Planning Board - Regular Meeting

Hello, everyone, and welcome to the July 24, 2026 meeting of the Litchfield Planning Board. Will everyone please stand for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Next is roll call of members present. Jared O'Connell, chair. Travis Tucker, vice chair.

Russell Blanchett, member.

Diane Polinsky, Slackman's representative.

Leith Riley, member.

Jesse is not able to make it for today's meeting. We are also joined by Jay Minkara from the NRPC and Joan McKibbin, our planning board administrator. So next is public input on non-agenda items. Anyone have any input on items that are not on our agenda? seeing none we will move on to item one on our agenda which is uh rick charbonneau and reggie moreau to bring a sidewalk change proposal to the planning board at moore's falls and corning farm um so this is not necessarily like a formal thank you is this something we have to accept

No, it was the same meeting. Prior things.

The planning board was going to have Reggie do in front of Morris Falls, but then we had a four-year problem with fishing game and non-paving. The list was changed.

So I can I can bring the board up to date Rick and I have been working on trying to get the sidewalk from Morse Falls all the way down all the way to my northerly entrance of Corning Farms. Originally we we had talked both ways trying to figure out what what was the best route for this and in the end after talking with Rick I went out after we had met the last time informally to take a look at what we have for room between Charles Bancroft Highway the right-of-way and our fence on our property. And it appears that we have the room to fit the sidewalk on the exterior versus the interior of that fence, which would work a lot better than on the interior. So what we're doing now is I've got our engineer, which at this point is Dube Group. They're confirming everything for us as it relates to the physical space to do it. And I should probably have something for you for the next meeting. um so you'll have an engineered plan because this would become a change in my site plan so that way we could get that amended for you and uh and then hopefully be able to begin construction on that relatively soon for you for all of us actually because it'd be a great thing for the town the only thing that we do have we have one pinch point which isn't bad i was mentioning to rick earlier that we have one spot where there's a telephone pole that has a guide wire that comes down in the area where the sidewalk is so we will be talking to the utility about putting an arm on that and bringing it out so that it goes into our property over the fence so it's not in the way we have about seven feet between the fence and that pole so we have just enough room to to make things work So that's on our end, and like I said, I'm hoping to have something for you very shortly on that. I'll get it into Joan, and she can share it with everybody, but looking forward to seeing that happen.

Okay, Rick Chabonneau, 401 Charles Bancroft Highway. So on this section, I have GPI looking at that. That's who did the road widening for the gas station. So we're hoping it'll fit in the right-of-way. That's our hope. If it does fit in the right-of-way, we're golden. If it doesn't, we're going to have to figure something else out. It appears we can with a four-foot shoulder, so we should have enough room there. We have one pinch point at the southern end. section, southern end, which you don't see there, but right at the very southern end, because of the Moores Falls and stuff, we may have a 10-foot section that only has a four-foot wide sidewalk on it.

Instead of doing that, could you go into Moores Falls parking lot because there's a connection?

If we can go over the bound by two feet, we'll have a six-foot sidewalk. So we'll see. Let's look at it when the time comes. But I'm just letting you know there's a pinch point there because of the curving and what's there. So hopefully fishing game will be a little bit reasonable when it comes to that, where it's a short piece and it's just, I mean, it's really to benefit people in general, not you think there's some common sense in this world, hopefully. So looks like it's going to work. Did designing it some point come to the plan and show you. We'll make a note on them on the Colby farm that will do that spot of that development so that everybody's happy with the it's coming in. It'll get to that project. So that would just be an added letter probably come from Morgan would have to figure that out. So you have it.

So you're going to, as an amendment to the Colby Farm proposal, extend it to...

If I drop dead tomorrow, it's going to get done.

That's the reason we're doing it.

Hopefully that don't happen. I mean, I'd like to stay around. But no, you just have to prepare for stuff. We're all here doing it, and then something goes bad, I'll have it all set up so that when they build that, it has to be done. Yeah.

And you'll be responsible for it to the end of the land, the right-of-way adjacent to the Morris Falls section. Yeah, we're going the whole length of Morris Falls.

Yeah, the whole piece that you see right there.

He's going to go to the Morris Falls property line. We're going to pick up from there and carry it all the way down to the northly exit of the Corning Farm.

We're going to make a little test turn in it or something to make it work, but it should all work.

And which side of the fence is it going on we're going to put on the roadway side road is that's a little different from the what you want to do in the past what we're doing is looking we didn't think we had physically the room I thought we'd only left like about a 6 foot mowing area. But when I get out there I was looking at the Moore's fall bound to see when I could find out there was 9 feet. So I contacted you Bay and I asked them to look into it further and they said that my fence road right along the the right of the easement is there. So in measuring that out it looked like we had the room for for the walk to go on the exterior of the fence.

That should all be good.

Any questions or comments from the board.

So that's along the west side of the road. Where does it cross? Where's the crossing?

Right in front of the gas station. So where it ends? If you're driving by there, and when you're in front of the old house, you'll see a telephone pole and the curbing coming down.

That's where it's going to cross.

So one point that we did bring up the last time we had met was that there was a, where Corning Road meets our property. We wanted to leave an area there so that people coming down Corning Road could come across the street and utilize the sidewalk. So I'm not sure how we want to approach that.

That could be a problem. That could be a problem with the DOT. Because at that point, we need a crosswalk if we do that. We might not be able to do that.

We may have to wait until a later time when they look at doing that improvement.

That potentially could be a problem.

All the way down the road, we had a project in the 10-year plan to put a light there. That might be the time to crosswalk.

If there is ever a... I mean, the 10-year plan, the governor vetoed it, so there's no plan right now.

But theoretically, the alternative would be dual side side box, but that's a very expensive thing, right?

Yeah, that's maybe someday. At least if we have one side, we have one side. People can cross wherever they want and get there if they want to do it.

The new sidewalk looks really good. I was driving by and I thought it looked, it just looked like it belonged there, but it was nice.

The problem is public service is going to be done, but Comcast is... It was horrible, horrible, horrible, horrible. This is how bad they are. By accident, we ripped down in South Hudson. We were doing the road improvements down there. We ripped down a telephone line at three or four o'clock in the afternoon. And so it closed the road. They never showed up until noontime the next day. The road was closed. and the worst part of it the line was dead when they finally got there so we could have just cut it and not worry about it so that's how bad they are you know anyway That's what's holding us up now.

So unfortunately, that one tree is going to have to go. It's on the aft side.

That one tree will be finding its way. Yeah, it is. When they call them gnarly oaks, that's a gnarly oak.

And what about the tombstone?

It's on the other side of the fence.

Oh, good.

Okay, so I don't know.

I was going to say that.

It's a horse. So we'll be back at some point, but I want you to know that whatever we had for a problem out there appears to be resolved, and we'll have sidewalk all the way. Okay?

Question? We should probably give the public a chance to have any comments. Any members of the public wish to comment on the discussion?

I was going to say, does the town have any?

Obviously, this is a problem. And the Conservation Commission did write a letter saying that they would like it outside.

Yeah, and the selectmen have to agree That being said, the selectmen have to agree to maintain that section of sidewalk they were putting out where it just was.

From what our road agents said, it would be a lot easier to maintain that than it would have been the dirt accommodation that we were trying to do on the inside. He just didn't feel like he could do it.

This is different. Yeah, it's an agreement with the DOT. So we already have it on the other section. and so it would just we got to extend that agreement okay what would that dot agreement um you'll maintain it the state doesn't have any responsibility to maintain it or anything so if it has to be rebuilt the town has to rebuild it when the time comes anything plow it anything yeah

And as proposed, the road agent will be able to just continue off of Albuquerque all the way up to the...

Whether they want to plow it in the wintertime or not, that's up to them. So we'll deal with that when the time comes, as far as that goes.

DOT doesn't say you have to plow it. They just want it clear that they're not going to.

They're not going to. They don't tell you you have to plow it. They're just telling you they're not going to.

Wouldn't that be a liability problem to the town if people tried using it on plowed?

If it's not plowed, there's no liability.

Yeah.

It's true.

It's not plowed.

I didn't know that.

You just want to be consistent with your winter maintenance policy. Whatever that winter maintenance policy is, you've got to follow it.

Yeah. So whatever that is, we'll see.

Well, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Next on our agenda is an application for a subdivision of one lot into three lots, tax map 15, lot 49, 349 Charles Bank Rock Highway. Owners are Martel Family, Revocable Trust, Mark and Sandra Martel, trustees. The proposed new residential building lots will have access off of Hillcrest Road.

Good evening. Doug McGuire with the Dubay Group, and I'm here representing the property owners, the Martells. I think you folks may recall that we came to see you, I don't know, must have been about two months ago at this point just because we had a ZBA sidebar that we had to do prior to coming back. And so we did go to the zoning board of adjustment. And we were able to obtain the relief and it just to remind you the relief was associated with the buildable envelope associated with the existing duplex on the property the other two homes proposed do fully conform and so i mean i think we went through most of it last time so i mean unless i don't need to belabor the board unless you have any specific questions but we were were able to obtain the variance and we made no changes to the plan since you saw it last

okay thank you so we're first going to go through completeness so looking through the staff review so there are some waivers requested for water lines and drainage plans and the erosion and sediment control plan and pending letter from Penachuk, New Hampshire DOT driveway permits and septic approval and letter from the fire chief um so um we say it's ready for acceptance based off of that yes okay and most of those would uh of those that are pending they can are those ones that can be taken care of um after

As a condition, yes, they could be. Just to note, though, there were a few changes to the plan that happened in the interim, and those were to address. There were previously, if you look at the older staff report, there were a few more checklist items, and those have been addressed. So the plans were amended to reflect those.

Okay, thank you. And Joan, have all fees been paid and the voters notified?

Yes, but as we noticed on June 23, for this meeting.

Okay, thank you. So would someone like to make a motion to accept the plan is complete. So moved. second we have a motion and a second any further discussion all those in favor of um accepting the plan four three four seven charles berncroft highway subdivision as complete please signify by saying aye aye opposed abstain motion passes with five zero zero okay so um I'd say no regional impact on this one. Yeah. Okay. So this is a public hearing. Would you like to present anything else about your plan?

I mean, I'm happy just to give you a quick reminder, just because it has been a little bit, and I'm sure you guys see a bunch of other projects. But essentially what we have... is the full developed lot or you know the full lot as it exists is encumbered by a few different items namely some existing wetlands and a Utility easement that goes through the middle of the property as well as a drainage ditch that farmers ditch that kind of existing that carries through the middle and bisects the property in this way. So the existing property is only developed right now with a duplex all the way here down at the corner. So the owners just wanted to see what else could be potentially done. And so they just are proposing two additional lots, both with frontage on Hillcrest and both of these lots conform to all your applicable requirements, frontage, minimum lot size, contiguous buildable, and the envelope. So the only issue, as we talked about, was this piece, because of the utility easement technically being needed to be excluded from the buildable envelope, this area was under. But it always was, and obviously all its infrastructure has been utilized. This was built in the mid-'90s, mid to late-'90s, so it's been there for quite some time being utilized and isn't an issue. fairly straightforward. Uh, as I said, we do have frontage for both lots, but we are proposing a shared driveway to access both lots. And that's mainly because at this stage they're proposing potentially this to be kind of a family compound, maybe like their, their sons might build here what they built here or something along those lines. And they wouldn't have an issue sharing the driveway. And instead of building this big, long driveway all the way around, Obviously, if things change or if they end up looking to sell this property and the person wanted an exclusive driveway, they could do it. But for right now, we're just doing the single curb cut here. We have applied to DOT. This is a DOT maintained road. We have applied for the driveway permit. It's been in for like a month and a half. We haven't officially received it, but it's been in their queue. And obviously that would be a condition of any approval that this board had. But I think other than that, that's about all we have for you.

okay does the board have any questions or comments for the applicant no I just recall that we kicked this back to the zoning because it was in their purview and it sounds like they granted it right so we're just blessing at this point so yeah this is a pretty that was a pretty straightforward zoning variance request as we commented on last time

So yeah, this lot definitely has a lot of wetlands in it. I was surprised to see a few years ago when they cleared a lot of trees in the wetlands. So hopefully the wetlands can grow back as they should.

Yeah, I mean, the owners are certainly aware of where the wetlands are at this point anyway. I don't know if they've always been fully aware, but they're aware at this point based on the delineations that our office did. And, you know, it... It's fairly noticeable. I mean, it is an open field, but you can see it does kind of dip down a little bit and starts getting pretty squishy, and it's very wet in the spring season, like where you just get the fresh snow melt and everything. But there's ample area within the building envelopes to develop, and we've kind of already started looking at some conceptual solutions. layouts for homes and obviously all the infrastructure septic designs we did do test pits out there we have usable soil to to put a you know to situate a septic design on both properties so don't foresee any issues okay

Thank you. Do any members of the public wish to comment on this application? Seeing none. So close public input. So 723 So yeah, this is definitely a very interesting subdivision because you're stretching things so far around things that are preventing you from building conveniently.

But it is possible. Well, and I think it should be noted, I guess, at least, that the... The utility easement, you know, it's a true encumbrance of the property. I'm not denying that, but it is usable. I mean, you know, there's really like when you stand out there, you're not like there's this big swath like with fences on both sides. So effectively, some of that they could maintain some of that area as as front yard space or backyard space. I mean, there's certain restrictions and they're aware of those restrictions, but it's going to look fairly good. like they have more usable than i guess the plan shows because the easement doesn't restrict certain things if they wanted to put a little guard in there or something that they can still do that in this easement they just can't put permanent structures that would impact the uh the utilities maintenance of that but they can certainly mow the grass or anything like that to have it be a usable area of their front yard

Do they come back with the housing plans after they decide where they're going to put everything?

That just goes to the building inspector because at that point they have a lot and they just have to follow the regulations and they can do it by right.

Okay. I'm just curious.

We would certify where like, you know, as part of the building process, we would certify where they're putting their foundation. So they're not like, oops, we're under the power line easement, you know, like they like we'd handle all that stuff. But that's a standard process through the building permit.

In fact, we added that as a requirement at last town meeting.

Oh, you did?

Most towns have it. We didn't.

I was doing all reggies, and I think we've been doing them after the fact, which is kind of dangerous. We were doing as-builts of the homes, but obviously if you're over and the whole house is built, it's a little problematic. So it's probably good to do the CFP.

yeah now you can catch it when you can just modify a little bit oh yeah exactly rather than yeah yeah so that passed and now is required this is a perfect case for it yes so we don't do we have any further discussion on the waivers or are we good with that too So we have location of proposed water lines and drainage plan. So that's that waiver is there for what's the what's the reason for that waiver?

Well, we just, because we hadn't cited the homes exactly, it didn't seem to make sense to, you know, show, oh, this is the water line exactly where it's going to be. Because in reality, they're going to, it's going to be, you know, reviewed and permitted by the, you know, municipal authority for that because it is a public water. system so like as part of their building permit they'll say here here this is where our house is going to go we'd like to run the line right here and they'll say okay well it has to be an inch line if you're going to service both both houses not three quarter or inch and a half or whatever they determine and so like to try to get to that detail before they actually have their plans with the bedroom count and everything it just

didn't seem to make sense so that's the only reason but we know we know we have the availability there and um it's you know it's along the frontage so we know that it can be done yeah and then the other one yeah i was gonna say really this is just a conditional approval until you get those other items that are pending but effectively it's um the proposed water lines as you just said in the erosion and sentiment control plan so

so any further discussion for this application you should probably um you know take motions on waivers for the application so

Do you want a motion on the first waiver?

Yes. Yeah, let's do that. So the first one is the SD regulation section 530K. OK, Mr.

Chair, I move that we approve the waiver for SD What is this property again? Hold on. 349 Charles Bancroft Highway, tax mark 15, lot 49. We approve the waiver for subdivision regulation section 530K, location of proposed water lines and drainage plan.

Okay, we have a motion to grant the waiver for the 530 K location of water lines and drainage plan. Do we have a second? Second? Yeah, the second. Okay, any further discussion? All those in favor of granting the waiver, please signify by saying aye. Aye. As opposed, abstain. Motion passes 5-0-0. So the next one is 530M, Erosion and Sediment Control Plan.

Mr. Chair, I move that we accept the waiver for this plan at tax map 15, lot 49, the waiver being the subdivision regulation section 530M, erosion and sediment control plan.

I will second. Okay, we have a motion and a second.

Any further discussion?

All those in favor of granting the waiver for 530M erosion and sediment control plan, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, abstain. Motion passes 5-0-0. So the waivers are addressed. So all that we have left are the conditions. Unless someone has any further discussion.

I would

So the conditions would probably just be...

Conditions would be the remaining pending waivers as specified. Mr. Chair, I move that we accept... Hold on, sorry. I'm getting there. Working off of four documents. Mr. Chair, I move that we... approve the conditionally approve the application for a subdivision of one lot into three lots at tax map 15 lot 49 349 Charles Bancroft Highway with all with a approved waivers this evening and under condition of the remaining items specified to be approved.

And the standard conditions of approval.

And the standard conditions of approval.

And that was for 347 Charles McGrath Highway?

349.

I think it's both because it's a duplex.

347 and 349 Charles Bancroft Highway.

Sounds good. It's a messy one. Okay, so we have a motion to conditionally accept the project at 347 and 349 Charles Bancroft Highway with the with the waivers that we already granted and the conditions for the pending the pending completeness items and the extended conditions of approval. Do we have a second? Second. Okay, we have a second. Any further discussion?

Okay.

All those in favor of conditionally accepting the... Proving. Conditionally approving the plan, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, abstained. Motion passes 5-0-0. So we have conditionally approved the project.

Thank you.

Thank you. Okay. is item three on the agenda an application for a subdivision of one lot into two locks tax map 17 lot 20 at 22 colonial drive owners are the herberto family revocable trust stephen and lisa herberto he's back So this one is a much smaller one. So it is elements missing from this mission or need of a waiver request, location of proposed water lines and drainage plan, letter from Benachuk, erosion and sediment control plan, and proposed driveway location. So very similar to the last one. So Joan, are butters notified and all fees paid?

Yes, notified June 24th for this meeting.

Okay, thank you. And Jay, is it in your opinion that this is ready for acceptance? Yes. Okay, thank you. Any discussion before we have a motion to accept? Okay, in that case, would someone like to move to accept the application as complete?

So moved. Okay, second.

Okay, we have a motion in a second to accept the Roberto subdivision as complete. So although a further discussion.

Okay.

All those in favor of accepting the subdivision, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Those opposed, abstained. Motion passes 5-0-0. Okay. Would you like to present? Sure.

Good evening again. Doug McGuire, for the record, with the Dubé Group and representing the Alberto family. So this lot, you don't see these. very often. Uh, this is a situation where we get a lot of calls of people saying, Hey, you know, I feel like I got a lot of extra land. I'd like to see if I can have another lot. And nine times out of 10, there's some issue, whether it's lack of frontage that would need a variance relief, um, lack of it's usually that honestly. Uh, and then probably second would be like the whole back of the lot's wet, so they don't have the buildable area that they think that they have. And in that case, it's not. Or, you know, you can't make it work based on the placement of the existing house. For whatever reason, this lot is none of those things. And it meets all of the requirements. And so essentially what we have here is... an existing two and two and change acre parcel where it's fully developed but definitely hugging the left side the western side of the property and they have just over 300 feet of frontage and just over two acres and so again all the stars have to align because if we have a lot of wetland area then you lose the contiguous buildable and therefore you don't have it We had our wetland scientists go out, reviewed the entire property, there's no wetlands on the property, provided a letter to that effect, so that's in the file. It's all upland and essentially all buildable. There was a good buildable envelope that was exclusive of any steep slopes. it was a, I guess a perfect candidate just to kind of subdivide up the middle and provide them with another viable lot that will be, to be honest, very similar to their current lot. You know, so it won't feel small because they weren't utilizing any of that land. It was all wooded land. Their backyard was straight back. And this would be in the exact same manner as to how this would essentially lay itself out. And so we decided, Just like the other application we perform test fits on site verified that we had good soils to be able to do Obviously one of the lots is already developed, but we did it on both just to prove it to des But we have a good we have good soil on the newly created lot a good buildable area it actually grade wise would function very well as a a what we're thinking is a access on the left hand side garage at grade with a walkout basement on the right hand side which is very popular you know with these days as people want that ability to have garage at grade but maybe get some ability to walk out on the basement side you know have a slider or something like that and essentially what you'll have is the northeastern side of the of the house the rear would be able to be a full walkout and kind of match right into existing grade very cleanly. So fairly straightforward subdivision as far as I'm concerned, but happy to answer any questions that you have on the application.

Okay, thank you. So I think we can all agree that this is not one for regional impact. Right? So yeah. Does any does any member of the board have any questions or comments for the applicant?

I have a question. As a citizen not speaking for the Conservation Commission, there is conservation land to the east of the lot. I'm just concerned about any drainage coming from lot 20-1 over to the conservation land. You're not supposed to drain any water off your lot to another lot, correct?

Yeah. I mean, obviously in, in this case, when you have an acre of land and I mean, you don't want to create any direct channelizations or anything like that, but the way the topography kind of flows. And as I said earlier, flattening out naturally with using the walkout basement, I really don't think you're going to have any significant point discharges. And the soils are very good out there, so I don't think you're going to see a lot.

Another concern we have with this lot is there's a 20-foot difference from side to side on the lot. And I understand a walkout basement would be the ideal thing to do, but it's... I've driven up there, the building inspector has driven up there, and it'll be challenging, I think, to build on.

Well, if you look at where the front area of the lot, basically the sheet that we have up now, the Propo subdivision.

Where the 4,000? Yeah, where we're showing the 4K area.

It really is fairly flat through there. I mean, you're only talking about two, four, six feet across that section, eight maybe as you get to there. It does steepen up a little bit here, and obviously it's much steeper in the back. But just like everything, you know, no one's going to naturally probably develop that far back, really no need to. And so really what, as I was saying, we really just kind of plan to side load garage or front load garage, but on this side of the end. sit it right in this flatter area and that eight nine foot differential that you'll have in the basement is what will get you the flat pad of the backyard that you're not you know you're not doing this because you're just making up that differential so you know i mean it might not have the largest backyard unless you really want to force that grade to flatten out for a further distance, but certainly could accommodate a similar size home to what's on the existing property.

How much grading do you anticipate would be required for a house and driveway?

Well, really, I mean, if you look at the existing house, I envision it being essentially the mirror image of that just folded over. So really not a lot of land disturbance. I mean, obviously, over time, if they want to try to put in a pool like the current family has, then they could do that as a little bit more of an expansion. But that could be a down the line type thing. you know they're really there will be some associated grading i mean the whole front of the parcel as you can see is all grassed and open right now so you'll be cutting a little bit into the tree line to kind of get the buildable envelope but it's not going to be significant And in my eyes, maybe I'm desensitized because every lot's difficult these days for development. But this one seemed like a fairly straightforward lot, being a full buildable acre, no wetlands on the property. Sloping that was going in a consistent direction and not in all different directions always helps. And to be able to go on the high side and come in and do that walkout, it'll work well for that.

And the wetlands are probably at the bottom of the hill there. So that's Yeah, not until it flattens out. Yeah. Yeah. And that's probably 150 feet. Almost on the edge.

Yeah, which you'll get. I mean, we still don't want to make concentrated flows, but you'll have, I mean, DES, alteration of terrain, which obviously this doesn't pertain to, but that level of vegetated buffer of the wood in natural condition would be meeting full treatment credit, even if you needed to get it. That's a pretty substantial flattened grass natural area. Well, not grass, but wooded. area that, you know, is obviously not going to be disturbed by any of this work.

Okay, any questions or comments by the board? Okay. Do any members of the public wish to comment on the application? Seeing none, close public input.

Should we take the waiver separately again?

Yes, and I think the intent is the same waivers as we granted previously.

Yep. So you have 530 K, L, M, and S. Okay. So would someone like to make a motion?

I was going to say, can we do all four in one? You could. Okay. Mr. Chair, I make a motion that I move that for tax map 17, lot 20, and the application herewith that we approve the waivers I'll do a second. As specified in the memorandum, whereby there is subdivision, there are four waivers, subdivision regulation, section 530K, location of proposed water lines and drainage plan. Section 530L, letter from Penachuk. section 5 30 M erosion and sediment control plan and section 5 30 s proposed driveway location they did show the driveway location okay okay okay so we don't even need that all right so eliminate strike that last 5 30 s okay so

We have a motion to grant the waivers for the proposed subdivision for the subdivision regulation section 530 K, L, and M. Do we have a second? Second. Okay, we have a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor of granting the waivers, please signify by saying aye. Aye.

Opposed?

Abstain? Motion passes 5-0-0. Okay. Any further discussion before we conditionally the second the condition just the standard conditions of approval.

Yeah.

And you do we do we have to explicitly state the waivers that we already granted? No, we've already granted them.

Well, the letter from Penichuk is a is a condition of approval rate.

Yeah, that's typically a condition.

Okay. So the letter, okay, so standard conditions of approval plus a letter from Penachuk.

Although, didn't we just waive ?

We just specified that as one of the waivers.

Typically, we don't.

OK, so just standard conditions of approval, then.

Mr. Chair, I'll motion that we conditionally approve the application for a subdivision of one lot into two lots, tax map 17, lot 20, 22 Colonial Drive, owners, the Oberdo Family Revocable Trust. Stephen and Lisa Oberdo, trustees, subject to the standard conditions of approval.

OK. We have a motion. Do we have a second?

Second.

OK. We have a second.

Any further discussion? All those in favor of conditionally approving the subdivision, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstained? Motion passes 5-0-0. OK. Thank you. Thank you. Okay, that is it for our main business. We have approval of the minutes and some budget and escrow other business. So next we'll do the minutes. Has everyone had a chance to review the minutes?

I didn't see anything.

I didn't see any problem. I read it over. I didn't find anything. So no proposed amendments to the minutes?

I thought this was the meeting we were supposed to talk about bugs.

I think that's our next meeting. I still need to get.

I did. Looking forward to the bug discussion.

So when we're ready, I did add a bug section to the draft. So the next time you see the draft, it'll be there.

Awesome.

I'll try to get around to sending you pictures and maybe some additional wording, if it makes sense. Yeah, no, happy to.

I have one bug picture, but I could use more.

Yeah, I have to look through my old pictures, because I do have pictures of some of the infestations that would make sense. And because I took it, no copyright problems. Nice.

Oh, that would be good. I just have a bug. I don't have damage, so.

And I could probably just get my camera and take a picture of the bugs on the bottom of the needles because they're all there just sitting there sucking the sap out of the tree. How lovely.

Sorry I brought this conversation up. We'll discuss next time.

This meeting hasn't been too long so that's good. What other items are on the agenda for the next meeting?

Nothing so far.

We can bring back the regs we have the amendments to the regs for the MS for.

I think we did say we want to kind of reasonably implement those before the end of the summer right.

And then we're of course going to have the sidewalk discussion come back.

And we just think that the natural resources plan yet.

Okay, so if no one has any proposed amendments for the minutes, would someone like to approve the minutes? Make a motion we approve the minutes for June 16th, 2026. We have a motion to approve the June 16th, 2026 minutes. Do we have a second?

Second.

Second. Okay, any further discussion? All those in favor of approving the June 16 2026 minutes, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstain? Motion passes 500. Minutes are approved. Next is planning board budget 2027. So, Joan, do you have any, Joan or Jay, do you have any comments on the budget?

Did you get a spreadsheet on that?

I was gonna say, what is the budget? Because I didn't see a spreadsheet.

Again?

Is it in the portal? No.

I didn't see any of that. But the town administrator did reach out to me to see if I had any change numbers. I haven't gotten back to her yet, but I will by tomorrow.

OK.

I'm imagining there will be a spreadsheet.

OK. So we're not to take action on anything, because we're not looking at anything.

No. So we can just save that for the next meeting?

she said you something jab I don't think I'm looking through my email I see the budget schedule yeah which I did not get it and there's one There's a schedule that the planning board, I'm assuming the planning board's one will be discussed on the budget committee meeting of, um, October 1st, 2020?

Just let me see it, look at it first. Uh-huh.

Um, okay, I see, I found the spreadsheet. Um, So it's made up of planning board wages, which is for the administrative assistant, which is you, right? The inner PC planner. Public notices in ADS. What does ADS stand for?

If we have to notice in the paper, but the developers pay for that, and then we .

okay planning board postage planning board books and periodicals planning board mileage and tolls which is training and NRPC and seminars which is office of energy and planning conferences and the NHMA law lectures so There's actual expense and proposed expense history. So then we just have to confirm the NRPC's fees. And that would probably finalize this. I do not have experience working with the budget.

I think they just plugged in all the same numbers from last year.

yeah you can even look at the approved budget and that I think yours again we don't need to take action on this right let's do the 27th 27th of July Okay, so that is very soon. So what should we do then, because we'll not have a meeting between them.

If you don't have any changes, then you'll have to wait for RPC.

So should we make a motion that we, do we need to make a motion?

I can get you tomorrow, but the motion might be Maybe it's a motion to authorize the chair to represent the board and the budget committee and present the budget.

You're going to be there next week?

You're presenting the budget? Well, I guess it's to the selectmen first.

It goes to the selectmen. Just the paperwork goes to the selectmen, and then they schedule you with the selectmen and the budget committee.

We're going to have a meeting next Monday. The first, second half to that.

Okay, so would I have to present stuff?

No, not next Monday. Just have to submit the paperwork by next Monday.

And is there anything to present? Because I think it's mainly just wage increases and NRPCB changes. All right.

So maybe it's authorized the chair to submit the budget on behalf of the board.

Yeah.

Upon receiving updated.

Right. So I can get you on tomorrow, see if there's any change. And...

And then we can just circulate it to the full board for information. And clearly, these are all necessary expenses. There's nothing that we can cut here. So I think.

Are there any line items we should consider increasing? What's been our run rate on the current budget?

So if we look at, so there's actual expense and approved default. So 2000, would it make sense for me to share my screen with this? This is all public information. Yeah. So I will zoom in a lot. so here are the line items and then we scroll to here we have actual expense for 2024 actual expense for 2025 and the current proposal for 2026 so actual expense in this case this was Like how that's for last year. So the proposal is a few like a few 1000 more proposed and was spent for the wages.

It's just a guess.

I'm trying to see 262626 would be an estimate because it's a partial year.

doesn't 26. Well, this is proposed. And then 2025 is the actual. Okay. Yeah. So it doesn't show actual expense for this year. Right? Oh, yeah.

Go over more to the right.

I'm trying to see.

That looks good.

Yeah, from the NRPC end, I think it's fine as it is.

So yeah, the actual expense last year was like $4,000 less than the funds.

Well, there's CIP money in that line item as well. CIP contract.

Right. Okay. Okay.

27 should be the same night.

Yes, I yeah, there wouldn't be any change on that line item from us.

Okay, are you putting in more than 20 hours the budget that they're right now.

No, I wouldn't think so. Yeah, it varies. Yeah, that is complicated by that we have the party in the part be the parties paid for by the developer so.

Yep, so see if you can make sure you get in cover because I know you're always brought into everything When we need an opinion, we should be fine.

We should be okay. So it's the CIP contract basically a contract for you to have additional time to help Yes And then the 20 hours a month is just the usual planning board stuff, which is in addition to whatever, or which is, you can end up spending more time, but that's paid for by the developers, right?

Right, yeah. So if it's reviewing plans, et cetera, so that's separate.

And the 20 hours a month is just helping us review our own regulations and stuff like that.

Right, and also master plan stuff, regular special projects that come up. So yeah, that seems to work.

Yeah, and 20 hours a month is appropriate for that? I think so.

Yeah, I don't see needing more than that.

OK. Are you able to just scoot to the left a little bit so we can see the 2025? Maybe not that much. I just wanted to see the 2025 with kind of what was approved, what we actually spent.

Select and same, same, same, same. All those are identical. Except for the approved default is higher than the department proposed. Was this a case of the default budget happened so we got more money?

You went back to the year before and if the year before was more money, you got more money.

Yeah, having a default budget does not necessarily mean less money sometimes.

Especially with the school and stuff. The school, they have union contracts. So if the union contract is going to be increasing anyway, then you will see that that increases anyway. At this point.

It's a previously committed thing, right?

Yeah, and sometimes it's things that were on Warren articles that haven't come... to fruition until the next budget. So you're still going to be compensated. Anything that you vote in is going to be paid.

You're obligated to.

You're obligated by union contract.

Yeah, so the proposal is just a little, little higher than last year.

But this year, it's a little higher than that, to notice this announced looks significantly like less than you spent, then you were budgeted.

So yeah, then on books and postage, we kind of

Yeah, but I mean so close is postage a line item we should address it and maybe growing in response to the postage costs on a postage OK this for like if a mistake happens and we have to come out of our budget.

Yeah, sometimes we have to send. Like if we say planning.

Yeah, a while ago we mentioned that we would want to alert people if we were going to move forward with the historical...

Right. That's right. There would have been a notice requirement because of... the number of people affected so that would come from this right right which is fifty dollars it doesn't happen often but yeah that would be more than fifty dollars that would be all that would be more than fifty dollars yeah yeah yeah um so what would happen in that case if we were obligated to alert them of something but you know that line item would go over and you'd have to go under something else order less magazines right yeah

You have to take it from the toilet paper account.

So are you confident in saying that we don't need to worry about any changes from NRDC? Yes. OK. In which case, we would make a motion to send the proposed budget to the Board of Selectmen and the Budget Committee?

No, just Board of Selectmen.

OK. So, yeah, do we have a motion to submit the proposed budget to the Board of Segment?

Before we go there, what about the remaining line item of books and periodicals? Is $24 sufficient for what we're pulling for books?

$24.

Yeah, it does say we spent over that last.

Because sometimes if I have to order one of these, then I might take it out of there. Or this I think I took out of, I don't know, towards the bottom somewhere, I took it out of the place.

I just want to make sure that we have enough funding in our proposed budget to cover what we're doing, like what we're actually doing.

What did the land use books come out of?

Oh yeah, the Landius books. I always have a, you need to put something in there for Landius books because, and now we have to pay for tax maps too. You get five and you have to pay for the rest. So that's two things that you might want to up books and periodicals.

Who are we paying from tax maps for? Who are we purchasing tax maps from?

The IPC updates them.

Should we add a new line item for tax maps?

No, that would be under...

Probably just up the books and periodicals.

should we clarify a sec like are these predetermined or can we add a line item now because that would be a separate line number I changed the amount there to be a number yeah yeah we can adjust that number upward if we think it's prudent so this is the spreadsheet that Kim Kleiner shared should I You can make just the department proposed. Or yeah, the correct one. Yeah, that's us.

Yeah. So if you if you look at like what you spent on the books and periodicals for 2025, maybe that's a guide. Is that a reasonable guide? Bye.

Yeah. Seven. No, because if you look at the years, like 700 to that, it's not good go. If you go to the left, and you actually look at the the track, the actuals 36 different, you know, I mean, yeah, they're all higher than $24.

They're all higher than $24. But they're not all 182 either.

So, you know, we think it's a reasonable number.

I think the books are like $11 a piece now. How many of those? We're getting like four or five of them.

So make that $100 even.

100 or 150 because we that isn't we did spend 183.

The budget committee will beat us up over its right to defend. Yeah, yeah.

would it would it make sense to add another table or line under books because they have their second number you can add a description but you can't add another line in it because they have their set numbering yeah that has a right that has a verbiage yeah but like just like this section where you have two items within three nine right yeah yeah yeah this one's got 20 hours up on it right

Yeah, because if you look under books and periodicals, I can't read it, but there's a note there. Annual law book updates three at $8 each. Right, so now they're 11. And you're getting like five. So that's just changing that note.

So that's $55.

But we also have another one item, which is the maps.

Yeah, so I should probably add under.

Just right next to it, say, and maps. And yeah. And maps. And say, I mean, how many maps are we talking about?

We get five, and we think we get five for free, and then we get like 10, I think, altogether.

Is it every time you go to pull one?

No, once a year. OK. Because the police have to have one fire, town clerk, planning board. Okay. The building gets one.

Ten tax maps at... I think they were 11.

No, you get five free.

Five at... I think it's five. How much do they cost?

I don't remember. Do you remember?

Just you just put tax maps yeah.

You can put a 100 in there so yeah, yeah, so you know that's 55 and I assume yeah and just yeah, yeah, additional one thing go over to the right and the department budget and just put you know that was.

This one. So it's just an increase of $76.00.

So it would be approve the budget as amended.

Any other changes or any other line items that we need?

I would look at that $13.50. I know it's a small amount, but I would look at that $13.50 because it doesn't look like you've spent anywhere near as much. What's the account? That is public notices and ads.

But if you go over actuals in the previous years.

Yeah, when we spend 2024. Well, look at this. Yeah, 700, 100.

Obviously, there was an anomaly. That's an anomaly. We were allowing for potential uptick, which never came.

They could reduce it by the 76 and come in even, right?

just you just want to be able to explain it when you get there why explain why an item is going to go up you want to be able to explain why another item didn't go down so the hearing notices are costs to like the local paper and yeah union leaders only paper left and so master plan zoning changes should go to newspaper

So personally, I would leave that 1350. Because we need to, we might not have ever used it, but we need to do it. And, and is it that unreasonable for us to, you know, Increase an overall budget by what?

Just be ready to explain it. I mean, give me a break. Whatever you're comfortable with. Just be ready to explain it.

Is the number the right number or should it be higher?

Because we have to keep the numbers under the tax cap. So if things start to get antsy, then they start targeting stuff.

Is $150 the cost to the newspaper? It says $9 at $150 each.

Those are the ads. It depends on the length.

I would not think you'd need $9. Yeah.

It's all like how long the so if we had like a lot of zoning changes, it's going to be a more expensive notice than if we just had you know a couple.

Yeah, I mean if you have last year you had a lot of shooting me.

Not a ton. Only $266 worth last year. But we had to notice that.

It's just surprising considering all the balance.

Yeah, we did a lot of things.

We must have condensed them and not repeated them too much. But I'm not sure that we had a master plan one last year.

We might not have.

But this year we will. This year we will. so you can say that's why you're leaving it there you just want to be able to explain master plan changes coming and then the regulatory changes i know one year we had a few um in that same we had two you know i think we amended regulations twice in one of the years that was one of the years we did ms4 regs and then we did another batch So that was probably why that year was higher. I think it was a year before last. So yeah, that's probably why that one was higher.

That was $734. Yeah. OK.

So the main increase is because we have to pay for tax maps now. And we're getting anything over $5.

And book costs have also gone up.

Yeah.

And we don't know yet what it's going to be this year, but it's a guess from last year. Yeah.

So with those changes, Mr. Chair, can I make a motion that we approve the planning board budget for 2027 as amended to go to the town of Selectman?

I'll second. We have a motion and a second to send this proposal to the board of Selectman. Any further discussion? All those in favor of sending the proposed budget or selected, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, abstain. Motion passes 5-0-0. Okay. So next... We have return of Fieldstone Land Consultants escrow $2,904 plus interest. This escrow has been replaced by Patriot Holdings account for Litchfield Estates.

So when that first came in, the engineering company, and the number is 2909 now because they just got June interest. So Fieldstone was the, and still is, the engineering company. They put up the money. In the meantime, Litchfield Estates, Patriot Holdings, who is the company, has put up escrow. They have about $4,000 in there. So I told Fieldstone that we should return his money.

So basically there's a new escrow account that is responsible for what the previous one was? Right. Okay. Okay. Like, so suit that 2909. Right, right.

Plus interest.

Okay, would someone like to make a motion to return the $2,909 plus interest to fieldstone land consultants. So moved. Okay, we have a motion. Do we have a second?

Second.

Okay, we have a motion and a second. Any further discussion? All those in favor of returning the Fieldstone links on escrow, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstained? Motion passes 5-0-0. Next, we have committee reports.

The circumferential highway.

We haven't met. We're going to meet on the 29th. It's our next meeting. Jay's going to be able to join us as well. Next week? Next Wednesday. Next Wednesday.

Okay. I did get an email from a... local abutter to that project and I will circulate it as requested to the Planning Board however I don't want to comment on it this evening until we have our meeting next week to discuss it openly in front of the public so at our next Planning Board meeting I'm happy to discuss it with all of you but until then it's not right for the public to not just you know talk about all of that in this meeting. It's not appropriate. So we'll just wait until we have our meeting next week and go from there. Okay.

Any other committee reports?

The Conservation Commission has been working extensively on the muster field for the upcoming 250 celebration this weekend. And they put four by four posts and hopefully the signage will be here by this week. They're getting six by 16 verbiage to put on the post and has a QR code at the bottom and describes the foundations and what was there. So it should be pretty interesting.

Very cool.

And that's their intern. Did that work?

Well, some of the work, yeah, but the guys have, I think George has probably spent 30 hours up there preparing the site. They work hard. That's good.

CIP will resume meeting Monday, August 3rd. And I believe, Jay, is that when the projects are due from the departments? Or is that just in last year's timeline?

Yeah, I think I think we're going to start seeing presentations and okay, yeah, so we'll have a better update for you at the meeting the next day.

And any updates from the borough segment.

The boys like me and took about as much time off as the the planning board did we met 2 weeks ago meeting again on Monday at 6.30. Push has been for the 250th birthday, which is this weekend the 25th and 26. They still need volunteers to help, but it looks like it's going to be going through really well with the balloons and the fireworks and the stage, and we're going to have kids dancing and a couple of concerts and things like that. So please show up. If you have time, please volunteer. We could use a lot of help. And then we do have a meeting on the 29th for the check committee.

Then I should also mention before our next meeting, August 1st and 2nd, the Indian powwow at Dara, is that correct? Yep, that's at Dara for the next week. I don't know what time it is.

So that runs over from Saturday morning until overnight, until Sunday. And they'll be staying there at Dara over that time. But it should be really interesting. so it's crazy right now for the 250th committee it's just it's just troubleshooting everything that's going on and praying that it doesn't rain and that everybody shows up and then everybody everybody is there to help um it should be pretty good you have to thank the the vendor the companies in town again for supporting this entire the budget is well over thirty thousand dollars for the city

Okay, thanks for the committee reports. Anything else to discuss before we adjourn?

I was just gonna raise that most of the legislation that we've seen that affects land use, we know what it is at this point, so I'm still digesting it. Most of the changes don't have a significant impact. on the field. So that's a good thing. What I need to really digest is what the impact is of allowing multifamily and commercial zones by right. That is one thing that I think will have an impact on part of town.

Not on most of town, actually, but I'm part of the town that would mainly be the southern commercial industrial correct. Right. Yes. that will very quickly cause development if there's something that we really want to talk about yeah yeah because on the northern end of town which is also a commercial one we have requirements for commercial to be built alongside multifamily But yeah.

And I think that's going to be OK. But it's something to talk about in the future.

Because at that point, it's not by right. It's by.

Well, that's right. Except that anything that's within the multifamily overlay is actually, that is a lesser density. So if you go with mixed use, you get the bonus of higher density. So I think that makes the conditional use legitimate. That's my thinking. That's why I still want to kind of tool this through my head, but I think that that's legitimate.

Because the same one acre minimum applies to the commercial zone, I would assume.

No, we're two. For multifamily and the multifamily overlay, we're two and a half units per acre. You go up to four if you're mixed use. But that only applies to the northern commercial zone.

And what about the areas that are not multifamily district? Is it? still acre a lot for multi-family that's not in the multi-family? Well, that's the question. Because at that point, if it was allowed by right and we didn't address this, then it would just be using the standard subdivision requirements.

Well, not really. That's why I need to digest it. Because that's not a density requirement. That's a lot size requirement. I think we want to be intentional about whatever it is we do. Yeah, let's do our due diligence on that one. Yeah, and thinking through.

And the other option is you have to see what we want with this implication. We also have to decide if we want to keep it commercial.

Well, that's right. And I don't want to get ahead of the committee either, but. The committee is looking at the circumference right away is also thinking about what makes sense for the future. And maybe that means we're looking at zoning changes. So maybe all of those things should happen in concert. And, you know, we really think about if something's going to come to town meeting next year, it's where it's it's done very thoughtfully. Other things like allowing childcare by right and commercial zones. I don't think that's an issue for us. But I'll pour through them all and just make sure that I'm flagging anything that might be an issue. Cul-de-sac length, we never adopted it, so. We talked about it, but we never adopted it, and now you can't have it, so. Like a maximum length vertical? Can't have a maximum, right.

Yeah, that seemed to me, when that was brought up, that seemed more like a density control thing than an actual safety thing. Thanks for the updates.

Do you have a couple questions? When Rick was here last time, he brought up going over the plans after that the zoning adjuster actually, zoning enforcer actually should be doing that and he was hoping for some participation here. And I brought it up to Ken, who I thought was going to be here tonight, but I think that kind of got, because it was so many weeks in between us missing, he is going to be coming by to say hi, and you'll be able to see his face. But he went down to like the... that Rick brought up as an example and said that the trees were there, that the plan, all the trees that were on the plan were there. So I don't know whether they just weren't where Rick thought they were gonna be or what.

Well, they addressed it later.

But I just thought it was worth following up and saying, what happened? Rather than just people appear and then bring stuff up and then we don't know what happened. And on that same line, I noticed going by the gas station that we have the white plastic mobile. light up at the top of the at the top of the pumps and I know that conservation had sent an email to planning requesting down lights only because it butts conservation so closely

They do have down facing lighting.

They do, but we also talked about not having the big lights on top too.

What do you mean big lights on top?

The actual white mobile plastic light up signs on the top. They can't have red candy canes.

They're not going to be there.

Are you talking about with it just saying mobile with big lights?

And it's lit up. It wasn't lit up yet because they had no electricity until I don't even have any yet.

But I hadn't finished my question. So when I went by, it looked to be different than conservation had given input. And we went back and we read the email that came from conservation to planning. I just wondered, when you get those, like conservation spends a lot of time putting those together, do you reply back to them what you kept of their ideas, what you didn't keep? No, it's in our minutes about what we had approved. So they should just be paying attention from when you get the letter and the meeting that's after that to what you guys do with it. Because it's kind of hard. We could find the one to email to you. But we didn't have the minutes necessarily for the meeting that it was actually discussed in. Because it might not have been the next meeting. It might have been three meetings or four meetings after that. So it just gives a lot.

Follow it on the agenda wherever it falls.

It gives a lot of different research that you need to do.

There was a lot of discussion around the lighting and the signage.

There really was. I know that they had asked for it looked like a house almost over those as opposed to the the big iridescent ones that went around it and I was surprised to see them there because I knew that that conservation had asked that it be a little different but that was just my curiosity was a lot of input goes in how does things come out and it's just you need to watch the meetings and there's a limit to how much we can enforce we can only enforce what our ordinances and regulations allow us to enforce and other than that it's

discretion of the developers and what they're willing to do beyond the requirements. And I know that some prior members, like Kate Stevens, tried to push forward us adopting some more design regulations for the Northern Commercial District, but I don't think we've ever adopted any.

Yeah, especially related to the canopy, because we were really trying to get something other than the flat roof.

Yeah. Yeah.

Also, I was driving through Dracut. I noticed that they have a gas station where the sign is ground level, and I'm assuming that's because of an ordinance there. Yeah.

How did it look?

It was interesting. Obviously, you can't see it from as far, but it's such a dense area that it's not really going to make a difference. You're still going to see the price of gas. And it had two. I know a lot of gas stations want more than two price items now because they want the normal price, the debit price, the diesel price.

Member price.

Yeah, right. They all have to be correct when they change every two hours.

Yeah. Theoretically, if we wanted to adopt a requirement to have it at ground level, we could. Don't know how many more gas stations are going to be there.

Imagine shoveling around that. I know mostly our concern with what the lighting was going to be around the station was because of the fact that it abutted so closely. I mean, they're surrounded by conservation land, like birds.

And we also don't regulate, it doesn't sound like we regulate 24-hour signs too much, because when we had those recent commercial projects that had signs across from mills, there was no requirement that they turn them off at night, or when their business closes.

They were, I think, asked, they closed, I think, at 10, the gas station. I think they were asked to turn them off. I don't know whether that's a safety issue that they can do that. I think you're going to be dimmed at 10.

It depends on if it's a 24-hour gas station or not.

No, they're not. I doubt it.

I doubt it will be a 24-hour.

Get one car, maybe. Those are my questions. I didn't mean to hold anybody up, but I'm trying to learn as much as I can on the fly here, and I'm truly interested in how you guys do things.

Okay. Okay. Okay, anything else to discuss before we adjourn?

Okay, it's only to make a motion to adjourn.

So moved.

Motion to return. Do we have a second? I'll second. Motion to second. Any further discussion? All those in favor of adjourning, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed? Abstained? Motion passes 5-0-0. Thank you for watching the July 21st meeting of the Planning Board. The next meeting will be the first Tuesday of...