Planning Board - Regular Meeting

So this evening we do not have our chair or vice chair present. Um so before we jump in um I'd like to ask the board to elect a chair prompor. Um and I did take the liberty ahead of the meeting of reaching out to councelor Remy to see if he'd be willing to serve in that capacity. So, if somebody would be interested in making a motion um to elect Mike Remy as the chair prom, I'll make a motion to have counselor Remy serve as the chair as this for this meeting. Is there a second?

Second. Second. Great. Um, so that's uh I think I'm trying to decide if we need to appoint somebody. I guess Stefan, yeah, we'll go ahead and and appoint you as a voting member so that you can make the motion and then all of those in favor. Great. Mike, I'm going to hand it over to you.

I was going to vote no and then I changed my mind. Uh, so yeah, that said, you guys are gonna have to put up with me for a little bit here um because I haven't run one of these ones before. So, appreciate the support. Uh, so good evening. The hour 6:30 p.m. having arrived. I will call to order this regular meeting of the planning board. This meeting is being broadcast live on the city of Keen YouTube channel and channel 1302. The video is also streamed on the city's website and is posted on the website by the end of the next business day, barring any technical difficulties. All actions taken during this evening's meeting will also be posted on the planning board web page on the city website. Copies of the printed agendas are available in the wall pockets as you enter the meeting room. I also do want to add that for anybody with difficulty hearing, there are uh amplifying devices that are available on the side. Um that's come up in the last couple. Um the public and other board members will be recognized to ask questions and comment on the agenda items under discussion. After being recognized, all remarks are be made through the chair. I will not recognize an individual a second time until everyone who wishes has a chance to speak. Anyone who wishes to address the committee uh is asked to go to one of the microphones in the room and identify themselves by name and address prior to speaking. The minute taker is participating remotely this evening. Board members, please make sure your microphones are on when speaking. If the minute taker is unable to hear you, there will be that uh recorded voice coming over the the loudspeakers to let us know that they can't hear you. Uh I'll call to order this regular meeting of the planning board and uh declare quorum present. Uh how many seats do we have to bring up uh voting members? All of them.

Um so you have four regular members present and three alternates. Um so we have enough room for everybody. Yeah, you just can't. Yeah, we can't make it eight. Sorry, what was that? We can't make it eight. I think we have enough room to do that. We need to call the uh do the um roll call first, but I just wanted to check if we could do that. I think so. Yeah. And one other call out that I do want to put out there is depending on how many people want to speak on an issue, we do reserve the right to limit the time for the uh folks speaking to that issue. So, we just want to call that out in advance if that does become necessary. Do you want to call the role?

Thank you. Um, Harold Fington, Robera Master Giovani, uh, Mayor Jay Khan present, councelor Mike Remy here, Sarah Vzani, Ryan Clancy here, Kenneth Cost here, Armando Rangel for the alternates, Stefan Mayu, present, Randon Markin, Tammy Adams, Michael Hayer here, and then our newest member member Joey Kos Va present. And uh did I say your last name correctly? Okay, great. Awesome. Thank you very much. So uh

if I might, Mr. Mayor, I'd just like to introduce Joey Kosa. Uh this is his inaugural meeting. So uh yeah, welcome uh Joe. And I don't know if you'd like him to say a couple words just where he's uh uh he he's all right. All right. A long time member in Keen and been very helpful in the KYBN stuff as well. So I see him around. So awesome. Um welcome Jake. Thank you.

Um so uh can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the last meeting? And actually, I believe we have two sets of minutes to approve, at least from what's in the packet, there's a uh two sets. So, it would be the August 25th, 2025 and the September 8th, 2025 minutes. We don't have the mean minutes from the special meeting that was just held. That's too new. But those will be in the next packet. Can we approve both at the same time? Yeah. I approve um a motion to approve both sets of minutes at the same time. Any seconds? Second.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. All right. Uh, any questions, comments, changes? All right. All those in favor, raise your hand. That's unanimous. Okay. Um, so the minutes are approved. Um, next we're going to move on to uh final vote on conditional approvals. So, I think there was one in the packet, but I'll kick it to staff for um this. Just as a matter of practice, the board issues final vote on all conditionally approved plans after the conditions precedent have been met. Uh this is a relatively new process for the board. Call it less than a year, I think, uh that we've done it this way. Right around a year probably. Um so the final vote will be the final approval and we'll start the 30-day approval clock or sorry 30-day appeal clock. Um any for tonight?

Thank you, Mr. Chair. There's two applications that are ready for final approval this evening. The first one is PB-20225-16 for 124 to 126 um Eastern A and 130 Eastern A. This was a boundary line adjustment application. Um this project had uh four conditions precedent to final approval including the owner signature appear on the proposed BLA plan submittal of two myar copies of the plan um and submitt of a check to cover recording fees as well as inspection of the lot monuments and all of those conditions have been met.

Awesome. Um, so with all conditions being met Oh, no. Just was ready to move. Ready to move. All right. So, um, any questions, comments, thoughts from the board, we move on. All right. All in favor? Sorry. I guess I need a motion to issue final approval. Did I get a motion for There's the motion. That's your So moved. All right. So, a second for Mr. Mayor. Second. Thank you. All right. Um, all those in favor of approval for PB202516. All right, that's unanimous. Thank you. And the other one,

you Mr. Chair. The next one is uh PB-20225-15 for 429 Elm Street. This was a cottage court development um application. There were there was just um two conditions precedent which was the owner signature appears on the site plan and submitt of five paper copies and one digital copy of the site plan. Um those conditions have been met. Awesome. Which cottage court was? This was for 429 Elm Street. It was the conversion of an existing structure was that's currently used as a garage into a duplex. Yeah. Awesome. Uh, can I get a motion for approval for PB202515? I move final approval.

Thank you, Mr. Mayor. A second. Second.

Thank you, Mr. Cross. Um, all right. All those in favor of Sorry, any questions, comments, thoughts before we move on. All right. All those in favor of approval for PB202515. That's unanimous. Thank you much. Um, now we're going to move into our uh public hearings. The first public hearing is an appeal of decision on street access permit exception request for 15 Crest View Street. Um applicants and owners uh Christopher Joerger and Britney Hill are requesting an appeal of a denied street access permit uh exception request from section 2354A of the land development code related to the allowed driveway width for a single and two family homes. The parcel is 222 acres in size and is located in the low density district. So first um does the staff have recommendation on completeness in the application?

Thank you Mr. Chair. This is Megan Forson planner. Um the applicant has not requested any exemptions from the submittal items as part of this application. Planning staff recommends that the board accept the application as complete. Awesome. Thank you. Uh is there a motion for accepting the application as complete? move completeness of the application. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Second. Thank you, Mr. May. Um, so moved and seconded. Uh, all those in favor of finding the application is complete. Again, unanimous. Thank you. Um, so with that, I'd actually invite the applicant up if you want to present.

Uh, so you can sit at the microphone here if you want. just see uh name and address which I think we just got but just to confirm it for the record. Um and then just run us through what you're trying to do. Sure. Yeah. Uh so Chris Jagger here from 15 Crestview Street. Um so and as you had mentioned I'm uh applying for the street access uh exception. Um and you you all have this in front of you, right? We have a packet here.

Okay, cool. Um, so yeah, as you can see, basically to the south side of the garage, I've proposed um just a sort of a cascading, if you will, uh extension of the driveway up to up the side of the garage. Um, so the um, and forgive me, I I forget the terminology, but at the at the street, you know, at the curb here, I've just proposed a little bit of an extension a couple feet and then angle up and towards the back of the drive, uh, back of the garage, forgive me. um just to create uh just another parking spot for essentially really just the the winter snow ordinance when it comes into play. Um other than that, we have we have plenty of room. Um, but I've, uh, you know, I've, um, kept within the property line quite a bit and as you saw in the site visit the other day, you know, there is some some work to be done to to make this happen, but um, ultimately uh, seems seem to be complying with uh, the proposed um, thoughts from this from the planning board community development that I've received. So, um, yeah. uh that a lot has gone into this, but ultimately kind of a simple idea just to make another spot to the right of the driveway.

Awesome. The uh the fun of having more drivers in the family. So, yeah. Exactly. Yeah. Awesome. So, um thank you for that presentation. So, the the board can see I think it's on page 45 on the packets. You can see the blue outline for that extension if you're looking for that page. Any questions for the applicant? I did get a private uh site visit because no one else could make it. So, for all three applications that had site visits, I got to wander around for him today or the earlier this week or last week. Any questions for the applicant? Go ahead, Mr. Chair. Uh, is there a reason why I saw the city if we do approve Can you turn on your microphone, please?

I turned it off. Whoops. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, so, uh, I noticed if we do approve, uh, staff is recommending that we ask that you square it off. Is there a reason why you have it angled instead of Um well, I guess long story short, um there was a few different proposals uh submitted here along the course of the last couple months really. Um originally my I originally wanted to go to the left of the driveway. Um there was some zoning issues there. Um so we um came up with the this proposal here to the to with the angle here based on city engineers thoughts at one point. Um so that's what I had submitted and to be quite honest it came back again that it to be squared off essentially which I'm not necessarily against. It was just at that point I I had submitted about three or four different proposals kind of just going with the thoughts that I the feedback I was getting. So, I just sort of said, you know, if we can stick with this, at least for now, you know, I I'd like to go with this. To square it off is not, you know, you know, I'm not opposed to that by any means, but um to be honest, it was just getting to a point where I was spending quite a bit of time just going over and over um different proposals that were coming back to me. So, uh here we are with this one.

Awesome. Any other questions for the applicant before we go to the staff report? Mr. Cross, thank you. Just so I understand, if it's squared off, that means more paving from looking at it. Would that be what that is? I in theory. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. And a wider drive at the

correct. I believe too. Um along the course of time here there was something that mentioned about a right of way in that area there as well. An issue with some kind of a right of way at that in if it was squared off instead of angled. So that's that's another reason why I went with this. I wasn't quite sure exactly what that meant. Um, especially for that area, but so that was another reason I followed the proposal or the feedback that came back to me for the angle. Um, you know, there's a lot that goes into this. I'm learning um, you know, this kind of process. So, I was really leaning on, you know, to be quite honest, Megan was super helpful and kind of guiding me through this. And uh so for lack of better terms, I was kind of trying to go with the flow a little bit. Um so here we are with the angle because I was something had been mentioned about a right of right of way in that area of the property. I believe

I don't have a note on that in here, but I'm sure we might get something on the staff report if when we get to that point. So, I think I have something back in my emails of they're they're good about they'll get us the the rundown there. Uh any other questions for the applicant? I'm just um the three-foot side setback. Uh you want to offer a comment on that? That seems narrow.

Uh sure. Sure. Um so um with this aerial image um and you know without getting surveyors or anything involved this actually granted it's you know an aerial image of you know maybe some kind of a rough estimate of the property line. Um the boundary here is is far far far further from where I'm even planning to have this done. um there would probably be six feet from the property line um you know when this is all said and done if it happens. So is that is that what you're referring to? I'm sorry.

Yeah, I I guess I'm wondering what is an acceptable distance for you. Uh you know if it's greater than 3 feet just might be a condition that we might want to Oh yeah. No, no, there'd be there'd be at least three feet from a setback here. It's hard to tell from the images, but there's a full wall of very tall lilacs in that setback. And um and then some other shorter shrubs right along the edge there. It's hard to see in that image. I just want I'll no doubt ask the staff. So wanted to have that opportunity to Yeah. Yeah. You as well.

Like the chair said, it is kind of hard to to make out. There is like a um almost a natural border of uh privets they're called. I I called them lilacs when they were there at the site that day, but they're privets. And then hydrangeas that naturally border our property, which um like I say, according to this aerial image, I might have more room in my property than I think, but again, I'm not trying to go there by any means, you know. So, uh,

and again, this is just obviously kind of a rough aerial image, but I was actually surprised to see this and maybe think, okay, you know, actually, maybe maybe I have more than I think here, but who if I could ask who did draw this? I mean I I well the aerial image I got off the access site but I I uh well roughly permanent markered in there. So we have two different versions. We have the permanent marker one on a later page 52 and then we have the um the blue boxes on 45.

So um I think probably appropriate to kick it to staff and they might be able to answer some of these questions around that. So, if no other questions for the applicant, I'll uh kick it to staff for comments. You're welcome to uh hang out or you can take a seat back there and then we'll cover for you. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh this is Megan Forson, planner again. Um, so just to provide a little bit of background and context for the planning board, you under state statute have the authority to review driveway permit applications, which in Keen we call street access or curbcut applications. Um, a number of years ago, I'm not sure quite how long ago, but a number of decades ago, I believe at this point, that authority was delegated to the city engineer for single family and two family homes along with um curb cuts that are approved for just temporary use like logging or something like that. Um, so as Mr. Jagger had explained he had submitted a street access permit application for um widening his existing driveway to the north sort of in between where his house and that little breezeway are. Um and that application had a few issues with it. It didn't comply with the necessary zoning requirements under article 9 of the land development code which I will go through. Um and it also um was not approved by the city engineers office because they didn't feel that it complied with the street access standards and article 23 of the land development code. Um so that's sort of where we are now. He has um decided to appeal the decision in accordance with section 27 of the land development code which is where all of your appeal procedures are outlined. Um so with that background I'll hop into the staff report. Um the parcel itself is located at the corner of Crest View Street and Phil Street or Phil Lane rather. Um and it's about 222 acres in size and it's located in the low density district. Um the existing parcel is developed with a single family home. A breezeway pass through that you can see and then the structure on the southernmost part was formerly a garage that a previous uh property owner converted into what is now an enclosed porch. Um

the specific standard that the property owner is requesting an exception from is to allow for a driveway that's wider than 20 feet at the property line. So basically where his parcel intersects with the road, it's called the curb line and uh or excuse me the rightway line and the driveway can be 30 feet at that point and it can be 20 feet where his property line is. Um [Music] so now that he is uh requesting this review before the planning board, you are reviewing it as though it were a completely new application. Um but obviously we have provided uh the comments from city engineering staff. In terms of uh regional impact, planning staff do not feel that there is the potential for regional impact, but you'll just need to keep that in mind as you deliberate. Um to quickly run through the departmental comments, the only comments that we received relevant to this application were from city engineering staff and um the city engineer obviously pointed out that the proposal doesn't comply with the relevant width standards and um that he did not feel that the proposal met the specific exception criteria which is very similar to someone requesting a waiver. Um, and one of those criteria is that there has to be some sort of unique characteristic or hardship of a property that is being used as a reason to grant this exception. Um, and he did not feel that that was demonstrated as part of this proposal, but that's going to be up to you to make that determination. Um, to get into the specific driveway design standards, I'm going to try to go through them somewhat briefly. Um, but under article nine of the land development code, um, those are where the actual driveway design standards are located. Um, Mayor Khan had asked a question about the three-foot side setback. And under our driveway design standards, they're required to be able

to site an 8 foot wide by 18 foot parking space. And that parking spot has to be at least three feet from the side property line. So, it can be more, but our code specifies that it must be at least three feet away. Um so that standard appears to be met. Um the other standard that needs to be met as part of this uh or I should say the other requirement that has to be met as part of this standard is that the parking space has to be located either behind the front setback which in low density is 15 ft or behind the front building line. So Mr. Jagger is proposing to start the parking space directly adjacent to his enclosed porch. So that it complies with that standard as well. um for surface material as of now um it's proposed to be asphalt or some other equivalent material um but I think the applicant is looking to sort of nail that down later in the future once he's had a contractor come and take a look at everything um there are no grading or drainage measures proposed so that standard is not applicable um the driveway is not longer than 300 feet in length or greater than 15% in grade so the long driveway and driveway sleep steep slope standards are not applicable. And then to move on to article 23 of the land development code, those are the standards specific to public works that are public infrastructure standards. And these basically state that if a driveway is going to have cross a sidewalk that the sidewalk has to be reconstructed to city standards. Um there's no disruption of an existing sidewalk proposed, so that standard is not applicable. Um, street access sees have to be placed so as to ensure that vehicles have a safe sight distance of 200 feet in all directions. Again, not applicable because they're not proposing a new driveway. Um, you can have no more than one street access for each residential lot. Not applicable. Um, there's no drainage proposed, so there's

no concern about it blocking the flow of drainage and gutters, drainage ditches, or pipes. And then um the most applicable standard um falls under section 23.5.4.8.8 of the land development code which again it's the standard stating that you can have a 20 foot wide driveway at your property line and then closer to the road it can be 30t wide. The property owner is looking to add two feet of pavement to his his existing 28 foot wide driveway where it intersects with the road and then extend it to about 41 ft wide where the new parking space will start. Um the city engineer had requested that the driveway be squared off just so that cars aren't trying to go into the driveway and then make a turn because his concern is that um cars are going to potentially be going over grass and basically damage damaging that area of pave or of grass that's not paved if it's not squared off. Um but the property owner wants to just widen the driveway to that 30 feet. Um so that's what's being proposed at this time. Um, so your determination as a board is whether or not you feel it's necessary um if the property owner really meets these exception criteria which are included um under section 23.5.6. And those criteria to quickly run through them basically say that the issuance of the exception shall not adversely affect the safety of pedestrians, bicyclists, and vehicles using adjacent streets and intersections. The issuance will not adversely affect the efficiency and capacity of the street or intersection. There are unique characteristics of the land or property which present a physical hardship to the requester and in no case shall financial hardship be used to justify the granting of the exception. um to address those just a little bit. Um obviously the one that is the hardest to meet is

trying to identify if there are really unique characteristics of the land or property that present a physical hardship. Um I would just recommend that you consider the fact that one of the parking spaces was taken away by a previous property owner when the garage was converted into livable space. Um, another thing to think about is the fact that this property was constructed with the house on a diagonal. So, that limits the number of locations where you can put another curb cut um that comply with the zoning ordinance. So, um I won't bore you anymore with any of the other standards, but this is a um a relatively straightforward application. Um, and the two recommended motions would be to move to grant the exception from that specific section of the land development code and then if you're so inclined to move to approve the street access permit with one condition of approval, which would be the completion of an inspection by city engineering staff following the construction of that extra portion of the driveway. I'm happy to answer any questions.

Awesome. Thank you. Board, have any questions for staff? Mr. Clansancy, I saw you first. Thank you. Uh ju I I I I think I know the answer. There's no sidewalk there, but is there curbing at all? So, there's a there's curbing. Yes, there is curbing there. There's actually like a strange little bit of curbing that actually goes into Mr. Jagger's driveway currently. Um so that would be removed and if any of it was um removed in excess, they'd have to replace it to city standards basically. Yeah. So there's looks like it's either stone or concrete or granite curbing for everywhere except that two feet. There's like a weird pavement patch in that two feet foot section

that seems like it was added aftermarket at some point and then Yeah. Any other question? Sorry, Mr. Hanker. Yeah, thank you Mr. Chair. Um uh if I'm reading the standards right that a parking spot has to be 18 feet long and that can that be in the rightway? It cannot. So it either so even today this correct. Yeah. This is an existing non-conforming driveway. So um more non-conforming might not.

Yeah. We tried to work the best that we could with Mr. Jagger to try to make it more conforming. um which is why that parking space, you know, he's kind of proposing to widen it to the south so he can get into the driveway that complies with the width requirement and then sort of have the parking spot next to his garage where it's not going to be intrusive.

Great. Thank you. Yeah, I mean it's only like looks like he's only a 8 foot or 10 foot spot now. So the way I'm looking at it is it might create some different nonconformity, but I think at least the probably the spirit of the of the regulations of of having cars further back from that right away would be improved if we uh approve the the variance or waiver tonight. Thank you.

Thank you. Any other questions for staff before I open it up and see if anybody from the public wants to Okay. Um, so with that, I I guess I'm going to do this for all of them tonight. Is there could I get a raise of hands for anybody who's here to speak to this particular issue tonight? All right, it's one Mr. Hutchinson, you come to the microphone just name and address for the record. You know the deal.

Can anybody everybody hear me? Yes, sir.

I am Bradford Hutchinson. I'm a 2025 candidate for mayor. interest of full disclosure. Um, I heard about this uh hearing tonight and I'm always interested when a resident wants to improve their property and the city says no. I didn't know anything about this other than what I've read in various meeting announcements. And so all I know is uh there's a homeowner that wants to mod modify his driveway, wants to improve his property, and once again, the city's putting up roadblock after roadblock after roadblock, but I didn't have the details, so I wanted to come to the meeting tonight. Um I haven't been elected yet, so this isn't official, but on behalf of the people of the city of Kee, Mr. Jagger, I want to apologize most sincerely for the uh additional hardship that the city's imposing on you with this. I'm looking at this aerial view. I can see two problems. This is a corner property and the house is at an angle. Uh there's a lot of corner properties in the city of Keen and I bet this is one of the few that the house is built on an angle on the property. I also want to make note that the garage appears to have been added long after the house and the angle of the garage does not match the angle of the house and the driveway appears to be matching the angle of the garage. The existing driveway is matching the angle of was a garage and not the house. The the driveway didn't doesn't meet the angle of the house. meets the angle of the garage and the garage doesn't meet the angle of the house. If you make four quarters of this square, most of the garage and house are in half of the property and a quarter of the property

has no building. That's where the pool is. This is a very unusual layout. And I see what Mr. Jagger is trying to do here. And I'm listening to the city staff and this is my perennial complaint about zoning is we have all these rules. We have all this minutia and all these figures and this and this RSA and that code and this and we make it so technical and difficult. You know, the poor homeowner, he's just trying to improve his property and he's trying to play by the book and he's trying to play by the rules. And what's city hall doing? Roadblock after roadblock after speed bump after regulation. Well, you got to do this, well, you got to do that. And you get 25 people involved. Somebody in fourth floor community development should have sat down with Mr. Jagger, gone out to his property, looked at what he wants to do. I see the proposal that he's trying to ask. And now I'm wondering, well, maybe do you want to make cut this corner off here, add it here, make the driveway come off at a right angle to the street to make better access to beside the garage where he wants to do it. What I'm saying is I would it's not a negative on city staff as individuals, but what we've got is bureaucracy, red tape, rules and regulations, and the individuals can't see. We're not here to say, "Okay, we've got these rules and regulations, and Mr. Jagger, here's all the hoops you have to jump through if you want to have your thing." That's not what what government is supposed to be. Government should be a tool that the people can use to do what they want to do. And I would like to see Mr. Jagger come to the city and say, "Hey, you know, I want to put this driveway. I want to improve my property. I want to do it right. There's reasons for these rules." I'd like to see city staff work a little more cooperatively with Mr. Jagger toward a resolution that's in Mr. Jagger's best interest.

That is what Mr. Jagger wants to do. And what I see from Mr. Jagger, he is putting in his best effort. He's not an engineer. This is his That's what we're here doing tonight. So that's where I want to uh his markings on this photograph. This is not an engineering drawing and I don't think it needs to be. All Mr. Hutchson, why are you trying to interrupt me, Mel? At this point, we're we understand where you're coming from is that you want them to you want to have the applicant do what they want to do. Um and is there a question, Councelor Ramy? That's what we're here to do tonight. So, I'm just wanted to take is there a question? Do you have a question for me? If you could get to the point.

Yeah, I I am getting to the point. I was almost there. I'm about to wrap it up and you interrupted me. Um, so what I'm trying to say is I want to encourage Mr. Jagger to continue this process. I can see a resolution to this. If one or two people is willing to sit with Mr. Jagger when they have time, schedule a meeting, work this out in something that'll make everybody happy. There might be a a exception or two or something that's not quite by the rules, but I I would rather see the city work in how can we make this work. That's what how I want to see this approached, how I would like to see Mr. Jagger approached. I want to see this overruled than I want to encourage Mr. Jagger to work with the city and the city to be a little more cooperative working with Mr. Jagger and look at themselves as a city. How can we help Mr. Jagger get done what he wants to do to improve his property to make Keen better for everybody and for Mr. Jagger.

Understood. Thank you. Thank you. All right. I didn't see anybody else from the public, but any last minute takers? All right. With that, I'm going to close the the public portion for this and move into deliberation. Um I I tend to agree with um the staff that there are unique conditions with the layout of the property. I tend to agree that there's not regional impact, but I guess with that, I'll open it up for for the board. Any questions, thoughts, comments on this one? Lansancy, go ahead.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. uh on top of uh what staff pointed out as uh unique characteristics, also being in a corner a lot uh is difficult as well. And I appreciate the applicant working with city staff uh in moving that driveway away from the intersection and south of the property. And I think uh you know, working with city staff, I appreciate the planning department uh being so willing and helpful with the applicant to uh reach this uh point of the process and uh present what he has tonight. So I I think it's safe. I think even though it's not up to code, it Yeah, it's the best he's got. Thank you. And I I do actually I meant to mention this earlier. I do want to call attention. We do I think have notes on our I think everybody got one that's from uh signed by the neighbor. Um so with any concerns around the the distancing there, I I see the correction from lilacs to privets on the the note. Uh I wouldn't have caught that. Um but um no there's uh so we do have that note from the neighbor to acknowledge the

line there. Um Mr. Cross. Yeah. No, I think I mean the idea of having this driveway narrower at the curb I like. it's just less paving and um so it's it's it's a good solution and it provides what the owner needs and this letter gives me some confidence that the neighbor is fine. So

yeah, and I do want to also call out that it is a pretty steep drop down on the other side of the house down to the road. So there's another condition there that would be a little bit difficult to manage with if you were to try to say, "Oh, put the other car on the other side." It would just add more complexity and more pavement. So, um, any other comments, thoughts, questions? All right. You want to go for, uh, sorry, Mr. Her?

Um, yeah, I think I'm inclined to to, uh, approve this waiver and would, uh, for anyone tuning in from home, would just make a note that this is exactly what the, uh, process is supposed to be, that the the city has standards and the homeowner has the ability to, uh, challenge a city decision and bring it before this board. And um as I think we are about to see this board is u u flexible and looks at the conditions and and will move things forward. So I think this is exactly what uh city staff and and land development code should be doing.

Appreciate that. And I do want to echo that to say that you know I the city staff is required to be very literal about their translation and the intent of this board is to help understand where those lines are meant to be. So, um, with that, I'd, uh, be open for a motion on the exception request. Mr. Mayor. Yep. Uh, I would move that, uh, the board approve. Oh, it's actually this one here first.

Yeah. Move to grant an exception from section 235.4.8.8 8 of the land development code to allow for a driveway with greater than 20 ft of property line. A second. I second that. Perfect. Thank you, Mr. Mayu. Um, any comments? Okay. Uh, all those in favor of granting the approval or the exception. All right, that's uh unanimous. Uh, the exception would be granted. Now, moving on to the conditional approval. May you up for that one as well?

Up to it. uh move to approve the street access permit for the expansion of the driveway at 15 Crest View Street with the following condition. One, following the completion of construction, a final inspection shall be performed by the city engineer or their designate to ensure that all work was completed in accordance with the driveway design standard in article 9.3 of the land development code, street access standards in article and in article 23.5.4.8 A of the land development code and all other applicable city of Keen regulations. Can I get a second? I second that.

Mr. Mayhew. Thank you. And just for clarity, I think this is a condition subsequent, right, that we're requesting it. It's not clarified in the motion, but just for clarity for the record. So, they would be approved and then after the fact would be able to come back. It's clearly worded in the motion, but just not in the header. So, um, any comments, questions? Okay. With that, uh, all those in favor of granting the conditional approval, unanimous. Thank you. Thanks, sir. Um, all right, moving on to the next one. See if I can get back to where I was in my agenda. Um the next item on the agenda is for PB 202518 major site plan change of use key road plaza 109 to 147 key road. Uh applicant Agonost companies on behalf of owner Kro Development LLC proposes to convert 61,526 square feet of existing re uh retail space in the Key Road Plaza development into a charitable gaming facility for Revo Casino and Social House. The parcel is 5.8 acres in size and is located at 109 to 147 Key Road, tax map proposal number 11022000 and is located in the Commerce District. Um, so does staff have a recommendation for completeness? I think there was one tuneup on this.

Uh, thank you, Mr. Chairman. So, just a quick point of clarification. Um, this application is a proposed change of use within an existing 61,526 square foot um, retail building. However, the proposed change of use is only going to be 15,000 square feet approximately. Awesome. And then in regards to completeness, the applicant has requested an exemption from submitting separate and existing separate existing and proposed condition plans, elevations, drainage reports, soils, screening, architectural and visual analysis, historic evaluation, and other technical reports. After reviewing each request, planning staff has made the preliminary determination that granting the requested exemptions would have no bearing on the merits of this application and recommend that the board accept the application as complete. Thank you. Can I get a motion for accepting the application as complete?

So moved. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Second. I'll second move. Thank you, Mr. Mayheu. So moved and seconded. Uh all those in favor of motion to find complete or the application complete. That's unanimous. Uh application is found to be complete. Um, and just for clarity, there was one zoning board uh there's a ZBA uh ruling that was done on this. I don't know if we touch on that now or if you want to touch on that as part of the uh staff report just to make sure that we know that there was a I believe there was a um variance issued for this one.

Uh that's correct, Mr. Chairman. this application or this project received a variance from the zoning board of adjustment the zoning board of adjustment for the use to be located within 250 ft of the property line of a residential use. Perfect. Thank you. So I just want to make sure the board was aware of that as we go in that that distance is no longer part of our purview given that the variance has been granted. So um with that I would invite the applicant to present the proposal.

Thank you Mr. Chair. Good evening Mr. Chair, Mr. Mayor, members of the board, my name is Dick Anagnost. I'm the CEO of Anagnost Companies, the applicant. I'm also the manager and owner of Kro Development LLC. And for full disclosure, I'm also a partner in the tenant as well. Um, if I may, Mr. Chair, can I give a twominut sort of historical update on what we do, what we are, and what we do.

It's your time. So, we have been in the charitable gaming business for approximately 27 years in New Hampshire. Um, we've been in Keen for a little close to 20 years at this point. We started at the Swansea racetrack and then moved into Keen and this would actually be our fourth location within the city and each time we relocate we improve our parking and we improve the amount of space and the service that we can provide. Um we are um also operating in Lebanon, Conway, Manchester, Dover and to soon be operating in Berlin in addition to the Keen facility. Um as a point to in favor, I would like you to be aware that we have our own security force as well. Um we are a voluntary voluntary 21 and older facility. Um the law state law provides for 18 and older access but based on the liquor laws and and we have voluntarily converted it to a 21 and older facility. Um our security force checks all IDs at the door to make sure that that caveat is enforced. All entrance to the facility for security reasons is through the front door. Um there are no other access points other than exits for fire purposes within the facility. Everybody that comes in is logged by security employees as well. Our employees as well as owners undergo a very um thorough security check by the lottery commission and attorney general's office. Everybody is IDed and has to be has ID badges and has to be current. The state law in New Hampshire provides no um complimentary alcohol served in these facilities. Um so therefore that's an important point that you know we are

quite often called a casino because we approach um the industry in the same manner as a casino but technically we're a charitable gaming facility. Uh we do not have a gambling license. We are facilitators. where we have a a um operator's license. The operator's license allows us to affiliate with charities who actually have the gaming license and who actually benefit significantly from the operation that goes on. Um the state requires us to have state-of-the-art security systems. Um we have accounting and auditing systems and we are checked regularly by our oversight which is the lottery commission. Um we've served I can't countless charities in Keen but just to give you an example. Um we we have the Keen Coanis, the Keen Montaserary School, the Keen Baseball Club, um Society for the Protection, New Hampshire Forest, Keen Senior Citizens, Keen Lions, um Keen Rotary. So that gives you a flavor for the um charities that we serve within the Keen area. That being said, I have with me tonight Chad um Braman um from Fieldstone Land Consultants who's our engineer and he'll take on the technical presentation of the of our application before the board. Thank you.

Um thank you. Good evening, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Mayor, members of the board. Um for the record, my name is Chad Brandon. I'm a civil engineer and principal owner with Fieldstone Land Consultants. Our office is uh located here in Keen on 45 Roxberry Street and um I'll be you know attempting to present and answer any questions that the board may have this evening uh relative to this application. We are before you tonight seeking a site plan approval for a change of use um to permit a charitable gaming facility over tax map parcel 110-22. Um the portion of the plaza that this um charitable gaming facility be will be located is has a physical address of 133 um key road. This proposal would uh relocate Rev Revo Casino and Social House from their current downtown location at 172 Emerald Street to this Keen uh road um location. And and just for um relevance, it it is the location where the current um Toy City um business is is located. The subject property and all abuing properties are uh situated in the commerce district where charitable gaming is a uh permitted use. the um subject property being situated on Keen Road or excuse me, Key Road is also one of the few roads in the city um that charitable gaming is allowed and permitted to be located within your your ordinance. The subject property, as was stated earlier, consists of about 5.8 acres of land and is uh currently a fully developed site. Um, it's a plaza consisting of about 61,526 square ft of building space with associated um, site improvements that

are detailed um, on the site plan that we have before you this evening. The property is currently occupied by a number of tenants. Um, the Department of Health and Human Services Keen District Office is located on site. um as is the Keen Cinemas, uh Toy City, Sherman Sherwin Williams Paints, Enterprise Comics, and Oriental Rug Works, um are located on this property. When you take a look at the site and the uh surrounding uses, you'll notice that majority of the surrounding uses for this um in this area are um commercial. We have a hotel to the west. Um, Brown Computer Solutions in Hampton Inns and Suites to the south as well as the Autex Mazda dealership. Um, there's commercial shopping plaza um to the east where the Staples um is lo Staples is located as well as a number of other tenants. And then there is multif family uh residential um buildings um situated to the north which is actually behind um the um current facility and and out to the rear of the site. Part of uh the code which was revised I believe in 2023 and more specifically section 2.3.2 to um I2 um deals with use standards uh relative to charitable gaming facilities and we do believe that this facility meets all of the um use criteria uh within that section and specifically uh with the uh zoning relief that we uh were successful in obtaining um earlier this month. And just to kind of touch on some of those standards, this um will there will only be one charitable gaming facility located on the subject parcel. Um the

subject property is again 5.8 acres in size. So exceeds the uh 1.25 acre minimum. The property is again in the commercial or excuse me the commerce district and does have frontage on Key Road which is one of the approved locations. The proposed gaming facility will have a gaming um floor um space that exceeds 10,000 square feet, which is one of the requirements. The conversion or the change of use in total is about 15,000 square ft in size, but it does include a restaurant um component as well as you know some storage and office areas. The charitable gaming facility will not be located within 500 ft of another facility. uh will not be located within 250 ft of a place of worship, a child daycare center, or a public or private school. And the facility will also not be within 250 ft of a residential zoning district. Um we are situated within 250 ft of a residential um property and that did require relief under subsection uh 2. CI um and we were able to successfully obtain that relief at the zoning board meeting on September 2nd. Um and that relief was required because the the building existing building is situated approximately 65 ft from um the closest adjacent uh property line where there is a residential um property, a multif family um development. What is we think, you know, important with this application when you're looking at the site is the um Key Road Plaza building where the charitable um gaming facility would be located is approximately

170 ft from the existing multif family residential buildings on the on the back um situated to the north. And the as as um we stated earlier, the main entrance of the facility is is you know on the parking lot side. So it's furthest away from the uh residential property. So all of the site activity or the majority certainly the the majority of the site activity will be buffered by um the existing building. when we take a look at some of the technical details. Um, you know, again, we are before you this evening seeking an approval for a change of use. And so that inherently does come with some um site plan modifications to accommodate the um the use and some um upgrades to the existing uh features on site. Um again, we're you know approximately a 15,000 square foot um change of use. It's a it you know it it'll be changing from a retail use to a mixed use that includes a charitable gaming facility with about 180 gaming stations. Um again that that footprint for the uh gaming facility would be over um 10,000 square ft. There's also a planned 75 uh seat restaurant located within that 15,000 square foot area and then about a thousand square feet of you know support space, storage, small office, etc. To accommodate this um change of use, we have made some minor modifications to the site. Um primarily what we're looking at is restriping some of the existing paved areas. We are not proposing any pavement expansion. Um so everything will occur within the

existing footprint of the imperous surfaces. Those improvements consist of restriping about 45 parking spaces um adding a actually upgrading um some of the existing lighting along the uh back of the building where there will be only employee um parking permitted. and that consists of installing about seven U building mounted lights under the current um lighting plan. We are also proposing some improvements to um screening along the rear of the building. Um more specifically, there's a 190T vinyl stockade fence proposed and that'll be adjacent to um the parking area but also will shield the existing loading dock area. And I I do believe the screening is actually a requirement due to the loading area which exists. But because we're looking to, you know, make a change to the use, we are um task to bring the site up to code as it relates to some of those screening um components, which we do believe we meet with that. Because we are adding 45 parking spaces to the site, we also have to incorporate a landscaping improvement. and we've um depicted five um trees, oak trees on the site to address and and meet that criteria. when you go through the application analysis um and the more specifically the planning board development um standards and review standards um we believe that we meet all applicable criteria and I'm happy um to go through um those criteria one by one Mr. Chairman if you feel that that's most appropriate. Um and we have read the um staff report for this evening's meeting and we have no objections to the uh recommended conditions of approval. Um and we

certainly hope that the board, you know, would consider those as we do believe we meet all of the um regulations. So with that, I'm happy to go through the criteria if you feel that's appropriate or try to answer any questions that the board may have. I feel like staff will likely bring us through the criteria. So, I don't know to necessarily double dip on that as long as you're aligned with their commentary in here. Um, so we'll we'll get that uh once instead of twice. Um, unless there's any concerns with how they have it phrased. But that's it. Any questions for the applicant from the the board? All right. Mr. Clansancy, thought we were going to get off with none for this is an easy one. Uh for the three oaks in the back, I see it being beneficial, but I worry about uh their viability in the parking lot area, especially that one uh that's in smack dab in the middle of the pavement. So, has there been consideration for alternative trees in those locations?

I think there may be some confusion, uh Mr. Clansancy, on the location. So, if you don't mind, Mr. Chairman, may I just go to the plan and and kind of speak to some detail on that? Just make sure the green lights on on the microphone while you get up there. Should be good. I believe it is on. Um the three oaks that we're proposing are actually um situated just inside of the proposed stockade fence here and they are in an existing landscaped area. If I'm not mistaken, you're probably looking at this area here, which is center of the parking, and there's an existing utility pole there. No, I'm looking at the um right bottom right uh corner. This one here

that there's one there and then the other corner there on our uh plan.

Yeah. So, those the oaks are centered, you know, basically in a landscaped island that exist there. Um and and to be honest, the location along um Key Road in particular was driven by existing utilities, underground utilities, electric, sewer, water. And so this was the best location um to locate the um landscaping um due to those components. But we are about 5T off of the edge of pavement to the center of the of the um tree. So I do believe that would be appropriate and successful. And we will have to bond, you know, the landscaping as part of the project as well.

Any further questions? The applicant. Uh, okay. Um, with that, thank you both for coming up. I'm going to invite the staff for their comments and, uh, go from there. If, if I just one go, one question. Um, the purpose of the fencing, I assume it's to the rear of the property, right? That's correct. And and it how far is it running? Is it running the distance or Yeah, help out there.

Yep. That's a great question. Thank you very much. Um so the fencing will run from the um basically the northeast northwest corner of the property here and will extend about 190 ft um which will go beyond the proposed um parking area and the proposed or the existing loading dock area which is situated here. And what that will do is create a contiguous fence line along the back of the property because there's an existing fence that's located from basically the end of that proposed 190 foot fence all the way to the to the west or excuse me east.

For those who missed my private site visit on this one as well. Uh there's also a moat between the property. So there's the best equivalent is describing a moat of a drainage ditch that goes between those two right behind the where that fence will be. Yes. And that was that was a pretty large um discussion point before the zoning board is that there's no ability for vehicular connection or you know really impacts from you know the any traffic um you know from the site and there's no real pedestrian connectivity either. So it really puts the again the main focus on the um key road side road side which is consistent with the ordinance

and is the purpose of the additional fencing a security concern on the owner's part. It it was primarily the result of the uh city staff's request to screen the loading area. And so screen the what

loading area because there is a requirement under the charitable gaming facility that says you shall screen um any loading areas. And so even though this is existing and and frankly it was for security and to address you know um any concerns that came up you know um from the public comments at the zoning board as well. We didn't receive any comments at the zoning board from um land owners on adjacent properties. And so I I will say that it was a it was really an offering from my client to try to, you know, address, you know, just the fact that there is a residential property back there.

If I may provide more comment, Mr. Mayor, I mean, Mr. Chair, Mr. Mayor, he usually gets it. I get to it tonight. So, in my original opening, I explained how the only entrance that's used is the front entrance for security purposes. There's nothing that goes on in the rear of our properties for security purposes. We do have a car outside with a security guard in it that travels around the property every single all the hours that we're open. And it's intentional so that there's nothing going on in the rear for security purposes that we channel everything through the front door. Awesome. Anything further? No. All right. Any further questions for the applicant? Oh, Mr.

Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, just from a scale standpoint compared to the current uh location uh currently with the Rev Rev Casino. Now, what how is this? Can you give me a size of how much larger this is? The current casino is somewhere between 7 and 8,000 square feet and we'll be moving to 15. Roughly double. Okay. Thank you. And I guess yeah, one more. I mean just that as far as the public is concerned, there are some other operations there. You I think you've made it very clear to us. Uh this is occupying just one of the uh current storefronts that exists in the plaza. Correct.

The remainder, it's your intent to sustain those businesses. So, long as you have a lease with those, they all have long-term leases. Congratulations. Thank you. All right. Any follow on questions? All right. With that, I will uh move to the staff. Thank you very much.

Well, for long-term leases, it's nice to have Yeah.

Uh, good evening everyone. Evan Clemens planner. I'll jump right into the uh the use standards here or the um the site development standards, excuse me. Um so, as the applicant described, uh in several cases, it's a fully built out plaza, there's they're not making really any material changes to the uh uh exterior of the site. U before I go any further, uh the preliminary evaluation of regional impact is that this application does not have one. Um so for things like drainage, sediment and erosion control, uh snow storage, uh water and sewer filling and excavation, surface waters, uh surface waters and wetlands and and hazardous and toxic materials. Those standards don't really apply to this project. Um it it's fully a fully developed site with no changes. Um, in regards to the the landscaping, as the uh the applicant described, they are proposing uh five uh parking lot trees, which is required for the addition of 45 parking spaces that they're proposing to add. And we are asking um you to set a condition of approval related to a financial security uh to be reviewed and approved by the city engineer and then to be held one for one year to ensure that uh this new landscaping does survive and thrive. Um, in regards to screening, that six-foot uh solid stockade fence is proposed along the rear property line. Uh, there are several different standards in the land development code that do require screening, including use standards for the charitable gaming facility use itself from residential properties, the parking area to be screened from residential properties, and the loading dock to be screened from residential properties. Uh we do uh staff does believe that this standard appears to be met. In regards to lighting, um the initial proposal was to

install two uh wall-mounted uh light fixtures approximately 15 ft off of the ground. The fixtures will be full cut off um dark skies compliant um with a color rendering index of 80 and a color temperature of approximately 3,000 Kelvin. That uh proposal has been since revised to include the replacement of five existing wall packs along the wall with the same fixtures that's currently being proposed. Those existing lighting fixtures are actually not compliant with our current regulations. The applicant has voluntarily decided to just go ahead and replace those fixtures as well, which should reduce the amount of glare uh from the lighting uh to the residential property. Um, the initial phototric details were incomplete. Uh, it's hard to do a full phototric analysis to our specifications when you're only affecting a portion of the site. One of the things that we require is called the uniformity ratio which is um it says that it can't be more than a 5:1 between the average and the minimum um of the lighting intensity um which is designed to make sure that the parking lot doesn't have any hot and cold spots. We don't want areas of the parking lot that is really really bright which then in contrast creates pockets of real uh darkness. the initial uh submitted photometrics had too many zeros in it, so they couldn't figure out the average. Um they've since submitted revised photometrics uh that meet our standards. So the um the blurb in the staff report that talks about the condition of approval requesting uh revised phototrics is no longer needed. Uh they've demonstrated that their proposal meets our standards.

Uh, in regards to traffic and access management, the applicant um states in their narrative that all traffic access will be from the existing street access points along Key Road. There are no proposed changes to the location or orientation of traffic access or vehicle circulation throughout the site as part of the application. Excuse me. The applicant proposes to create those 45 new parking spaces within the plaza. Of those 45, 25 are proposed within the existing rows of parking throughout the site with the remaining 20 new spaces being proposed to the rear of the charitable gaming and adjacent use uh near the existing loading dock. Um we staff initially um as the applicant said, one of the concerns that the zoning board had was access to the rear of the building uh through either employees or uh the adjacent residential use. uh even though there are existing terrain features that severely limit that possibility, right? Um so we did uh request that the board uh discuss that matter. The applicant did bring it uh uh up in their presentation uh and and really just to reiterate the fact that all access to the use is going to be from the front of the site. Um those parking spaces are going to be for employees only and the applicant's representative um has said to us that those employees who park there will be required to navigate around the building to come into the front access. There isn't going to be a special access uh for those parking spaces. Uh the application also included a traffic study uh prepared by professional engineer. Um the study notes that the existing condition daily weekday traffic volume is approximately for the entire plaza is approximately 5,416

trips and then the the analysis of the uh the change of use shows um a net increase of peak hour trips of 13. Um so the existing weekday total trips is 818 but the proposed change of use it's 1770 for a uh net increase of weekday daily trips of 952. Um and then for the the PM peak hour is 99 existing 112 with its proposed change of use for that net increase of 13 trips during peak hour. um the international traffic engineer and NH DOT um threshold for a significant impact uh to adjacent uh roadway systems is 100 trips per peak hour. Uh so needless to say the proposed net increase of 13 peak hour trips is significantly lower than the threshold of 100

and it appears that this standard has been met. um noise. Uh the applicant states in their narrative that the noise generated by the proposed use would be minimal as the use will be conducted inside. They anticipate that the use would generate noise comparable to a movie theater or other similar uses and staff believes that that standard has also been met. And then uh they're not proposing any changes to the exterior of the building outside of signage which is not under the purview of the planning board. So the architectural and visual appearance standards are not applicable. Um lastly uh the suggested motion uh is approve PB 202518 is shown as the plan. Uh and then prior to final approval and signature the following condition precedent shall be made. would be the owner's signature, the financial security for the landscaping. C is no longer needed, and then so D, which is now the new C, is going to be submitt of five full-size paper copies and one digital copy of the final plan. That's all I have, Mr. Chairman. I'd be happy to answer any questions at this time.

Uh, thank you very much for that. Uh, awesome. Do board members have questions for staff? I I have one just on um they there's been reference obviously our code requires 10,000 square feet of gaming floor. Um given that we don't have a plan that shows that it in the requirements it's obviously part of the rules they need to do it but do we need to include any conditions on that or is that's just something that they have to do because it's in our code.

So that will be verified uh when they come in for the tenant fitup. Um so it'll be part of the zoning review for that building permit. Um, we did also ask the applicant's representative to confirm that and we have an email uh from that um from Fieldstone. I wanted to say they came in at approximately 10,09 square feet. Perfect. Okay. Um Okay, that that's fine. I don't think we need to add one if it's covered by that review. I don't want to make it unnecessarily hard here. I just uh wanted to make sure that was covered. Is there any other questions? I thought I saw hand movement. somewhere. Good. All right.

All right. Um Okay. I think that's uh that's it for staff. Uh thank you very much for for the work on this one. With that one, I'm going to move to the public. Can I ask who in the public wants to speak to this one? Okay, just one. Mr. Hutchinson. Uh come on up. I'm still Bradford Hutchinson of Marlboro Street. Uh Mr. Anagnost is going to be happy to hear this. I was prepared to make a much longer um a much longer comment that I was planning to make, but I got here early and I've been looking at the plans here. Um the concerns that I have are still in place, but they're much lessened by looking at the plans and thinking about um what he wants to do and what he's proposing and thinking about the current situation. Um, as people are aware, he's currently down at the end of Emerald Street in Silk Mill. And as we're all aware, there's some u serious issues with the property. And currently, there's several other businesses in there at the end of a dead end street next to the power substation uh along what's basically the rail trail. It works um from the outside, I guess, but there's uh it's not the best thing. It's like tucked away. It's hard to find. It doesn't seem really fair to Mr. Edgingoff's business. My concern is Toy City and my friend Steve Levy who's been my friend for decades. I remember when his store was on Main Street for years and then he moved to the center at Keem for a few years and then the current location and I don't know what he's going to do. I can't say that I'm speaking for him. But there are a lot of people in the community that we first heard about this. The way we heard about it, it sounded like he was getting pushed out of there whether he wanted to go or not. That's how we heard it. And

what I'm seeing tonight is I think this could be a very good opportunity. I have to be careful. I'm not speaking for Toy City or Mr. Levy, but that's been there for a long time. And we don't want to lose a good thing. I don't know whether he's going to continue in business and move to another location. Um, and I don't know whether or he's going to close. We don't know what's going to happen, but there's going to be some change and I would like to see it managed well. I did say I'm very impressed with Mr. Anagnas's presentation, the professionalism of it. Um, and I think it's going to be an improvement for the city of Keem to have this casino in this location. I think it's a much better location. I don't want to get into details. Um, I think this is a very good thing. I just want to put in a caveat that um I would like to and I think Mr. Anagnost will do everything he can to accommodate Mr. Levy of Toy City and to have the process go um as well as he would like it to have go. I guess Mr. I want to encourage Mr. Levy and Mr. Anagnos to work well together for their own mutual gain and to benefit everybody. I think this has a real potential to be a win-winwinwin situation um which is not in the current location. So I want to thank Mr. Anagnost and uh the public and the planning board and the city staff and encourage a positive cooperative. This is a real professional operation. What I'm seeing they're looking basically they're coming here and saying we're going to do this right. We're going to do right by the city of Keem, do right by us, do right by everybody. And this is the kind of spirit that I want to encourage more of. Keep up the good work, people.

Thank you. Thank you. All right. Um, anyone else from the public? All right. Um, so with that, I will close the uh the public portion for and move to deliberations. Um, who wants to start? Any questions, comments, concerns, thoughts?

Crossed. I'm thinking back to when we were talking about changing the land development code and how to address charitable gaming and it was it was took a long time and we went through a lot of detail and we identified different parts of the city and got pretty detailed and so this is the um interesting to see that the result of that and um you know maybe as Mr. Hutchinson said, "My my grandkids will be kind of disappointed one day when it's not there, and they'll be a long time before they go to the casino." But um yeah, as far as I I see it, it's meeting all of the um well, with that with with the adjustment to the property,

the distance to the housing, it's meeting everything. And so I don't see anything in the code that gets in the way of this. Thank you. Anyone else? I I think what we have uh before us is a change of use request. Uh it is a use that is what was forecasted and anticipated with the uh zoning changes that the city undertook. Uh I think it's in conformance and I have no reservations with this request.

Thank you. Anybody else? Uh my only comments, I think we're clean on the regional impact, I agree with staff that this is um not going to while I'm sure there will be folks from around the region using it, it's not going to necessarily affect the surrounding towns. Um as someone who uh to echo some of the comments we did here, I'm I've grew up going to toy city, so there's some heartburn for me of seeing that change, but uh you know, change happens. So it's not part of our purview to review whether we agree with the change of use, just whether it makes sense. Um the um other than that, I think the the application covers a lot of uh good ground. I do think it's funny that this was actually one of the properties was used as an example of where we don't want a casino. Uh and then but the zoning board um actually issued the variance for the space. So that rule goes out the window. So we're we're clean on that one as well. Um so it's just funny how that stuff all works out. But uh if there's no further questions or comments, I would see if there's a motion. I will move a conditional approval of uh PB2025-18 as shown on the plan identified as site plan exhibit prepared by Fieldstone Land Consultants PLLC at a scale of 1 in= 40 ft. dated August 22nd, 2025 and last revised September 15, 2025 with the following conditions prior to final approval and signature of the plans by the planning board chair. One, prior to prior approval and signature by the planning board chair, the following conditions precedent shall be met. A, the owner's signature shall appear on the plan. B uh the submittal of security for landscaping in a form of amount acceptable to the city engineer. Item C

is deleted. So the new item C right is submittal of the five full-size paper copies and one digital copy of the final plan. Thank you. Second. Second. Thank you, Mr. Cross. Uh moved and seconded. Uh any further questions, thoughts, deliberation. All right. With that, uh all those in favor of the approval. That's unanimous. So approved um as with those conditions uh precedent on there. So thanks for coming out. Thank you. Thank you very much for your time. Um you're not staying for the master plan conversation?

Yeah, I was saying next one's the master plan. Um so that said, we have the the master plan next. There's also a city council referral. Are there folks here for either one of those that we could send home if uh which one are you here for? Is anybody here for All right. So, can we knock the referral out so Mr. Lucier can go? If uh is that does the staff care?

Uh all right. So, I'm going to use some uh perview of the chair here to you know move some stuff around for you. Um and see if we can move uh number pull forward number five uh a city council referral and we'll come back to the master plan. Um the so this is city council referral R202526 relating to amended return of layout for a public right ofway known as Grove Street. City Council's requested planning board review and recommendation regarding a proposal to return 257 square feet of land from Gro Street to the adjacent parcel located at Gro Street. Zero Grow Street text parcel number 585700. I think I could almost do this one at this point. I think I've seen the site twice and sat through two of them, but you go for it. Thank you very much.

I'll let you go. Yeah.

Uh thank you, Mr. Chair. Don Lucia, public works director. Um, this evening we are talking about uh an amendment to the Grove Street layout. So, I'm going to give you a very very quick uh down and dirty summary of of how we got here. Uh, 2014 the city was in the midst of redeveloping railroad land, what is what was known as railroad land. Um, and as part of that, there was a proposal on the table to build a an event space uh some sort of uh stadium venue of some sort in in that uh railroad land development to the north of Grove Street. Uh because of the traffic anticipated as a result of that venue, it was decided that a second northbound lane was needed at at the Grove Street approach to the Water Street Grove Street Community Way intersection. Um, so as you see it today, there's a uh left turn lane and a straight right turn lane um on northbound uh traffic heading into uh Water Street. Um fast forward a few years. Uh so so back in that that time frame 2014 the city actually acquired uh 430 square ft from the the owner of this property at that time um in order to accommodate the roadway widening in that extra lane. Uh that that intersection widening was completed. It was built at the same at that time. Um fast forward now uh a few years later the city actually acquired the the property that we had previously taken a strip from. So, we owned that property for a period of time. Um, but as we continue in the in into present day, uh, the venue obviously never came to to be. Uh, railroad land is fairly welldeveloped at this point. Um, and you know, we don't see any proposals for a the venue like that coming about. So,

um, we took a look at, uh, traffic conditions today and really what we we noticed is that the the two lanes for northbound traffic are not warranted based on today's traffic volumes. At the same time, there's been numerous requests from from the public to sort of simplify its intersection. That extra lane really creates some confusion about who goes first and who's got the right of way and who got to. Nobody really likes it. It also makes this intersection across um with community way kind of an offset intersection. So the the lanes don't line up. Um a lot of complaints about that that intersection. So uh it's not needed for traffic volumes. The public doesn't really like it for a you know userability usability uh perspective. Um now just recently about 6 months ago the city actually sold that parcel to a new new owner, new developer. it it's actually Habitat for Humanity. And they approached us and asked, "Hey, you know, could we release some of that land back to this property? Um, we think it it could make the difference between, for example, a single family home on the property and a duplex on the property without having to go through a variance process. So, we thought, you know, here's an opportunity where we can cut some red tape and and make it easier to add more housing units to a property that would would be well served. Um, we are not proposing to release all of the 430 ft that was acquired. So, if hopefully you can see the colors from this distance, but the brown is the area that is proposed to be released. The yellow area and the the corner is going to be retained by the city. And the reason for that is um the the actual construction on Water Street, the curvature of the roadway sidewalks were actually built in that's its radiused area. Before it was just a an acute angle where the the roadways

meant. Uh so we do want to retain that curvature for public infrastructure. We're also going to be retaining an easement for the hydrant that would be remaining on the released property. Uh but all the other public infrastructure, the telephone poles, um the curbing, everything else would be right at the property line or within the rightway. So we we're comfortable re with releasing that. And with that, I'd be happy to take any questions you have. Thank you. And the only one that's come up, I think, in every one of our reviews is the only other thought to use of this was around sidewalks and the fact that in that lane, all the telephone poles are right in that line. So you couldn't really put in a sidewalk on that side without severely infecting the telephone poles.

Correct. So, just a call out for folks that again private site visit. It was great. Any uh questions? I think it just add to your comment that on the other side of the street there's there's a sidewalk quite a good paid concrete sidewalk.

Yeah. And we did look at the sidewalks there. There has been your request for sidewalks on the west side of Grove Street. Um, as the the the chair mentioned, the the utilities uh disruptions would make that very difficult. We would have to relocate all of the poles on that side and and they would have to be basically outside of the right of way. So, that would be like acquiring private property in order to put telephone poles. Not something we like to do. Um, but more to the point, I think, is the other side of the street is already kind of where it makes sense to have the side the crosswalk. Um the the crosswalk at Wheelock School is on that side of the street. It's not going to be relocated. So that that's where that you know the one of the big pedestrian drivers for that neighborhood is of course the school and that's really where we want the the kiddos crossing anyway.

Awesome. Thank you. Any questions? All right. Uh anybody in the public want to ask a question on this one? All right. I'm going to Mr. Mr. Mayor, if you don't mind with a motion,

I will do the motion. Uh I also though want to say uh I'm surprised that with the addition of this square footage that we're able to achieve a duplex uh on the property. We're not designing it tonight and those who are, I wish them uh the ability to do that. As our housing study indicates to us, the lack of two family and for family homes that have been built in the city are greatly lacking behind the demand. Uh so I hope on a small site as this is it can serve as a prototype uh for other uh development in the near future. With that, uh, I would be glad to move to recommend that the city council approve a petition to amend the layout of Gross Street in the vicinity of Water Street.

Second. A second that. Thank you, Mr. May. Thank you, Mr. Mayo, for the second. I have my mic off. Uh, uh, any questions, thoughts, concerns? With that, all in favor? That's unanimous. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Have a good night. All right. So, master plan. How do we want to do this one? You want to do a boat? I think I do do seriously want to skip the presentation.

No, no, no. You're fine. I mean, I think we can I uh think there's we've gone through a long process. Let's let's close it out, right? Um and there is uh well about to be one less. We scared everybody off tonight. We're losing, you know. Have a good night. We got We got uh two people left in the audience. Uh you count. Yeah. I have to protest you not forcing the public works director to sit through this presentation. Uh I'm sorry. I I could have I uh I could have made it happen. I try to limit it. I try to, you know, figure people home. Thank you.

I'll let you uh go ahead. Great. Thank you. And um yeah, I'm very excited to finally get to this point. So, this is the very last step in the master plan process. So, so this process started over two years ago, um, with the allocation of funding for this project and starting to do the, you know, the search for a consultant team and all the behind thescenes work to try and work with the mayor and um, the chair to compile a a list of members for a steering committee. So, I know you you lived through a lot of that, but um, I just want to recognize that this has been quite a process. Um so tonight I am going to run through um as quickly as I can while still touching on the high points um the planning process, the uh community vision which was the outcome of the first half of the process um including our pillars and goals and the future land use map as well as implementation and next steps. Um so again the process started with city council approving a budget for the project. The city then hired a consultant team and began working with the planning board and the mayor to form a steering committee. I do want to give a a shout out here to the consultant team that was uh selected. Um so the the lead consultant is Future IQ, which is a fairly small firm based out of Minnesota, but they just did phenomenal work on this project. So I'm really glad um that we worked with them. and they um they also worked with JSNA which is an economic development firm and WGI their community development and planning team I think within WGI um and they did a lot of the planning and um GIS uh type support. Um the project steering committee is another group that I just want to give a

big shout out to. Um they really played a critical role in this project. Um the members are shown here. Everyone except Cody Morrison who didn't give us a picture. Um uh and so as you can see this this really con um included folks with a diverse array of perspectives. Um there's a number of city councilors and planning board members on here but also um members of the community who represent key sectors. Uh you know we've got the hospital and Keen State College. uh large manufacturing, local business, uh more of a small mom mom and pop type businesses. Um so a pretty good array of perspectives, housing I should mention. Um and this group met um pretty much monthly throughout the process. Um and and they had a lot of input at sort of key decision points that really helped steer and guide this process um to the outcome that you see today. Um so the first phase of the project is really focused on data gathering. Um gathering public input through a wide variety of means and visioning. Um I'm just going to touch really quickly on some notable activities. Um so because there was a lot that happened in this space. Um but one notable activity was the community survey, the big community survey that we did sort of towards the beginning. Um, that was a pretty detailed survey. It had a lot of questions. It took an average of 24 minutes for people to fill it out and we had 648 people fill it out, which I just think is astounding. Um, lots of really great responses and all of those are available online for anyone to view um, through the keenmasterpl.com website. Um, another highlight is the think tank workshop that was held, which was a

two-day, well, there were two half days, um, that was held in late May of 2024. We had, uh, around 50 community members participate. Um, and they developed a framework for exploring the community's preferred future using a scenario planning process. Um, again, facilitated by that consultant team. And then the outcome of that workshop was the identification of what the workshop participants thought was the preferred sort of future. And then we um scheduled a variety of visioning sessions to test that with the larger community. So we held a total of 17 visioning sessions. Um we also worked with the steering committee uh through a a couple of workshops that were held over at Heerten Hall um to identify the pillars of the plan. based on that public input from the first phase. And then finally, phase one wrapped up in October with our first future summit um where attendees learned about the process and we unveiled the strategic pillars and um we also had a giant floor map that was really fun um to start talking about how the community vision translates to the physical development of the city. Um and then we do have a a report that you can read. Um there's this the community snapshot report that talks about the economic and demographic trends in Keen and there's also some neat statistics there about our livability index. Um there's also a think tank report that uh goes through in detail the process that uh the think tank uh workshop participants went through and then finally a vision report that sort of uh encapsulates the whole process and ties together what the the community vision was for that first space. Okay. So now phase two. Um so while the first phase was focused on really identifying and building a consensus

around a shared community vision, the second phase was ded dedicated. Um now that we have this uh articulated vision to um actually articulate and identify the goals and action steps as well as the priorities to make that vision implementable. Um so to accomplish that six task forces were created. So these are um six new groups of people. Some of the people who participated were overlaps with the steering committee members but a lot of them were new people. So um I think there were something like 60 people that participated on those roughly. Um and they really did a deep dive in reviewing data, reviewing past work and case studies. Um that was facilitated by our consultant team and then um they worked with staff in the consultant team to develop uh draft goals and actions that were then brought back to the steering committee and vetted um and then eventually prioritized using a detailed uh prioritization survey. And for those of you that took it, thank you. That was a very long detailed survey. Um, but it was extremely helpful in the prioritization process at the end. Um, and then another uh major part of the phase 2 was developing the future land use map. So that giant floor map that we had at that first future summit was sort of like part of the like the launching point I would guess for this. Um but the master plan steering committee really was the group that we worked with most closely to figure out that future land use map. Um and then finally uh the draft plan including an implementation matrix and the future last uh land use map uh were presented to the community um at a second future summit on June 3rd. Um and the draft the final version of

the plan has changed a little bit since then but has uh the June 3rd version is substantially the same as what you have before you today. Um so again I mentioned the the outcome of phase one was really the development of a community vision. Um the goal with this effort was to develop a datainformed consensusbased vision that reflects the shared values of the community. Um, and so this graphic that's on the the most right hand side of the slide kind of um helps to visually show the process. So each step is trying to narrow the focus down more to a point of consensus that um that the community can sort of rally behind. Um and then this slide sort of summarizes what that vision is. Um again the first version of this was developed during that think tank workshop where the participants identified four potential future scenarios like things that could become reality and then they explored those four scenarios and we asked them to pick which one they preferred and then we tested that with a larger community and the results of that are are shown here on the slide. That's what that those little bubbles are showing. And the size of the circle corresponds to the number of people that picked that spot on the grid. Um, but really what this is showing is that the community desires uh change. Um, so the the tra the axes here are community evolution and development trajectory. Um, and they're looking for change on both of those trajectories. Um, so people want to see Keen grow to be a safe, welcoming and vibrant place to live with good living options, access to nature and highquality jobs. Um, and they also want the city to proactively invest um, in infrastructure in neighborhoods as well as housing

solutions. There's a lot of discussion around neighborhoods as um, I'll mention later. And then again uh so throughout this whole process um and this is sort of related to the vision um we heard from residents and the uh steering committee that specific topic areas or um or themes uh will not specifically called out in the pillars um are an essential part of what makes Keen Keen. And so these are listed here and I think of them as kind of the guiding principles for the plan. Um so while the vision tell tells us where we want to go, these are more about the values that are essential for us to hold on to in order to maintain um Keen's distinct culture and personality. Um so those are sustainability, education, a lot of discussion about lifelong learning um throughout the whole process, accessibility, public health, collaboration um sort of a regional mindset as well as um leading by example. Okay, so now getting on to the meat of the plan, which is the pillars, the strategic pillars. Um, again, these were developed by the steering committee leading up to the first future summit and were further defined um by those strategic pillar task forces that I mentioned that um met throughout January, February, and March of uh this year. And um these are meant to provide like the structure or the framework. So each pillar and I think I have another slide that shows this. Yep. Um uh so each pillar has a set of goals and actions associated with it. Um so again we have the the vision in the middle that's sort of the centering um uh aspirational picture of what the co uh community hopes to be or achieve. you have those connected themes that are very closely related to that vision and then the pillars which again provide

that organizational framework for those goals and actions. Um so the first pillar is called livable housing. Um and the main objective of this pillar is to expand enticing housing options for all. The goals that were developed for this pillar include um to boost infill development and redevelopment, remove barriers to housing development, promote sustainable and healthy housing standards that align with the community's character, increase the diversity of housing options and price points, and uh address the housing needs of all residents, current and future. And again, underneath each of these goals, there's a list of action items, which you can find in the implementation se uh section um at the end of the plan as well. The second pillar is a thriving economy with an objective to grow a dynamic economy of the future that spans local to international. The goals are to encourage and recruit businesses and targeted industries, prioritize economic sustainability and resiliency, attract and grow KE's businesses of all scales from entrepreneurs to businesses that span internationally. Uh strengthen Keen's position as an economic development leader and foster an inclusive economy. The third pillar is connected mobility with an objective to build regional and local connectivity, transportation and recreation networks. The goals for this one are to uh create connected and accessible network of multimmodal transportation infrastructure. Prioritize vulnerable road users and infrastructure design, operations and maintenance. Expand and promote environmentally sustainable mobility options that are convenient and attractive. And expand KE's connectivity to support economic growth. The fourth pillar is vibrant neighborhoods. Um I mentioned earlier that neighborhoods were a really big topic that sort of surfaced throughout

this whole process. Um and so this really ended up being its own pillar. The objective for this one is to support vibrant community neighborhoods that reflect their unique identity. And the goals underneath this one are to support a built environment that encourages social connections and interactions. Um so think of like placemaking strategies. Um the second one is to foster community relationship building and collaboration. Um number three is ensure safe and efficient movement around town. Four is foster a high quality of life for all residents. And five is create opportunities to encourage the creation of neighborhood businesses. Uh the next pillar is adaptable workforce. Foster a future ready, abundant and adaptable workforce. goals are to attract talent to grow Keen's workforce, expand credential pathways and skill development opportunities, um play a proactive role in desiloing efforts, broadening partnerships, and in increasing collaboration between partners that serve and support Keen's workforce. Um meet quality of life needs and reduce workforce barriers such as housing availability, child care, and transportation. And prioritize workforce and community health and wellness. And then last but not least um is the flourishing environment pillar. Champion environmental stewardship and climate action with um goals to promote smart land use and development. Prioritize environmental protection and sustainability. Integrate green p or technologies and best practices in Keen's built environment. Um expand community and infrastructure development. Strengthen Ke's local leadership and collaboration to build resilience at the regional, state and wider levels. Okay, I'm just going to pause for a second because I just felt like that was a really quick run through. Were there any questions about any of those pillars? I think most of the board's been keeping up as this process has been going

through. So, I think that most are somewhat up to speed, but um maybe not. But any questions so far? Go ahead, Mr. Mayhew. I can see you had a question. I was just going to uh there were there was one thing that I didn't see mentioned in there and I'm pretty sure I recall us um discussing it while we were doing this last year, but um curbing the amount of corporations that are coming in and buying up housing and jacking up the prices that bar current residents from staying where they They are. So you're

Oh yeah, go ahead. So, so your your question your question has to do with affordability of housing locally uh which is a dynamic nationally and throughout our state is one of the highest cost uh of housing markets there is in the nation. Uh indeed. Uh so this is a constraint is what you're expressing that uh a barrier to some of our our potential is the cost of housing and maybe we aren't rec and your concern is how do we recognize that in this plan? I think when you go through the details and the goals on the livable housing piece, I think it through creating more, it it does that, but it doesn't specifically call out what you're describing. Um there's sections around neighborhood groups facilitating collaboration between Keen housing and city committees expansion means of affordable housing and Keen by utilizing zoning and code enforcement mechanisms. Uh diversity of housing options from small edus to high-end housing. Um it it tries to scratch at it without saying exactly what you're

Yeah. you're saying I and I I think it's hard to say to set something that specific in the in a plan to say no, you know, out of state corporations buying up housing, but to say generally we want an variable affordability, I think is trying to get out what you're worried about. I less so mean Go ahead. I less so mean putting that in there specifically and more so like which is most oriented to combat that because you can build all the housing that you can build but like it's very finite. It's very

finite. Yeah, there's only so much you can build at some point. But the hard part is I think we're trying to do everything we can to increase the supply. I think the city like Mary and the team have done an incredible job of trying to add housing and add units. We just didn't make friends on the east side of Keen by moving from three units to six. Um but it's things like that that'll help create enough supply that hopefully the um the demand won't keep up pacing it by so much. That's my opinion at least.

I know we want to move on, but I am interested in that. Do we know that? Is that a big problem in Keen that big these big and mega corporations that are, you know, that are buying up huge properties and rentals around the country and then, you know, running them as rentals? Um, is that are we seeing a lot of that in Keen? I I don't know off hand, but I think Yeah, I know. Something I I haven't I haven't seen it, but I I don't We do have one instance, right? of the Colony Mill

bought by a large out of town company. But you I think we've been pretty fortunate actually with some of the developments that we've had uh that they are local uh Keen Housing. I mean, if I think of the 200 units that this council has has helped approve in the last two years, uh those have been primarily uh from within the region. Yeah. One just one other point. I mean,

and it would be wonderful to have local developers and builders and homeowners and whatever do this to their houses, but you know, to build at the scale that we really need, we're not going to probably get it locally. And so it may take um attracting out of town developers and and folks to come here and do it. Otherwise, you know, we're just not get we're not going to get to where we need to get. So it's it's something to think about, but it's a maybe a two-edged sword. But I understand the problem and and it is something that we were successful with uh on the uh redo of the middle school uh to attract a larger out of town builder to create 170 units there. But again, I think uh when you think of the other developments that have taken place, it's been helpful to have local development and and people willing to take the risk.

And 79A may help to address some of what we're talking about. some of the expansions and potentially using that for residential may help with allowing more locals to jump in that boat. But that any other questions on what we've gone through so far because there's a lot we could spend all all night because this is really a fun topic. We spent a long time working on this. Yeah, just I want I mean with the context of um you know Mari you really appreciate your enthusiasm for the for the process and and you seem you know it seems like a great piece of work to be proud of that um you know from the appearances on the radio and just everything you've done to make sure this comes to life um is is great in terms of our action tonight. What? What?

It's a public hearing. We have no public hear. There's two folks I don't know. Oh, okay. Uh are they intending to speak and then so there there the the action tonight would be a public hearing and then there is a motion to adopt after that. So, this this is an um great function of this. Is there a vote involved for this tonight for It's kind of a fun um fun one because as much as most things are city council policy that's uh put onto this board. This is actually our document. This is we get to set our own direction and this is the master plan set by the plan board. Okay. So, it'll live with us for 15 years, 20 years. So, we might be thinking about it in terms of are we comfortable tonight adopting this?

This is our Yeah, this is a you know through 20 240 and until we get a refresh done which you know sometimes they lag. So I do have a uh a number of more slides. I see I think there's one more question.

Uh thank you. Uh well, not to belabor this, but uh livable h uh livable housing was the one wording that I didn't like for a long time, but um you know uh but with this conversation going on, I I take it as housing that people in this community will be living in. And so if we emphasize that part, I think we can combat and put in place uh protections that make sure that the houses in this community are for this community. Um and you know, it's not a document to be what we have to do. It's just to help guide us. So I think it's doing that.

And and as this board recognizes, most of our votes when we get to a joint committee are are we consistent with the master plan? And coming up we'll be comparing against a new document if we approve this. So it's important great to go through this for the the rest of your slides just because it's as there are folks in the public that I think are curious and um for the record, right? To have all this out so we all know where we are. Great. Back to you, Mary.

Thank you. Yep. So um uh switching gears from the pillars to the future land use map. Um so that's shown on this slide and this is an illustration of the community's desired land use patterns given um you know the aspirations and goals and strategies that have been expressed throughout the the planning process. Um so we use uh seven generalized land use categories or what we're calling character areas to identify um the desired character for existing and future areas of growth and change. Um, and this map, just again for the record, is not a regulatory map like the zoning map is. It's a very kind of organic flowy looking map and that was done intentionally because um it's not meant to dictate on a parcel level what somebody can do with their land. This is more conceptual um to guide where we how we want to see the city of Keen develop and grow into the future. Um and yeah so um the character areas are shown on the slide. Um they include the downtown residential neighborhoods b uh neighborhood business nodes corridor oriented commerce conservation and low impact recreation rural residential and working landscapes and production and innovation. Um, and I do want to note that a lot of these different character areas, they're focused more on like the feel of the place and less on the uses. So, there's still a use component there, but they're much I think we heard from the community that um there's a a desire to see more mixed uses pretty much everywhere in Keen to um some areas to a higher degree, some areas to a lesser degree. But um there was much more of a focus with this plan on the actual character

or identity and feel of a place versus the specific uses that are allowed. Um and this is just this again I'm going to move on. Um so the last section um is the implementation and next steps. Um so this is the part where we try to put it all together and um figure out how to actually make this vision a reality. Um again just uh we use that prioritization survey that I mentioned earlier to go through each of those proposed actions that came out of that task force process um and try to figure out which ones are a priority. Um so this chart just kind of shows what the outcome of those prioritization surveys were. And so from there we were able to create um an implementation matrix. Um and so for each goal we have um the pillar is one page and then under each goal there's the set of actions and for each action it's categorized on its priority level as either being high, medium or low. Again, that's based on the results of that prioritization survey as well as the role that the city plays. Um, and so would the city be the lead? Is the city just a participant with a uh someone else being the lead or is the K city just playing a support role? Um, and so this is just a snippet of what that looks like. As you can see, you can it kind of um visually jumps out at you which strategies might be um ideal to focus on first based on, you know, having a higher priority and having um agency within the city to to get started on it right away. It's also a great tool for community partners to look at and say like, oh, well, this is a a really high priority strategy, but the city's

not a lead, so who is taking the lead? You know, can kind of help spur those conversations. Um so next steps in the process uh uh are to use that matrix that I just mentioned to identify actions to start working on now. Um again that would be uh actions that are high priority where the city is the lead so we can really just start working on it. Um and then to work with our community and regional partners on goals where the city is not the lead. Um we want to monitor and track our progress. Um try to keep the plan fresh. I think there's a lot of momentum especially coming out of the the June 3rd summit and um some of the coverage of the plan a lot of uh interest from people. So how do we keep that momentum going? Um and then moving forward um it'll be up to city council to align our annual budgets and the bianual um capital improvement program and policy decisions um with the master plan goals. Okay. So that's it.

Really appreciate all the work that's gone into this. I know Harold is bummed he's not here uh as the chair for both this committee as well as the master plan steering committee. I know he's he's bummed he's not here tonight, but um really want to say thank you to you and all the staff that's involved in this, the the rest of the committees and everybody who's here. So um it's been a ton of work getting to this point. Um, with that, in accordance with New Hampshire RSA 6744 and New Hampshire RSA 6756, the Keen Planning Board will hold a public hearing on the city of Keen 2025 comprehensive master plan, the plan is available for review at keynew Hampshire.gov and at city hall in the community development department. So, with that, I'll open the public hearing. Either of you like to say anything, come on up. You just do name and address for the minute who's online. Um, the green light means it's on, so you should be good.

Sounds great. Thank you. Hi, my name is Forest Hall. I live at 36 Red Oak Drive and uh it's an honor to be here to talk about this amazing plan. And as you said, Remy, a lot of people have put in a lot of time and energy and effort to create a very strategic, holistic, and inspiring vision with realistic action steps to get there. And it's a lot. I've read through the 128 pages about three times now. And if you have as well, you'll see how thoughtful it is and how many different ways they're trying to achieve this incredible vision. I guess my main uh piece of excitement and the part of the plan that really stood out for me is that this is a massive vision and massive plan and it's going to take a lot of energy and effort and it's already taken so much energy and effort and so I hope that the part of the plan that can really be emphasized is that uh community engagement, community outreach, regional partnerships that the the city and the planners don't feel like they're alone. own, but that this can be a plan for the people, for the residents, and by the residents as well. Um, to to briefly give an example, I was born here in Keen. I I've lived here most of my life, but spent the last 10 years trying to find a home permanently outside of Keen. I thought that might be Western Mass, Burlington, Vermont, maybe outside the US. And it wasn't until this last year, just coincidentally, while this plan was being developed, that I reflected on how Keen has really transformed a lot in the last five years and invested in infrastructure and community engagement and events to get closer to this vision. And as someone who has many ideas about

how as a community we could achieve this vision, I know I am just one of 23,000 residents that also would be excited to have ways to get involved. And so as there are opportunities for partnership building and uh resident engagement, I hope that the city feels excited, enthusiastic to uh rely on the efforts of the people here. I'm pretty sure the mayor's digging for a card right now to make sure you uh he uh gets your contact. He gives you his. So, um really appreciate you coming out uh having do done the read through. Um and uh he's going to sign you up. So, you're going to brought in for something.

That's how it happens. Yeah. So, really appreciate you coming out. Um is there any questions? I mean, you've got uh the staff here. Anything you want for them or uh just a big thank you. Yeah. This is inspiring and I'm very excited. Well, thank you for awesome. Thank you so much. All right. Uh do you want to add anything? You're my only other member of the public here tonight, so I uh really appreciate it. So, um awesome. Well, um All right, we've got a couple. So, I'll start with Mr. Hayer. I'd just like to apologize to our members of the public who I mistaken for members of the press. So, thank you for coming out tonight and uh and sharing your thoughts on this plan.

Awesome. Thank you.

So, I just um I just want to say that um while it was definitely a collaborative team effort, I as being behind the scenes of this project, I really just can't not say how much work Mary put into this project. Um, without a doubt, she was an unstoppable force throughout this entire thing. Um, from regular hours to night meetings to weekend events to coordination, collaboration, not only like inspiring, but just absolutely fantastic. The the success of this project and the product that came out of this two-year process would not be what it is without her. Um, so Mary, congratulations. [Applause]

Can I I just want to add and I'm going to let go first. Um, having a baby in all of that in the middle. So very astonishing. All right, I'll let you respond if you.

Thank you. Um, I just want to say it has been really amazing working with all of you as the planning board and the steering committee and city council. Um, but you know, Evan and Megan were with me through this process from the very beginning and have always and even, you know, there's other folks in the department who have been behind the scenes. um Karen Maru in our department who's done so much support with events and everything. So I just want to also give some recognition for that. Thank you. Give a round of applause, you know, for the rest of the staff. Thank you.

Thank you, Joey. just to uh continue the kumbaya. It's as a as a new person on this board, it's nice to see the people that are running the city and how dedicated they seem. So, just wanted to say that. Thank you. Welcome. All right. Who wants to make the motion? It's an easy one. It is. I move to adopt the 2025 city of Keen, New Hampshire compromise. Can you turn on your microphone, please? Oh, yeah. Somebody else want to without that you can wouldn't been real.

I move to adopt the 2025 city of Keen New Hampshire comprehensive master plan. I'll second that. Thank you, Mr. Mayor. Thank you. Just to speak, you know, very briefly, this is I didn't call that.

Let's hope that this isn't uh, you know, a 15-year plan. Uh, that that it leads to us wanting to do this more often. And it doesn't have to be necessarily at the scale that we did, but we we took too long in coming to this point. and uh and you know the environment co lots of things get in the way. Uh but now that we're here uh let's learn from this process and carry it forward not just as a something to implement but also something to to find new ways to addressing problems that we have yet to see.

Appreciate it. All right, ready for a vote? All those in favor, it's unanimous. We got some folks in the back, too. Um, and I'm going to pass around a paper. Uh, it's a certificate of adoption for you all to sign. Um, it's required by state law. So, we have to file it with the city clerk's office. So, I'm just going to pass that around right now if you don't mind while you're here. Do we have staff updates? Is the uh one of the last things I have on here?

Right. Yes. So, there actually are two items, super brief. Um, there's a correspondence in your packet that was from a couple of residents regarding an ordinance um that has since been adopted, but they were expressing concerns about the proposed change to um specifically the medium density district. Um and they did uh put in some suggestions, one of which was to require site plan review um for projects that involve um a certain number of residential units. Um so I wanted to share that with you um even though it was past the adoption date of the ordinance. And then um the other item is for your site plan review thresholds um which I know we've kind of been talking about for a few months now. I received I think from five of you I got um emails with some of your individual thoughts on the site plan review thresholds. So I think we're at the point now where we have something to bring to you. Um so we're proposing to set a public hearing for your October 27th meeting um to discuss those uh site plan review thresholds and because

uh these are the the site plan review thresholds that suggestion. Yes. And so the um the adoption process is for the planning board to adopt the changes first and then send it to city council to incorporate into city code. And so we're um we're also recommending that we discuss this at the October 14th joint planning board and PLLD committee meeting um so that the planning board has the benefit of hearing some of the input from PLLD before you make your decision. Um just because of the they'll have to do it anyway. Yeah, exactly. Um but that's all I have for staff updates.

Yeah, go ahead. Are you planning a presentation on when site plan review takes place today and what changes we might make to that process? Is that part of your presentation for the public hearing?

Uh yes, that that is part of it. And um I think I'm trying to remember how many months ago now that it was that we um we did do a presentation several months ago and went through different site plan review thresholds and asked a series of questions and so the revisions are based on your the feedback that we've received from you so far. Um but there's definitely opportunity for further um discussion and refinement. Yeah. So that'll all be presented at the next meeting. Mr. Chairman, is that something that is worth circulating? Do you want any more feedback now that we know that we're moving forward with it?

Well, if you can share what you've learned so far, what you're going to propose prior so we can at least read them before the uh joint committee meeting. That'll give us some time to so we're not trying to process it live. That would be great if there's a preview there. Yeah, I think those those kind of comparison documents it's easy to like we've talked about previously if it what is what suggested

and that way we can walk in to a productive conversation on the 14th hopefully with the that group. I know it's coming up quick but um I think that'd be helpful. Anything else for staff updates? All right, then I'll let you I I can think I can cover the rest of it. So um while you're passing stuff around. So, any new business the board wants to bring up? Anything anybody wants to Okay. Oh, go ahead. All right.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Uh, there I don't have anything formal for this evening, but uh there's a lot of uh things learned through the G2 application that we heard. Uh, and in particular, you know, me reflecting back on those months that we looked at it, there were some procedural concerns that I had um in the leadup to the final decision, not necessarily the final decision. Um, but you know, those p they might seem silly, but the procedural things are things that can be questioned if there is someone that wants to disagree with our our vote. So I, you know, for next meeting or something, I think we should review uh not only the RSA and our statutory requirements, but also our uh our procedures uh and maybe update them so that we can have a clean vote and not have to worry. uh in partic one one just to give an idea uh and I think at the beginning of the meeting you were kind of talking about it but um specifically saying which alternate or if we are um bringing an alternate up to vote that we specify who they're uh covering uh so that you know that's clean if the meeting's continued or not. So

no I I uh that's a that's a great idea especially on the alternate piece. I think we could use a tuneup on how we manage our alternates because especially when we move for continued hearings, we don't have them that often, but when we do, keeping the same folks in the seats is important. Um, and it's one where we need good tenants to be able to do that, but this group is pretty consistent that's here. Um, but no, definitely um appreciate the uh the feedback. What I'd ask and I think is it would be helpful for staff is if you have a couple of those suggestions of things that are good if you could or that would be better share those with the staff prior to the meeting so they can come up with like how to respond and how to bring that to us in a productive way so we're not trying to like brainstorm on the floor. Um and I think it's one we want to be thoughtful. I don't know if that one is completely closed out. If we want to wait if the I know the G2 piece is done from our perspective from the rehearing on the meeting last week, but if they're still within the appeal timeline or anything like that, I think we just want to be thoughtful of doing anything while they're and we don't want to change any procedures while that's still open. Um I think it's done, but I leave that to the staff. Um and but I think it's a great call out. Um, so that anything else for new business? All right.

I guess you're going to make one. No. Well, have we passed appeals deadlines there?

So, we've passed the appeal deadline um for the RSA 155E. There was a 10-day appeal deadline for the planning board's decision. There's a 30-day deadline. I'm not sure that we're past that yet for any interpretations that the planning board may have made with respect to the zoning ordinance. Um, and then from Friday, I believe there was another, if I'm not mistaken, 10-day deadline that started um for the appeal to up to the superior court.

Oh, the answer is still open. Sorry, I would rather we want to make sure we're clear of an open potential application before we start changing anything, but it's a good call out. Um, all right. Upcoming dates of interest. The joint committee planning board and PLLD is Tuesday, October 14th. It's a Tuesday, not a Monday. It's Columbus Day, I believe, or indigenous people's day. Is that the right is that? What's that? What is the 13th? Is that Yeah, it's Indigenous People's Day, Columbus Day. It's officially Columbus Day.

All right. That So that holiday um is on Monday the 13th. So we will be meeting on on Tuesday, October 14th at 6:30. Uh planning board steering committee is October 14th at noon. The planning board site visit, if needed, would be October 22nd at 8 a.m. I don't want another private one, so if folks are around for that, you know, come hang out. And then the next plan board meeting is October 27th at 6:30. We do have a more time item that we're going to leave on more time because I don't want to talk about snow yet. And uh with that Oh, Mr. Hayer, we believe that item is completed. Can you turn on your microphone, please?

No. So, we believe that that item may be completed and doesn't need to be on the agenda anymore. Is that fair for us to remove that one? Yes, it should have been changed to the next set of um site development standards. So, we're still trying to make our way through. I think we started this in 2024 trying to do trainings on the different the 14 site development. I thought you had more to talk about on snow, so I was going to let it go, but either way, so we'll get that in another meeting. Um, and I also wanted to just quickly mention that for the site visit, if there's a time or like a day that works better for people, um, we might want to consider discussing that as well at some point because, um, the board really should have a quorum at the site visits.

Okay. Yeah. Uh I I would just add if I can October 22nd is an Einbeck day. Uh and I know I won't be there. I don't know if you'll be there. Uh but it is a local manufacturing day. So it's something we should I think it's probably worth doing uh one of the doodle polls or something when we get closer if if we do have applications that require it to figure out if there's a time that works. because while the private one was fun, I don't think it was as productive as it probably could have been. Uh, awesome. Yeah, I just want to mirror that sentiment and say that the polls are unparalleled. Just just keep those coming.

Yeah, the polls work well. Love them. Love options. Yeah. Awesome. Well, uh, with that, I'll adjourn us at 8:48. Stuck under the nine o'clock.