Planning Board Meeting Minutes - February 28, 2007

PUBLIC HEARING Lincoln Town Hall Conference Room Main Street, Lincoln, New Hampshire Present: Selectmen's Representative Peter Moore, Vice Chairman Joe Chenard, Member John Hettinger, Clerk Jim Spanos, and Alternate Mike Bovarnick Staff Present: Stacey Havlock - Administrator, Ted Sutton - Town Manager Others Present: Greg Placy, Bill Oldenburg, Ed Brisson, Liz Lambregtse, Steve LaFrance, Brent Druin, Alan Malkasian, Joseph Bossie, Jim Beaudin, Wes Graves, Paul Beaudin, Russ Cooley, Mike Peloso, Pat Bahr, Stan Duda, Chester Kahn, Susan Chenard, Mike Scisciani, Dennis Ducharme, Deanna Huot, OJ Robinson, Patricia McTeague, Cal M., Chris Mulleavey, Robert Trzepacz, Lutz Wallem and other unidentified audience members. 6:07 PM CALL TO ORDER by Vice Chairman Chenard; announcement of excused absences, if any, and seating of alternates(s), if necessary. Vice Chairman Chenard called the meeting to order and welcomed those present. Full quorum present. Chairman Romprey, Alternate Fredie and Alternate Cook were excused. Alternate Bovarnick was seated. 6:07 PM CONSIDERATION of Draft Meeting Minutes for January 24th and February 14th, 2007 Selectmen's Representative Moore made a motion to approve the minutes of January 24th as amended; seconded by Clerk Spanos. Vote was unanimous. Selectmen's Representative Moore made a motion to approve the minutes of February 14th as amended; seconded by Member Hettinger. Vote was unanimous. 6:09 PM PUBLIC HEARING with the DOT regarding the Traffic Plan approval for Main Street: Mr. Sutton addressed the public and Board members giving them an overview on the steps that have been taken over the past 18 years or so regarding improving the traffic plan. He noted the plan presented is one out of a number that have been considered. The plan seems to address the Town's needs for handling the traffic impacts best. Mr. Placy from the NH DOT said the Town and developers came up with a plan that would work to help with traffic issues. He stated that the parking on the south side would be removed and the parking on the north side of Main Street would remain the same. Plymouth and Center Conway have similar turning lanes that work well for diverting traffic. Mr. Placy stated the area in front of the school may need a traffic signal light at some point. Mr. Sutton asked if DOT has approved the plan presented, and Mr. Placy said DOT has approved the concept. Mr. Sutton stated the costs of redoing Main Street would be apportioned among the developers. He stated the conduit for the traffic lights would need to be done this year because repaving of Main Street is planned in 2008. Member Hettinger asked how many lanes there would be where the pockets on the right side are to be added. It was noted there would be one more near McDonalds and the three lanes, near the school, would remain the same. Mr. Placy noted the only area that may change is the area near the South Mountain access. Clerk Spanos asked if any businesses would lose their curb cuts because of the road changes. Mr. Placy said they would not. Selectmen's Representative Moore said the reasons for needing the traffic plan changes were to keep the westbound traffic moving and to control the traffic on Main Street. He said that concerns have been expressed about the turn lane, in effect, we are operating that way with no striping for the turning lanes. The absence of striping presents a hazard with cars turning at random. He asked if DOT planned to monitor the effectiveness of the traffic changes after the plan is implemented. Mr. Placy said, yes, DOT would do that. He also stated if anything needed to change, that option is always there. Member Hettinger stated that between the hours of 4 and 4:30 pm on Saturday traffic west bound seems to be very heavy. He asked what steps would be taken to control the flow of traffic. Mr. Sutton said there would be certain areas where police officers will be assigned to control traffic. The developers will pay for the necessary police control, as well. Vice Chairman Chenard asked if a barrier median strip near McDonalds were to be included in the plan as recommended by the Town's traffic study. Mr. Sutton said a median strip could be looked into. Alternate Bovarnick asked what the distance was from the existing traffic signal at Connector Road to the proposed signal near the school. He was concerned that the distance between the lights would result in traffic backing up and create a hazard. Mr. Placy said the signals would be on timers. When one turned red; the other one would be green and allow traffic, in between, to proceed. This would prevent adding traffic between the two lights. The distance between traffic signals is approximately 400 to 500 feet, he said. Alternate Bovarnick asked if all of the sections are proposed to have police officers during the busier times; where are the officers coming from, and at whose expense would the officers on duty be charged. Mr. Sutton responded the size of both the police and fire departments would have to increase which is under consideration. The cost of the increase will be paid through fees assessed on developers. Selectmen's Representative Moore stated traffic will continue to be an issue because of the demands. However, he feels this plan will help to control those problems. Member Hettinger made a motion to open the public discussion; seconded by Alternate Bovarnick. Vote was unanimous. Paul Beaudin asked how many parking spaces would be lost on Main Street because of this plan and what parking is planned to replace those spaces. He said there is a problem with parking for businesses such as Flap Jacks. He said that people park up and down Church Street and getting onto Main Street is difficult. Mr. Sutton said 13 spaces would be removed and there are other areas in which to park such as the municipal areas and the parking lot near Inn Seasons Resort. Paul Beaudin asked what would happen during the times when the area near the Inn Season shopping center was full or in use for things like the craft fair and can not be used for parking. Mr. Sutton said that is something that will have to continue to be worked on. Paul Beaudin also asked what the increased impact of traffic was going to be. Mr. Sutton said he didn't have those numbers but he could get them although he didn't believe it was much. Paul Beaudin said that, in the past, all of the plans were directed to making Main Street more pedestrian friendly and this plan would be taking that away. Selectmen's Representative Moore said, putting in another traffic signal would help pedestrians because they would have another safe location to cross the road. Nor is traffic constant at all times of the day, he said. The loss of 13 spaces is a small price for what the project would allow. Paul Beaudin said he disagrees with Selectmen's Representative Moore. He feels that previous plans approved on-street-parking to co-use parking and to take away impacts to those businesses. Paul Beaudin also expressed concerns with the traffic on Pollard Road. Mr. Sutton said the traffic issues on Pollard Road would need to be addressed during other traffic plans but the one presented tonight was only to remedy some of the problems on Main Street. Selectmen's Representative Moore said according to Mr. Placy, any problems that need to be fixed, once this plan is implemented, could be addressed to repair any potential problems. He said he has lived on Pollard Road for 30 years and the lack of traffic on that road compared to what it could be is surpirsing. Mr. Oldenburg, from NH DOT, said, generally, adding a center turning lane improves traffic flow by approximately 25%. Vice Chairman Chenard asked what the accident data was. Mr. Oldenburg said the surveys that have been done prove that accidents are less and make the roads safer by having turning lanes. Jim Beaudin said, when this plan was first brought to the NH DOT, a petition was sent to that meeting with 135 signatures of local residents stating they did not want to see any changes to Main Street. He would like to know what happened to that petition. Mr. Sutton said Representative Edmund Gionet gave the petition to DOT. However, it was made clear that the traffic modifications were needed to remedy traffic issues now and in the future. Mr. Kahn asked about the intersection at the entrance of South Mountain Road. He said all of the other intersections appear to have a resolution except this one. He feels the South Mountain Road entrance will have a larger problem than the other areas and this area actually prompted the proposed changes. Mr. Sutton said a signal at the school intersection should help to give motorists more opportunity to exit South Mountain Road. It was noted that, in the future, the entrance to South Mountain would be located further up the road. The future relocation is why a plan has not been incorporated for that particular section at this time. Mr. Druin asked if the businesses on Main Street would become endangered due to loss of parking. Vice Chairman Chenard said those businesses would be under a grandfather status. It was noted that parking usage for municipal parking would need to be posted better as many people do not know where it is. Clerk Spanos asked if other plans were reviewed using an access road. Mr. Placy said he was not presented with a plan with an alternate access road. Mr. Sutton stated the other plans were very invasive to Main Street and would require widening the roads. Jim Beaudin asked Mr. Sutton why it was impossible to have another road across the river for use as an access road for the Loon/South Mountain traffic. Mr. Sutton said that the road would have to cross over forest service land and DOT doesn't feel there is a large need to build a section further away from the Main Street as the volume at this point would not be enough to justify the cost. Member Hettinger said he thought the traffic increase would be a small percentage of the total increase invisioned and wouldn't warrant that change at this time. He asked how committed the NH DOT was to this plan; if the plan is evolutionary, and if, in five years it is determined that the traffic is still an issue whether the DOT proceed to plan B whatever that plan may be. Mr. Placy said, if there was a need to change it, it could be changed at a later date and the DOT would not be opposed to it. Clerk Spanos asked if there was a need for changes to be done to this plan, who would bear the cost. Mr. Placy said, if the change were the stripes, that would not be a big issue but if widening the road were necessary, the cost would need to be borne by the developers that changed the traffic projection. Member Hettinger made a motion to close the public discussion; seconded by Alternate Bovarnick. Vote was unanimous. Selectmen's Representative Moore said that future traffic plans would be addressed and reopened as part of this approval and those conditions will be the responsibility of the Town and the developments that create the extra traffic, and be petitioned to the state again. After further discussion from the Board, Selectmen's Representative Moore made a motion to approve and implement the traffic plan as presented conditional upon future revisions, upgrades or additions to the plan that may be required to mitigate problems arising from intersecting traffic at the junction of Cooper Memorial Drive and Rt. 112 or from increased traffic volume; seconded by Vice Chairman Chenard. Vote was passed with one nay. Clerk Spanos made a motion to skip to item #5; seconded by Selectmen's Representative Moore. Vote was unanimous. 7:22 PM CONTINUATION of application for Subdivision submitted by Steve LaFrance for Centex Destination Properties (Tax Map 2 Lot 3.2) Proposal: To subdivide two sections of an approved Master Plan for a proposed 63-unit condominium building to be built in two sections. Planning Board: Acceptance of the Completed Subdivision Application. Public Hearing: Approve or Disapprove the Completed Subdivision Application. Mr. Sutton recommended that because of the extensive amount of discussion required; the concerns expressed by HTA (Hoyle, Tanner & Associates, Inc), the Town's engineers, and the comments received, tonight, from Mr. LaFrance it would be best to have the engineers get together to discuss it and resolve the issues rather than trying to discuss 14 pages of engineering items. Mr. Mulleavey addressed the audience and said that he would be happy to answer any questions, however, it wouldn't serve the publics best interest to try to address everything tonight at this meeting. Mr. LaFrance agreed. Selectmen's Representative Moore made a motion to continue this application until the March 14th meeting; seconded by Clerk Spanos. Vote was unanimous. 7:30 PM CONTINUATION of application for Site Plan Review submitted by Steve LaFrance for Centex Destination Properties (Tax Map 2 Lots 3.1, 3.2, 3.2 and 9) Proposal: To construct a 63-unit condominium building (H1 building), day skier parking areas, beginner ski trail and lift, ski back trail, skier drop-off area, connector lift, roadways, utilities, drainage improvements, conceptual approval of the Club, buildings H2 through H5, Equestrian Center and Loon Maintenance Facility. Planning Board: Acceptance of the Completed Site Plan Review Application. Public Hearing: Approve or Disapprove the Completed Site Plan Review Application. Due to the need for the engineers to review comments made regarding the plans presented it was decided to defer any approvals of this application to the next scheduled meeting. Selectmen's Representative Moore made a motion to continue this application until the March 14th meeting; seconded by Clerk Spanos. Vote was unanimous. 7:32 PM CONSIDERATION of application for Subdivision submitted by Steve LaFrance for Lincoln South Mountain Partners (Tax Map 16 Lot 310) Proposal: To subdivide a parcel into 38 lots. Planning Board: Acceptance of the Completed Subdivision Application. Public Hearing: Approve or Disapprove the Completed Subdivision Application. Mr. LaFrance reviewed the proposed plan stating there would be 38 lots for duplexes totaling 76 units. He said the 100-year and 500-year flood plain boundaries were marked on the plans presented because of some questions involving possible changes to the flood plain maps. There was a discussion regarding the condition of the levee and what repairs need to be made to it. Mr. Sutton said he has a meeting on the 28th of March with the Army Corps of Engineers to discuss what needs to be done to fix the levee and to get an extension for the repairs as it is the middle of the winter and it is impossible to get someone to assess the damage at this time of year and the money for the project has not yet been appropriated. Selectmen's Representative Moore said the Planning Board needs to make sure it protects the Town from improperly approving a development that would put the residents at some type of hazard. He also said that, at this time, the levee has yet to be decertified. If the plan were to be accepted, the Town's lawyer has advised them of language protecting the town regardless of what happens with the levee or flood plains. Clerk Spanos asked if the town was required to repair the levee. Mr. Sutton responded that an agreement signed by the selectmen, in 1960, states that it needs to be maintained by the Town of Lincoln. If the levee is damaged by a flood, which was the case in 1995, there should be funds available from the Federal Government to repair it. He said there is a fine line between "repair" and "maintain". He said the Town plans to fix it. However, if there is data that says the levee would not withstand a 100-year flood, then there isn't much point in fixing it. Selectmen's Representative Moore said the developer's plan would need to be reviewed by the Town's engineer, as it is a complicated project. He said the Board's process at this time would be to consider whether or not the application is complete and approvals would come at a later meeting. The point of the Bunker Lane access was mentioned again and Mr. Sutton said that was not something the Board needed to worry about, as it was a legal issue between the parties involved. There was a discussion regarding whether or not that could be placed as a condition that the parties involved needed to resolve road usage issues because it was presented in the plan that South Mountain Partners could use Bunker Lane. Member Hettinger made a motion to open the public discussion; seconded by Clerk Spanos. Vote was unanimous. Mr. Harrington asked if test pits have been done on the property. Mr. LaFrance said there had been approximately 22 done to date and more would be done in the future. Mr. Harrington said he would be glad to offer his assistance if needed with the future testing. Mr. Kahn discussed sections of the map showing where Bunker Lane ends and the distance of approximately 150 feet or more that would need to be finished by the developers in order to obtain access to the parcel of land in question, but the homeowners of the Fairways cannot be made to extend that road. He said there is inadequate water pressure there now and feels more development would only decrease that. He also said there was not enough space for parking for the residents that are currently on Bunker Lane so to add more traffic on a private road would not work due to the size of the road. Mr. Kahn asked about the required 50 foot ROW as stated in the Town of Lincoln's regulations, which this road would not meet. Mr. LaFrance said there is more than adequate water pressure in that area it may just be certain homes are not drawing enough water off their water meters. He stated that if a home were built in an area that was not deemed a flood zone when the home was built the town would not be in violation if a newly designated flood zone were put into affect. He said the homeowner would be at risk but not the town. Mr. Kelley said he was not comfortable with the way that the road intersects with South Mountain Road, also known as Cooper Memorial Drive, as there is poor visibility. He said he has yet to see the required 50-foot easement and he hopes this development would be responsible for the water and traffic mitigation just the same as other developments in town. Mr. Sutton said the developers would be responsible for their share of the impacts. Mr. Brisson believes this development is vital to the future of the town. He feels if you were to look at the Slopeside property, which is going to be coming up for auction, as the town develops it will become prime tourist oriented property. He said that he understands that the developers have no control over the Slopeside property, however, he feels it is unfortunate that in the plan presented it is proposed to put a number of duplexes in an area which could be a major tourist entrance and where people would be looking at the backs of duplexes. He has a concern with that. He said he would urge the owners of the proposed development and the potential new owners of the Slopeside property to get together and see if there is someway the two properties could be combined and master plan the property as one and that would enhance the values of the whole property. Mr. Brisson wanted to ensure that HTA would be reviewing the plans and addressing how the water would be stored etc. Mr. Sutton responded they would be reviewed just as all of Mr. Brisson's had been in the past. Ms. Huot said she was wondering if there would be some type of allowed use for the swimming area (Old Hole), which has been used by locals for many years. Mr. Sutton said he has met with the developers, Russ Cooley and Wes Graves, and a plan has been mapped out to connect the existing bike path through their property and it would also give access to the swimming area. It is still under discussion however. Mr. Graves said they are not looking to take the swimming area away but that is something that it is going to have to continue to be looked at and there will be a cost involved which will need to be figured out as to how they will be reimbursed. Ms. Huot asked if there would be a foot access to the swimming area versus one people could drive to. Mr. Sutton said it would be similar to the one that they obtained money for to put near Loon Mountain. It was noted originally there was a plan for parking in that area as well but it was noted a footpath may be the best answer. Selectmen's Representative Moore said the plans will be submitted to the Town's engineers to have things checked over which will include density calculations, water pressure issues and possibly review the soils for potentially being corrosive. He stated to the developers that the Land Use Plan Ordinance makes the developers are responsible for paying the fees associated with the engineer review, which they said they were aware of. He discussed whether or not the plan could be accepted as complete and the fact that if the application were accepted it would start the clock for the approvals timeline. He said that if the roads were to be changed on the plans presented that would have to be reviewed again by the Board and that could possibly require the applicant to start from the beginning again. Selectmen's Representative Moore said the legal issues regarding Bunker lane are not the Boards problem however the adequacy of the road is and the fact that there is not a 50-foot right of way shown needs to be considered. Mr. LaFrance said they would possibly have to apply for a waiver for the 50-foot right of way, which is not currently shown on the plans. Mr. Kahn said the general public and abutter were noticed for this hearing but nothing was mentioned about a waiver for the 50-foot right of way and he feels there isn't a way this application can be considered as complete. Mr. Kelley said he s not opposed to this application at all but if you were to go down the checklist he doesn't feel the application can be accepted as presented because there is not a waiver presented for the 50-foot right of way. Member Hettinger commented that there are a number of issues with the plan that need to be answered before he feels they can decide what to do with the plan. Clerk Spanos made a motion to close the public discussion; seconded by Alternate Bovarnick. Vote was unanimous. After further discussion Selectmen's Representative Moore made a motion to have the plans sent to the town's engineer prior to accepting the application and to continue this hearing to March 14th; seconded by Clerk Spanos. Vote was unanimous. 9:05 PM REVIEW AND COMMENT on the MATRIX REPORTS and OPEN FILES pertaining to: A. Land Use Subdivision and Site Plan Applications/Approvals B. Building Permit Applications C. Sign Permit Applications Alternate Bovarnick asked if there were any regulations that prohibited vehicles from parking on the side of the road with signs on them. Vice Chairman Chenard said there was none at this time. 9:07 PM CONTINUING & OTHER BUSINESS (Staff and Planning Board Member/Alternates) There was none. 9:07 PM PUBLIC INPUT on Specific Issues - There was none. 9:08 PM ADJOURNMENT Selectmen's Representative Moore made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Clerk Spanos. Vote was unanimous. Dated: March 14, 2007 Joe Chenard, Vice Chairman