City Council

These minutes were approved on March 27, 2023. CITY OF LACONIA - CITY COUNCIL SUBCOMMITTEE MEETING Government Operations & Ordinances 6:00 P.M. City Hall- Armand A. Bolduc Council Chamber 1/23/2023 - Minutes 1. CALL TO ORDER Chairman Soucy called the meeting to order at 6:05 PM 2. SALUTE TO THE FLAG Chairman Soucy led the salute to the flag. 3. RECORDING SECRETARY Katie Gargano, City Clerk 4. ROLL CALL Clerk Gargano called the roll of the following committee members Councilor Cheney, Councilor Soucy and Councilor Felch. Chairman Soucy confirmed all 3 committee members were in attendance and a quorum was established. 5. STAFF IN ATTENDANCE Kirk Beattie, City Manager; Tim Joubert, Fire Chief; Dean Trefethen, Planning, Zoning and Code Director. 6. ACCEPTANCE OF MINUTES FROM PREVIOUS MEETINGS 6.A. Government Operations and Ordinances Subcommittee meeting minutes of August 15, 2022 Minutes of the meeting of August 15, 2022 were distributed to the members of the City Council Government Operations and Ordinances Subcommittee on August 24, 2022. With no corrections or changes submitted to the Clerk, the minutes were accepted as distributed. 7. GOVERNMENT OPERATIONS & ORDINANCES (Soucy (Chair), Felch, Cheney) 7.A. Discussion of including a legal procedure in the City's Ordinances to enforce owners of a dilapidated or burned out building to tear it down Chief Joubert explained the state RSA is 155:B, these are suggestions to make into a City Ordinance. The main thing the committee needs to define is a time frame of how long a building must be in that condition before any action can be made.  owners of a dilapidated or burned out building to tear it down Chief Joubert explained the state RSA is 155:B, these are suggestions to make into a City Ordinance. The main thing the committee needs to define is a time frame of how long a building must be in that condition before any action can be made. They discussed the different classifications as hazardous versus having just burned out buildings. There was discussion of requiring the potential building to be repaired or torn down. Then place a lien to recover the costs (if any). By having a strong ordinance that states the steps and time frame, the easier it will be to have the ordinance backed up in court. The committee likes what the Chief put together and told the Chief to work with the planning director about defining a time frame and determine definitions of what is considered a burned down versus dilapidated buildings. 7.B. Review and discussion of the Historic District Ordinance Director Trefethen discussed the suggested changes from the committees in response to comments that were made by the council at a previous meeting over a year ago to simplify things. Less restrictive perhaps and to correct wording within the ordinance before the historic district possibly expands. Councilor Cheney mentioned an issue he has with the enforcement actions on page 14, he read it out loud. Councilor Cheney doesn’t feel that the committee who finds an issue should be the ones holding the hearing. Councilor Cheney would like to see it go back to either the Planning Board or ZBA. Councilor Soucy says he’s in favor for it coming back to the Council. Councilor Felch asked Director Trefethen which board he recommends? Director Trefethen said since this is a Zoning ordinance, it should go to the ZBA. Councilor Soucy doesn’t like the governing body being labeled as the Historic District Commission, he thinks it should be the City Council. Councilor Cheney told Director Trefethen to define “dilapidated” and “deteriorated” then come back to the committee with the revisions. Director Trefethen said the object is to prevent a property owner from allowing their property to get dilapidated. There was discussion about combining the historic district commission with the heritage commission. Councilors’ Soucy and Felch said they liked this idea. Councilor Soucy would like to see demolition permits to go before the City Council instead of the historic district commission. 8. CITIZENS REQUESTS TO COMMENT ON CURRENT AGENDA ITEMS 9. Any other business that may come before the Committee Councilor Felch asked Chairman Soucy some unfinished business about the naming privileges of public places such as naming a basketball court in honor or tribute of someone. The Parks and Rec Commission has asked about the status. It was supposed to be defined and how to determine who gets to name them. Manager Beattie is going to look at other cities and towns and theirs processes in making those kinds of decisions. 10. ADJOURNMENT Chairman Soucy adjourned the meeting at 6:43 PM. Respectfully Submitted, Chairman Soucy adjourned the meeting at 6:43 PM. Respectfully Submitted, Katie Gargano, City Clerk