Select Board Meeting ~ July 11, 2023

2023-07-11 · Select Board · 1:56:47 · watch on YouTube →

The select board met on 11 July 2023 with all five members present and the town manager absent. Most of the meeting was taken up by two presentations: the code officer's finding that Durham's sign ordinance prohibits all off-premise signs, which has apparently gone unenforced for more than twenty years, and the planning board chair's plan for the ordinance changes heading to the April town meeting. The board directed the code officer to get a legal opinion from the town attorney and to hold enforcement of the sign ordinance in the meantime. It also accepted the Royal River Conservation Trust's offer of a bike rack and picnic tables at Runaround Pond, heard of a confirmed rabies case in a woodchuck, and created a nine-member Union Church committee with a four-month deadline to bring back options for the building. The committee members were appointed after an executive session.

What was discussed

1. 8:28
   Call to order

   The chair opened with a full quorum and thanked Jessica Lamberg (?) for standing in for the absent town manager. There were no agenda amendments, no members of the public wishing to comment and no old business.

2. 8:28
   Runaround Pond bike rack and picnic tables

   Mike Friendly of Runaround Pond Road, representing the Royal River Conservation Trust, proposed a bike rack at Runaround Pond, made from a log with slots cut into it, sited near the outhouse and away from the parking. He also reported five donated picnic tables, two in poor condition, and offered to replace one and paint them brown.

3. 14:02
   Whether to paint the tables

   Heather Roy said the post about the tables on the All Things Durham page drew a strong response in favour of leaving them blue, both because they were donated by Bruce's Burritos, a business which has since closed, and because blue appears in the Royal River logo. The board agreed by consensus to leave them blue and asked that the bike rack placement be coordinated with the town manager and the road commissioner so it does not end up where they plough.

4. 14:02
   Sign ordinance: the code officer's finding

   Alan Plummer said a question about advertising birdhouses led him to read the ordinance, which he reads as prohibiting all off-premise signs, with the only exception being official business directional signs obtained through the state under the Maine Traveler Information Services Act. He consulted an MMA staff attorney who agreed the ordinance says no off-premise signs and does not distinguish temporary ones, and warned that limiting campaign signs would be risky, citing Reed v Town of Gilbert. He has notified everyone he found with off-premise signs, including the Masonic Lodge which has advertised its suppers this way for years.

5. 19:34
   Recommendation for professional codification

   Alan Plummer said the sign ordinance is one example of provisions that are hard to understand even for people who work with them daily, and that amendments made by successive officers can compound errors. He recommended hiring a codification company, possibly with leftover ARPA money, which would reconcile conflicts between ordinances and put everything online in searchable form.

6. 24:38
   Whether the board can decline to enforce

   Members said they do not think they can pick and choose which ordinances to enforce, and that doing so would look like overstepping. Joe Tomm said the ordinance has been essentially unchanged for over 20 years and that residents cannot go wrong following the state programme, while noting a town-run scheme would probably cost more than the state's fee. The board discussed asking the town attorney whether it agrees with the MMA reading, particularly over the exception clause in subsection B.

7. 30:00
   How the state sign programme works

   Members were told an applicant must first get the local code officer's sign-off, then apply to the state, pay a sign company to make the sign, and the Department of Transportation installs and maintains it. The signs must be directional and within a certain distance of the business. The cost was given as about $250 to $350 to make, with one recent example at $155 depending on colours, plus $30 a year to the state.

8. 35:56
   Directional signs versus advertising

   Heather Roy argued there is a difference between a sign that simply advertises a business and one that gives directional information for the travelling public, which she read as falling within the statute the ordinance points to, and that signs outside the public right of way are treated differently again. Joe Tomm replied that any sign pointing to a farm stand or similar is still a business sign and should be handled consistently, and that part of the purpose of sign ordinances is to keep sight lines clear at intersections.

9. 41:06
   Direction to the code officer

   Josh Klein-Golden asked whether the board could pause enforcement while the problem is sorted out, and whether it is allowed to do so. The board agreed the direction is to get the town attorney's reading and hold enforcement until it comes back, with the code officer telling callers he is waiting on legal advice. Members also noted the simplest fix may be to delete the remainder of the subsection after the reference to the state statute, which would leave any sign allowed under state law.

10. 46:09
    Cost of codification

    Members asked what codification costs. Mechanic Falls was said to have paid about $7,000 and Pownal about $8,000, with a ballpark of $10,000 to $15,000 for a full ordinance package and a timeline of about a year. Alan Plummer said the finished product is searchable online and updated annually as amendments are made, and agreed to send a link to a town that already has it. Joe Tomm cautioned against simplifying ordinances so far that they lose their meaning.

11. 51:42
    Planning board update on ordinance work

    John Talbot of 636 Stackpole Road, chair of the planning board, said the legislature extended the housing deadline to 1 July 2024, which gives the town room to draft its own approach rather than default to the state rules. The plan is to develop changes over the summer with the town planner and committees, start public input after Labor Day, bring drafts back to the planning board in January, put a draft article to the select board, and hold the formal public hearing between 7 and 30 days before the April town meeting.

12. 57:21
    Fees, solar and cell standards

    The town attorney has been asked whether the board can set fees not listed in the ordinance, such as a mailbox fee, and whether the fee must match the ordinance exactly; if the answer is restrictive, a fee schedule would go to town meeting. The Conservation Commission has agreed to work on solar and cell tower standards, since the town currently has nothing setting acreage, setbacks, heights or noise and visual buffering, and other towns' ordinances can be adapted.

13. 1:03:21
    Moving resource protection decisions

    John Talbot (?) said 35 structures are affected by resource protection, and that under the current ordinance an expansion of up to 30 percent goes to the planning board and anything larger to the board of appeals. The proposal is to let the code officer handle expansions under 30 percent and the planning board handle larger ones, and the appeals board is willing to hand that over. Richard George cautioned that an application going beyond what the ordinance allows is an appeal and that the final decision may need to stay with the appeals board, urging the board to keep that separation.

14. 1:08:57
    GPCOG support and reimbursable time

    Josh Klein-Golden asked whether the Greater Portland Council of Governments had been engaged, noting it will present to boards for free and that grant funding and planner time are available. John Talbot (?) said MMA has reviewed the draft housing changes and considers them within the rules, and that this time one option rather than three will be put to residents, because the previous three-option survey proved confusing. Time spent on this work is being tracked and is reimbursable up to $5,000.

15. 1:13:58
    Scope of the solar ordinance

    Asked to explain the two-stage approach, John Talbot (?) said this year's work would set technical standards, acreage, buffering, heights and noise, so that an applicant arriving tomorrow would have something to meet, and that deciding where in town solar should or should not go would be a larger research effort for the following year.

16. 1:13:58
    Confirmed rabies case

    Standing in for the town manager, Jessica Lamberg (?) reported that the CDC had notified the town the previous day of a confirmed rabies case in a woodchuck. The animal control officer and the fire chief were notified, information is on the town website and posters are going up. The state would not give a location; members said residents should be careful with their animals but that this is not cause for alarm.

17. 1:19:05
    Union Church committee: scope and timeline

    The board reviewed the news blast wording, which said the committee would run until a long range plan has been developed and approved. Members wanted a fixed deadline instead. Joe Tomm set out four areas for the committee: building upgrades, code and access compliance, long-term uses and proposals, while Josh Klein-Golden said the essential question is a recommendation on what to do with the building, including whether to keep, sell or move it.

18. 1:25:04
    Whether a board member should sit on the committee

    A suggestion that two non-voting advisory members be added, at least one from the select board, drew the objection that a board member's presence carries influence even when they say nothing, and that the optics of the eventual decision would suffer. The idea was not pursued.

19. 1:30:42
    Committee size and deadline

    Richard George suggested a smaller voting body with alternates, giving the practical reason that an even number results when someone is away. The motion settled on seven voting members and two alternates, with four months to bring back options for use of the building and a further two months to work up detail and cost after the board's feedback, putting a public meeting around March and any warrant question at the 2025 town meeting.

20. 1:36:14
    Vote to create the committee

    The motion to create the Union Church committee on those terms was put and passed. Members noted that whether the recommendation carries a budget implication will determine whether it has to go through the budget process.

21. 1:41:44
    Executive session

    The board moved into executive session to decide which applicants would be voting members and which alternates.

22. 1:52:06
    Appointments and close

    Coming out of executive session, the board appointed Neil Berry, John Talbot, Tyler Hutchison, Emily Alexander, Lois Kilby-Chesley, William Schneider and Paula Erdman Purdy (?) as the seven members, with two alternates, the second being Tia Wilson (?). The consent agenda was approved, and the only upcoming meetings noted were the select board on 25 July and 8 August at the town office.

What was decided

• 14:02
  Accept the Royal River Conservation Trust's bike rack and picnic tables at Runaround Pond, leave the tables blue rather than painting them brown, and coordinate placement with the town manager and road commissioner; agreed by consensus with no vote takenpassed
• 41:06
  Direct the code officer to obtain the town attorney's reading of the sign ordinance and to hold enforcement until that opinion comes back; agreed by consensuspassed
• 1:36:14
  Create the Union Church committee of seven voting members and two alternates, to bring back options for use of the building within four months and a further two months of detail; moved by Joe Roy and seconded by Heather Roypassed
• 1:41:44
  Move into executive session to appoint the members of the Union Church committee; moved by Josh Klein-Golden, seconded by Joe Roy, carried 5-0passed
• 1:52:06
  Appoint Neil Berry, John Talbot, Tyler Hutchison, Emily Alexander, Lois Kilby-Chesley, William Schneider and Paula Erdman Purdy (?) as members of the Union Church committee with two alternates; moved by Josh Klein-Golden, seconded by Joe Roy, carried 5-0passed
• 1:52:06
  Accept the minutes of 27 June 2023 and accept and sign the 30 June and 11 July 2023 warrants; moved by Josh Klein-Golden, seconded by Joe Roy, carried 5-0passed
• 1:52:06
  Adjourn; moved by Heather Roy, seconded by Josh Klein-Golden, carried 5-0passed

An outcome reads "unclear" where the recording does not state it plainly. The recogniser drops short words, and "the motion does not carry" is one missing word from its opposite.

Motions the minutes record

The town's own written account of what was decided, taken from sb_meeting_minutes_07_11_23.txt. It owes nothing to the recording or to a model: the clerk typed it, with the vote. Where the summary above claims a decision this list does not carry, the summary is the part to doubt.

• create this committee, consisting of an uneven number of members, to make a recommendation for use of the Union Church within a 9-month time frame

  Moved by Joe Roy, seconded by Heather Roy; no outcome recorded

• the Board move into Executive Session to appoint the members of the Union Church Committeecarried 5-0

  Moved by Josh Klein-Golden, seconded by Joe Roy

• the Board move to appoint Neil Berry, John Talbot, Tyler Hutchison, Emily Alexander, Lois Kilby-Chesley, William Schneider and Paula Erdmann-Purdy as the seven (7) voting members and Candace DeCsipkes and Tia Wilson as t…carried 5-0

  Moved by Josh Klein-Golden, seconded by Joe Roy

• accept the meeting minutes from the June 27th, 2023 meeting, and accept and sign the June 30th and July 11th 2023 Warrant(s) both Payables and Payrollcarried 5-0

  Moved by Josh Klein-Golden, seconded by Joe Roy

• adjourncarried 5-0

  Moved by Heather Roy, seconded by Josh Klein-Golden

Worth knowing

• 19:34
  The code officer's reading, backed by an MMA attorney, is that Durham's ordinance prohibits every off-premise sign, temporary or permanent, and that it has not been enforced for more than twenty years. He has notified the businesses concerned, including the Masonic Lodge, and enforcement is now on hold until the town attorney responds.
• 30:00
  The only lawful alternative is a state official business directional sign, which costs roughly $250 to $350 to make, must be approved by the code officer before the state application, and carries a $30 annual fee.
• 1:13:58
  The CDC confirmed a case of rabies in a woodchuck in Durham. The state would not tell the town where it was found.
• 1:36:14
  The Union Church committee has four months to bring the board options for the building, with two further months for costs and detail, aiming at a question for the 2025 town meeting. The board declined to leave it open-ended as the original notice had.

Motion language found in the transcript

Located by pattern matching, with no model involved: "I move that", "I'll second", "all those in favour". This is an independent check on the summary above: 4 passages of motion language, against 7 decisions summarised.

Elsewhere

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