Planning Board Meeting ~ October 4, 2017

2017-10-04 · Planning Board · 1:01:48 · watch on YouTube →

Planning board meeting opened as the October 4 meeting, with a quorum of four, and referring to minutes of September 6, 2017 and a next meeting on November 1; the April 10 date on the listing does not match the recording. Two applications were before the board: the Durham Youth Baseball conditional use permit, which was left over again while stormwater, groundwater and landscaping information is assembled, and Mr. Baldwin's Granite Hill Farm Road subdivision, where the board went through the corrected plan notes and signed the plan. Most of the evening went to a visit from Kevin, a selectman and chair of the comprehensive plan committee, who reported that an offer for a new code enforcement officer had been accepted, that Calvin would stay on as assistant code enforcement officer to carry existing cases through the transition, and that the comprehensive plan is being drafted with the Greater Portland Council of Governments toward a spring 2019 town meeting. The board and Kevin discussed how to get the land use ordinance rewritten, agreeing that the existing ordinance is internally inconsistent, that the workshop-only approach had failed before, and that consultant money should be put back in the planning board's 2018 budget. The board also raised having no central place to keep its documents, and marijuana ordinances as winter work.

What was discussed

1. 0:07
   Call to order and secretary

   The meeting was called to order with a quorum of four members and the pledge of allegiance. The chair thanked Tammy Quimby for filling in as secretary on short notice and thanked Jill, the previous secretary, for her work.

2. 0:07
   Agenda amended

   Mr. Baldwin, who was present, was added under new business after the ball fields. A request from Kevin, chairman of the comprehensive plan committee, to discuss the comprehensive plan was added at the end of the agenda.

3. 0:07
   Minutes of September 6, 2017

   A motion was made to approve the minutes with a correction to the spelling of a name. One member said he would not vote on them because he had not been at that meeting, though he thought they were a good set of notes.

4. 0:07
   Durham Youth Baseball conditional use permit

   New information had been sent out on groundwater supply, but less than the board hoped for. A meeting was set for the following week with someone to help with stormwater, and the landscaping work had not been done.

5. 5:28
   Abutter's request for gates at the parking area

   An abutter had asked for gates, concerned about people parking in the lot late at night. A board member said he was strongly opposed, because gates would limit access to a town-owned recreation field, would push cars onto Swamp Road where speed and width are already a concern, and would cause their own problems for abutters; the fields themselves will be fenced.

6. 5:28
   Buffering requirements work against visibility

   The board observed that the ordinance has no requirement to secure the site but does have specific buffering requirements, and that the landscaping screening required around the parking lot is what makes it a desirable spot for late-night activity. Leaving it open from the roadway would alleviate the abutter's concern, so the board looked for a balance that still screens him.

7. 5:28
   Advice to work with the abutters

   The board told the applicant that coming back with a landscape and buffering plan the abutters like would reduce the pressure on other issues. A board member who is a surveyor went out and resurveyed the tree line so the buffering could be understood better.

8. 5:28
   When the board takes up performance standards

   The board explained it does not get into the performance standards until an application is deemed complete, at which point it can hold a field walk and start processing. The applicant was told he need not come back every month with one new piece and could wait until the outstanding items are together.

9. 10:31
   Getting back on the agenda

   Information has to be submitted ten days before the meeting to get back on the agenda. The applicant had obtained a waiver letter from Inland Fisheries and Wildlife but only after the cutoff for that meeting.

10. 10:31
    Baldwin subdivision: plan changes

    Mr. Baldwin (?) said he had made the changes requested to the performance standards findings and conclusions and to the plan itself. The setback lines within the buffer zone on lot 5 were removed, and note 17 was added covering the discontinued county road, using the language he has used in the deeds when selling on that property to convey the rights over it.

11. 10:31
    State permit still not written

    A state permit had been approved and the paperwork issued but the permit itself had not been written after about two months. The applicant said he had called the state that day; the board said it could take up to six months and that three to four would not be surprising.

12. 15:44
    Conditions checked for typographical errors

    The board went through the numbered conditions, resolving a stray letter in condition 22 about submitting the gradation to the code enforcement officer as a typographical error. Condition D, requiring approval before the start of construction, was checked against how the entrance permit condition had been written.

13. 15:44
    Road maintenance agreement on Granite Hill Farm Road

    The applicant had written to all abutters asking whether they wanted to be part of a road maintenance agreement and nobody answered. The board established that what the ordinance wants is a notarised affidavit from the applicant stating that he asked everyone, and a notary in the room offered to handle it on the spot.

14. 15:44
    Amended road maintenance agreement

    The proposed road maintenance agreement had to be amended and the applicant had done so, adding a further whereas clause on the front page covering maintainable interest and ownership in the road. He offered the amended agreement to the board, which said the plan changes were the part it needed to see.

15. 20:48
    What the paving note means

    The board and applicant worked through the note requiring paving in accordance with the ordinance in effect at the time of each additional dwelling. As things stand the first three houses need no paving and the fourth does; if the ordinance has changed by then, whatever applies at that time governs. The note is worded that way because of an expectation that the comprehensive plan work may change or remove some paving requirements.

16. 20:48
    Signing the plan

    The board discussed how the plan gets signed, settling on signing a paper copy for the town's file and the mylar, with the surveyor recording it and returning the recorded version and a PDF, at which point the paper copy is discarded. Some time went into finding a pen that would write on mylar without smudging.

17. 25:53
    Whether the absent member must sign

    Ann was one of the four who approved the plan but was not present. The board decided it would look suspect for the plan to carry only three signatures, which is not a quorum, and that it would be better if everyone who was at the approving meeting signed, so the plan will be left at the office for her to come in and sign.

18. 25:53
    Kevin attends as selectman liaison

    Kevin explained that when the new select board came together, four of its five members new, it divided departments and functions among members and the planning board was a natural fit for him. He was attending in both his selectman and comprehensive plan committee capacities, to build a stronger link between the two boards and offer support to what remains an independent board.

19. 25:53
    New code enforcement officer hired

    Kevin reported that the person the town made an offer to had accepted, would start in a couple of weeks, and should be onboard later that month. He is a state certified third party inspector for plumbing and building codes and comes from work evaluating properties against federal programme standards, but he has little ordinance-specific experience and has to take a land use legal course within a year.

20. 31:13
    Transition arrangements with Calvin

    Calvin has been appointed assistant code enforcement officer so he can keep acting officially, and has agreed to a gradual transition, staying on existing work such as Mr. Baldwin's case rather than handing it to a new officer part way through. Kevin suggested the board hold a workshop with the new officer once he has his feet wet, to set clear expectations about what each does before an applicant reaches the planning board.

21. 31:13
    Hours of the code enforcement post

    Asked whether the job is 40 hours, Kevin said it is 32 hours and full-time, not a hard 32 in any one week but averaging 32 over the year. Evening meetings, including planning board meetings, were discussed with candidates and the appointee is comfortable with them.

22. 31:13
    GPCOG and the comprehensive plan

    The town has been contracting with the Greater Portland Council of Governments for guidance and for drafting portions of the comprehensive plan. John had raised the possibility of GPCOG giving a joint presentation to the planning board and the comprehensive plan committee, at a high level at first, on what kinds of ordinances or land use policies would accomplish a given objective.

23. 31:13
    Is there an ordinance to-do list

    Kevin asked whether the board keeps a running list of the contradictions and problems in the ordinances that people have been complaining about for years, arguing that visibility of the specific issues would help both the comprehensive plan and any eventual rewrite.

24. 36:33
    What is actually wrong with the ordinances

    The board said such a list had once been kept on the whiteboard but lost steam after Paul left, and that most of the problems are efficiency rather than substance: requirements, conditions and performance standards do not align, item eight in one standard is item 13 in another with different language, and water use is dealt with in about four places. Applicants end up responding to three different parts of the ordinance depending on the conditional use, and the board works through overlapping lists that do not quite match.

25. 36:33
    Could GPCOG do the ordinance work

    Kevin had raised this with GPCOG the previous week. They did not think they had the capacity for a full ordinance project at present but thought they probably would once the comprehensive plan was further along, and the town's GPCOG representative, Jessa Berna (?), was going to check with her director. Ordinance work is a substantial part of what they do.

26. 36:33
    Does the comprehensive plan have to come first

    Asked whether the comprehensive plan must be approved before any ordinance is changed to fit it, Kevin said no, except that certain ordinances cannot exist without an approved plan, a growth ordinance and any ordinance with an impact fee being the examples given. The risk is that something adopted first ends up out of alignment, which the overlap between the two committees makes unlikely, though there is also the political question of how it looks.

27. 36:33
    Approval route and the 2002 plan

    Ordinance changes go to a town vote, and the comprehensive plan itself also has to be approved by the town, with spring 2019 town meeting as the goal, and then found in compliance by the state. In 2002 the town approved a plan which the state found non-compliant, and there was never any follow-up to bring it into compliance.

28. 41:41
    Timing options for ordinance changes

    Because the previous draft was largely organisational cleanup, Kevin said there was no need to wait: changes could go to the 2018 town meeting and be adjusted again in 2019 if needed. He also suggested having some ordinances ready to vote at the spring 2019 meeting alongside the plan rather than waiting another year or calling a special town meeting.

29. 41:41
    Call for a consultant

    A member asked how the earlier draft process had gone and was told a consultant had worked with the board for about four months. He asked whether any funds were left for a consultant, said the past few months had been painful, and said that with Paul gone there is nobody with planning experience. The board agreed that workshops and plugging away at it had been the least efficient way to get ordinance change done, and compared the better approach to giving an architect requirements and getting options back.

30. 41:41
    Where the planning board's professional money went

    Kevin said that in the 2017 budget most of the money historically in the planning board's legal and professional lines had been shifted to the comprehensive plan, on the thinking that the plan had to be invested in first. He said the 2018 budget should carry legal and professional funds in the planning board budget on top of the comprehensive plan budget so consulting help is available for concurrent ordinance work.

31. 41:41
    Out-of-date engineering standards

    Standards referenced in the ordinance for things such as height and traffic are not current. An engineer who worked on an earlier application had offered to sit down and give the board ideas from an engineering perspective if it ever gets into a rewrite.

32. 41:41
    History of the 2016 consolidation

    The changes approved at the 2016 town meeting were mostly the pulling of scattered ordinances, a separate back lot ordinance, a separate subdivision ordinance, land use and conditional use, into one land use document, with the growth ordinance left separate. A member said that when he started looking at them there turned out to be four different versions in circulation.

33. 46:57
    How the previous rewrite went

    After the consultant's work the board held workshops with Paul, going topic by topic through accessory apartments, campgrounds and the rest to see whether it was comfortable with what the ordinance required. It was a long process that did not get as far as intended, before turning into larger questions about growth, housing and whether to have a growth district; density is currently the same everywhere in town.

34. 46:57
    The state's letter on the 2002 plan

    Kevin offered to get the board a copy of the state's letter setting out what was wrong with the 2002 comprehensive plan. Among the findings were exactly the point the board had just made, that there was no real differentiation in density, and that the town had not been overt enough about a plan for affordable housing.

35. 46:57
    Warning about piecemeal amendment

    A member warned that changing one piece of an ordinance has effects three chapters over, and that carrying on that way leaves the document like Swiss cheese, getting worse the further you go. The suggestion was to break it into sections, or start over, and to look at towns that have recently paid for good work, Gorham and Windham being named; Ann's view was reported as being that all of them copied the same bad original.

36. 46:57
    Tiering review to the size of the proposal

    The board discussed setting levels so that someone proposing a home office does not go through the same process as someone proposing a large commercial structure. It was said that the most directive product of the comprehensive plan will be the future land use plan, which sets general objectives such as valuing affordable housing and protecting open space, leaving the planning board and a consultant to write ordinances that accomplish them.

37. 46:57
    Budget request timing

    Asked when a budget request for professional services would have to go in for the next town meeting, Kevin said Ruth would be asking department heads and committee chairs to pull together budget requests shortly, probably in October or November.

38. 52:08
    Winter ordinance workshops and marijuana

    Ann had been keeping the copy of the changes already made and the board was unsure how far she had got. A member said the board should plan ordinance workshops over the winter, including how to tailor the ordinance for the marijuana laws.

39. 52:08
    Maine Municipal Association as a resource

    Kevin said MMA is a good source of sample ordinances, especially on marijuana, and will point towns to a community with a good one if it has none itself. He was at the MMA convention that day, having been to workshops on roads and on budgeting and taxes, with sessions the next day on state subdivision law, on the Maine supreme court's frustration with municipal land use ordinances, and two on marijuana, and offered to bring back contacts and references.

40. 52:08
    Thanks from the select board and searchable ordinances

    Kevin thanked the board on behalf of the selectmen, saying it had been a frustrating year and more but that between the comprehensive plan work and a new code enforcement officer there was a light at the end of the tunnel. He also credited Tammy with putting all the town's ordinances on the website in searchable PDF form, so a term such as junkyard can be typed in and every reference found.

41. 52:08
    No central place for planning board documents

    A member said that with Jill leaving there is nowhere the planning board keeps its documents, with checklists and versions living on individual members' computers. Ruth had set up a Dropbox for the comprehensive plan committee, which is editing a shared Word document with everyone's comments visible, and Kevin said cloud storage for the town is on his radar, with a new server going in and a new public information technician arriving, envisaging a folder per board in the meantime a Dropbox Ruth could set up.

42. 57:21
    Public record and town email

    Members were reminded that all of it is public record and anyone can ask for it at any time, and that they should be using a town email address rather than a personal one to protect themselves. One member had a town address without having been told about it.

43. 57:21
    Guest Wi-Fi in the building

    Asked about wireless, Kevin said there is Wi-Fi in the building but no guest network, and the office password is not something to hand to 30 or 40 people. Fixing guest Wi-Fi is planned.

44. 57:21
    Searchable text and the comprehensive plan constraint

    Members noted that a word-searchable ordinance shows every other place a changed word appears, which matters when amending. It was also noted that state statute does not allow an ordinance that conflicts with the comprehensive plan, so the plan was amended at the same time last time, and that ordinances and plan changes go through the town lawyer before going to a town vote as a final check.

45. 57:21
    Next meeting and deadlines

    The next meeting was set for Wednesday, November 1, with applications and nine separate packets of supporting documentation due at the town office no later than October 23 at close of business. The only prospect mentioned was a proposed car lot to sell used cars, on a road the recording does not render clearly; the applicant missed the submission date and is expected at the following meeting.

46. 57:21
    Adjournment

    A motion to adjourn was made and seconded. The recording ends there without a stated result.

What was decided

• 0:07
  Amend the agenda to add Mr. Baldwin under new business after the ball fields, and the comprehensive plan discussion at the endpassed
• 0:07
  Approve the minutes of September 6, 2017 with a correction to the spelling of a name; one member said he would not vote because he was not at that meeting, and the result is not stated on the recordingoutcome unclear
• 10:31
  Leave the Durham Youth Baseball conditional use permit application over again, with the applicant to bring the incomplete items back together rather than returning each month with one piecetabled
• 15:44
  Agreed, without a vote, that the applicant would provide a notarised affidavit stating he had asked all abutters whether they wished to join the road maintenance agreement on Granite Hill Farm Roadpassed
• 25:53
  Agreed, without a vote, that all four members who approved the Baldwin subdivision plan should sign it rather than the three present, so the plan is to be left at the office for Ann to sign, and the town will hold it until the recorded mylar is returnedpassed
• 52:08
  A member proposed holding ordinance workshops over the winter, including work on the marijuana laws; no clear assent from the board is on the recordingoutcome unclear
• 57:21
  Adjourn; the motion was made and seconded but the recording ends without a stated resultoutcome unclear

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 20180112091525.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.

• accept minutes with typo changecarried 4-0

  Moved by John Simoneau, no seconder recorded

• Adjourncarried 4-0

  Moved by Juliet Caplinger, seconded by John Simoneau

Worth knowing

• 5:28
  The buffering the ordinance requires around the ball field parking lot is what created the abutter's security complaint, because the screening hides the lot from the road. A board member said he was strongly opposed to the gates the abutter wanted, on the grounds that they would limit access to a town-owned recreation field and push parking onto Swamp Road.
• 25:53
  The town has filled the code enforcement officer post. The candidate accepted, is expected to start later in the month, and is a state certified third party plumbing and building inspector, but has little ordinance-specific experience and must take a land use legal course within a year. Calvin has been appointed assistant code enforcement officer so that he can carry existing cases through.
• 36:33
  The comprehensive plan is aimed at the spring 2019 town meeting and then has to be found in compliance by the state. The last time round, in 2002, the town approved a plan which the state then found non-compliant, and there was never any follow-up to fix it.
• 41:41
  Most of the money historically in the planning board's legal and professional lines was moved to the comprehensive plan in the 2017 budget. A member said the last few months had been painful and that nobody is left with planning experience since Paul left; Kevin said consulting money should be put back in the planning board's 2018 budget on top of the comprehensive plan budget.

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: 3 passages of motion language, against 7 decisions summarised.

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