Planning Board Meeting Minutes - July 11, 2007

PUBLIC HEARING Lincoln Town Hall Conference Room Main Street, Lincoln, New Hampshire Present: Chairman Pat Romprey, Vice Chairman Joe Chenard, Member John Hettinger, Clerk Jim Spanos, Selectmen's Representative Peter Moore, and Alternate Edwin Fredie Staff Present: Stacey Boyce - Administrator, Ted Sutton - Town Manager Others Present: Chester Kahn, Russ Cooley, Susan Chenard, Liz Lambregtse, Mike Norman, Brent Drouin, William Walter, Glen Featherstenz, Wes Graves, Joe Graves, Bill Burke, Ed Brisson, Pat Bahr and Dennis Wagner 6:05 PM CALL TO ORDER by Chairman Romprey; announcement of excused absences, if any, and seating of alternates(s), if necessary. Chairman Romprey called the meeting to order and welcomed those present. Full quorum present. Alternates Chrystal and Cook were excused. It was noted that Vice Chairman Chenard and Alternate Fredie would arrive later. 6:06 PM CONSIDERATION of Draft Meeting Minutes for June 13th, 2007 Member Hettinger made a motion to approve the minutes of June 13th with one correction; seconded by Clerk Spanos. Vote was unanimous. 6:07 PM CONTINUING & OTHER BUSINESS (Staff and Planning Board Member/Alternates) Mr. Sutton said Mr. Walter was asked to come to this Board meeting due to several written and verbal complaints he has received regarding the number of vehicles parked at Mr. Walter's restaurant, The Longhorn Palace. He stated there was a question of whether it was Mr. Walter's intention to change the use of his existing business to a used car lot. Mr. Walter said in 60 years he has never sold a car, as they are part of his collection. He said that this year however, he did decide to have 2 of his cars removed as they were not able to be run anymore and he also had two cars that he decided he didn't want so he did put them in front of his restaurant for sale until the restaurant opened then they were moved to another area. Mr. Walter stated his parking lot used to be full but business has gone down in the past few years as it has with a number of area businesses and having the cars there shows a visual of the restaurant having constant business. Chairman Romprey asked how many cars were parked on the property. Mr. Walter said there were approximately 24, 5 of which were registered. Clerk Spanos asked Mr. Walter how long he had been collecting the cars. Mr. Walter said he has been collecting cars for the past 10 years. Mr. Walter said he would have no problem changing the name or use of his business as long as every other business in the area that sold a car from time to time on their property was made to do the same thing. Mr. Wagner said he has had many people come to him with their complaints and from what he could tell the reason people appear to be complaining is more of a sight issue than anything else. He feels if the cars were cleaned up that needed to be, the tires inflated on the cars that are sitting and they were placed in uniform rows there would be less complaints. Clerk Spanos said he feels the cars are all neatly parked and organized. After further discussion Chairman Romprey told Mr. Walter to get the cars presentable, inflating tires, getting rid of the ones that are rusty or can't be run and straighten up the parking so they look more organized. Mr. Walter thanked the Board and left the meeting. Clerk Spanos made a motion to skip over item #4 and proceed to item #5; seconded by Selectmen's Representative Moore. Vote was unanimous. Member Hettinger recused himself, as he is a noticed abutter to this project. 6:22 PM CONSIDERATION of application for Subdivision submitted by Steve LaFrance for Centex Destination Properties, (Tax Map 2 Lot 3.3) Proposal: Seeks approval to subdivide a parcel of land, Phase I of Crooked Mountain Woods, into 26 lots. Planning Board: Acceptance of the Completed Subdivision Application. Public Hearing: Approve or Disapprove the Completed Subdivision Application. Mr. Brisson stated after reviewing the notices and plans he saw the application was submitted as Phase I and it is actually Phase II and would like to know if that posed a problem. Chairman Romprey asked the abutters present if they had any objections to the change in the application. No one did so Mr. Brisson stated he would have new maps made up reflecting the plan as Phase II not Phase I. Mr. Brisson then gave an overview of the project noting that all of the lots were over the required 15,000 square feet. Clerk Spanos made a motion to accept the application as presented as complete; seconded by Selectmen's Representative Moore. Vote was unanimous. Clerk Spanos made a motion to open the public hearing; seconded by Selectmen's Representative Moore. Vote was unanimous. There were no comments. Selectmen's Representative Moore made a motion to close the public hearing; seconded by Clerk Spanos. Vote was unanimous. Selectmen's Representative Moore made a motion to approve the application as presented noting the change of Phase I to Phase II; seconded by Clerk Spanos. Vote was unanimous. Member Hettinger was reseated on the Board. 6:27 PM CONTINUATION of application for Subdivision submitted by Steve LaFrance for Lincoln South Mountain Partners (Tax Map 16 Lot 310) Proposal: Seeks approval to subdivide a 25-acre parcel of land for a 78-unit resort residential development. Planning Board: Acceptance of the Completed Subdivision Application. Public Hearing: Approve or Disapprove the Completed Subdivision Application. Chairman Romprey said he understands that all of the (3) three phase reports were submitted to DES. Mr. Cooley said yes they were but there have only received a response on one of them from DES. Alternate Fredie arrived at 6:30 pm and was seated on the Board. Mr. Norman said they are expecting a letter from DES stating there were no issues with any of the reports or the levels shown on the reports within the next week and a half. Member Hettinger expressed his concerns with some of the PAH levels detected, being that in some cases they are 40 to 80 times greater than the Ambient Groundwater Quality Standards (AGQS) levels allowed by DES as reported in the Phase II report. Member Hettinger asked if the testing that was done for the three phases were all done in the same areas. Mr. Graves responded they were. Selectmen's Representative Moore said the State will have jurisdiction over the reports but he still has concerns when the amounts of these levels are found on the surface area as well as in the test pits that were dug to a certain level. There was a discussion on the three phases of testing that was done and how one phase negates out the previous one, as the newer one is thought to be more precise. Alternate Fredie asked if there were specific areas the tests were performed. Mr. Cooley said they used the areas that were thought to potentially be the worse and that approximately 15 tests were completed. Member Hettinger made a motion to open the public hearing; seconded by Clerk Spanos. Vote was unanimous. Mr. Kahn said at the last meeting all (3) three phase reports were supposed to be submitted to the Board but he has only seen (2) two of those phase reports, I & II. He also stated that one phase report does not negate another report and as an abutter he has concerns with the levels of contaminates that may possibly be running into the water. Mr. Cooley said the water was tested and labeled as drinking quality water. Vice Chairman Chenard arrived at 6:42 pm. Chairman Romprey asked if the sewer line study had been completed. Mr. Norman said it been started but not completed. Mr. Sutton said he received an email from Craig Rennie, who works for DES, stating he had been on vacation and with the workload he has he would not be able to come up to the area at this time to check the stream. He did state that he would agree with Sean Sweeney's determination on the stream that it is an intermittent stream as Sean is one of the best in his fields and widely used for projects like this. No further information on this subject will be required from the Board. Chairman Romprey said he and Mr. Sutton looked at the stream last week and the top of the culvert was dry but the bottom was a bubbling brook and it is unknown from where it is being fed. Mr. Kahn said another area of concern was the high-water mark. Mr. Norman said that would be the top of the bank. Clerk Spanos made a motion to close the public hearing; seconded by Alternate Hettinger. Affirmative vote. It was the Board's decision after further discussion to wait on granting approval or denial on this application until after the responses were received from DES. Chairman Romprey also said that LSMP's would have to go to the ZBA for a variance for the setback issue as the Planning Board was not able to grant variances and they are a case by case situation. Mr. Norman asked if there was a setback for wetlands. Chairman Romprey said the request was put in on the application for a variance from the setbacks and it is hard to determine the top of bank location. A 10-minute recess was taken to determine when the best date would be to hold the ZBA hearing. The meeting reconvened at 7:30 pm. Selectmen's Representative Moore made a motion to continue the hearing to August 8th at 6:30 pm; seconded by Clerk Spanos. Unanimous affirmative vote. 7:35 PM CONTINUING & OTHER BUSINESS (Staff and Planning Board Member/Alternates) Vice Chairman Chenard said it was almost impossible to get down Church Street over the weekend due to parked cars up and down both sides of the street that were eating at Flapjack's. Mr. Sutton said he would check with the police department to see what would need to be done. 7:37 PM CONTINUING & OTHER BUSINESS (Staff and Planning Board Member/Alternates) Selectmen's Representative Moore read into the record two letters that were received regarding construction traffic noise prior to the 7:00 am start time. This is going to be referred to the Board of Selectmen, as they are the Board that will have to handle that type of ordinance. Mr. Sutton said he has been dealing with this issue already with the Lincoln Police Chief. 7:39 PM CONTINUING & OTHER BUSINESS (Staff and Planning Board Member/Alternates) Mr. Sutton said he would like the Board to consider having the sign committee review and issue sign permit from now on as he and Vice Chairman Chenard have done their best in reviewing permits that have come in and allowing or denying them within the regulations, however there are still some complaints that have been issued with some of the signs they have allowed with people thinking they are illegal. The next meeting, July 25th, an hour will be set aside to review the draft changes to the Sign Ordinance. It was stated to the Board members if they did not have a copy of this to please let Mrs. Boyce know so she could make sure to get them one to review prior to the meeting. After discussing the building permit process it was decided that the current Land Use Ordinance should be reviewed to include in more detail area projects that should require a building permit. 7:56 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 There were no comments. 7:56 PM PUBLIC INPUT on Specific Issues - There was none. 7:57 PM ADJOURNMENT Member Hettinger made a motion to adjourn, seconded by Clerk Spanos. Vote was unanimous. Dated: July 25, 2007 Pat Romprey, Chairman