Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Okay, we're going to get started. Thanks everyone for uh toughing it through the snow here. That was not the easiest driving conditions from uh coming down Washington Street was an adventure, but uh the hour of 6:30 p.m. having arrived, I will call to order this regular meeting of the planning board. Uh this meeting is being broadcast live on the city of Keen YouTube channel. The video will be available for streaming on the city's website and is posted on the website by the end of the next business day, barring any technical difficulties. Anyone wishing to view a copy of the agenda and supporting materials will find it on the city website. To receive electronic copies of future agenda packets, please go to the city homepage and subscribe to the city meetings email list. The public and other board members will be recognized to ask questions and make comments on the agenda item under discussion. After being recognized, all remarks are to be made through the chair. Will the staff please conduct the role?

Harold Fington here. Robera Master Giovani here. Mayor Jay Khan, Councelor Molly Ellis here. Uh, Michael Hayer here, Ken Cost here, Andrew Madison, [clears throat] and for the alternate, Stefan Mayu, present. Uh, Tammy Adams and Joey Kosa, present. Um, sorry, I'm We have one, two vacant spots that can

Two vacant spots. Great. Okay, that's [clears throat] perfect. So, I will uh I will invite uh Stefan and Joey to participate as full voting members for tonight's meeting. Thank you for being here. I'm keeping us the bench full. Okay. Uh first item on the agenda is the election of the chair, vice chair, and the third steering committee member. Um Mary, are you gonna organize that? Um, sure. I I'm happy to do that. I think as the last or the last chair, you are also able to run that if you'd like. We'll do that then. Thank you.

All right. So, uh, let's start with the position of chair. Are there any nominations to fill the position of chair? Miss Master Giovani. Um, I would like to nominate Harold Barington once again to be our chair. Thank you. Uh second second.

Thank you, Mr. Cost. Other nominations. Seeing none, I'll close the nominations for chair. And I guess uh we'll submit one vote or whatever. Call it unanimous, however you'd like to do it. Or should we just actually vote? Uh sure. Yeah, I think calling for a vote would be okay. The right deal. All right, so we'll call for a vote. All those in favor of MUA as chairman. Any opposed? All right. Great. Thank you.

Appreciate it. All right. Um the result of the election. Harold Farington is the chair. Uh pass the gavl. Nope. Okay, keep the gavl. All right, let's move on to the vice position of vice chair. Are there any nominations to fill the position of vice chair? Uh, I would like to nominate Robera Master Giovani for vice chair. [snorts] I uh request a second. I'll second move.

Thank you, Mr. Mayhew. Uh, other nominations for vice chair. Uh, seeing none, I will close the nominations for vice chair and we'll call the vote. All those in favor of Roberta Master Giovanni as vice chair. Great. That's unanimous. Thank you.

Uh, okay. We'll move on to the third steering committee member. Uh, sort of an unsung position. Are there any nominations for the third steering committee member? [snorts] Uh, I would like to nominate Kenneth Cost for the third steering committee member and I'll ask for a second. I'll second that.

Mr. Mayheu, thank you again, other nominees. Seeing none, we'll close that and call for the vote. All those in favor of Kenneth Cost as our third steering committee member and that's unanimous. Thank you for volunteering. [clears throat]

Okay. Great. All right. Minutes of the previous meeting which was held on December 22, 2025. Um, I'd like to move to approve the minutes from the previous meeting on December 22nd, 2025. Thank you, Miss Master Giani. Uh, is there a second? Second,

Mr. Cos. Thank you. Uh, any questions, comments, changes? As usual, I have a couple. uh line 264. It's uh not an incorrect word, but it's the wrong word. It's cited with a C instead of cited with an S. And then uh line 455 and 456 which is um for the Elm Elm Street Cottage Court describing the uh the width of the of the drive uh of the road and it uh has 20 feet in both the width of the road and also 20 feet as a bumpout. So, I think you guys were able to check on that and find the corrected number for the bumpout, Miss Forson.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, yes, the correct width that should have been listed for the bumpout is 28 ft.

28. All right, great. Thank you. [snorts] Um, this is a super minor one, but line 505, uh, the word a really should be a d. Uh and then finally uh lines 620 and 621 I think was just an internal note that those lines should be deleted. Okay. Any other corrections or uh comments? All right. Let's call the vote. Uh, all those in favor of the uh December 22 meeting minutes as amended by my comments. Any opposed? All right, meeting minutes are approved. Uh, now final we'll move to the next item. Final vote on conditional approvals. Uh, as a matter of practice, the board will issue a final vote on all conditionally approved plans after all of the conditions precedent have been met.

[snorts] This final vote will be the final approval and we'll start the 30-day appeal clock. May I ask staff if there are any applications tonight that are ready for a final vote?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There are three applications that are ready for a final vote this evening. Uh the first one is PB-2025-01, which was a two lot subdivision um for Keen State College at 238 through 260 Main Street. Um this application had uh the standard uh conditions of approval including owner signature appears on the plan um inspection of lot monuments submitt of four full-size copies and two myar copies of the final plans and um submitt of fees to cover the cost of recording and all of those conditions have been met.

Great. Thank you Miss uh Miss Bruner. All right. All right. So, at this time, I'll entertain a motion uh for final approval of PB202501. Um, I'd like to move to issue final approval for PB-2025-01 to lot subdivision, Keen State College, 238 through 260 Main Street. Thank you. Second. Second,

Mr. Cost. Thank you. Any discussion? All right. So, we'll call the vote. All those in favor of issuing final approval for PB 2025-01, please indicate. Any opposed? All right. [clears throat] Uh PB 20221 is has been uh received final approval. Next.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. So, the next one is PB-20225-18, which is a major site plan and change of use for a charitable gaming facility at 109 to 147 Key Road. The conditions of approval for this application included the owner signature, submittal of security for landscaping, and submitt of five um full-size paper copies and one digital copy. And all of those conditions have been met.

Thank you. So, I'll entertain a motion at this time. Um, I would like to move to issue final approval for PB-2025-18, the major site plan and change of use for the chap charitable gaming facility at 109 through 147 Key Road. Thank you. Second, Mr. Cost. Thank you.

Any discussion? This was before your time. Yeah. All right. All those in favor of final approval for PB2025-18. Any opposed? All right. Uh PB2025-18 has been has received final approval. [snorts] All right. And uh the third one,

thank you, Mr. Chair. So the third one is PB-20224-23 which is a major site plan and surface water conditional use permit for the Cheshire County Shooting Sports Education Foundation shooting range at 19 Ferrybrook Road. And there were several conditions of approval um including the owner's signature on the plan, submitt of the paper copy of the plan and digital copy, submitt of security um to cover the cost of landscaping and sediment/ erosion control. Um submitt of an approved alteration of terrain permit and then um the inclusion on the plan set of the pollinator friendly seed mix to stabilize the burm. Um, all of these have been met except for the submittal of the approved alteration of terrain permit, but per state statute, we can't hold up approval based on that. Um, so we recommend making that a condition subsequent.

All right. Because that is a stateisssued approval, right? Yes. Okay. Yeah, I agree with that recommendation. Um, so I'll entertain a motion for final approval. So that would be subsequent, correct? Um, how do you want to handle that? Yes, I I would recommend um including and I apologize this isn't on the recommended language for the motions, but um recommending approval with the addition of a condition subsequent related to the submitt of the AOT permit. Okay. Condition of AOT.

Yeah. Alteration of terrain permit. Oh, okay. I would like to move to issue final approval for PB-2024-23 major site plan and service water cup shooting range at 19 Ferrybrook Road subsequent of the AOT permit. Yeah, I think we want to say um subsequent a condition subsequent of the uh of submittal of the AOT permit. Okay.

Okay. Is that okay? Yes. I think that the intent is is clear um in the minutes. So we can uh phrase it to say with the addition of a condition subsequent for the submitt of an alteration of terrain permit. All right. Thank you. If that's okay with the motioner. Yeah, if that's okay with the motion. Yes, that works. Thank you. Okay. Thank you. [snorts] All right. Well, we need a second then, Mr. Mayheu. It's okay to say it.

I'll second that. Thank you. Because our notetaker is offsite. Okay. Uh any uh any uh discussion? Okay. Yeah, this one's been on our pending for quite a while. [snorts] All right. So, let's call the vote. Um, all those in favor of issuing final approval for PB2024-23. Uh, any opposed? Okay. Uh, PB2024-23 has received final approval as well. Thank you. Okay. Now, we move on to uh a continued public hearing. Um, okay. So, the next item on the agenda is 31 Robbins Road, appeal of street access permit decision. [snorts] Applicant and owner Karen Royce is appealing a decision of the city engineer to deny a request for an exception from section 23.5.4.8.8 of the land development code regarding allowed driveway width. The parcel is 0.41 acres in size and is in the low density district. Okay. Uh we've already voted on completeness or this is an appeal actually. Um so at this time is the applicant here tonight? I'd uh invite you to to come up come forward and uh present to us.

Yeah. Push them. Yep. Push. If the green light is on, it's on. Okay. So, if you wouldn't mind just by saying your name and address. Uh Karen Royce, 31 Robbins Road. Thank you. My name is Tim. Uh 31 Robbins Road as well. Okay.

It's all yours.

Okay. So, we had put a driveway in because we have two teenagers that were parking on the side of the road. Called a paving company, said, "We need extra driving. This is our plan. They paved it. We were not aware a permit was even needed until well after the fact. So, the driveway is there. It's existing. Um, both of our neighbors, the ones directly next to us and across the street, are very happy with it because it keeps the cars off the road. It's not um on a cross street. There's no like it's a very low traffic area. We feel it's safer to have the cars parked on that side lot than it is to have them kind of hanging out on the side of the road.

Okay.

No, I mean that pretty much sums it up. I'm not sure if you guys have pictures of the of the lot as it currently sits. Do you? Yeah. So, it's aesthetically appleasing. It it solved our problem with the vehicles. Um, you know, if you park on the lawn, you ruin the lawn and you start getting erosion there. So, uh, again, we relied on the contractor, paved it, and then weeks or a month later, whatever it was, we got the the call from the city. So, that's how it all basically all panned out for us. So, that's why we're here tonight to hopefully not tear up, you know, $7,000 worth of asphalt, then to put soil back, regrow it, and then still be in the same dilemma as we were before, you know, with the major parking issues. So, hopefully guys consider, you know, this not being a major issue. Okay, thanks. Um, board members have questions for the applicant.

I guess not. Sure, Mr. Hayer. Sure. Um, so I'm curious that the contractor didn't mention anything at all about not a word. And when we called after getting the notice, we have not heard a single thing back from them. That's certainly disappointing for somebody does a lot of business in the city of Keith. Yep. Correct. Very easy to put the driveway in, right? Take the job and take the money. Thanks. Okay. Thank you. I think she has a question. Question.

Oh, I'm sorry, Miss Master Gani. I was just curious since it's been paved, has there been any noticeable like runoff or puddling or problems with drainage or is your neighbor complain? Is everyone good with it? The neighbors are very happy with it. Very supportive. They actually both sent in a letter with their support on it.

Yeah, you guys should have that. Actually, if you were to see what the side of the Obviously, you can't park on the side of the road during the winter, right? So last spring, the side where the driveway is currently now was 3 in of mud. The mud was on the road after, you know, you're driving out on the road. So then you take the top soil, it was in the road. Then you had we had to regrow the grass and then that's where we said, you know what, we need to we need to do something about it. So it looks a million times better. The landscape around it's been redone. It looks it looks very natural. So yeah, Fiona Okay, thank you. Thanks for having us.

Staff have comments on this? I know uh Evan was kind of working on it, but

yes, I'm Evan today. Um, so Mary Brunner, senior planner. Um, the staff report is actually quite short for this one. A lot of the driveway standards don't really apply in this instance. Really, the one hangup is the driveway criteria or standard that requires a driveway, a residential driveway to be 30 feet at the right-of-way line and 20 ft at the property line. Um there is a process in the code where you can request something called an exception. It requires um mailed notice to the direct abutters. Um after 14 days then um if there's no objections raised by any abutters the um city engineer who is the uh person who has authority to approve driveways for single and two family residences um will then make a decision and um his decision has to be based on the criteria for granting an exception in section 2356. Um and those are that issuance of the exception will not adversely affect the safety of pedestrians, bicyclists and vehicles using adjacent streets and intersections. That criteria has been met. B. Issuance of the exception does not adversely affect the efficiency and capacity of the street or intersection. That criteria has been met. C. there are unique characteristics of the land or property which present a physical hardship to the requesttor. That criteria um in staff's determination has not been met. And then D, in no case shall financial hardship be used to justify the granting of the exception. And so while staff uh definitely uh feel sympathetic uh to the situation um that staff didn't feel comfortable approving

this request which is why it has come before you. You as a body are supposed to use the same criteria to evaluate the application. Um so with that I'm happy to answer any questions. Um, one other thing I'll mention is that in the staff report, it sort of has a two-part motion that's recommended, and I don't think that's actually necessary. I think you could combine those into one motion because basically granting the exception request would be granting the street access permit. Um, are there any questions? Councelor Ellis.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, Miss Burner, uh, what is the the basis of the the code stating that the that a driveway should be 30 feet wide at the street and 20 feet at the at the property?

Yeah, sure. So, that is a standard specifically for residential driveways for single and two family. And so, the idea behind that requirement is for um access management on the street. So basically, we don't want the street to be cut up with large swaths of um curb cuts. And so the idea is to keep the curb cuts narrow. Once you get into the property, it could flare out to create more space for parking. Um but along the streetscape, the intent behind that standard was to limit the amount of disruption to um the roadway. that has been shown to improve safety for users, especially in areas where there are sidewalks um and high pedestrian traffic, but also for bicyclists and and motorists. Um I'm not entirely sure when that standard was first adopted by the city. It predates my time um with the city of Keen, but these are criteria that are adopted by council.

Thank you. Other questions, Miss Pastor Giovani? So, basically, if their curb cut were narrower and they left the driveway the same width within that curb cut, it would be within standard.

That's correct. Yeah. If they were to narrow the the portion of the driveway that connects to the road and leave the rest as is, that would be fine. Um, I know that would be probably annoying because what tends to happen in those situations is that people will just drive over the portion that's unpaved, but uh that would meet our standards and would hopefully meet their needs as well. They wouldn't have to tear the entire thing up. That's correct. They just need to be 30 feet at the public ride and then 20 feet at the property line and then they can flare back out to whatever width they need. Okay,

Mr. Cost. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, so I understand that some of the conditions are met and certainly it's sympathetic as well. The work was done. To me, it seems like the contractor who does a lot of work in Keen I assume would know that there are um permits required, but I do get concerned a lot about um precedent. And so if um on any kind of permit whether it's a building code or it's a land use uh you know land development code permit um if we accept this uh appeal um I'd hate to see me or any of us sitting here three months from now and another situation comes up where someone wasn't aware of a permit did the work and same thing happen. And so I I just I think we have these things here. They're important. We spend a lot of time and effort thinking them through for lots of reasons. So that that's a just my main concern about this. Um if there is a good common sense way to reduce cost and impact and hardship on on homeowners, be all for that. But just the idea that um something was done without a permit and then sort of after the fact you know, to ask for sort of forgiveness is is could could be a just a down the road situation over again. Thanks,

Mr. Kosa. I'm just curious, have we ever uh you know, because I'm new to the uh board, uh have we ever made exceptions to this in recent memory? Yes. Um, the planning board most recently issued a driveway exception. Um, I forget the address, but it was within the last few months actually. Um, but it was a situation where uh it was a corner lot and based on like where the buildings were placed, they literally had nowhere like they didn't have any space on the lot.

Interesting. So the board was able to determine that there was a unique characteristic of the lot that caused a hardship in that instance. Right. I think I was actually part of that. I remember that now. Thank you. Cost um was that after the was that before the permit it was a permit exception or it was already installed? I believe if I recall it it they were Yeah, it wasn't installed yet. I don't believe. an exception to it so that to the requirements to get the permit. Yes, but a little different situation.

I would um just say though that regardless of whether the driveway was already installed or not, I think you can treat it as if it's not been installed um and they [clears throat] are coming to you without having done any work and they're asking for permission to do this. um because you should be basing your your evaluation based on the merits of the application um and not necessarily trying to penalize people for not knowing the rules. Um that would be my recommendation. Have uh have we had any further input from the city engineer or this is black and white to them? [sighs]

Yeah, this is this is pretty black and white to the city engineers um perspective. He did provide comments on this which are on the staff report which is basically um you know based on our review we've determined that your request does not satisfy the evaluation criteria specifically that there are no unique characteristics of the land which present a physical hardship. Um, so yeah, I think it's just that that uh C and D under the exception criteria that are the hangup.

Mr. Cost, can you could you just say again why you couldn't you weren't supporting this or you are supporting this application when you first started talking?

Yes, sure. So, um, from staff's perspective, the in order to grant an exception to the driveway criteria, the applicant is supposed to demonstrate that they meet the um the criteria in section 2356, which is included on that second page of the staff report. Those are the criteria that we read through. And, um, it's criteria C, which states that there are unique characteristics of the land or property which present a physical hardship to the requester. Um, and then D, in no case shall financial hardship be used to justify the granting of the exception. So, I think those two particularly together make it challenging for staff to recommend approval. Um, I mean, I just want to say for the record, we are very sympathetic to the property owners. Um, there's not a lot of wiggle room here. So again, I'm trying to understand the curb cut itself. If they had to fill in the end, how how deep does that have to go? How complicated is that? Is that a huge expense for them? Can they get Gemini to foot the bill? I mean, how comp It doesn't seem like it's that complicated. It's not like they have to rip up the entire driveway in keeping with the rules that I just am trying to understand if that's a real hardship to reduce the curb cut to reduce opening there. I I feel bad for them no matter what. I definitely do and it was a mistake but anyone who lives in Keen knows all we have a lot of rules and you have to follow them. Um, so to answer your question, I personally have absolutely no idea what it would take or how much it would cost

to rip out um the small portion of the driveway. I would guess it's maybe between where the uh public rideway is and where their property line is is maybe about five feet, maybe 10 ft. I'm not entirely sure. Um, so I think it would be a a financial cost and a hassle um to remove it, but I don't I couldn't give you a a cost estimate or even a ballpark. They have

they would have to remove it and put grass back there or could they put like a barrier there of some sort? Yeah, the city engineers letter says to reveate. Yeah. So, I think just putting a barrier probably wouldn't work. Um, but if you were to reveate it and make it so it's actually pvious ground, um, that would meet the the regulations. So, it would be lawn or could it be shrubbery or is it definitely specific to back to what it was?

I think it could be whatever the property owners would like. So, yeah, Mr. Hayer.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, yeah, I think I mean if if we as a board I think our role here is to make sure that the the city staff that that denied the the um the permit uh has done that correctly. And from what I've seen and and heard tonight and read through here, I unfortunately don't see, you know, I think without without a mis interpretation of of number C there, the unique characteristics to to the the point of of being concerned about um the yield slippery slope and and other other folks that might want to do different things with uh driveways on their land. I don't see room for us to overturn the decision of a city staff in this case. And um

yeah, don't you just hold thoughts for? It felt like we had sort of moved into deliberation. I'm sorry. So, are we done with staff? Questions for staff? I'll let you know that.

Anyone else have a question for staff? Miss Forson? Uh, thank you, Mr. Chair. I've just been doing some like very back of the napkin math over here using the city's GIS database and the aerial imagery, and it looks like it's uh Miss Brener is correct. It's about like 9 and a half or 10 feet from where the um edge of the road is to where their property line begins. So, if that's 10 feet by 9 feet in width that they added onto their driveway, that's about 90 square feet approximately that they would at least have to remove just to provide the board with some context for your consideration.

Thank you, Miss Forson. Okay. [snorts] So, I see you have uh two potential uh motions. Uh I will let Miss Master Giovani decide which one she wants to go with. We don't have a vote. What? We don't have Yeah, we're going to have a vote. Yep. But this is just a motion. Mr. So, we're either going to move to deny or move to grant. Sorry, Mr. Chair. Uh, just really quickly, this is a public hearing, so I don't know if you wanted to.

Yeah, that's good. Thank you. Thank you for the reminder. Okay. So, at this time, we will uh entertain [snorts] comments or questions from the public. Anyone here wish to comment on this application?

What's that? back up there. Uh, sure. You can make a point.

So, I just want to reiterate the um the spaces it was used previous. So, it was lawned that would be three vehicles wide. We were using it as pavement essentially and we're still coming into the the road of Robins Road with a vehicle. I think that's one of the arguments, the safety aspect for pedestrians. So, there's no curvature. Um the grade is essentially within probably an inch of the asphalt on the road. So we all we've done is literally used it as a driveway, but it was mud top soil getting everywhere. The pavement's there now. So if we were to say make this special cut, what's to say we just there's there's no curvature, there's no nothing saying we couldn't use that the same way, but we'd just be essentially wasting money to cut this back. Um it just doesn't make a lot of sense. So that's why I was kind of saying we're really using it the same way we were before. Just it looks better. The soil's not going all over the road down the road. Um and then the lawn looks like, you know, not very nice. So that's all I just want to irate that. So

all right. Thank you. Thank you.

I'm looking at this side of the room. Anyone don't want to comment on this? Okay. All right. I'll close the public portion and move to deliberation. So, at this time, um, why don't you just read it in the list? Just read, uh, the denial motion, I guess. [clears throat] I'd like to move to deny the requested exemption from section 23.5.4.8.8 eight of the land development code to allow for a driveway width greater than 30 feet at the curb line and 20 ft at the property line.

Second. Thank you, Mr. Hayer. Okay. Now, uh discussion, deliberation. Mr. Hayer,

I'll just uh repeating some of my comments from earlier uh for the record. you know, essentially um yeah, without without the the C, it feels like my my interpretation is that the the city staff interpreted this standard correctly and that there's no good there's no uh valid reason for us to overturn uh that decision. uh sympathies uh of of uh of the aside from our our personal sympathies which uh which we all have expressed our our concerns about um with other other driveways, other properties, um there are some some standards that we need to try to try to preserve. Um and I think this uh this falls into that category. Uh and there does seem to be something of a solution uh available which still gives property owner parking spots for additional vehicles. Doesn't uh you know luckily the driveway doesn't doesn't get close enough at other property line to to be an issue there. So um it would allow um allow six six eight six vehicles probably to park in that space anyhow. Um, so, um, but without without a better without a hardship of, uh, the the physical characteristics of land, I don't see us being able to to overturn the rule original ruling. Thank you. Other comments, other opinions? Councelor Ellis.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, [clears throat] I it seems to me that the purpose of this regulation is for safety for pedestrians and and bikers. And if this is a low density area with very little street very little pedestrian and bike traffic, I'm not I'm not sure how how essential that is here. So I I definitely get, you know, that the code is created for a purpose, but I feel like in this in this instance, the purpose of the code is not necessarily a factor for this the specific home and driveway. So I don't know. I still feel a little iffy. Thank you.

Yeah, I I understand where you're coming from. I have the same thoughts. I mean, the spirit of the of the driveway uh width intent is uh is a safety issue. There's no curb. There's no curb cut. I mean, it's just a there's no curving on this road. Um so, I mean, to me, this was uh it's unfortunate, but I don't think it's really setting a great precedent if we were to uh accept the appeal. Um, but that's just my opinion. Other opinions, Mr. Co. Thank you. Um, I'm feeling uh similar where um yeah, there's no curb. Um, and I'm thinking if these are teenagers that are driving these cars, they're just going to I mean, this is just an assumption, but drive right over the grass anyways. So, like what's the difference in my mind? But that's just my thoughts,

Mr. Cost.

Thank you. I I think the another reason I could think of that why there's a 20 this this dimension standard is that if you're in a neighborhood with houses one after the other after the other and as a street um I think we've all come to appreciate some uniform kind of design. houses are set back a certain way and different things like that are happening and the the driveways coming to the street, you know, are a certain width and if everybody were to make them as wide as they wanted, then the front yards would be paved. So, I I mean, I think there's re reasons for this. Um, in addition to safety, um, and safety wasn't one of the issues. I understood why the city is denying this. So, um, and I understand that the neighbors and everyone are okay with it and they don't mind, but you know, at some point people move and change. And, um, then that this would all be just there. And so, I I mean, I'm inclined to see if there's this sort of moderate solution. It's not free. It's not maybe even cheap, but it's it's it's a solution to get back to meeting the code. And I think the codes are there for a reason. Thanks. Okay. Uh, one other thing I'd like to say, I I am sensitive to the fact that the city engineer, you know, issued this uh, citation, if you will, and, you know, we want to be in a position of supporting uh, the city workers. Um, so it's it is a tossup in my mind, but

I think unless there's other comments, we're going to call a vote here. Mr. Mayhew, do you have something to say?

You're the only one I haven't heard from yet on this. I I certainly mirror Molly and Joey and what they're saying cuz it seems as though there's a safety issue there, especially them being at a um at an intersection. Um, I I have not driven on that street in particular, so I'm not sure about visibility at night, but them parking on the the road does seem like it presents an issue. I'm just trying to in my mind see if uh unique characteristics of the land or property constitute a uh safety as a physical hardship, but I don't know that it does or doesn't.

I guess we'll find out. All right. So, I'm going to call a vote. So just as a reminder um if an I vote is uh saying that we will deny the requested exception a nay vote means we um we will um approve or grant the exception. So, um, so let's just call all those in favor of the motion. All opposed. Okay. The uh the motion is denied. The appeal is the exception is denied. Okay. Uh, now we'll move on to another public hearing. The next item is PB-2025-27 major site plan and congregate living and social services conditional use permit. for a new anew behavioral health 232 Winchester Street. Applicant a new behavioral health on behalf of owners David and Brienne Gray proposes to convert the mixeduse building at 232 Winchester Street. uh tax map pl number 592-017-00 into a small group home with eight beds. The parcel is approximately 0.4 acres in size and is located in the high density

district. Okay. The staff have a recommendation for completeness. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is Megan Forson, planner. The applicant has requested exemptions from submitting separate existing and proposed conditions plans, grading, landscaping and lighting plans, elevations, and all technical reports. After reviewing all of the requested exemptions, planning staff have made the preliminary determination that granting the requested exemptions would have no bearing on the merits of the application and recommend that the board accept the application as complete. Thank you. I'll entertain a motion to accept the proposal as complete. Miss Master Giovani. So moved. Thank you. Second.

Second, Mr. Cos. Thank you. Okay. So motion is approved. So the application is accepted as complete. I'm sorry. We have to vote on it. Getting ahead of myself. All right. So any discussion about completeness of the application? All right. All those in favor of accepting the application as complete. Any opposed? Okay. Application is now accepted as complete. So at this time I'll invite the applicant to uh present on the application. [snorts]

Good evening everybody. Uh my name is Jason Pratt. I'm CEO of a new behavioral health. Keith Litel regional director of operations for a new Okay, welcome. Thank you. Thank you so much. So, it's uh it's your nickel.

Yeah, I'm going to defer to Keith to start. I know, you know, as far as um the project overall and one thing I would contribute that doesn't really show up in the application is that a new actually has a long history of managing these types of projects. Uh just kind of for the board's information, uh we're operational in New Hampshire and Ohio. We have 18 such uh facilities in Ohio right now that are operational. We've got a great history with that. Uh a lot of expertise on our side as far as uh past experiences not only in other states but here in Keen. Uh Keith and I both worked with Phoenix House a long time ago. So we know these projects inside and out. Are both residents uh and having operated here for over four years. We're well aware of the need. So very excited for this and uh looking forward to to moving forward if possible. Uh Keith as our regional director has done the vast majority of the heavy lifting. So I'll defer to him to the details of the application, but just wanted to state for the record that we're very excited, you know, for the project overall.

Thank you.

Yeah. So uh we submitted the application, you have all the material. The plan is to transform that multi-use building into uh recovery housing. We uh there's two other recovery homes in Keen that we know about. There's an established need. This is something that uh our stakeholders like drug court and the doorway are looking for in this area because Keen is a little bit separate from the recovery capital that's in the rest of the state. And the New Hampshire Partnership for Recovery Housing, the body that certifies recovery housing in the state also has this area as an identified need and we're working with them. So, this would be a certified recovery home. Uh we have as Jason said two clinical offices in Keen already. So we operate all of that clinical programming that the clients in recovery housing would attend. We have all of our policies and procedures and our operations manuals for this type of uh program ready to go. We're working with the state to adapt it to the specific standards that they have. And um I think that that sums up what I what I've got.

Yeah. And I would add a just a joiner there on that. All of our operational standards and environment of care are based on the national alliance of recovery residents which is the federally recognized kind of leader in terms of gold standard care in this regard. And everything is based on that in terms of our staffing ratios, our programming and the environment of care. even down to how many square foot each bedroom per bed, how many uh refrigerators you need per bodies, we defer to those federal standards and everything. So, we uh you know go by the book on that. Thank you.

So, I'll uh ask if the board has any questions for the applicant. applicants. I have a couple questions if you don't mind. Yeah. Um there's a couple things in the in the package that uh uh described visitors. I guess uh visitors are allowed but um only scheduled visitors. Yeah. Yeah. And are those are there uh Uh what can you describe if there are like rules about visiting or

Yeah, absolutely. So when any case like this when you have congregate living you would have to think about the safety of everybody involved at all times while at the same time kind of balancing the fact that this is home for everybody that's living there. So visitors are absolutely welcomed. Um basically a lot of this comes down to clinical appropriateness and where people are in the program. So within the first 90 days, they're not doing any visitors because they're just getting acclimated to the program, establishing a history of sobriety and making sure that they're following all programming rules. Um once those criteria have been met, uh visitors and passes are approved by the clinician that's assigned to each person. And then there are standards for anybody coming and going from the home in terms of searching belongings, uh things of that nature. We have designated areas for them to have those visits. And there is 24-hour supervision, and that would include during visitation time. again less to be an intrusion upon the visitor or the visitation, more to ensure the safety of everybody else involved. And then you add an extra element that everybody involved in this program as a client is is verifying and confirming their ongoing sobriety with weekly drug testing as well. Um so if they have visitors and it's successful and there's not a disruption to the community at large and their sobriety has m been maintained, it's something we encourage and would like to see more of.

Yeah. And to to add to that on the national standards for recovery housing there's different levels. So there's like level four which is the most structured which is like a clinical program like a 3.1 uh like some of live freeze programs or avenues or these other large treatment centers. Then there's a level three which is not clinical but much more structured and that's what this uh house would be level three. So we have like Jason said this this uh this track or these stages that residents will go through to ensure that stability is there that they're building recovery capital and that everyone in the house is safe. That continues down to like level two recovery housing and level one recovery housing that has different levels of restriction. So we're at level three. the visitors and all of that is very closely monitored from an operations perspective and all of that the other stuff like if they can have visitors and clinical appropriateness is deferred to their clinical team.

Great. That's uh uh that's an answer that sounds like you guys know what you're doing.

Um are there any restrictions for the for the clients in terms of in and out? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I'll defer to Keith on these levels, but it's going to tie back into that level system, and it's going to be kind of what you would expect early in the program before you've achieved higher levels. It's much stricter, less freedom as far as ability to roam. But the end goal um is their independence, right? So, I I kind of joke we have a weird business model. We don't want a lot of repeat customers. And so, by the time they're done with us, we hope they're really done with us, right? And so on level one, you know, much higher as far as, you know, restriction, day passes, going to work and things like that, there would have to be a designated reason for that. And then you contrast that to somebody who may is, you know, level three or four, been there for six months, has earned that trust, has passed every drug test, successful visitations, has obtained employment, they're really getting ready to launch. That's going to be somebody who's going to look, you know, more like they're able to just sort of come and go as they need. But obviously with all the check-in procedures, anybody coming in and out of the house are, you know, it's checked in, checked out. So, it's never without our knowledge, but certainly a lot more on the client's impetus and choice as time goes on. So, I missed some details, but that's kind of the overall goal.

Great.

Yeah. And it it will depend a little bit on case basis. The general like day-to-day operations is is all of the residents uh go to clinical programming offsite. So, they go with a staff member, they're supervised, they go off-site, they do their individual, their group therapy, uh, however many hours they need to a week, uh, based on their treatment plan, based on any other legal involvement, anything like that. So, the staff know where the clients are at all times. If they're not at clinical programming uh and they have a pass to go to work, then they're at work for x amount of time and then they're expected back at x amount of time. That includes like, you know, attending all clinical programming during the day, being back at the house at 3, 4, 5, whatever their schedule is. structured scheduled wreck time, free time in the evenings, 12step peer support meetings, and then wrap up and bedtime. So, it's on like a set schedule, and there's only some exceptions to that, which work or school or or anything. So, all of it is is monitored and the comingings and goings of everyone is monitored. Yeah.

And when Keith, I'm sorry to interrupt, but when Keith talks about programming too, I did want to offer that a new is dual certified in behavioral health and substance abuse. So sometimes the traditional thought about recovery programs is that you're just working on the addiction piece of that. Um, but a new already does that work regardless of these homes with the behavioral health side. So we have psychiatrists, registered nurses, licensed therapists that can work on the mental health and the substance abuse side. So, you know that when we talk about programming it, you know, and I don't want to diminish anything, but it's not as simple as, hey, you go to a group for an hour or two and then you're off and doing whatever.

We kind of have a rare capacity to work both sides of that equation and handle dual diagnosis. So, if there are other issues that are impeding upon their recovery, their progress, we can address that, you know, right there as part of that program, one-stop shop as well. And when he talks about going off-site, that would be to our established locations that already exist and already do work on both sides of the house already. So, there's no change for us there. Uh, and it am I correct in assuming you guys will provide all meals or most meals?

Well, so a little bit of both, right? So, the same sort of thing. When somebody's there early on, we typically have to cover the meals until they gain their independence, you know, either register for benefits, obtain employment, whatever it is. Again, as time goes on, they will transition out and they can support themselves. And they're doing that because we're not charging rent, right? So, we give them a big kind of leg up there so they can save money to help achieve that independence. They do start covering some of their own meals as time goes on. And the hope is before they leave they're they're covering all of their expenses because that's what true independence looks like. Um but nobody goes hungry. I mean nobody's going to miss a meal. We we cover all that of course.

Yeah. And part of the non-clinical portion of the recovery home is developing life skills. So, uh, the staff there are peer support staff and they help set a schedule with all the clients to make sure chores are taken care of, meals are taken care of, all the common areas are clean, and they're developing the habits that support independence and building recovery capital and self-efficacy and maintaining employment and managing their money and uh, creating meal plans and and having uh house family dinners and building those uh community bonds essentially.

Great. Um is your expectation is that the clients will be predominantly from Keen or That's typically how it works. I mean we're open to anybody within the state obviously to meet the need but we we already have an established weight list of local clients that would want to receive the help and need the help. So um sadly we really don't have to go far for customers and clientele and there is a local need that we would be meeting first and they would have priority.

Great. Good. Sad is correct but that's that's good. Uh and last question sorry to dominate the conversation here but um you have any uh feel for your staffing needs and these are new jobs for part-time full-time.

Yeah. So you're adding three. you're adding three jobs across the board because it's 24-hour coverage, right? So, eight hours per plus the weekends. So, those are called recovery monitors and those are folks that are there to monitor the home and make sure everybody gets where they need to go. We do have existing staff that'll help out in terms of licensed therapists and psychiatrists. But, obviously, as our clientele grows, we would have to hire more. So, there can be some more hiring. Also, on both sides, there's a specialty on the substance abuse side and that's a LAC LC as far as a lensure. So, the mental health therapists a little different than that. And so there is an opportunity to add staff on the subst side once these programs are allowed to be open. Great. Thanks. Anyone else have questions?

I've used all mine up, Miss Master Gmani. [clears throat] As far as like the outdoor space that they have, um I read it's toward the back and it's somewhat fenced in and so forth. I mean, I know there's typically a lot of cigarette smokers in that kind of community, which is fine. Um, but just want to ensure that it's kind of like a good, you know, sheltered area that because that is a really well seen,

you know, spot, college kids, everybody goes by that way. So, I just kind of wanted to get a vision of how that area was going to look back there.

Yeah. So, we're going to have a a small structure for for this smoking area to make sure that it's shielded from uh the other property lines. Um, and it's covered and it stays neat and and clean. This is a uh an issue that's been brought up at every program that I've worked at. And typically part of the chores is making sure that the smoking area is clean and that everything is picked up and and tidy. And as far as I've been working in the field, it hasn't been it hasn't been a problem at any of the places that I've worked or been responsible for that aspect. So I don't have the exact I can't paint paint you a picture of how the structure will will look, but it's definitely going to be covered and shielded. So, it's not going to be like neighbors can see this group of people smoking and it's going to there's going to be trash spread around. It's not going to be like that. It's going to be tidy, contained, and

Yeah, that that's perfect. Great. Thank you.

And I'm a little old school with that stuff. I I think that environment of care really matters. So, like the grass gets cut, the building gets painted, we have the best Christmas lights, like there's no chairs on the porch. Uh we understand that when you get neighbors like this, sometimes it's a little bit like what's this going to be like, you know, and so we don't want to just kind of meet the bare minimum standard in terms of aesthetics and environment of care. Two reasons. It helps improve our relationship with our neighbors. Okay, these guys are taking care of things. The second thing is for our clients, it gives them a real sense of pride [snorts] uh where they're living and that's something for them to live up to. Uh the reality is sadly, again, I could use the word all night. They're not really accustomed to that when they come to us for the first time. They've been they've grown accustomed to living standards that are not conducive uh to long-term sobriety or health in a general sense. Uh so we really try to raise the bar on that and I I should have brought pictures. Ohio, like I said, we've got 18 buildings. It's lit up. You know, we decorate for every holiday. Like I said, the grass gets cut, we edge the by the sidewalk. We we really raise the bar on that. And again, it's partly for our neighbors, but it's really more for our guys. So that okay, this is what it looks like and feels like when you're really taking pride in your surroundings. So makes a big difference.

Great. Okay, councelor Ellis. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I'm sorry. I may have read this in what you submitted, but is is it going to be co-ed or all men or like all men right now?

Thank you. And I have one more question if I may. Um, yeah, of course. Speaking of of health, I was just wondering if you have any arrangements like to take um clients who want like offsite to a gym or something. Is there any like physical activity? So we do everywhere but here because we haven't started here yet, right? So that's something that's really important too, that mind body connection piece and physical health connects with mental health. So we'll be seeking those relationships right off the bat, even if it's as simple as using open park space. Um we'll use our nursing staff a lot of time or even bring in trainers to kind of do like those informal workouts. Um we'd love to partner with the Y and get memberships. What other places have done, they let us get like a standing membership. So we have eight beds, we have eight memberships and can cycle through whoever's in that slot. Um I believe in that. I mean, I I go to the gym for mental reasons, much less than physical. I'm too old to worry about the physical stuff now. Um, but yeah, that's absolutely going to be part of our programming. Yeah.

Thank you. Yeah. All right. Thanks very much. Yeah. Appreciate it. Okay. So, at this point, I'll ask staff to provide their comments. Thank you, Mr. Chair. This is Megan Forson, planner again. Um, so I think that Mr. Lel and uh Mr. Pratt

Okay, good. [laughter] did a great job of providing an overview of the services that are going to be offered and how the facility is going to operate. I'm just going to briefly walk you through um the proposal and give you a lay a little bit of information about the site layout itself and the standards that are applicable to your review of the application. Um so the subject parcel itself is a little bit less than a half an acre in size and it's located to the south of on the south portion of Winchester Street um to the west of Winchester Court and directly adjacent to the Ashullet River. Um the building was previously occupied by an office and two apartment units and is now proposed to be converted to an eight-bedroom congregate living use which is um going to be a small group home. Currently the almost the entirety of the site is located within the 500year flood plane. Um however no portion of the lot is currently located within the 100-year flood plane or the floodway. um if it were located either in the floodway or in the 100-year flood plane, then it becomes subject to our floodplane development regulations. Um so under the use standards of the land development code, this parcel is located in high density and a congregate living use like a small group home which is up to eight people is allowed but only through the issuance of a congregate living and social services conditional use permit. So you have specific standards. There is a specific article of the land development code that's dedicated to these types of uses um and specific criteria. So during our review of the application, staff did not feel that the proposed use was going to have um any sort of regional impact. And then in regards to departmental comments on the applications, um we received comments from both code enforcement and the fire department. And those are really just aware uh to make the applicant aware of the fact that um the change of use from office and

apartments to um a small group home is going to need to meet certain life safety requirements and certain building code requirements. Um the applicant has made aware of been made aware of that and they know that they're going to need to go through those processes, but the first step is really coming before you guys and getting approval for the use. Um, I'm going to very briefly go through the congregate living and social services criteria and the applicable site development standards. Um, if you read my staff report, it was six pages long, so I don't think that anybody wants me to go through that line by line. Um, but basically the first congregate living standard says that the nature of the proposed application is consistent with the zoning regulations, the land development code, and the city's comprehensive master plan. And it also requires that the proposal comply with all of the specific standards for small groupoup homes which are outlined under section 8.3.4 of the land development code. Um so to go through those standards in section 8 that are specific to this use. They state that there shall only be one group home permitted per lot. group homes may not operate without an approved conditional use permit and a congregate living and social services license shall be obtained and renewed on an annual basis and that the building exterior shall maintain the appearance of a residential structure. So, the applicant is not proposing to change anything on the outside of the building. There is um on the third page of the staff report, which I I don't know what page that is in your packet, I apologize. Um it does show that the existing building is sort of colonial in style and it fits in with the other um buildings in that area as much as it can. Um across the street is like a moto sports store and there's the car dealership. Keen housing is directly to the right and then to the south is uh Keen State College parking lots. So it's uh quite a variety of uses I'll say around the site. Um

the other thing is that um to connect this to the comprehensive master plan um one of the goals of the livable housing pillar is to address the housing needs of all residents current and future. Action item number 5.7 under this goal states that the community needs to ensure that zoning and development regulations allow for diverse housing. Um, so the proposed use is going to be providing dwelling units and services to a vulnerable population in the Keen community. Uh, based on staff's review, the proposal appears to be consistent with the spirit intent of the zoning regulations, the land development code, and the master plan. Um, the next standard, which is B, states that the proposed use will be established, maintained, and operated so as to not endanger the public health, safety, or welfare. Um again, as was described by our two applicants here, um there are a number of procedures that will take place both inside the building and outside of the building to ensure uh that all residents are going to be in safe st keeping safe standards. There will be locked doors, all of those types of things. And the only outdoor area that's proposed is that 120 square foot smoking shelter towards the southern portion of the site. And item C is sort of the same. just talks about the fact that if there's going to be any waiting areas that they need to be screened. [clears throat] So, I've already addressed that item. A lot of these seem probably seem somewhat redundant, so I apologize. Um D says that the proposed use will be of a character that does not produce noise, odors, glare, and or vibration that will adversely affect the surrounding area. Um that's most most of the use will be inside of the building given that it's a residential proposed use. And then again, the site itself is screened on most sides by fencing. And on the side that's not screened is that's the Ashwit River and that already has an existing vegetated buffer that will be used to help screen the site as well. Um the proposed use will not place an excessive

burden on public infrastructure, facility, services or utilities. Um there isn't expected to be a large amount of traffic generation. Um there's an approximation of about 10 vehicle trips per weekday and six vehicle trips per weekend day. And then there's only enough parking spaces on the site for about eight vehicles, which is what is driving the number of beds that's proposed uh because you're required to have one space per bed with this use. And then um so that standard appears to be met. And then next standard states the proposed use will not result in the destruction, loss, or damage of any feature determined to be of significant natural, scenic, or historic importance. um staff did not feel that that standard was applicable because there's not anything that fits into any of those categories on the site. And then um G is that the proposed use will not create a traffic safety hazard or a substantial increase in the level of traffic congestion. Again, not an issue because most residents are not going to have their vehicles on the site for at least 90 days. Um, the last standard requires that the proposed use will be located in proximity to pedestrian facilities, which would include multi-use trails and sidewalks, public transportation, or offer transportation options to its client population. Um, so this site is kind of ideally located to meet this standard because the um Cheshure Rail Trail is located not far from here. They're less than a half half a mile from the city express um red and black bus routes and then the facility is going to have their own vehicular transportation and obviously their sidewalks accessible um when you walk out the front door so it complies with that standard. Um to very quickly go through the site development standards, snow and removal, um that standard had been met. The applicant identified a quite large snow storage area on the southern portion of the site for screening. Um, again, the only standard that's really applicable in this instance is the outdoor smoking area, which staff think is proposed to be

sufficiently screened from view of the public rightway and adjacent parcels. Um, and then surface waters and wetlands. So, the subject parcel because it is located right next to the Ash Wheellet River and is located in the high density district, the applicant is required to maintain a 30-foot buffer from the edge of the river onto the parcel. And so, um, they have submitted a plan and some supplemental information saying that they're aware that they cannot place any structures within that 30-foot buffer. Um, and if they were to do any work or construct anything within that buffer in the future, it could potentially need a surface water protection conditional use permit. So, that standard has been met. Those are all of the site development standards and uh congregate living CUP standards that are applicable. Um we did have a few recommended conditions of approval. For conditions precedent, it was our standard owner signature appears on the plan and the submitt of five full-size paper copies. And then for the condition subsequent um it's that the applicant obtain all required state and local permits [clears throat] and approvals. If they are granted this conditional use permit, they will be going before the Congregate Living and Social Services License Board to obtain um their initial CLSS license, which will then be required to be renewed every year. And if that license were ever to be non-renewed, their CUP would be invalidated. So, happy to answer any questions. Um I know that was a lot.

Thank you. Uh questions for Miss Forson.

Thank you. Very thorough. Thank you. Okay. Um this is a public hearing. So is there um anyone here from the public who would wish to comment? No. Okay. Then I will close the public portion of the meeting and we will move to uh entertaining a motion and then deliberation.

Miss Master Giovanni, if you wouldn't mind. Um I'd like to move to approve. Are you going to discuss prior to this? No, we'll deliberate after we have the motion on the table.

Okay. I'd like to move to approve PB-2025-27 as shown in the application and supporting materials submitted to the community development department on November 14th, 2025 and last revised on January 20th, 2026 with the following conditions. Prior to the final approval and signature of the plans by the planning board chair, the following conditions president shall be met. A, owner signature appears on the submitted plot plan. B, submittal of five full-size paper copies of the plot plan and subsequent to final approval and signature of the plans by the planning board chair, the following conditions shall be met. The applicant shall obtain all required state and local permits and approvals. Second.

I'll second that, Mr. Mayhe. Thank you. Okay. Now, uh comments, opinions, Mr. Cost. Thank you, Mr. Chair. I from the land development code I there's it really meets all the code issues. So I think from our point as a planning board this project in my opinion um doesn't have any issues. Um I did have a question though and I don't know if I could go back to to the

Yeah, that's fine. You want to ask the applicant? One thing you said that really interested me is that you felt this would um as a priority or somehow be be um an asset for keen residents. And I'm just wondering how how that happens because it's it's also open to anybody in the state. And you know, one thing I always think about is we have all well, we need more facilities like yours, but then we bring more people to Keen. So, um, how do how do we make sure it's really helping our residents? And I know that's not a land development issue.

Sure. No. And I want to clarify my comments. So when I speak about being open to anybody from the state and that's really a licensing and credentiing issue for us, we can't artificially restrict in that way, right? So um anybody who would be eligible to apply for the program is certainly welcome to apply, welcome to go through the standards to be referred. Um we have plenty of of candidates. We have plenty of people already identified. Like I said, a wait list that's already ready to go. We have local referral partners who are sort of chomping at the bit really hoping that we can open this. I don't anticipate that we're going to have much if any um participation outside of the local area, but I felt the need to state that just from a licensing and sort of credentiing standpoint for our agency. We can't deny access to anybody sort of, you know, within the state border. So, um I do want to clarify that it wasn't, you know, our intent or indication that we're looking um I'll use sadly again for the third time tonight. You know, sadly, we really don't have to travel far uh to do that. There is one aspect to that where sometimes people who need to be removed from their local environment like if all of their negative influences are here at home that there are other agencies where it's actually better for them for the first 90 days to go somewhere else. And what typically happens in that case is other agencies that we partner with or refer with. Sometimes if I'm making everything up here, somebody from Manchester needs a fresh start. We've got somebody from Keen that needs a fresh start. Okay, you can accommodate the person from Keen. We'll accommodate the person from Manchester. and as they progress in the program, when it's time to switch back and go home, when they're in a better place, that can happen. So, I want to be transparent about that. Um, but the nature of my comments was more of a kind of a letter of the law comment to say we can't deny access to anybody, but there's plenty of interest and an opportunity to help people here locally. So, yeah. And and one other just comment when there was a discussion about um the building itself and being of a colonial style, but that really is the vernacular architecture of of the city. And so um I think it is important that you're maintaining it the way it is, the way it

looks, and you already said you're going to paint it and keep it clean and make it even better than it is. So I think that's a good asset. Those those little houses are really important to Kee and you know I'm glad you're not doing some something else to it to Yeah. And it's not even superficial. There's repairs that are to be done inside that we've already committed to doing. So this this home is very happy to see us coming because there's a lot of updates that have been overdue and we'll be addressing all of those once we once we can. Thank you. Yeah. Thanks. Councelor Ellis. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Um, I think it sounds like this this project will be an asset to Keen. So, I I think this is exciting.

Thank you. Would anyone like to comment on the Yes, I can cover that for you. I will uh yeah, echo the statements of the fellow uh board members. I think this from our perspective, land development uh looks like all all things are in order. uh for us to approve that and would um would uh also state that I don't believe there's any areas of regional impact for a small facility like this that we would trigger any regional review.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Sorry, Mary Brener. Um, I just want to make sure I'm just triple checking, but uh, was this opened up for public comment? Okay. I just want to make sure cuz I missed that. Yeah. All right. Yep. And I even banged the gavl.

Thanks for keeping us honest, though. Uh other uh other opinions, deliberation. All right. Well, let's uh uh let's uh call the vote. So, we do have a uh motion motion to approve PB-2025-27 um congregate living and social services conditional use permit uh for 232 Winchester Street. So, All those in favor? Any opposed? Okay. The uh condition use permit is approved. Thank you very much.

Thank you and Godspeed in your work. Thank you so much. Sounds good. Thank you so much.

Okay. Well, that's it for public hearings. Now we are into some of the administrative aspects and we have staff updates. So I think I see included in our packet was a uh listing of the administrative and minor project um approvals for the second half of 2025 July 1 to December 31. So, I don't know if uh if if uh Miss Brener, you wanted to comment on it or uh

you wanted if there any particular feedback you're looking for from us?

Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. So, um I don't think I have any specific comments. Um the only thing I'll just draw your attention to is the fact that we didn't have any minor project uh applications that were approved during this time. These are all administrative approvals. Um, so I think that, you know, I'm excited that the site plan review thresholds have been modified and hopefully in the next year we'll see more projects come through that process. But otherwise, I don't really have any specific comments. Um, but as always, staff are here if you have any questions about any of the administrative approvals. Um, I will also remind you uh that these are posted online on the community development web page. So if you go to kenh.gov gov. Go to departments and click on community development. Right there on the community development page, there's a list of administrative approvals. So, you can see what's been approved by the department recently. Um there is, I think, a 20-day appeal time frame. So, um if somebody sees something on there and they're a neighbor and they object to it, they they have the opportunity to appeal to the planning board. So, um

yeah, Miss Forson. Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Um yeah, just to add one thing to that. Um typically the administrative approvals, whether they're from the planning board, historic district commission, if it's a zoning administrator, written interpretation, they live on the board or they live on our department web page um and they're deleted on a quarterly basis typically. So we just just removed old ones that were older than 30 days um at the start of the new year. So then come um early April, we'll remove older ones again. So, it's not everything that's on there um just because we don't want things to get lost. So, I did just want to point that out. Mr. Cost,

thank you. This is this is interesting. It's I mean it's a lot of very small things. Um but now with the change in the threshold, there might be a few more significant things coming up. Will they be are things posted while they're pending your approval or only after the fact that they've been administratively approved?

So, we post it after they've been administratively approved. However, we are in the process of updating our permitting software. And actually, we we do currently have permitting software that has a public facing page. It's just not very user friendly. Um but we are switching to a new permitting software later this year that will allow um members of the public to track pro uh projects while they're in progress. Um, so that is coming

and I I by no means want to diminish the uh importance or or amount of work that goes into these administrative approvals, but I was kind of disappointed to see zero dwelling units included in

in six months. Um but you know we uh as they say in uh sports you play the games that are scheduled and we rule on what we get given. So um while it's obviously a focus of the city and we uh want to support that to improve the uh uh variety and number of dwelling units. We uh our hands are tied by by the applications that come in. But thank you for the work and we appreciate this readout as well.

Um and Mr. Chair, I think we have one more staff update that uh uh just I got the information today. Um is it right if I mention that right now? Yeah, please.

Okay, thank you. So, yeah, hopefully every member got um this memo from uh from myself through Paul Andress. Um, and this is just an update on the capital improvement program, which in the city of Keen is adopted once every two years. Um, and so I provided a little bit of background about what the CIP is generally in New Hampshire and then um, an overview of the city's process. I think the main takeaway for this board is that um, the process has been changed a little bit from previous years. Um, previously the planning board was asked to vote on the CIP um, at the beginning of the process and with this schedule, I actually think this is a really good change. Um, you're being asked to vote on it closer towards the end of the process. So, you will have several opportunities to follow along. Um the if you can only attend one thing, I would highly recommend coming to the CIP kickoff presentations that's really meant for city council and the planning board members. Um it's an informal sort of atmosphere. You get to hear presentations from the department staff that are proposing the projects and um ask a lot of questions and it's a great way to get good information. Um and so highly recommend that. But then you'll also have a a couple of different um evening committee meetings that you can attend or watch the meeting recording if you so wish. So that hopefully by the time it gets to um to you for your March meeting, there will have been a public hearing before city council, two committee meetings before FOP, plus the kickoff presentations. Um, and so hopefully you will feel pretty well informed before you're asked to vote on it. Um, and the planning board's role is really to um, make a

recommendation as to whether or not the program is consistent with the 2025 comprehensive master plan. So, what's cost? So, I think I want to make sure that I went to I think the last time the the one in Heon Hall where people have like tables and booths and you go to public works, you go to the fire department. That's what that first one is. Yes. Because that was really very very interesting. Yeah. It's kind of fun I thought when I went. So, okay. But I'm me. So, and there were a lot of public there. So,

yeah. And I I I've been a pretty active participant in these things for a few cycles and I um highly encourage you to go and see what's going on in the city. make better informed more context for some of the things that we have to deal with and certainly voting on the the plan itself is important. Probably not a smart question, but is the city's budget set and approved after this or before this?

Before the CIP budget. So the first year of the CIP essentially is the budget. Um I think that the CIP, if I recall correctly, is a little bit before the budget process, but please don't hold me to that. I could be wrong. I want to say that the budget usually gets adopted in late April, early May. Yeah. And it's a separate process. This is Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Yep.

Thank you, Mary. Appreciate that update. Uh any new business? I would like to welcome Molly Ellis, uh new counselor and new uh exopicio member of the planning board. Welcome. Look forward to having you here. I appreciate it.

Okay. Now, uh, upcoming dates of interest, uh, in addition to the ones that Mary shared with us, uh, the joint committee of the planning board and PLLD is on Monday, February 9 at 6:30 p.m. Planning Board steering committee, uh, February 10th, that's a Tuesday, at 12:00 noon. Uh, planning board site visit, February 18th, which would be a Wednesday. that's to be confirmed if we have uh site visits that are required. Uh and then finally, the next meeting of the planning board itself is Monday, February 23rd, 6:30 p.m. in these chambers. And with that, I will adjourn the meeting at 8:03. Thank you very much, everybody. Drive safely.