Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Opening of the meeting of the Urbanism Committee of August 12, 2026. Please rise for the oath of allegiance. I swear allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic that it represents, a nation under the aegis of God, indivisible, with freedom and justice for all. Very well, we will send some administrative tasks from the council. Jeff, I saw that there is only one verbal trial. Do we want to wait and deal with the whole month of August in September? Yes, I think this is the appropriate way to proceed. Fantastic. Determination of the regional impact. Let's hope there is none. Even better. And discussion with the municipal staff. The staff, do we have any points to address? I have nothing for tonight. Hello. Absolutely nothing. Nothing at all. Not a single thing. Wow, that's great. Very good. We don't have any old cases to deal with tonight. We don't have any new plans or conceptual plans to examine tonight. We have two points under the heading Other Affairs. One concerns the discussion on the Seas Dickie Street. The other concerns the amendments on the use of the soils and the discussion on the new ordinance proposed with the Southern Planning Commission of New Hampshire. Good evening, sir. How are you? I'm fine.

Fantastic. If we want to address the Seas Dickie Street file, can someone come up to the microphone quickly, give us his name and address, and I will ask you a few questions. Hello, I am Tamara Lampy, here is my husband, Léon Lampy, and we are the owners of 6 Dickie Street, also known as Broadway Auto Sal. Uh, may I?

May I resume quickly to refresh the memory of everyone? I know I wasn't there when this meeting took place. I'm sorry. If I remember correctly, John, this project was submitted to us a few years ago. Something about Dickie? Was it the 6 Dickie Street that had been submitted to us? I don't know. Three or four years ago, maybe. A long time ago. Yes, yes. And then there was the most recent, which probably goes back to three months. Two months. Three months. Exactly. It was... I understand. I read your email. I am writing today to get advice on how to move forward with our site plan. It looks like you sent it on July 21st. Aidez-nous un peu. Sommes-nous en litige avec vous en ce moment concernant votre plan de site? Nous. Pas nécessairement concernant votre plan de situation, mais avez-vous engagé des poursuites judiciaires contre la ville de Londorori?

Oui, c'est le cas.

D'accord. Hum, je pense que là. Chose la plus appropriée à faire, eux, serait de... De... Vous avez l'air de vouloir. Pour moi, il semble qu'il s'agirait éventuellement de dérogation à certaines conditions d'approbation du plan de situation signé. My recommendation would be to submit these questions or what you would like to do in the city to obtain an official meeting so that we can have a real hearing. Thus, we could follow the necessary procedure, which would lead us to an announced public hearing in order to be able to discuss what these questions would be. Hum. Je pense qu'avec cela, je ne sais pas si nous pouvons vous donner beaucoup plus pour l'instant, étant donné que nous sommes en litige avec vous. Hum, nous voulons nous assurer de suivre nos règles et règlements en tant que Conseil, ce qui impliquerait que vous veniez nous voir avec une sorte de dérogation ou toute demande qui nous conduirait à une audience publique formelle.

Certainly, I can understand that. I'm sorry, Leo, I'll just talk to you first. Hum, we're not here to ask for questions. We're here to talk to the urban planning committee about our situation plan. It's not about that. We're not going to talk about questions. Hum, we're going to talk about a problem we're facing with the process of the situation plan. Et je serai extrêmement déçu si je ne pouvais pas au moins vous lire ma déclaration préparée. Hum, et je pense que nous méritons l'opportunité de le faire.

Je suis tout à fait disposé à vous laisser lire votre déclaration. Hum, n'attendez aucune réponse de notre part, mais je vais absolument.

C'est très bien.

Vous laissez faire ce que vous avez à faire.

Je m'en contenterai. D'accord. Ça vous va, Léo? Très bien. First of all, we would like to thank Mr. President and the members of the Urbanism Committee for your time and for the thoughtful attention you have given to our company on Dickey Street. We sincerely appreciate the perspicacity, professionalism and the will of the Council to carefully examine the facts concerning our activity that we have shared. Hum, I ... you have destabilized me a little. I have some files that I had prepared for you. This presents a chronology of our situation, but I do not want to cross limits, so I will move on. I would like to point out that on April 1, 2026, at the meeting of the Urbanism Committee, he expressed his desire and interest to develop a plan that could help us manage the property. We have greatly appreciated this orientation because it recognizes the importance of finding practical solutions that meet the objectives of the site plan regulation while respecting the existing conditions and physical constraints of the site. On November 10, shortly after our September meeting concerning our conceptual plan, Stantec Consulting Services sent a letter directly to the Urbanism and Economic Development Service of Londonderry on our property. The headline of this letter indicated, estimation for the examination of a minor site plan. More importantly, Stantec wrote to the municipal staff, following your request, we have estimated our costs to carry out the examination of the minor site request. Stantec then specifically described the documents submitted for our project as including a minor site request. This is the city council engineer communicating directly with the urban planning staff. Identifying, at the same time, our file as a minor site request. Stantec also described our proposal as a change of use, moving from the sale of vehicles to the sale in detail on a field already occupied. A four-acre plot with improvements to the associated site plan. We therefore respectfully ask this Council to consider a very simple question. If our request has been submitted and identified as a request for a minor site plan, why have we not been treated according to the minor site plan procedure of the city? Instead, our plan was immediately submitted to the requirements and procedures applicable to a complete examination of the urban planning committee. At no time has the administration specified which criteria of section 2.07 our request would have allegedly failed to meet. It also did not explain why the request was deemed ineligible for an examination by the Minor Sites Examination Committee. Our current site plan seems to have been designed according to more applicable standards to a newly developed plot than to an existing property and established for a long time with physical constraints. This plan does not take into account the existing conditions of the property. About a decade later, since we talked about it, We have already come in front of you and, in the chronology that I have provided you, I have included the plans submitted in 2017, as well as a history of where we started this procedure and where we are today. About a decade later, we face the same challenge with a project that requires significant terracing, the removal of mature trees and the removal of the landscape, with constructions and developments that seem disproportionate in terms of scale and historical use of the site. Having to root out a natural system seems excessive, redundant and financially heavy for these 0.4 acres. We therefore respectfully ask the Council to consider this issue. If our file has ultimately not been treated as a minor development plan, to your liking, although identified and presented as such, why have the strictest plan requirements been imposed on our property? More specifically, we have asked the Council to determine whether these requirements were really necessary to protect the health, security and public well-being in the unique circumstances of our property, and whether reasonable flexibility and the derogatory authority provided by this Council by the RSA 67 435 and RSA 6 743 043. would not have served the intention of the regulations on the development plans better. We think that this question is particularly important given the history established of the property, the existing conditions, its small size and its previous automobile use. Our concern is not simply to know if each technical requirement could be imposed, but if the imposition of these requirements was reasonable, necessary and in accordance with the regulations, especially when the request had been identified as a minor development plan. Thank you very much. I appreciate it. No one can comment on this subject.

So?

You can't comment on this either, Mr. Tia?

So? Yes, we're just looking for a little common sense. We're not going to, unfortunately, because we're in full consensus, we're not going to provide any answers.

In other words, you're telling us that we should bring our lawyer to discuss with you. Is that where we are?

Nous aurions besoin de notre avocat, nous aussi.

C'est ça, c'est... Je parle avec votre avocat. Je parle effectivement avec votre avocat.

Désolé, attendez. Donc... Je ne suis pas là pour vous donner des conseils juridiques, certainement pas au sujet d'avocats ou autres. Ce que je peux examiner, ce que je peux dire, c'est... Nous ne pouvons pas vous donner de retour pour le moment.

D'accord. Très bien. Euh, je veux toujours... Finir ce que j'ai commencé. C'est la lettre dont je parlais. Tenez, John.

Merci.

Pour vous. Et j'ai pris le temps de préparer ceci afin que vous puissiez.

Merci.

Voir d'où tout cela est parti et où nous en sommes maintenant. J'apprécie. Prenez juste quelques minutes à votre convenance. Nous avons également apporté quelques photos du paysage. Monsieur Butler, pensez-vous que je puisse vous laisser cela ?

Vous pouvez, vous pouvez les laisser ici et je m'assurerai de les transmettre au conseil. Ce n'est pas un problème. Merci, j'apprécie.

Merci. Merci. And I would like to point out that we came to the planning committee hoping that it would serve as an intermediary between us and the city. The staff, Mr. Mahalan, has been great. He has always had an open-door policy. I have already said it and I repeat it. We continue to fight with the staff. and their way of treating us, and I really hope that you will take the time to read what I have left you. Thank you.

Thank you. Very good. South Planning Commission of New Hampshire, the floor is yours. James VO, South Planning Commission of New Hampshire. Come on, my friend, where do you want to start? Well, I can review. Yes, let me out. I can make a little recap of where we are. So, over the past year, the region of London has advanced a targeted examination of its land use regulations thanks to the HOPP grant and your own planning process. And this has shaped the Council's participation in defining the orientation regarding the way it wants to approach housing policy. And, e, so this file that I have prepared, to which you should all have access, reflects our course, and the objective is really that the council examines the text project in detail, confirms the direction taken, identifies the remaining questions and determines which additional exam, legal or technical, could be necessary before the amendments are presented. e, I just want to note that, you know, nothing has really changed. E. Nothing has changed in the amendments that we saw during the last meeting. E. And I would encourage the council to use this meeting as an opportunity to examine the text project. E. Discuss remaining political issues. And provide guidelines before these amendments are transferred to the city because I need to have finished the work on this contract by the end of September. And so, at this stage, if it is not finished, the council can, you know, the city and the council can do what they want. But we, you know, fundamentally, the SNHPC would be able to simply transmit the work done as well as the audit report that we are obliged to provide via the contract and, they, to let you continue. So, It is obvious that a handful of them are linked to the RSA to put us in conformity with the state, and others are not linked to the RSA and are only potential changes. Hum, I would unfortunately say that your contract expires in September and I suppose that we will not have finished most of this work by September. Hum, being given ours, they. Situation actuelle en termes de personnel, je dirais que je me sentirais beaucoup plus à l'aise avec ces points et à en discuter si nous avions un directeur de l'urbanisme, du développement économique et un urbaniste municipal. Sans vouloir vous offenser, vous êtes notre urbaniste intérimaire, mais un. Urbanistes employés par la ville de Londonderry. Hum, cela étant dit, vous êtes plus que bienvenus pour passer en revue quelques-uns de ceux qui nous mettent simplement en conformité avec les RSA et pour discuter des changements que vous avez effectués. Hum, comme ça, quand nous serons au moment de pouvoir en discuter, nous aurons un peu plus de contexte. Je serai heureux de le faire. Donc, eux, vous regardez la page de couverture, eux. The cover note here is HUM, and you have in front of you on the screen a list of amendments. And so, the list, E, starts with the accessory housing units. HUM, and the label here is essentially an update to align with the state RSA label. HUM, similar thing with the residential parking lot. I think there was just a missing label in the ordinance on the use of land concerning the condition where the state requires that cities no longer require a parking lot by residential unit. So it is a update in accordance with the RSA of the state. The acquisition of approvals is strictly in accordance with the RSA. The development on class 6 roads and private roads is also in accordance with the RSA. E, then, we move on to a point that is hybrid. So, residential and commercial districts go beyond the strict label of the RSA, but they do it in a way that I think is as conservative as possible. M, while respecting the intention and maintaining developments according to integrity standards in terms of architectural design for the facade of the building. Now, you know, they, the council and the city may want to debate the libellum and what they think must or must not be included, and I encourage them to do so. Hum, but in general, what must be remembered is that the RSA law now requires residential development to be authorized in commercial areas. And so, this regulation, as it is conceived, allows it, but in a very controlled format. The two other sections that you see at the bottom, which are a little off-campus on the PDF document on the screen, concern the new section on divided lots. The idea here was to create a condition allowing individual houses connected to the water and to the sewers to divide their land to create up to three additional houses. On the other hand, the size of these houses would be plafoned. Because what we have heard from the council, from the plan director and from the investigation, is that the city wants opportunities for access to property that are feasible. The way to achieve this is therefore to reduce the size of the land and houses, which makes them more accessible. Thus, the way it is written gives to the promoter, who is generally the owner, the possibility of building what would not be allowed in other circumstances, on a very limited sub-assembly of land in the city. Essentially, all MAMOS runs north of the municipal center, because this is where the water and sewage are available. It is very similar for the last point, which concerns the development of « cottage-court ». The difference here is that it allows the development of condos gathered around a small village square or a common green space. Once again, this project is highly controlled in terms of development and architectural design in order to respect the spirit of a short cottage. We have seen this concept gain popularity in the state over the past year. The cities of Keene and Bedford have adopted it. Uxet envisages the adoption of regulations on short cottages. And the key element that I observe in all this is that if you are not very precise about the layout of buildings, architectural controls and the size of the units, the promoters will find a way to bypass the rules to build something that does not really respect the principles of a short cottage. This is a good remark. Very good. Very good. Well, I think so. We should submit them to an audition, shouldn't we? So, do we want to send some of these specific points to the RSA for an audition? Hum, and if so, which ones would you like to deal with? The first four. Accessory housing, residential parking. validation of approvals, development on a MHM class 6. And then stop there. Okay. And for the rest, I think we probably only want the new employee to pilot this file for the remaining three. Yes, I would say that we certainly have a fantastic roadmap to start with when that happens. E. What floor? The first three. But, so, accessory housing, residential parking, validation of approvals, and e-route privée. Just the RSA. Yes. So, we would not seek to send to the audience the development of residential and commercial divided terrain, nor the short cottages. It suits me. Yes, sir. I just have a question, because for the short cottages, we have seen concepts pass on their subject. J'aimerais savoir ce que les gens en pensent. Peut-être que je suis le seul. Je voulais juste... Juste lancer l'idée. Tout à fait. Tout ce que nous faisons, c'est dire que nous ne nous en occuperons pas pour l'instant. D'accord. D'accord. Nous allons nous en occuper. Mais nous allons traiter cela point par point. Correct. Essentiellement, ce que nous essayons de faire, ou ce que j'essaie de faire, ce sont ces changements liés au fait de... Nous mettre en conformité avec l'État en raison des lois actuelles qui ont été votées. Let's continue to move forward on that. But for the others, who are they? Really more in the hands of the city of Londonderry, let's wait to have staff in place to bring us a little more than what we have now, you know. And again, some of them are quite important changes. I think that before doing that, we must have the staff in place. I have a question about the contract. They, the gentleman mentioned that, they. qu'ils ont un certain délai pour faire cela. Pourrais-je demander au président de lui poser une question? Oh oui, oui, eux. Est-ce votre contrat avec nous ou est-ce parce que si nous ne le faisons pas dans les temps, nous ne profitons pas de la subvention? Monsieur le Président, si je peux me permettre, je souhaiterais juste préciser que la date limite du 30 septembre concerne à la fois le contrat de la ville avec New Hampshire Housing et le contrat que la commission de planification du sud du New Hampshire a avec la ville de Londonderry en tant que consultant sur ce dossier. Je tiens à être clair, ce que nous sommes contractuellement tenus de fournir, c'est un rapport d'audit sur l'utilisation des sols. Tout ce dont nous parlons actuellement dépasse le cadre initial des travaux et la ville a dû modifier son accord avec New Hampshire Housing pour me permettre d'effectuer ce travail. La ville n'a aucune obligation de donner suite à ces éléments. Je ne suis donc pas là pour vous mettre la pression afin de respecter une date limite pour ces points. Vous n'en avez pas. I am already working on the audit report and, if there is no other particular action required by me in September, I could come back in September to give you a point on the state of the report, if you wish. Otherwise, the audit report will be submitted to the City before the deadline of the contract and we will close the work. What is the deadline of the contract? On September 30. On September 3. If I can add a remark to this subject. Je me souviens que vous êtes partis en vacances pendant, quoi, quatre semaines, deux semaines, trois semaines ou quelque chose comme ça. Oui. Un mois. Oui. Et quand nous avions du personnel ici, je veux dire, y a-t-il une exception à cela ou ? Je vois ce que vous voulez dire, car le service n'a pas été fourni pendant deux mois. Vous dites. C'est exactement ce que je dis. Si je peux me permettre, ce service, ou du moins le contrat entre la commission de planification du sud du New Hampshire, est basé sur le temps passé sur le projet. Je comptabilise donc mes heures de travail et nous utilisons le budget du contrat au fur et à mesure. Ce n'est pas parce que je n'y ai pas travaillé pendant cinq semaines que nous étions en défaut de contrat. C'est le point A. Le point B est que New Hampshire Housing a une date limite très stricte car il s'agit de fonds ARPA et ils sont obligés de clôturer ces fonds. So they have no choice. They must close all their contracts. Yes, sir. Thank you. In my opinion, we lose absolutely nothing. We have elements provided by the researcher that we can put back to the new personnel member as a good starting point. Okay, you see what I mean, and then we'll move on to these last three points. I just wanted to get clarification on this point. But I don't... We really don't lose anything to not act on these last three points, or whatever I said. Um, we don't lose anything to not act on it for the moment. We always have the text, we have the work that has been accomplished. Um, of which I am very grateful and uh... Once again, I'm not saying that I don't. I'm just looking to. I understand. These are the contributors. Well, you know, I understand that it is a resource of the city. So, I just want to make sure that things are clear. So, just yes.

Hum, two points. First, since the last meeting, when James was there, in this short period of time, no less than five different residents and commercial owners have made their share of their interest in these regulations, specifically for teenagers. Nous avons eu deux résidents différents qui apprécieraient vraiment ces changements. E. Le. E. Résidentiel dans une zone commerciale. Très intéressé par cela. Y compris E. Le commerce au rez-de-chaussée et le résidentiel au-dessus, et j'essaie de me souvenir du dernier. Ah oui, et le E. Développement sur terrain divisé, et ce sont tous des résidents ou des entreprises existants à Londonderry. The second point, hum, concerning the question of Giovanni on the calendar. James was not available in June, but your planning team was not really available in June either, and he had provided all this information before that. So, hum, I don't think anything has been lost. But I think that the plan you are discussing to allow future planners to examine and absorb all this is a very good thing, as well as to examine them, you know, what is required. But I know that by working with Jeff and the director's plan committee, there has been a real commitment for two years to create a variety of types of housing. And I think that James really aimed right here. So.

Yes.

I think it's very good work.

Yes. So, to close the loop here, do we want to send them 80, 1, 2, 3 and 4 to audiences? Yes, absolutely. Okay, wonderful. We get the yes. Do you agree with that?

Yes, I was nodding my head. I was looking, but nodding my head.

I was trying to read and look at you at the same time. Okay. Let's eliminate absolutely the easiest problems so that we can attack others with them. Yes, because the new planner could have a global approach already experienced elsewhere, which we may not have heard of, and which could integrate elements of the last three. Mais laissons le nouveau planificateur. Oui, oui, non, je veux dire, faire un peu de planification. James, c'est un excellent travail que vous avez fait et merci d'avoir harmonisé le contexte du plan directeur pour chacun d'entre eux. Hum, cela nous sera très utile alors que nous continuons à examiner et à travailler sur ces dossiers. Alors merci pour cela. Monsieur le Président, si je peux me permettre, je note simplement que la commission de planification du sud du New Hampshire est toujours une ressource pour ces communautés membres. Ainsi, bien que nous n'ayons pas un budget énorme pour les travaux hors transport, nous aimons rester disponibles pour répondre aux questions. Donc, si votre nouveau planificateur municipal arrive et a des questions, je ne suis qu'à un coup de fil. Et eux, oui, gardez cela à l'esprit. J'apprécie, monsieur. Merci beaucoup. Quelqu'un a autre chose ? Non, je veux juste dire merci. C'est un excellent service que vous fournissez et nous apprécions tout le travail que vous y consacrez. Je vous en suis reconnaissant. Très bien. Eh bien, c'est la fin de notre ordre du jour. Quelqu'un a autre chose à ajouter ? Motion pour lever la séance. J'ai une motion. Y a-t-il un second ? Tous ceux qui sont pour, veuillez dire oui. Oui, oui. Bonne nuit à tous.