance and look at all of these issues and then come up with a consensus uh response that we will give to general

code. They'll put those 139 responses into the draft uh ordinance that comes back and then everyone will get a chance to go through that. So that that's that aspect of it. So what we have recommended is that the boards focus on what we're calling a set of minor policy issues. Uh and some of those would be like clarifying where does the town want to regulate driveway permits. Uh probably not on state routes. The DOT issues permits for that. Uh probably yes in subdivisions uh because the board approves drainage

plans and in the same way that you don't want the drainage messed up on the town road, they have a subdivision that was approved by the planning board and you want to make sure that it's done according to that plan. So those would be the types of minor policy issues to get clarification on. Uh another one is back access. There's just been a huge amount of confusion and the current ordinance is so confusing the language of it uh that code officers and road commissioners over the past 20 years have interpreted it five different ways in how you apply it. So we tried back in as John uh John maybe before your time but Allan and Brian were here we tried to fix that and it just got bogged down in the political process and we after three tries we gave up. Goodbye. here is an opportunity to to really not change the policies but really clarify how the

process is going to work and who's going to administer it. So, it's a minor policy issue but it is a policy issue that we really need the boards to give the guidance on how to resolve those issues. Uh, next one is campgrounds. As you will recall with leisure campground, is it a campground? Is it an RV park? Is it a mobile home park? Uh the current standards are back to the old days when you had camp, you had tents, you know, and maybe a camper, but now it's like yearround occupancy. It's more like somewhere. And the ordinance uh really doesn't clearly establish how the town regulates an campground park. And so we're working with the town attorney to try to get some ideas on how to resolve that. Uh, next one is the buffers. Uh, two issues that have come up. Uh, the first one is, um, right now the ordinance requires a 50-ft buffer along a public road if you're putting in a subdivision, but it

doesn't have any buffering requirement if for the properties on either side of the road that's going in. And so the question becomes, should there be a required buffer for the abuing homes on either side of the road going in or just for the public road? That's an issue that has come up on a couple on a very few uh on several projects. So, doesn't matter however the town wants to do it. If it does want to apply it, if it doesn't, that's uh that's a policy issue that probably should be explored. And right along that vein, the same issue that comes up almost on every subdivision is what do you do with your trash containers? And uh so we have some ideas how to fix that in terms of like getting uh in uh as John who's done development in other parts of the country the when you're dealing with the utility company you have a what they call a readiness to serve. So part of the developer application is you have to

contact the utility and indicate they indicate yes we can service it or we can't. And so in this case, the waste hauling is a is a utility service. And so they would have to come in with a letter from Cassella saying we're going to pick up at the curb on all the lots in the subdivision or not. And if they don't, then you can we can have a standard in the ordinance that says they have to create a trash. They either have to go with a private contractor and have a dumpster fenced in dumpster location or uh you know show what the plan is going to be. Right now, there's no mention or any guidance given. So, we're just kind of making it up as we go. So, this will give consistent enforceable policies, put them into the ordinance. Again, not a major policy issue, but an important minor one. Um, noise. Um, I've had

reservations ever since I came here that your noise regulations may not be enforceable. And one of the issues is that at the low levels that are there now, I mean right now I'm 55 maybe 60 dB. Just a human voice is like 55 dB. So that's the limit

of noise. Uh and so the question becomes with ambient background noise, is it even measurable? And would it hold up in court if you tried to uh enforce it? So, we're going to take a look at that. The town attorney has recommended 75. I've looked at some ordinances where they have a baseline of say 55,45 and then up to 10 above that under certain conditions that you specify in the ordinance. So, we'll be taking a look at that. Again, important policy issue, very rural town, very quiet. Uh people are very concerned about it, but we need to make sure that it's enforceable. And generally you have to have an expert when you do a sound study. You can't just have someone up with a phone and saying I measured it. No, they have to do a know a complete acoustic study for you to to take someone to court on it. So that's an issue we're looking at. Uh I'm part-time. Uh you have a two week deadline to get an application. You've

seen uh we've ramped up preparation and followup. Uh most towns it's either 3 weeks to a month of uh in to get on an agenda before you can get in which gives us time for the processing of applications, notification of the butters. This twoe timeline especially we're on part-time without any support staff is uh is just not viable if we get

busy. Uh, it's been manageable so far, but I'm concerned and the town is asking me to do more and more work in terms of planning and ordinances and things. So, I'm going to propose that it go to three weeks instead of two. Not a big policy change, but it's a policy change. Uh similarly uh right now the ordinance when a board of appeals makes a decision they have to notify eight different entities uh applicant, select board, planning board um you know and and the notice requirements are just very uh way over the top of accountability. So most, you

know, the state has requirements for who you have to notify of a decision, which is usually the applicant. Um maybe the code officer, so they'll know that it's been approved. Uh but to have eight different entities have to be notified just we don't we don't have staff to be able to do that kind of thing. And I think that's number 10. Number 11 is non nonconforming expansions. As I indicated back with the resource protection update, the current standards for non-conforming uses expansion just have no no relationship to Durham's development situation. I've worked in other towns, Felmouth Foreside for example, where you have these postage stamp lots, you know, and people come in and you had an old cottage back from the 1920s. And now they're putting up a a mansion, you know, threestory,

8,000 square foot house on a 5,000 foot lot, waterfront views, you know, and so that's where the nonconforming use rules really were designed to deal with where people are are constrained by small lot sizes, tight development. Here you've got twoacre lot minimum and houses are the

only time you see a an issue is someone with a 5acre lot uh builds 24 ft from the property line and that was done many many years ago. So there really aren't a lot of nonconforming uh buildings. The current rules were copied and pasted based on a DP standard, the 30% rule.

And what that was designed for was back when the DP and the state were trying to get a handle on lake development and uh waterfront development and lake water quality and scenic vision uh views. So what they did was they basically uh applied 100 foot setback from the water for any new construction and any reconstruction. The rule was that they had to move the building back away from the water if possible. Some of these small camp lots, you can, but if they were less than 100 ft from the water, they were going to limit the expansion of that building to 30% to preserve the water quality, the wildlife, the the scenic quality of the lake. That's where that 30% rule came in. What is the basis of saying to someone in Durham on a twoacre lot, you can only expand by 30%. There's no rational basis for that limitation. Then beyond that, you have a conditional use where you have to find it's going to cause a traffic problem.

It's going to cause a noise problem. It's going to be scale and intensity. All those things that you're applying to these venues and stuff. When are you ever going to deny a permit for someone to build a 50% expansion on their house that's two feet close too close to the line five acre lot you're going to approve 99.999% of these applications if you apply the conditional use criteria it serves no purpose it has no relationship to the to the actual condition of Durham development and so what the town attorney and I have talked about is looking at what is the standard practice of how you deal with expansions of non-conforming and put in some standardized language that actually makes sense. So that's again policy issue. Uh oh, and the other one is uh so currently you have a 30% limit conditional use, but then the ordinance says you can go to the board of appeals and get more than 30% with no limitation

as long as you prove that you're not you're not polluting the groundwater. Again, what is the rational basis for that rule? It's there is no rational basis. They just copied and pasted and maybe at the time they were thinking terms of aquifer, but again a single family residential expansion. There's no relationship that says and and that's all the board of appeals can review. You know, is their septic system adequate? It's controlled by the state. So, what's the basis? You're going to deny it. So, we're going to propose a standardized uh set of criteria for residential non-conforming expansions. And then uh the town attorney brought up the point that uh Durham did op did not uh vote to opt

into the marijuana regulations for uh medical, retail, and commercial. So, that is not allowed in Durham. However, under the exemptions of state law, small growers for medical purposes can have up to a certain amount of plants for a certain amount number of patients and that's exempt from the state rules. So you could have and there has been cases in Durham where you have a property owner who has a greenhouse and they have five different medical vendors all

growing their plants in that greenhouse. So now you've got that that's kind of a loophole in the in the regulations and the town attorney has recommended putting in something to regulate that type of a marijuana operation. And then finally, uh there's going to be a recommendation that there be um added to the land use regulations or ordinance, a provision that gives the select board the authority to correct typos and errors in the ordinance so that we don't have to wait for a town meeting. You know, when you're cross referencing things, sometimes we we just updated it. So certain references here, it's now no longer that section. So, put a provision in there that gives the uh select board by order, kind of like the fee thing uh the authority to make corrections, not change policies, not change standards, but simply make corrections to the ordinance without going to a town meeting. So those 13 policy issues, um, George,

in in line with that, tiny homes and trailer parks, the state changed the rules. We're not in compliance with that. Where do they fall? Well, I'm putting that in the 139 technical issues because you got to follow the state. Okay. And again, we'll have a public process which will look at what you need to do to come into compliance, but you have to come into compliance. Yeah, that's fine. I just wonder which category mobile home parks. Um there we do need to make some minor changes on ADUs. Uh and so whatever the state law is with the town attorney's uh input, we'll have to make those changes. So

have the staff manage the 139 technical issues response of the town to those to uh uh code consultants and then have the boards over and I've got I talked to the consultants uh Monday and got a time frame for when this is going to all work out. So July 25th is the deadline for the technical review, get their responses. That's the staff part that we're going to be doing. Um they the town, as long as you get the proposed minor policy set to them by the end of the year, which will give us time to work through those issues, uh they can incorporate it into the codification process. calendar year. Yes, calendar year of 2025. So through December. Then in uh February, they would remember the town meeting is in June next year. So they would prepare a preliminary draft for the public process for us to review incorporating all the changes, technical changes from staff, incorporating all of the policy changes from the boards. and

they would prepare a preliminary draft. Uh by February, the town would be able to make minor changes to that after that point based on a public part more public participation, the public hearing. Uh and then it would go the final uh draft would be prepared in May. It would go to town vote in June and then they would print it and publish it for July. So that's kind of the sequence. So, we were operating I was operating under the assumption that we had to do those policies by July 25th, which would have been just a nightmare to try to squeeze that in, but we have until the end of the year, and they're going to work with us on that. So, as John said, uh, and then I've listed here a bunch of other policies that are more, uh, major, such as we've talked about applying contract zoning not just to solar and not just to large, but to other gravel pits and other uses. So, that's a major policy issue that we

would begin to address after the codification process. And we've got a list of uh, eight there that are on that order of magnitude. And then if any if we can't resolve any of the minor ones that we've taken on u those can get pushed over into that group as well. So I will be doing a presentation basically similar what we just heard tonight with the select board on May 27th looking for them to give direction for number one are they on board? Does this process make sense to them? Are they good with the time frame? staff delegation of certain things, boards, uh what boards should be involved in the process of the minor policy issues listed and hopefully get some direction for them on how to move forward with the project to conclude it successfully. George, are they contracted to look at the um ordinances that were just passed? We have already sent them the amendments and they've incorporated they've

incorporated them into the draft. Some of their comments like the historic have already been addressed. Okay. So fantastic. Yeah. So working through this in my mind. So the staff is going to the 139. Yeah. You're going to write the response to that, get it to them by the end of July. Yep. So then the 13 uh obviously waiting for select board guidance on who's going to do what. Um, I don't see many of those, if any, that are like conservation commission like we did with U RP last year where there was a clear tie, but I guess we'll find out. Uh, there's a couple that might involve the board of appeals, non-conforming uses

many. Most of them are right are this board's uh perview or category. in June do you expect us to get guidance from uh the select board to say okay we want you to take on all 13 10 of the 13 whatever it may be. Um so for a month there I assume you guys got to be pretty busy. You be the staff going to be busy writing up the 139. When do you see the work starting on the 13? And do we have do we shoot for a

draft to start taking to the public process in October, November? When do you see the those those 13 or some part of them being ready to start the public input process, public review process? So I would expect at the June meeting we can report what the select board now also be aware that I think they're intending to organize I'm not sure maybe in June a a convention workshop of the

of the leadership of the various boards and commissions as we did last year and the year before. So if that takes place in June at at the June plan board meeting, I'll be able to report back what their feedback is plus what the plan is for having input from the other boards and commissions, all the boards and commissions. So I would say that by July we should be ready. We'll be done the uh staff project part and we'll be ready to hit the road, hit the ground running first of July. And I've already prepared some of the pieces like the back lots and the private way access. Uh we'll be working on the road standards. So I think we'll by July we'll be ready to present to you some of the policy issues and then we can kind of work through them as we go forward in August and into September. So the expectation would be that there would be a draft uh of any any number of those 13 in the

fall and we would take them in groups of all 13, groups of five, whatever it may be. So I have a public input meeting in October for the ones that that we think are close to being ready to go and then you know whether it's all 13 or it's some I don't think we ever want to present 13 in one meeting. I think that could be a little for the first meeting at least a little bit challenge but we'll see how it goes. And then at the end of December, codification consultant gets the final d the draft. I don't know whether final or not, but the final draft of from the town. They put it in the cotification language. They send it back in January, February. Y do we what happens at that

point? I think then you then you go forward with your standard public hearing. Um and If we do it early enough, you might want to do more than one, but I'm not sure with the policy issues that we're dealing with that you need to do two public hearings. But basically, the boards will be able to review the final draft and then the board process can make with it. You know, you'll be having public meetings, but you don't have to necessarily schedule a formal public hearing on this. take public input if it comes consider it and then propose to through the select board to general code any final changes. So for example last last round solar farms started out at 10 acres had to go to a contract zoning then it ended up at with select board final determination after input from the planning board conservation commission said uh 20 uh 20 acres. So that's a

minor change and when we say minor it's a matter of how much editorial work do they need to do. So if it's just changing a number that they can easily do at that point. I guess I'm still confused the difference between the fe and we have time to sort through this. Yeah. The February public input versus the fall public input. Is there a reason for the fall input? Yeah, the fall input is part of the policy development process. So typically the way we do this is over the we get pretty much direction policy direction beginning a late or spring early summer we work over the summer doing research preparing drafts and if we can't come up with a specific draft policy in ordinance language then what we do is present options. So, and then you take that out to the public. So, kind of like the uh affordable housing thing. We brought out these concepts and put those through the process rather than drafted ordinance language and then

you took that input and then we drafted it. So, the idea of the fall uh of this year would be either take specific language if it's ready like on backlogs which is relatively simple uh and then or a a set some policy options on something bigger like solar. Um, and then take the public input, process that, and then draft the the L. So, some of them you might have two uh public input meetings, a fall one. Yep. And then a a winter one for lack of a better term. Yeah. And the winter one is actually the review of the final product. So, the fall one is to develop the final product. The spring one is to review the final product and make any changes before it goes to the selection before it goes to the town meeting. Okay. Back up just a second. Y So the the fall one is like we've done we mean the planning board the fall. Yep. The winter one is

the select board gives it to us for a formal public hearing. What happens is like last year, I don't know what whatever the hell we did last year, but uh uh in December, we basically or January, we kind of said here's select, we finished up, here's we had our public input, we had another meeting, said this is the final version, best and here's select board, they looked at it, they sent it back. So you're saying we would still in that December time frame, that's what we will have done. We will have put together by the end of December. We will have a submission to the select board. Yeah. For them to say yes, here's your now your final draft. Correct. Planning board which has come to us because of public. Here's the planning board recommendation. So by the end of December, we have to have the planning board draft ready to go. Right. Okay. I got it now. And approved by the select board to go to the consultant in

January. Right. They're looking hopefully we can get this done and not have an extended public participation process in the fall and be able to have the select board by the end of December approve a set of amendments on these minor policy issues to go to. So in November we'd have to the planning board Yeah. or whomever would have to send the in November we would have to send the select board saying here's our final draft. Yeah. So hopefully what we can do is over the summer, and again, a lot of this is pretty simple stuff. It's just a matter of putting together some rational fixes on, you know, private ways, road standards, those sorts of things. Um, and they're not major policy issues where you're developing a big policy like affordable housing, solar, bests. So, what we would do is hopefully be able to get through between Labor Day and say Thanksgiving, uh, get through a public input process

on those things beginning of December, have the planning board finalize the what we've already make any changes to what we've presented and then get it to the select board and hopefully in their December meeting they can say, "Yeah, send it off." So our the January, February, whatever they are, that is the formal public hearing before it go that would get entered into the town into the warrant. Well, no, because and if the board want the select board wants to hold a public hearing, extra public hearing, but the public hearing by law cannot occur more than seven days, more than 30 days, less than seven days before the before the town meeting. and the school board may or may not want to schedule one or more public hearings in that final stage. So if we find that there's something that needs more work than anticipated now that we're going to a June public will that could that schedule move? Well, what we would do, what I would

propose is that if anything gets bogged down, can't be resolved, whatever it is. I don't anticipate that on these 13 issues, but if it just gets bogged down like roads did last time, pun it to after the cotification. And the other strategic thing we're proposing is that we have two different warrant articles on this one is the cotification of the ordinance

without the policy issues integrated. Just fix the current ordinance. So the 139 139 the new format that's one warrant article. Then have a warrant article with the 13 pol minor policy changes so that if that fails for one of them you still have the codified organs.

what what happens timing wise. Yep. So, um I think on a lot of this, the more and I'm not a big fan of more meetings, but kind of the more public you get out to the public, uh the easier it'll be. I mean, back roads, back lots, private ways is I don't see why that would be any less controversial other than we get the word out in advance and say again, we're not proposing to substantially change the policy. What it what happened was it got lost in the weeds in the past. People picked certain things like some people thought these private ways should be gravel, others shot thought they should be paved and then people were picking apart certain language and it just got so so bored down in the weeds that just couldn't move beyond it. Yeah, that's where the sales and another part of it was former board member Antor Rosa was like saying, you know, we can't just fix this. You're going to fix the whole thing. And now we're fixing the

whole thing. We're looking at the definitions of roads. We're, you know, she her her big problem with it was, you know, just fixing this part of it. It's still all messed up. Yeah. That got bo So all those reasons it got bogged down. And the process that we've developed over the last five years is substantially different and better than it was back then. Well, I was here for the roads thing where it failed at the the whatever. Um, so and the other thing is I'm having a discussion where quite truthfully 95 99% of this town doesn't care. You know, I mean, it's a little frustrating to me that people didn't come out to the town. you know, we we were concerned and people didn't come to the public input process. People didn't come to the town meeting. So, I guess that was good and that it passed easily, but we've got, you know, that's I guess my frustration. We can have a lot of meetings and the the horses in the

water, but and if you get a lot of input, you know, and there's a lot of interest, you can schedule meetings. Yep. Okay. Well, I've made my editorial comment for this month and Anything other questions for we may or may not may or may not start working on uh the codification stuff. We'll see what the the select board gets through. But for other things, we obviously have u Newbrook, the wedding venue. We've got Repanova uh will be back and maybe the nursing home. There's a not nursing home daycare center. The one we approved couple three or four months ago is coming in or may come in with an amended u an amendment to it. So there's at least three conditional use changes uh that are before us and eventually Bowie Hill and do we have any moment on uh Ruby Lane to for additional

this summer find, you know, two, you know, four lots, 13 lots this about the same amount of work in terms of the Yeah. But I mean, so two fairly good size um subdivision projects. So it could be a busy a busy summer. I don't know if anybody else is planning anything out there. And then the last thing I have there is a 46 housing unit subdivision going in on Panel uh Brown Road right at the Freeport Pole Durham line. So if you haven't seen that um the

Panel folks are trying to rally the Durham troops I think to fight them. Uh but that's that's just out there. So yeah, they want nominance. Yeah. Okay. I'm I will if nothing else make a motion to adjurnn. It's a move. Second. Moved and second. Any further discussion? Please raise a hand to approve. And we are done. That was unanimous. George, anybody has a chance to ride into Deer Creek? I have over here. I have couple. It's looking very nice actually. Oh, good. Well, better million dollar houses in there. Well, it's crazy. Good for their assist value. I know. And they get

like seven watts. Sold sold. Wow. Amazing. That's why I'm surprised that