Planning Board

Laconia Planning Board Minutes June 3, 2014 Approved July 1, 2014 Present: W. Hutchins, Chairman; W. Contardo, Vice Chair; J. Mailloux, Secretary; D. Richards, G. Denio, L. Guild, J. Tivnan, C. Smith, D. Vachon, B. Baer, H. McLean, D. Bownes Absent: Staff: S. Saunders, B. Loughlin I. Call to Order W. Hutchins called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm. II. Presentations III. Extensions 1. Appl#PL2014-0031SP amendment, 72 Landing Ln MBL 441-510-14, Laconia Millworks is requesting an extension for plan revisions and final plans. a. Plan Revision: May 5, 2014, new request: July 1, 2014 b. Mylar, Final Plans: June 3, 2014, new request: July 1, 2014 c. Site Improvement Security: June 3, 2014 – complete d. Completion: April 7, 2015 S. Saunders told the board she and the applicant met and the dumpster placement is still in the works. She handed out a letter from an abutter regarding some issues. S. Saunders noted that Staff recommends the extension requests. Motion: L. Guild made the motion to approve the extension for Plan revisions and final plans for July 1, 2014 and D. Richards seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. IV. Continued Public Hearings 1. Appl# PL2011-0082SP amendment 193 Endicott St North Map/Lot 156-252-13 Cumberland Farms Proposal to remove the vacuum sensor system from the fuel dispensing system, system will still be monitored with a liquid sensor system (This item will be continued to the July 1 PB meeting) S. Saunders said at the last meeting there was a date certain set and since then the applicant asked to meet. At the meeting the situation was explained and questions arose from the meeting. There were several items the city and applicant needed to pull together. The City asked for the proposal to be reworded to be clear, and also to check in with DES regarding the inspections. There were also some questions for the third party reviewer. S. Saunders noted that the application should be back before the Planning Board in July with a full package. D. Bownes was concerned about the issue regarding safety in terms of the testing and false alarms and potential contamination. S. Saunders said she reached out to DES before the meeting with Cumberland Farms and no leaks that have been found since the last alarm submitted to DES in 1  Laconia Planning Board Minutes June 3, 2014 Approved July 1, 2014 2011. There is a third party, Gafteck that is hired by the applicant, which alerts DES when the alarms go off due to any importance. D. Bownes thought one concern was that they couldn’t tell if the alarm was false or not and S. Saunders thinks it was more false alarms. W. Contardo thinks the question on what the alarm was indicating never got answered. S. Saunders said the system that is requested to be taken out is a tertiary alarm system. The state only requires a secondary system. D. Bownes’ take on the presentation was the current system is the best system and he wants it to work. He wanted to know if there is contamination now and how it will affect the long term. W. Contardo agreed. S. Saunders said the key is that the State said the site is in compliance and has been. J. Mailloux said they need to find out if the alarms are still going out. D. Richards was at the meeting with the applicant and Staff and believes the concern is about the tertiary alarm. He believes they are at the point of considering the alarm system to be replaced and wells installed so the city can monitor the leaks, for additional safety measures. S. Saunders agreed and said the applicant brought graphics for a better understand and that will be brought to the board for the next meeting. S. Saunders recommended continuance of the application. Motion: W. Contardo made the motion to continue the application to and G. Denio seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. V. Public Hearings 1. Appl#PL2014-0079SU 18, 30, & 38 Long Bay Dr MBL 230-330-3, 230-330-3.1, 230-330-2 Proposal to adjust the boundary lines to make 3 lots into 2 lots (Application Acceptance & Decision) B. Loughlin told the Board the application was complete and ready for hearing. Action: W. Contardo made the motion to accept the application as complete and open the public hearing. D. Richards seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Applicant: Dean Clark of DMC Surveyors was present to represent the applicants. He mentioned that Joe Paletta bought the 3 lots and merged them. A few years ago the lots were subdivided and is looking to merge the middle lot into the surrounding lots. Parcel A will be combined with 38 Long Bay Drive and parcel B will be combined with 18 Long Bay Drive. The only condition was from the Water Dept to have the water service to the lot that is being eliminated be terminated at the water main. W. Hutchins asked if the Home Owner Association needed to approve the application and was told that it wasn’t needed before. Staff Review: B. Loughlin read the staff review. Staff recommends approval of the boundary line adjustment. She noted that the water comments were forgotten in the conditions so under section 3 she would like to add ‘b’: The water service to the lot being eliminated needs to be terminated at the water main. D. Clark noted the water line is about 2 ft off the pavement. Abutters: none 2  Laconia Planning Board Minutes June 3, 2014 Approved July 1, 2014 Public: none W. Hutchins closed the public hearing. J. Tivnan added that he believes the boundary line adjustment is right thing to do. Motion: W. Contardo made the motion to approve the application with the dates and conditions from the staff review as well as the additional condition 3 b and D. Richards seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. 2. Appl#PL2014-0085CUP 41 Morrill Street MBL 410-164-36 DPW proposal for a buffer encroachment for the Morrill Street drainage improvement project (Application Acceptance & Decision) Applicant: L. Powell from the Dept of Public Works gave a presentation. He showed the Morrill Street stormwater improvements plan. The location is between Gilford Ave and Gilman Street. The slides were from the watershed management plan. The area to be worked on is a flat section of the road and the grade is less than 1%. They are adding 12 leaching catch basins and 1 man drain hole. The catch basins have a series of holes about a foot apart to enable storm flows of less intensity to leak out. The first flush is about a 1 inch event. Once the flow starts to increase, the water will drain through the pipe above the sump and into the rest of the system. They are trying to decrease the velocity into the brook to help with the erosion. There will be hoods inside the catch basins too keep floatables and oils from going into the brook. There have been conflicts with the utilities. They have tried a lot of different kinds of treatment and this was the best. From the street to the brook there is a drop in elevation. Easements are formalized now that may not have been in the past. S. Saunders read the staff review: The application is a simple CUP for the buffer encroachments. No plan changes will be needed. The conditions are standard. Staff recommends approval. Abutter: none Pubic: none W. Hutchins closed the public hearing. Action: W. Contardo made a motion to accept the application as complete and D. Richards seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. Motion: W. Contardo made the motion to approve the CUP with the dates and conditions from the staff review. D. Richards seconded the motion. C. Smith asked about the future of the drainage and L. Powell said the infrastructure is aged and undersized now. They are getting funds to start upgrading but there is a lot of work to do. Paugus Bay has many discharges without treatment. L. Powell said this project is starting Monday and paving in a couple of 3  Laconia Planning Board Minutes June 3, 2014 Approved July 1, 2014 weeks. The project should take a week for the drainage and then in another week for the paving. C. Smith asked if there is anything the Planning Board could do to help and L. Powell said funding is a big key and they need consulting help. He would like to see a geomorphic assessment done with Langley Brook and Cove to see what could be done. The motion passed unanimously. 3. Amendment to Site Plan Regulations, section 6.6, Architecture W. Hutchins noted that this is not an ordinance addition but an addition to the regulations, so it will not go to Council. Changes can be made with Staff to help with development in the city. S. Saunders introduced the consultants for the architecture addition, Roger Hawk, Eric Paulson from SMP, and Jeff Hyland from Ironwood. Staff has been working on this for several years. In the existing site plan regulations it says the architecture has to be compatible with the surrounding buildings and the problem is that is not what the intention is. For example, when Walgreens went in, the design was not what the City wanted. The applicant worked with Staff to come up with a design that worked with both. McDonalds was the one to hit this off. There were several meetings with the applicant for architecture designs and the surrounding buildings were flat top boxes. The current regulations have no detail for the applicant upfront. In 2012 Laconia received a planning grant from NH Housing and took funding to design the regulations, looking to go from a box to aesthetically pleasing and inviting. There was a story telling booth in the library for people to go and talk about their story. There were stories from the Weirs, Lakeport, and the Downtown area. There was a meeting between high school students and the Taylor community to share each stories of the area. In all the research what was found was that the young wants community character. There was a family write night of what they liked about the area. There was lots of input on uses but not on architecture. The online survey helped to get information for the regulation. S. Saunders will bring those results to the next Planning Board meeting. There would be a minimum score on what elements to meet. She turned the presentation over to R. Hawk. R. Hawk gave his presentation. The idea was to give the developer the flexibility to design the project. For a plan that is not cookie cutter. Some design categories: architecture, streetscape, parking, parking screening and street landscaping. The challenge is how to integrate the additions. The Colonial Theater was a winner on the survey of iconic buildings. Something to look at is how the parking edges are treated for screening. The project scoring should be used as a guide and at least a 50 point minimum. He is hoping that in the next few years there will be changes. This gets away from what is next door. Points run from -5 to +5. The scale and the height of the building needs to fit what is next door. Infill was looked at where opportunities would occur. Jeff Hyland spoke to this. Potential pedestrian crossings were looked at and where buildings and pocket parks could be. They tried to create connections between private development and municipality. S. Saunders noted that nothing in the slides are being proposed it was just an exercise to see what could be done. Development along the riverfront was also looked at for balance. Buildings next to the road with parking behind was also looked at. E. Paulson talked about the Weirs. Street frontage is important on both streets in that area. W. Hutchins said the water slide has been torn down and the burnt Wide Open building is now up for sale, so there is 4  Laconia Planning Board Minutes June 3, 2014 Approved July 1, 2014 future potential. R. Hawk said the Rte 3 stretch is his most feared because it is zoned commercial. The design standards will help with creativity of the sites. S. Saunders said the design guidelines are broken up into 3 sections. The 50 points minimum began from a chart of what was most wanted from the citizens. Lighting is important, so that has a higher score. Staff didn’t want to set the bar too high to be developer friendly. There is a caveat set by the Planning Board as well, to avoid a developer just throwing things in for points. D. Richards asked what happens if a developer didn’t want to meet any and S. Saunders said it would be a waiver, similar to sidewalks, and lighting, etc. S. Saunders included the ability to refer the Board to the architecture design committee. This addition has had public hearings and this was noticed and sent to the people that Staff works with, and a copy went to Legal Counsel. Public: Robert Sawyer is a business owner and property owner in Laconia. His concern was cost. He is concerned that it will be a learning tool and he would rather it be a guiding tool. He would like to see the additional cost. S. Saunders noted that this would apply to only Planning Board, sites with larger scale projects. W. Hutchins said developers usually have done a great deal of work prior to submitting applications and it would more developer friendly to have what we are looking for in writing. It should cut down on the back and forth. R. Sawyer is in support to make things better; he is just concerned that it might be overly restricted or overly expensive. D. Richards said there was an application recently where the developer wanted to build and the abutters didn’t like what was proposed. A meeting was held where the architectural subcommittee sat down and made suggestions and the developer came back to the abutters and resolved the issue. S. Saunders said this is upfront for the developer and gives the Board no more power than it already has. The regulations apply to additions or buildings over 2500 sq ft. That is anything that goes to the Minor Site Plan or Planning Board. R. Sawyer is surprised that not many people were present and W. Hutchins said it had been through a lot of meetings. W. Hutchins closed the public hearing. C. Smith would like to know how they came up with the results. S. Saunders said they looked at McDonalds and as is, that project came in at 50 points. They scored high with architecture but with site layout and parking the score wasn’t so high. D. Bownes was concerned about the point system. A lot is subject to the judgments of the Staff and then judgments of the Planning Board. He is also concerned that it will be the first in the state. D. Richards said those are valid points but only one way to come to a conclusion: to rate it according to the opinion which is numbers. W. Contardo agreed as long as the points don’t drive the design. That needs to be clear. S. Saunders said architecture is a subjective item and one that has to be dealt with. Staff is trying to make it as user friendly as possible. It will also be clear for staff. W. Contardo asked if it could it be reviewed annually to make sure it’s going well and S. Saunders agreed. D. Richards added that there might be points and architecture to add. E. Paulson thinks of it like a preflight checklist. Also it might be a reminder of things that weren’t thought of. 5  Laconia Planning Board Minutes June 3, 2014 Approved July 1, 2014 Motion: J. Mailloux made the motion to adopt the architectural addition as drafted to the site plan regulations and L. Guild seconded. D. Bownes wonder if there is a way to monitor the process like what is working and what isn’t working. He would like to find these things out before the meeting and J. Mailloux assumes it would be at the TRC meetings. S. Saunders thinks it fair for the Board to ask how it is working also. W. Contardo would like to know how the addition will be perceived by the developer and D. Richards suggested S. Saunders add it into the report in the meetings. The motion passed unanimously. Public hearings ended at 8:35 pm. VI. Application Acceptance 1. Appl#PL2014-0078SP 1092 Union Ave MBL 327-220-1 Proposal for site improvements and construction of new building S. Saunders told the Board the application was complete and passed out a mailing from the Historical Resources Bureau. B. Loughlin noted that the project will require a permit at the Federal level. Any projects require section 106 of the Natural Preservation Act. If the Feds decide the site needs further requirements, the applicant just has to show all alternatives. If the alternatives fail then the building can be demolished. The applicant can respond in any time frame. The State Historic Preservation Office has 30 days to respond to the applicant’s response. D. Bownes asked if this delays the applicant and S. Saunders didn’t know. There might be a delay and this project wouldn’t be subject to the new regulations. D. Bownes asked if it was wise to accept the application with this new info and S. Saunders said our application is completion and the new information is from the State. For the City to delay the application would be an undue burden to the developer. B. Loughlin said part of the process is for local input and gives the board the time to act on it. S. Saunders said this application still needs to go through another TRC and the acceptance is really asking if the board has enough information to discuss, which it does. Motion: W. Contardo made the motion to accept the application and scheduled the public hearing for July 1. J. Tivnan seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. VII. New Business 1. Officer Election Nominations D. Richards asked W. Hutchins if he wanted to continue as chair and W. Hutchins said yes. There were no other nominations. D. Richards asked if W. Contardo if he wanted to continue as Vice Chair and he agreed. There were no other nominations. J. Mailloux was asked if he wanted to continue as Secretary and agreed. There were no other nominations. D. Richards moved to nominate the members and all voted in favor. W. Hutchins said all input from the Board are valuable. 2. Appl# 06-010 SU, 06-007, Map/Lot 478-20-1 & 2, Lilac Valley, off Old Prescott Hill, City Staff requests amending the Notice of Action for the third party bridge construction 6  Laconia Planning Board Minutes June 3, 2014 Approved July 1, 2014 S. Saunders wanted in the record that there have been two amendments for the third party review on the bridge construction. The site is located off 107 and 106. The original estimate was $2100 for the first review and an additional $1600 was needed for a second review. Per the RSA the Planning Board needs to approve the values. The review is nearing an end and should be closed out ready to begin construction. S. Saunders said it didn’t need a vote. D. Bownes left. VIII. Old Business None IX. Reports A. Planning Department Report: S. Saunders noted the first Master Plan Advisory meeting with Orton was May 20 and there was a second meeting for communications training May 28. She has materials for the board from the communications training if they were interested. Lot of talk was dealing with proposal ideas and communication with difficult people and framing ideas. She noted that D. Vachon resigned from his position. He was a City Manager appointee. Bike Week starts the week of Father’s Day this year and Council approved beer tents and vendors Thursday and Friday, June 12. With the shift there was fear that the first weekend would be seen as the busy weekend. S. Saunders said Site Plan wise there will be no beer tent where Heat was. There was an article in the paper on the Lakes Region Facility. There is back and forth between the Senate and the House about the future of the site. Some want the site to stay in the state hands and some want it sold. As of now the site can be sold to a private entity. They are working on something so that January 1, the agreement can sunset and remain in state hands. C. Smith asked if the City purchased the site could Staff or the Board be able to design something and S. Saunders said the design for the site is pretty much done. The City did put in a bid but there is lots of cleanup work needed and more money to be put into it. She noted that in the packets is a letter from the ConCom regarding Langley Cove open space. The applicant is still working with the Water Dept on the final plans. The ConCom wants language for the protection of the open space. They wrote the letter to the board of their concerns. Instead of waiting for it to get to the Board they wanted it done beforehand. D. Richards was a part of an association and in home owners associations if there are people not doing what they are supposed to, the people won’t stop it. The city needs to be able to have some authority to correct a situation. As soon as Brady Sullivan lets go, he feels, there will be trouble. X. Liaison Reports A. Lakes Region Planning Commission: W. Hutchins said the focus is the annual meeting on June 16. They are full speed ahead on the Lakes Region regional plan. It is a 600 page document. There is an executive summary and a part two of that also. This is being funded by the Federal Government. W. Hutchins had a lot of input in that document and thinks it will help support Laconia’s Master Plan process. B. Conservation Commission: W. Contardo said there is a lecture on Jewett Brook Thursday June 5 from 6-8 pm on the geomorphic study that was done. C. City Council: D. Bownes left early. 7  Laconia Planning Board Minutes June 3, 2014 Approved July 1, 2014 D. Richards gave a brief update on the community park. The small amphitheater, bathrooms and the pavilion for picnic are 90% finished. The buildings are made of heavy timber, with post and beam construction. Staining and interior paint still needs to be done and some work on the stage. The trails and roads still need to be cleared and signed. The only thing not complete is the playground which is coming from a grant that they are still waiting for approval. It may be as late as September for the ribbon cutting. XI. Other Business None XII. Minutes Approval of the minutes from April 1 and May 6. There were no minutes to approve. XIII. Adjournment Motion: G. Denio made the motion to adjourn and W. Contardo seconded the motion. The meeting adjourned at 9:11 pm. Respectfully, K. Graham` 8