Town of Charlotte
Board of Selectmen
Minutes
Monday, February 9, 2004
7:00 PM, Charlotte Town
Hall
Jennifer Steele Cole
Eleanor Russell
OTHERS: Dean
Bloch (Select board Assistant)
Bill
April
Trina
Bianchi
Jessie
Bradley
Lou
Bresee
Peter
Demick
Jim
Donovan
John
Hammer
David
Hill
Clark
Hinsdale, III
Marty
Illick
Roger
Lambert
Kate
Lampton
Al
Moraska
Jeff
McDonald
David
Miskell
Liam Murphy
Robin
Reid
Gordon
Troy
Robin
Simpson Troy
Leslie
Williams
Jocelyn
Bolick (clerk)
The meeting was called to order at 7:00
pm.
The items on the agenda were as
follows:
Adjustment
to Agenda / Approve Minutes for January 19 & January 21, 2004 / Public
Discussion / Regional Technology Academy presentation / Jeffrey McDonald –
Update on Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization / Marty Illick –
Update on Chittenden Regional Planning Commission / Lou Bresee (Lake Champlain)
– Request to allow signs for bicycle trail / Liam Murphy – Discussion of trail
requirements during subdivision process / Kingsland subdivision – Lots 3 &
4: Donation of development rights to the Town / Liquor License Approvals:
Spear’s Corner Store; Tenney Enterprises / Approve Independent Auditor’s Report
/ Bills and Warrants / Adjournment
Adjustment to Agenda
None.
Approve Minutes for January 19, 2004
Motion made
by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Jennie Cole:
“To approve the select board
meeting minutes with corrections for January 19th, 2004”.
Vote: all in
favor.
On page 2, under Warning for Town
Meeting, change “from an appointed position to an elected position” to “from an
elected position to an appointed position”.
On page 2, under Warning for Town
Meeting, remove “We don’t want to go back to the voters to get approval on how
to spend the money”.
On page 4, under Budget Discussion –
Expenses/Salaries, change “3% raise across the board for everybody except one
of the assistant librarians” to “3% raise across the board”.
On page 5, under Town Auditor –
Q&A, change “…whether it should be voted …” to “… whether it should be
shown in the budget as an expense and voted …”.
On page 5, under Town Auditor –
Q&A, change 2 lines starting “Charlie said it was voted on in 1996. …” to
“Charlie said the article to authorize up to 2 cents on the tax rate was
approved by the town in 1996”.
Approve Minutes for January 21, 2004
Motion made
by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Jennie Cole:
“To approve the select board
meeting minutes with corrections for January 21st, 2004”.
Vote: all in
favor.
No changes.
Public Discussion
None.
Regional Technology Academy
presentation
Leslie
Williams came to share information about the Regional Technology Academy. There will be a vote on the March 2nd
ballot to approve governance for the academy.
If that is approved, there will be a board appointed and/or
elected. Currently, the children at CVU
who choose the technical path go to either Essex Junction or Burlington, and
the town of Charlotte pays a certain amount for their children to go there.
Chittenden
County has a 10% participation in a technical center right now. Vermont as a
whole has about 34% participation, so the rate from Chittenden County is really
low.
Leslie feels
that Chittenden County is far behind. Essex
has a waiting list – 1 out of 2 kids can’t get into the technical center. There are programs they can’t offer because
they don’t have the body of kids interested in certain programs. Leslie stressed that this is purely a
governance vote, not a budget vote. The
budget vote would be in November. The
vote to establish governance passes with a majority of total votes.
Ellie asked
if it is more expensive to educate someone in a technical school. Leslie said it is more expensive in
technical school – approximately $4500 more per student per year. However, the state kicks in money because
technical education is more expensive.
There is an
option to take a part-time course load at the technical academy, and part-time
at the home high school. Transportation
will need to be figured out.
Leslie said
there is a lot of controversy about the project. Winooski and Fairfax are concerned that the project will be so
good that their kids will want to go and put the towns’ high schools out of
business. Another issue is cost.
Katrina ???
said there is no reason to vote no – it just allows the planning to
continue. The time to vote no (if you
wish to do so) is in November.
Leslie said
technical education is fairly invisible, unless you are directly involved in
the program. Suggestions were made to
involve graduates from the technical programs – have them talk to people about
how the programs have helped them.
Jeffrey McDonald – Update on
Chittenden County Metropolitan Planning Organization
Jeff
McDonald said that one of the major projects is the Metropolitan Transportation
Plan. They felt that this document was
poorly written; they are really out of synch right now. They are spending their time trying to bring
everything back into synch.
The MPO is a
federal entity – it has federal funding behind it and its purpose is to
allocate where the federal transportation dollars are going. The Regional Planning Commission is a state
entity and involves the regional transportation plan. Over the last couple of years, they have brought the groups
closer together. They are in the same
building, sharing some of the same staff, but still with 2 different directors.
The major
construction projects on the horizon include the Charlotte/Route 7 expansion (slated
for construction in 2008). Since the
construction was supposed to start in 2005, send a letter to Pat McDonald at VTRANS
to voice your concerns. Also, the Route
7/Ferry Road intersection has been allocated $175,000 to put in turning lanes
this year.
Ellie asked
about the MPO TAC. Jeff suggested
having town planners share the responsibility of attending the meetings. A suggestion was made to have someone from
the Rec Committee attend the meetings since they’re interested in the trail
that currently terminates on Route 7.
Jeff
suggested writing letters to complain about the slippage of the Charlotte/Route
7 expansion (from 2005).
Marty Illick – Update on Chittenden
Regional Planning Commission
Marty feels
that the CRPC is in stable condition.
If the town wanted to submit something through them concerning VELCO,
let her know. There are 3 groups that sought
advisement on the plan: working landscape, recreation, and natural areas.
They will be
starting the outreach plan in April. It
talks about the open space elements on a county wide basis. It’s a coarse cut of the whole county. Perhaps the Conservation Commission or
Planning Commission would want to host the meeting as a town. Co-hosting with another town would be a good
opportunity.
Ted
Montgomery (town representative concerning housing) has been participating
regularly. He is helping organize town
growth rates and census data.
The RPC data
has to be county wide, so it is only as good as the lowest towns’ data. Housing and Open Space are the 2 big areas
for Marty. Transportation is really big
for RPC.
Lou Bresee (Lake Champlain) – Request
to allow signs for bicycle trail
Lou said there
were several things that have happened since he was here last year. Lou said signs have gone in at the southern
end of the state. Grand Isle has agreed
to add signs, as well as Burlington.
In
Charlotte, the signs would be at Greenbush Road and Lake Road, Lake Road and
Ferry Road, Ferry and Greenbush Road, and Greenbush Road and Thompson’s Point
Road. Depending on what the town wanted
to do, they might be able to use an existing post rather than putting in a new
post. Lou said that both the Rec
Committee and the Trails Committee feel it’s a wonderful idea.
Charlie
asked about sending bicycles on Greenbush Road rather than the less traveled
Lake Road, even though Lake Road is dirt.
Charlie feels that it’s a dangerous situation. Robin Reid said it might help make it safer to have bicycles on
the road. Lou said he could put up
“Bicyclists – single file” on hills where bicyclists tend to pass each other.
The Trails
Committee and Rec Commission both voted unanimously to support the sign
project. The Planning Commission
supports the sign project, but strongly encourages the use of existing posts.
Motion made
by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Jennie Cole:
“To approve the Champlain Bikeway signage
with the constraint that they use existing poles wherever possible.”
Vote: all in
favor.
Liam Murphy – Discussion of trail
requirements during subdivision process
Liam would
like to start a community dialog about a couple of issues that are
intersecting. There seems to be
arbitrariness on the imposing of trails on subdivisions. There needs to be a coordinated plan to deal
with trails, imposition of trails, and uses of them. It needs to be done in a manner where it is not as arbitrary as
it is today.
Liam feels
it is in the town’s interest to plan trails in a coordinated manner. We need to have a discussion that involves
the Trails Committee, the Rec Committee, the Planning Commission and the Select
Board. Each has different roles to play
in determining how trails and old roads are to be used.
Jim Donovan said
they have a master plan that gives general directions on how trail requests are
dealt with. He said they try to work
with the landowners as much as possible, so that it is not an imposition. They try to step back (if it appears to be
an imposition) and try to work cooperatively with the land owners.
Clark
Hinsdale, III, said this is an issue that really needs work – he feels the town
has partial authority and a partial plan that has been partially
implemented. You involve several
branches of town government in this procedure and it is not coordinated. He really encourages the town to work on
this – he’d rather see our money spend on planning and coordinating rather than
see the money spent on defending the easements on appeal.
Liam feels the
town needs to catch up very quickly before it faces a lawsuit. There should be a clearly articulated set of
plans and conditions. It needs to be a
better framework before taking peoples land.
Ellie said
we need to finish the trail plan and we need to have a legal procedure that
defines when and how to ask for trail easements. Liam said another is finding the appropriate uses for trails and
old roads.
Lou Bresee
said in his town, as soon as a development is considered, they put a map
together – as soon as the first hearing takes place, they know what is being
asked.
Clark said
in the old days, the town gave away a lot of its road easements. Liam said there is legislation that was
introduced this year concerning old town roads and how far back you can
go. Ellie said the proposal is that a
road is abandoned if it is not used for 30 years.
Charlie said
they will need to form a group with different representation to figure this
out.
Kingsland subdivision – Lots 3 & 4:
Donation of development rights to the Town
Clark wants
to know if the town wants the gift.
Dean Bloch said Lot 4 had additional density approved by the Planning
Commission. They would want to transfer
the density; the town attorney wants the additional density transferred before
the gift is received. Clark said with
the 20 year anniversary on land conservation in Charlotte, the time may be
coming when parcels are no longer 100 or 200 acres. We may be shifting towards smaller parcels and trail easements.
Charlie said
what he’s hoping to hear from the counsel is that this is a good idea. Dean said the town has an open space
agreement around these building envelopes; he doesn’t believe the town attorney
has a bad opinion of this.
Clark feels
if it was a 30 acre parcel, the Charlotte Land Trust might be interested in
it. But the town will get a cumulative
30 acre parcel.
Lot 4 and
lot 3 will be 100% conserved. The
density would be transferred to a contiguous parcel.
Kate Lampton
said the Charlotte Land Trust has decided not to take this easement because
there is this other agreement which confuses the donation. Kate said there is a mix of development and
conserved property here. That’s when it
gets difficult for the CLT. Then they
have to start doing the job of the zoning administrator. Jim Donovan said the open space property is
marked.
Marty
suggested supporting the open space, and asked the select board to do a good
job of quantifying those resources so we can keep track.
Liquor License Approvals
Motion made
by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Jennie Cole:
“To adjourn as select
board and reconvene as the liquor control board”.
Vote: all in
favor.
Motion made
by Jennie Cole, seconded by Eleanor Russell:
“To approve the liquor
licenses for Spear’s Corner Store and Tenney Enterprises”.
Vote: all in
favor.
Motion made
by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Jennie Cole:
“To adjourn as liquor
control board and reconvene as the select board”.
Vote: all in
favor.
Approve Independent Auditor’s Report
Motion made
by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Jennie Cole:
“To approve the
independent auditors report ending June 30, 2002”.
Vote: all in
favor.
Bills and Warrants
Signed as
appropriate.
Adjournment
Joint meeting with school board: February 19th at 7 PM.
Next meeting: Monday,
February 23rd at 7 PM.
Motion made by Eleanor Russell, seconded by Jennifer Cole:
“To adjourn the select board meeting”.
Vote: all in
favor. Meeting adjourned at 9:55 PM.
Minutes respectfully submitted by
Jocelyn Bolick.