TOWN PLAN HEARING

CHARLOTTE PLANNING COMMISSION

7:00 P.M., THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1999



Members
Present:

Chairman Al
Moraska 

Ed Melby

Dave Brown

Jeff McDonald

David Woolf

Josie Leavitt

Members Absent:

Jim Donovan



Officials
Present:

Planner Dean
Bloch



Guests Signed In:

Martha Greene

Richard G. Greene

Sylvia Sprigg

Joe Keenan

Martha Keenan

Jonathan Fisher




1. General Business, approval of Minutes: Minutes for November 4th were read and changes
were made in the summary of Spin Richardson's presentation to make it more clear. A sentence
was rearranged regarding the reason one applicant appeared, and Ed made some additional
punctuation changes to take out too many commas.

Al Moraska moved to approve the minutes of November 4, 1999 with these corrections
and Ed Melby seconded the motion. They were approved, 5-1 with 2 absent (Jeff not there yet.)

2. Richard and Martha Greene, 361 Col. Williams Way, Subdivision Modification: Richard
Greene presented a sketch of his proposal. Martha Greene has inherited additional land in this subdivision from her
grandmother. The plan refers to the Haight field which is between the present property boundaries which Richard showed.
The lot in the back has a 60 ft. r.o.w. to it.

The boundary adjustment is adding 3.62 acres and is adding that portion of lot 2 and with the
proposed addition it will be 13.97 acres. For information, the Greenes related that a brother and sister had also inherited
approximately four acres at the same time but decided nothing could be done with it because of the amount of
ledge.

Al Moraska moved to accept the Subdivision Modification taking 3.62 acres from lot 2 and moving
it to the adjacent Greene property which is lot 1, making the Greene parcel 13.97 acres and
reducing lot 2 to 12.35 acres. Because this was not a warned hearing, Al rescinded the motion.
Dean Bloch said it would have to be brought in by the 23rd of November for the meeting of the
16th of December.

3. Sketch Plan Review for Joseph and Martha Keenan: Martha said they wanted to do this so
as to donate as much land as possible to the Charlotte Land Trust. There would be two 5-acre lots û one
encompassing the existing house and one encompassing proposed house which is lot 3. This leaves the rest, 43 acres ± for
which they are now discussing the means of getting the development rights sold or donated to the Land Trust.

Al verified that there wouldn't be any building done on Lot 1. Joe Keenan agreed; "The only
construction that would occur would be related to the septic capacity." Al asked why they wouldn't
have smaller lots and donate 50 acres instead of the 43, but apparently the Land Trust didn't think it
would make a difference since the other 6+ acres could not be built on anyway. Martha said they
had considered just such an arrangement, making one of the lots 1.9 acres and the other, and 2
acres for the other. She thought the smaller lots were more valuable because there would be less
maintenance. What is going to the Land Trust is the development rights for the 8 buildable lots.

Dean said the p.r.d. section encourages smaller lots and the Conservation Committee supports this
plan. Al asked if the location of lot 3 could be closer to lot 2, but Martha said it is actually 150 paces behind the
house. Joe explained that there would be a road behind the existing barn, right through the corral, and it follows right
along the outside of the wooded area. There is one spot where there is drainage coming across and there is a culvert
there.

The adjoining area is still being used for Gary Thibault's cows even though the Greenes no longer
have their cows. They have talked with Taproot and they are not interested in the 50 acres. The
land goes to North Pasture Lane and the Shelburne town line but is basically inaccessible from the
Shelburne part of it.

Martha said the Boutins, Taproot, Gary Thibault and the O'Neils are all discussing options with the
Land Trust at this point. She said their land ties in with those because they have the wildlife corridor.

Al said they should go on a site visit on Saturday, December 4th at 9:00 a.m. and the Conservation
Commission folks are invited. There have been four subdivisions done since 1977. Martha said theirs is the last
lot to be developed. Martha said they will probably have to get an easement over Paulette Thibault's property.
When they did their subdivision their pin was 25' behind the barn. Paulette has already said they will give the right of
way. Al noted that all of these conditions were existing. Dean said since the boundaries were internal they are allowed
to be reduced in the p.r.d. 

Al Moraska moved to classify the Greene application as a Minor Subdivision. Josie Leavitt
seconded the motion and it was approved, 6-0 with one member absent.

4. Other Business, continued. Review of Minutes for October 21st. Dean had put a line through
the complimentary comments toward him by Linda Radimer, but all members agreed that these accolades should
remain in there.

Al Moraska moved to accept the minutes for October 21, 1999 as presented. The motion
was seconded by David Woolf and approved, 4-0 with two members abstaining who were not there, and one
member absent.

5. General Business: Harley Allen and Al Moraska have met to discuss budgetary items to
present to the Selectboard. Jonathan Fisher was present as the Zoning Board's representative for this discussion. Al said
the Selectboard have talked about a 2 ½ % cost of living increase and since the Planning Office had no salary
increase last year they do not think it unreasonable to ask for an increase of 5%, with the additional 2 ½ % being a merit
increase.

There is also a request for an additional $2,000 budget item for temporary clerical help as needed,
perhaps once a week for filing, to a total of 200 hours.

Funds for a fireproof filing cabinet will again be applied for, $1 thousand for continuation of
mapping, the printer for $500 bur service for the computer are not covered, Dean said. He listed several categories that
must be maintained.

There is a training amount which would include the seminars for members of the planning and zoning
boards.

The legal category, Jonathan Fisher noted, is eating up a lot of funds lately due to some ongoing
court cases. The continuation of Town Plan funding (there could be other changes), and awareness that some things
are coming up that may need a consultant. Dean was advised to try and break down the categories more finely
because there will be close scrutiny on all of these requests.

He will identify the priorities such as the ground water studies for this table pending a grant, and will
try to be more specific especially with the legal category. They want to be sure there is enough staff
for some of this and Dean said he will separate the requests into several categories.

The engineering budget is $3ûtoû$4 thousand and they do expect more engineering work will be
required especially because of the Burns property and Senior Housing projects that are coming up.

Dean was asked if he can get a figure of how much income for the Town is generated by the
Planning Office. Dean said he would. Jonathan said some of the fees are the highest in the State.

A joint hearing is possible on the soccer field on Ferry Road. It appears that the Conservation
Commission was not included in the soccer field discussions. It was noted that on the previous
applications the soccer field expected to use the same parking that the train station would use and
there may be a conflict. The train station has received a conditional use wetland determination, Dean
said. 

6. Discussion of West Charlotte Village Master Plan: On page 111 of the draft, "Other
Industrial Commercial

District Strategies, the 2nd line, a word change from "to" to "do" (not meet). Page 101 third
paragraph, "All railroad crossings must be gated crossings." Al asked about some tables, and Dean said those are paste-ons
and they are available.

Dean said Eric Stone and Billy Coster may have some new maps on soils and agricultural districts
and these will be given to the Selectboard prior to Monday's meeting. There will be a new base
map and land use map, and the one on the aquifer protection areas. December 20th will be the first
public hearing. After the first public hearing the Select-board will determine whether they need to re-adopt the old plan (such as if there is a public outcry over the new plan and there might not be enough time to do the changes). Rewrites would come out of the Selectboard budget.

Sylvia Sprigg commented on the Town Plan. On page 111, "other" should be stricken out of the
policies and strategies. Within the "policies and strategies" there is actually no "Village Industrial" or
"Village Commercial" because in Zoning Regulations there is no separate category describing these
as different. David Woolf said they should strike "other" but they should also strike "village" for the
same reason.

Sylvia said that on page 110, the line that says "existing industrial district areas in the Zoning Bylaws
are adequate to meet the Town's needs," was referring to all three of the current zones, not just the
two village zones. So it's either inappropriate to leave it just in the village, or it needs to be in a
separate area that is attached to the criteria of what "Industrial/Commercial" area should be. It
should be in a separate place to deal with all the Town's "Industrial/Commercial" district. The
paragraphs will be moved over and rearranged between the two pages to clarify the meaning of
both.

Al said on page 26, 2nd paragraph from the bottom, the word "economy" is repeated on this page
and the next, several times and may need to have a substitution.

Al Moraska moved to approve the draft of the Town Plan with corrections and to have
Dean submit it to the Selectboard on Monday. Jeff McDonald seconded the motion and it was
approved, 6û0 with one absent.

Ed Melby cited Dean Bloch for all the work he did in getting all these changes edited into the Town
Plan and the rest of the Planning Commission members agreed wholeheartedly.

Dean said this would be submitted on the 22nd for their December 20th hearing. They can have the
public hearing and can then adjourn and continue the hearing until the next day, perhaps. If anything stops it from
going ahead it is now in the Selectboard's hands. 

Re the Grant that was just received: There will be public participation before the consultant is hired
for the work on the planning grant. Dean will put an article in the Charlotte News. He would invite the Town Plan
Committees and especially the village and neighborhood committee to assist in making proposals. They need to see
exactly what they want the consultant to do.

If a master plan is developed it may incorporate the ideas from Dana Farley's Village Plan of a
couple of years ago for the area of Ferry Road / Greenbush with sidewalks, etc. They want
people's feedback on what the master plan is, what we are going to use it for, size of the village,
what we can use a consultant for û what the most important thing is that people want to see happen
with the village. If there is a surplus in the Town Plan budget it could be added in this project.

Jeff McDonald moved to adjourn at 9:15 p.m. Dave Brown seconded the motion and it passed,
6-0.



APPROVED BY THE CHARLOTTE PLANNING COMMISSION