TranscriptPlanning Board Public Hearing ~ March 22, 2023

of the special meeting of the Durham planning board to order first thing I will do is confirm that we have a forum so members are miss torgosa Mr lenoy who is our newest member has just joined us tonight thank you Brian and Mr Wilson Mr Puritan and I

am John Talbot so we have our Quorum and we can go ahead and begin so I'll start out by saying what the purpose of tonight is and so for those of you I'm sure you have all have a very good idea but we are doing a formal and I emphasize the term formal public hearing on two land use ordinance articles that will be heard and voted on at the town meeting on the first of April one is a resource involves resource protection and the other is the um process if you want to convert a private road to a public Road so without a much further a couple of things of I guess rules here since this is a formal hearing this is not a free-for-all question and answer for those of you who I see a lot of familiar faces out there so if you you'll get your turn um I would ask that eight when you're have your presentation and say what you need to say please don't spend a lot of time repeating what others have said

um if you would and then if you have questions please address them to me and I will then determine who is the most appropriate person to answer that so this is not intended to get into a conversation with one of the funny board members or Mr the Barnes who's our town planner but we do want to try and get as much information out to you and allow you to express your thoughts and opinions and ask any questions and then finally unlike some of our other meetings the two articles land use articles have been submitted for or in the town report and have been submitted for approval or not at the town meeting so there will be no changes coming out of this meeting so they are set as as they are and no

changes will come until the town meeting on the 1st of April so with that I will give a quick discussion and all while I'm already talking one of the two articles is on uh conversion of private roads to town roads and relatively simple at least in the process the approval of converting a Town Road to a public road must be approved at the town meeting so it's not the town staff it's not the Selectmen it has to go to a town meeting for approval so that is one of the articles that we will get a chance to vote on then the second one is our resource protection and I know we've got a couple of folks here from the Conservation Commission who took the lead on this for us if

you'd like to come up and just give a brief discussion of resource protection and I I was having seen many faces before I think you all know that this is not the first time that we've been talking about this so if you would uh any not necessary to come up to the mic but if you would speak loudly and clearly so we can pick it up on the uh on the TV or video or whatever that thing is over there please state your name and your address I'm Mike friendly I have a runaround Pond Road 155. member of the Conservation Commission in 2018 the town passed a comprehensive plan which suggested recommended that there were six criteria that would put properties into resource protection those those criteria probably as most of you know were 100-year flood plain a Shoreland zoning buffer of 250 feet

which applies to the Sandra Stockton River and run around the pond a buffer of 100 feet on streams which has been the case which has been present in Durham for 20 plus years moderate to high quality Wetland inland sorry moderate high quality wading bird habitat Wetlands of 10 acres or greater and the

six criteria is something called beginning with habitat which is a main uh organization State organization that identifies high value property based on the criteria that and we elected to pick a point system of six or higher as a as a threshold of putting that into resource protection and these things were all approved in 2018. so this is an attempt to um to put those into effect we've had several meetings about this most recently in December but there have been others and this process has been ongoing for a couple of years now okay I will Mr Tavares did you want to admission with barge is the town planner did you want to add anything to that Mr chairman I would just go beyond uh Mike did go over the criteria which are up on the screen the six criteria which he already addressed so I'll skip that and just go to the map changes that Implement those so this map which is in the handout identifies the gray is the existing

resource protection and the green areas on this first map are the ones that would be added based on the six criteria uh then the second map shows areas that would be taken out of Shoreland zoning that are currently in excuse me out of resource protection that have been there since 2002 primarily based on uh inaccurate uh flood plain data so FEMA

has done new flood mapping and they've shown that uh most of these areas are not flood plain and those would be removed as part of this same vote and then what you'd end up with is this would be the updated zoning map which would incorporate those changes

have a not have the opportunity visit Parts worked hard with a lot of people out there if you have not had the opportunity to say to talk to me about how does that impact my property so that you know is going into the town meeting on the first the impact on your property so he is available uh just sign in at the back and tell them that he you'd like to sit down and have him give you some information on your particular property so with that I will at this point turn it over to the audience I'd ask that you keep to the point on your comments and be time to think about them we'll let someone else come up and get the process started so anyone who'd like to get started don't be shy

affect like I've been farming on my land for 20 years I didn't know two years ago that this is you know I got enough notice until this latest one so you're going to tell me after 20 years I can't Farm around that Diva bog until back to my house okay is that the question I'm just going to ask are we picking that up Devin okay I want to make sure we're picking everybody up so uh this is DeBarge when we get people to identify themselves thank you

you be allowed to do uh farming in the resource protection that is one of the permitted uses in resource protection farming and Forestry 250 feet restriction or 100 feet because you know if I want to build a garage which is my plan am I going to be restricted from doing that type of construction

Wetlands of tenor uh 10 acres or greater it's just in the Wetland itself that is restricted which is also subject to federal and state permitting requirements [Music] little bit sir that Mike you don't have to come all the way to the mic you're welcome to sit in one of the front rows

continued property being labeled I raise resource area of your taxes you know real estate property taxes I got you yeah Mr DeBarge yeah obviously I'm not the town assessor and I have no credentials as far as assessing me is but my understanding after 40 years in in this field is that basically your property value is primarily based on any residents or other structures that you have on your property and then an area of the minimum lot size around that house is a significant if not the majority portion of your of your property value and then then the undeveloped land adds to that but it's not taxed at the same level and so if this land is put into resource protection which wasn't you can talk to the assessor and and she can tell you what if any the benefit or increase would be so if land is removed from resource protection theoretically that would increase the value to some level and if land is put into research Source

protection it would decrease the value they have me back down for I think 30 Acres said you know you have to do it on an individual basis but it has as they said if your property is put into resource protection you're they would they would consider you for a tax reduction individual it's a person by person she can't give any sort of okay

um I have a question about I'm noticing two different color Reds resource protection marked in different color red so of course sure I'd be happy to um since 2005 the Hat the town has had two different designations for resource protection one has been designated as resource protection and the other one was resource protection rural but one of these things that started us on this process is that there was no clear definition of the criteria for either so what we've attempted to do in addition to adding the specific criteria that were reviewed before we're trying to get the map more clear as to what is a resource protection and so the two designations the red as you'll see from the The Legend is resource protection surely in zoning those are all areas that are subject to the state's mandatory Shoreland zoning and the rest of this in green is the area that is Durham's decision to put into resource

protection based on the comprehensive plan so that's the differential differentiation that we're making and then the additional colors that color that you see is around these uh open Wetlands much of which are Farm Fields when this was put in as a requirement by the state back in 2019 rather than putting that into resource protection the town decided to put that into limited residential around those Farm Fields so limited residential allows residential development but it has certain requirements for buffering around the Wetland and those sorts of standards that apply there that would not apply to other properties so that's the reason for the different differentiation in the colors

no actually and if you look up at the screen you see the little cursor hand here okay so this red around run around Pond is all resource protection Shoreland zoning the river is the same and these streams which are the this is uh Dyer Brook excuse me Newell Brook dire this portion of Dyer Brook uh the East West Branch of uh Chandler which goes down to Royal River and part of runaround Pond these are all stream segments that meet state requirements for Shoreland zoning the rest of the streams and not all streams are protected by this we're designated by Durham's comprehensive plan to have similar protection and the town decided to put this green on excuse me this resource protection which is green so the only other color up here and it may look different is this kind of an orange around these Farm fields which is the limited residential so there's limited residential there's resource protection

Shoreland zoning and then there's the green resource protection which follows the criteria of the ordinance Georgia it looks looks like for example around this body of water it looks like that yes and the reason the reason you can see there is a little bit of red right here and there's actually a little bit of red over on this end and up on this Wetland you see some red here and that's because under the state criteria you can't put limited residential if it is a larger area than two acres of forested wetland so these are areas of forested wetland that have but the Open Water open Wetland and that under dep state law is required to be resource protection is that what you were pointing to that's what I was trying

yeah so that answers my question yep um blue Mark waterways I assume that they're small streams and they I don't see anything around those yeah sure okay so again there are three different regulatory programs for streams the state mandates within 75 feet of

these streams that are in red because they meet certain criteria for habitat and size and uh then the other green ones are ones that the town has identified since 2002 in the comprehensive plan as these are the major stream segments and then there are small and just for the purposes of the code enforcement officer dealing with these it's important that some of these blue streams that are not in either the shoreline zoning program or in the town's resource Protection Program still have dep regulations that affect what you do near them so if it's just blue then you're under what's known as the natural resources protection act and you have to get what they call a permit by rule to do disturbance to put in a culvert or those sorts of things if you're in the red within 100 feet then you have to get a sh then it's resource protection Shoreland zoning and that in the way it's been adopted is the equivalent of a

hundred foot setback buffer whether it's state Shoreland zoning or town shorelands only so you've got state required streams you've got Durham added streams and then you've got streams smaller streams that are covered by the natural resources protection act

match the map that was a part of the 2018 offline or has have there been is that is that the same you know how when you look at the comp plan layers 2018 the town downloaded data from the state beginning with habitat program the greater Portland Council of governments gave us geographic information system layers that we could put onto this map and so we prepared this map so this map looks similar to the one that's in the comprehensive plan but it doesn't look exactly because it's been reformatted to to be a zoning map as opposed to the planning map that's in the comprehensive plan but it's based on it and it's consistent with it is if I'm a follow-up button her follow-up is it fair to say though that there are some areas on this map that

should never for a variety of reasons been considered resource protection no it's all based on the criteria of the conference all right let me rephrase it on 2018 there were Parcels that showed up as resource protection yes the current zoning map because it was in the comprehensive line but there are some of those lands did not meet any of the criteria and were for inaccuracies or whatever reason those that don't still don't meet any of the criteria that we're talking about here are not are have been taken off this map correct so if this map is approved those Parcels 300 some that should not have resource protection because they don't have any of the criteria here will not have that resource protection will go away I may not be doing a great job of saying I understand why that would look different different because that map in 2018

doesn't the properties included that were part of it then but we're trying to remove now well uh if we go back to the prior Maps okay um so this gray one was the comprehensive plan of 2002. and so what we've tried to do and the Committees have struggled with this how many Maps do we show and what colors do we use and how do you communicate we've tried to keep it clear so people can understand what the impacts are so differences in terms of formatting and presentation have been Incorporated they won't look exactly like the one in the in the comprehensive plan because there's a process that you go through to implement it

Miss daragosa um can you just this is the first time I remember seeing the zoning map I'm sorry I'm Antoine grossa I am an alternate planning board chair or member not chair anymore um we can talk after the meeting no thank you no more um I did my time um this is the first time I remember seeing the zoning map we've I I've seen this plenty of times are there any changes to this other than the RP that's reflected in these two yeah okay so this is our zoning map other than the changes to the green RP so these pink haven't changed the red hasn't changed the aquifer protection hasn't changed it's just the green RP to reflect and the removal of the orange ones on the first so it's just the removal of this and the addition of this everything else on the zoning map is the same correct okay thank you that's helpful

here no that are attached to it because she said she's seen those other Maps she hadn't seen this final version of the actual okay here's what the zoning map looks like when it's when it's all of this is incorporated Yeah so basically I asked this map that's in our pockets is this our current zoning map that's in effect in our Ordnance when did we adopt that this was prepared no no I'm sorry the current Zone where was our current goes all the way back to 2004. it was updated in 2019 to fix the

uh misaligned aquifer Protection District which didn't map the match up with the aquifers and it was also updated to implement the required changes from dep to get dep certification of the plan so but it's still other than those changes it's the same as it was in 2004. so this will be an update to realign the resource protection in the same way that the aquifer protection was realigned to match the state data

because part of my land I think that they've showed me that the barge sent me an email showing me the green area is I've got fruit trees growing there and you know I don't believe that's a wetland okay meeting on April 1st there are some relief mechanisms in the current ordinance to deal with questions of where the boundary is and so the first of relief mechanism available to every landowner is to appeal to the board of appeals

to have a boundary determination and this happened a year before last at the equestrian center on royalsboro road where based on this new floodplain information part of their operation was zoned from 2002 as resource protection based on floodplain and it wasn't so they went to the board of appeals brought specific information showing that this land was not floodplained and then they the board of appeals pulled the boundary of the map out of that area so that's the first option and that can be initiated either by an individual landowner filing an appeal or under the ordinance the select board the planning board and the code enforcement officer can apply to and request a determination by the board of appeals so there's a public meeting like this there's a review of the data by the public and then the board of appeals has the authority to review the facts so if they see a wetland delineation that says it's

not Wetland but they have the authority to move that boundary to where it to the edge of the actual Wetland so that's the first recourse the second recourse is that under the ordinance if you have your home in the resource protection many people do right now from the 2002 process so you are

allowed to get a up to a 30 percent expansion of an existing residential use not commercial but residential and with the board of appeals approval excuse me planning board approval and you can go beyond 30 expansion one third of your existing building sizes uh with the plan with the board of appeals approval they have authority to go even higher subject to criteria that are in the ordinance and then the third recourse is that in the same way that the town is updating updated the aquifer protection maps to be more accurate and get the best data we are currently updating to remove floodplains that aren't floodplains and add the resource protection criteria of the ordinance so this is not absolutely final that this is going to be forever this way if new data comes out we go through this process of updating the comprehensive plan updating the zoning map updating our ordinances to reflect the best data for regulatory

purposes so at least three different recourses in this use you mentioned as an orchard that is a permitted use in resource protection so that you don't have to do anything to change resource protection it's already permitted so Nate so anything I did to maintain that you know new growth coming in I'll be able to take that stuff down plant new trees if it's agriculture yeah but your your point is that if it's an orchard it probably is not Wetland and if we can find documentation the board of appeals can pull that line out of the orchard Fortune but it's old trees that I take care of okay whatever if it's not Wetland it shouldn't be in that boundary but the town can't map every property in town to determine where the precise boundaries of wetlands are this is based on the best generally available data and it's far more accurate than was done back in 2002.

um I'm on the appeals board and I have a question about uh if a person is in that situation where they would like to it says that we can only use evidence that was available at the time that the decision was made and so is the town

meeting the body and let's say for example um a landowner can show that this map does not accurately reflect their property but the town meeting wouldn't have that information available to them without standing up and making that argument in that situation because we can only use the evidence that was presented at the decision-making time that that's not the case in this type of appeal in other types of appeals where the code officer issued a building permit and the neighbor says they violated the the ordinance when they did it so they appealed to the board of appeals that type of appeal of administrative decision that is limited to the facts that are available in the record for this this is a different thing and most towns have the planning board do these zoning boundary determinations when there's discrepancies between accurate data and what's on the big map but the board of appeals here has been

delegated to responsibility of doing this so This you bring in your evidence just like if you're applying for variance or any other appeal and you present the evidence and the board reviews that and makes a decision is it is it consistent with the ordinance but this provision was adopted at town meeting and put into the ordinance in order to give Property Owners relief in situations where this map just obviously is not correct so it's a different kind of appeal than the one you were referring to

the time and so no this is this this is new information and here's the language uh this is uh section 2.3 points uh A6 where it says where physical or cultural features existing on the ground or at variance with those shown on the official zoning map or in circumstances where the items covered by the prior criteria such as you measure from the center of a road and different different situations but where it's not

clear the board of appeals shall interpret the boundaries so it's based on the evidence that is brought in by the in the case of the equestrian center they brought in a survey that showed the flood plain elevation and it wasn't even close to where it showed on the old 2002 2004 zoning map so they said the

boundary is actually where the flood plain elevation is not where it shows on the map but they did that on an individual property and was clear in the record this does not affect anybody else's property this is just for this one property owner who's the subject of the appeal and Mr Wilson has a question

Ron Williams my apologies that's okay um so just a clarification on George's response to Forest is that it yes if this rule passes there is more than just Wetlands it determines whether it's in resource protection or not correct correct correct but even if it is from some other Criterion the ordinance specifically permits certain activities in any resource Protection District and that would include farming and Forestry right

resource protection boundary just whether it's in Wetlands or not would not be a right but there are other criteria like and one that's come up with certain because I've been doing a lot of individual landowner research to show them here's what it is and uh the one that came up at the public hearing on February 15th remember was the beginning with habitat yeah six plus and particularly the part of it that's based on blending turtle habitat so that's an example where if inland fisheries and wildlife came down and gave information that said this is not part of the blending turtle or a six plus habitat that would be the type of information that the appeals board could say that can be pulled out because it doesn't meet the criteria so if they came and took a closer look at it right yeah

um nutrition Wildlife the mapping that you've used to establish all this that most recently has show changes like for instance on my property I was not in a buffer of any kind and all the mapping it was just offered and I just wanted to perhaps I think you've seen by now right uh last week and they're updated to January 23 and it shows me suddenly in a buffer along with I counted like seven other properties that worked before and are now and also the one of the six plus

designations that are providing properties of over 1200 Acres you get points depending on how much how big the land piece is right you get so if it's 1200 Acres of undeveloped land that's three points and it's less than if it's a smaller amount exactly so in the mapping that I saw our initially the properties I bought were over 1200 Acres so therefore it was three points against me and now the most recent mapping that I've received last week was under 1200 Acres

if it's 600 to 1200 Acres it's two points and if it's 200 to 600 acres is one point so it depends upon how big the block but about wind is it's 1164. understood it was is that the type of data that would support the board of appeals moving the boundary I believe the answer I believe the answer is yes and that could be initiated by the code officer the planning board the select board or the individual property owner okay I had a meeting with you who said I might have to go before all three of those boards and it would be it would be cost incurred I don't remember saying you'd have to go before all three of the boards I think I was saying what I was saying here tonight which is the select board can can initiate it under the ordinance the the

the select board the planning board or the code officer can request from the board of appeals a zoning boundary determination and the individual landowner in a different section can appeal it directly themselves that's what I tried to explain so you wouldn't you wouldn't have to go to all three to get it it would just be the board of appeals is the only group that has authority to change the boundary it if I could make a statement I I hear what you're saying that there it is a process there is cost associated with that if if you do it I would suggest that this the staff we had code enforcement is in the back uh George is available that if you have concerns about your property or you think it should not be there the place I would start was with one of those Town staff folks

to talk about until after the vote well if I kind of Wonder you know after the vote it's a it's done it's the law and it's going to be more difficult to change than it was to establish it in the first place got you as I started the meeting at this point we're not able to make a you know we're not we being the planning board or not able to make that change and it would have to be documented too there have been there's a general map that's been provided updated it was put on the website this week I guess the January uh 2023 updated uh maps that

you're referring to but it's one thing to see them at this scale and to see them down at your property scale so there would have to be a process even to look at that to revise the map well I was the full-size paper maps and it's pretty clear what what I would say what I would suggest I was just going to say that you know why you can't do anything yet is up for vote at this town meeting so if it doesn't pass then there's you got nothing to do if it does then these are the Avenues that you can take right and you speak about a slightly

that process um what about the fact that you're devaluating someone's property by doing this I live in a very small house when they were almost 40 years or so and it's uh I think the town standard housing at one point in our career

and my intention always was to enlarge it and make it more little it's almost imperative at this point and you offering 30 that's 172 square feet then hardly make it worth it so that sort of thing devalues my property because if I sold my property the way it is my house is basically worthless the business I built the building I work in every day is is the only value I have and and I'm not sure and that's not really truly clear to me how that carries on if I was to sell the property so so I'm being my property is being devalued by the if the support can pass you know I appreciate that I don't mean to to devalue the the what you're saying there at all but I think that discussion that argument is at this point best made on the floor of the town meeting that's where the decision to to Institute this plan or to not pass fail that's where that decision will be made but it would restate what I said earlier

that you can go beyond 50 expansion with approval by the board of appeals it would be a process it would be some cost to it but it you're not there is a provision in the ordinance granting relief to go bigger than 50 percent

Maps doesn't get approved and what will be the zoning map is it it'll be the gray that we looked at earlier it'll stay this the first map in the packet [Music] the resource protection part position four against you know the ordinance itself but one of the things that is helpful for an ordinance like this is that it puts the actual criteria that is measurable and observable on the ground into the ordinance as opposed to what the ordinance currently says that resources protection is defined as it is shown on the map the map being the current one that's in the in the town office and so that then there's no in many cases no supporting criteria that defines what that is and why that property is there or not there and so what this does is that it it puts everything in language in the ordinance it can be followed measured observed challenged more easily by someone and uh

makes ultimately makes the process for it better for everybody regardless of what how do you feel about one specific criteria or are there any other questions or comments it says depictions are based on the best readily available mapping individual and I understand that this process started prior to now and we have move forward and work through I I'd say tonight in Georgia that there is a map available

I'm wondering if there was an update on that that was posted what what that when this map or when these maps that we're working from when that data was this map was created based on the 2018 data of the comprehensive plan which is all that the town has adopted

update the maps every five years when I say they like you said that the inland fisheries and wildlife I believe you said he posted a 2023 map in January is that right yes okay and so is that they do it every five years is that something they did annually they do it periodically based on their workload we had an update in 2017 and 2018 and we use the 2018 most

recent data for the update of the comprehensive plan since then this is the first change since 2018 so it has been about five years and there's multiple if I may there's multiple agencies involved the corps of engineer and FEMA do the flood plain and that is really based upon we think there's been enough change on the Androscoggin river we've taken out dams whatever we've done we think the flood Way flood plain has changed Wetlands uh they're updated now we can fly over them we get much better information but there's no I don't think there's any every five years or ten years but it's I think incumbent upon the Town to what track that data and as George said if there's major changes we're back the town's back before the town saying these are we need to make these changes or we follow this say this is a limited this is talba's opinion there's a limited change and we should go to the planning

excuse me the board the board of appeals to make change those limited changes time to say there's 300 and some properties out there that have resource protection that should not and so this corrects a raw I guess for lack of it that's one of the things we're trying to do so it is a bit of a two-way street there sir if you wouldn't mind just speaking up a little bit of service we can pick you up on the

certain water well certain water bodies like the uh androscogen River they measure based on the water characteristics and the terrain and everything and past floods so they have measurements it's like a lot of you've probably seen flood gauges in Lewiston and down here how high did that go so they do these studies to establish where the flood plain the 100 Year level of a flood as it's called how high it comes and how far it spreads out from the river some of the streams like dire Brook and

Newell Brook they have had what they call the same type of analysis usually it's because there are Road crossings that they want to know how much damning occurs when they put in a road Culvert but some of the major streams they have specific flood elevations that have been done by Army Corps Engineers other streams are just designated as based on the topography this is flood plain but we don't give a specific elevation of where that starts and ends but it can be determined by engineers and surveyors

way that runs right well if it's existing it's grandfathered if it's proposed to be built you'd have to get permits from the planning board to go through the resource protection which you can do with with uh approval by the planning board and I qualify that because we have a project for us now if it's in a like a Wetlands or whatever it's not you have to get their permission either the core or fish and wildlife or something if they have to say it's okay before the planning board will okay

I think that unfortunately what I'm hearing is again it's going to call on the landowners to prove D which means surveying and getting Engineers involved when you guys are talking about coming in front of you guys too um get a relief on this which I find is extremely expensive for homeowners to have to go through to get a decision on a piece of property that they've owned and had plans for in the future I'm you know because I think you you were just talking that it was a horse ranch they got a survey team in there

extreme pretty good chunk of change for them to come in with that information so the burden was put on them to disproved process doesn't have to be initiated by the landowner you could for instance go to because enforcement officer and ask that individual numbers

let me take that one on I think I think if I were in your case ma'am or someone else's case and I wanted to do something in that area the first place I would start was either with the code enforcement or the planner and say this

is what I want to do and you probably ought to do that anyway because there may be things outside resource protection but I would start with them and say you know if it's if it's in a federal Wetlands or a federal uh flood way you're going to have to prove that it is not if it's a simple nothing simple if it's a case of the the boundaries have changed and one of those staff people can take a look at it they can help you with that process

emphasize that because you know I don't want anybody to leave here assuming I got to spend five grand for a surveyor because I I want to add 100 or 200 square feet to my house and I don't think it should be that you know it should be in there if whatever it was before is the top of the hill so how could it possibly be a floodway so I would start with that as your first thing and then figure out what else you need to do oh absolutely does it

let me clarify in response to Mr Cole's follow-up on that and that is that the town is not going to pay for that type of detailed engineering but in the case of the beginning with habitat six plus the state would probably be willing to

look at that and if they provide a letter which they do for developers all the time uh stating this either is Arisen that's evidence that you could present to the board of appeals and that may be sufficient for them to make a determination in the case of the equestrian center I prepared these types of maps that I'm showing you with GIS showing the new mapping of the flood plain but they were not convinced where that line actually was in terms of the flood elevation so that's why the board of appeals in order to approve it said they put on a condition that the applicant had to get the survey done so it's going to be a case-by-case situation of what are we looking at what type of data is it and what how accurate is the readily available data so it's going to vary but the code officer if you provided information to them could go to the board of appeals and request a determination

I want to make clear is even say this didn't pass but you're you have Wetland on your property you're still going to have to jump through some hoops either because of the state roles or the federal rules to for example put a road through a wetland regardless of what happens here so that this isn't changing that piece you know you talked about a permit to go through wetlands and that exists today even without this change

the map is where my concern on the road isn't even really my concern it's more enforced horses shared concern isn't that all of a sudden now that's in web and literally the elevation on that that road is so far off yeah yeah from the webcam but those concerns are a valid concern on that yeah if I was going through the beaver bog yeah I understand or if I'm going over a book I said those are under different regulations and a lot of times during doesn't even have control over that that's a state regulated process and George you mentioned that spot they're talking about this one up at the top of Snow Road hi neighbors by the way um that's you said that's yeah this area this this area up here is one of the five Wetlands that has been designated by inland fisheries and wildlife is being moderate to high value waterfowl and wading bird habitat in the comprehensive plan and beginning with habitat program recommend a 250

foot buffer around that Wetland system and when the Bowie Hill subdivision came in which is where this hit my hand is here they had to put that buffer on their subdivision plan as a required buffer so they had to go to dep approval so as Ann was saying this is not just a Durham regulation it's it's a dep regulation yeah

is there anybody else other than Miss Roy we'll go to the back row and Heather and we'll get back to you flood plain is this area here where the androscogen river flood plain is actually here instead of where it shows in the gray none of the streams I don't think so

no if you do a detailed look you'll see most of the streams that it shrinks conditions are not because yes other than this other than this one spot but Ted would caution that because the town is going to spend a quarter million dollars to put in a culvert that the court the Corps of Engineers has said as a salmon Crossing and you know I guess they walk but there are areas that are controlled that may or may not there are other reasons why the feds or the state may be interested in that particular Street this area right here that with a hand is yeah I'm just going to answer your question this area right here can you use it yeah

greater than 10 acre Wetland forested Wetland that was not included earlier so that is being added based on the beginning with habitat identified Wetlands 10 acres or larger okay Mr nindo I just wanted to clarify there and we're spending about fifty thousand true there is all the between the town of Durham and the state of Maine they're spending a very big boatload of money thank you for I should remember that being on the budget committee

this process so far I have used the gis system to zoom in and with that program I can turn layers on and off and and explain to you any individual property owner here's the basis on which that's being taken out or the basis on which be it's being added I'd be happy to do that there's a sign up sheet I'd be happy to look at your property it doesn't affect me okay okay

regarding didn't feel like it was our authority to circumvent the towns deciding both at town meeting we have not gone to town meeting last year and so that was part of what the base our decision before we implemented a decision that would put in another thing was that they were trying to develop that property to be able to have children there so we weren't comfortable determining from a map where there could potentially be there's a road that crossed through um

where that that boundary was without more accurate information and so what they did was they had to survey they determine where that that was in the situation that information go to the him to review if he saw that what the map said was in fact what they found then the appeals were the brand

different situation now we have the ability with Town staff to get a more details without properties based on well we will know based on this so hopefully where the town stands you know there is telling staff that can do more work than what we had available to us

questions comments on resource protection if not we will transition to uh roads and private roads versus public or I'm sorry did anybody in the finding board have anything else to say about what can I do all right private roads converting to public roads so we'll give everybody a chance to leave quietly

is there anybody steady to talk about please see where people are interested information from George please put your name on the sheet there outside we will be able to continue on please okay the one of the articles that will be before the town in the uh on the first of April is uh how do we approve a

road becoming uh transferring from private to uh Public Town owned Road and we were asked to uh otherwise we will it'll get ridden over private rows to town roads so we were asked to put a article out there that changed uh the land use ordinance to State specifically that only the roads

could only be approved as public roads at a town meeting so the planning board the road commissioner the selectman no one has the authority to prove that it must be approved at a town meeting so that is the land use article the second land use article that is before the town then are there any comments or questions about that article

board have any things I will say once again that the town is not spending two hundred fifty thousand dollars on that Culvert I've probably lost my position on the budget committee I sat through like 30 meetings about that so uh anyway I would say that this that if

like or not like any of the two articles the decision will be made on the first of April and so get your friends and fellow townspeople uh to attend and to vote and if you have any specific questions on your particular parcel Mr the barge the town planner at Durham maine.gov would be happy to help you or at least help you with that I will close the public hearing and close our meeting and say good night and thank you for coming