Planning Board

CITY OF LACONIA PLANNING BOARD Tuesday, December 6, 2016 - 6:30 PM City Hall - Conference Room 200A Minutes Accepted January 10, 2017 I. Call to Order Acting Chair W. Contardo called the meeting to order at 6:30 pm. K. Graham called the roll with the following members present: Charlie St. Clair, Michael Limanni, Michael DellaVecchia, Jay Tivnan, Gail Denio, Edwin Bones, Hamilton McLean, and Acting Chair William Contardo. Absent: Jerry Mailloux, David Bownes C. St. Clair and M. Limanni were assigned as voting members in J. Mailloux and W. Hutchin's absence. Acting Chair W. Contardo stated there were seven (7) voting members present and a quorum was established. Staff: Interim Planning Director Brandee Loughlin Recording this meeting: Kalena Graham II. Presentations III. Extensions IV. Continued Public Hearings V. Public Hearings VI. Application Acceptance VII. New Business 1. Nominations for officers Acting Chair W. Contardo introduced G. Denio as the nominating committee. He stated that G. Denio had reviewed who was eligible to be an officer. G. Denio stated that due to the changes in 1 the Planning Board, it is required to hold election for the Chair and Vice Chair. The nominees, so far are: Chair - W. Contardo and Vice Chair - Edwin Bones. She asked if anyone else would like to be nominated. There were no other nominations. Both nominees had agreed. E. Bones said that he would fill in for Vice Chair to finish off the term but that it would not be permanent. There was a question of eligibility by members of the board and it was stated that only certain limited amount of members are eligible. Acting Chair W. Contardo said E. Bones, M. DellaVecchia and J. Tivnan are eligible. Interim Planning Director Loughlin noted that the seat for Chair will be to fill the unfinished term of Warren Hutchins who resigned, then re-elect in June. If W. Contardo is elected chair, then his Vice Chair seat will need to be filled until June. There was confusion and discussion on eligibility of seats. C. St. Clair feels anyone eligible should be asked and if interested and let the board decide as a whole instead of having one person give nominations. H. McLean asked what the official policy was and G. Denio responded by asking those eligible if they would like to be considered. The motion to have W. Contardo to fill the Chair position until June, made by J Tivnan and Charlie St. Clair second. The motion passed unanimously 7-0. The motion to have Edwin Bones to fill the Vice Chair position until June, made by W. Contardo and Mike DellaVecchia second. The motion passed unanimously 7-0. E. Bones asked about positions that need to be filled and Interim Planning Director Loughlin noted that any applications would go the City Manager’s office and encouraged anyone to apply. 2. Capital Improvement Program – Presentation of CIP recommendations to the Planning Board Acting Chair W. Contardo introduced the Vice Chair of the CIP Committee, Mike Foote. M. Foote presented the CIP findings. He explained the process and noted that this is a volunteer group that decides what's important in the level of importance of the items submitted by each department. The final determination comes from City Council, which can be altered. The items are graded by safety, public need, and community value. The budget doesn't necessarily get looked at but the value of the request. The rankings are individually independent and pulled together as a group. H. McLean stated that when he was on the CIP committee, he noticed the cost was not assigned for entities that benefit from certain assets. Like the schools use of the fields but the cost going to the Parks Dept. M. Limanni thinks the tax cap may have something to do with that to make it not possible. M. Foote stated that usually the top 12 items get approved. C. St. Clair suggested some items get moved up on the list like the north section of the boardwalk on the boulevard at the Weirs because it is in need of repair. He is surprised that is ranked so low. Also the traffic lights should be moved up the list. There was discussion about the Messer Street Bridge which was just worked on and doesn't need to be high on the list. The traffic lights is only for the study for the plan. M. Limanni would be interested to see how long the items have been on the list perhaps next year it can be noted. 2  The motion to recommend the CIP as is to Council made by Charlie St. Clair and M. Limanni seconded. The motion passed unanimously 7-0. VIII. Old Business IX. Reports 3. Planning Dept Report: B. Loughlin Interim Planning Director Loughlin gave the update on the master plan. She walked through the summary of the timeline of the current Master Plan process to date. Laconia’s most recent Master Plan was adopted in 2007. State regulations require a community to revisit its Master Plan every 5 to 10 years. As such, Laconia should adopt a new/updated Master Plan in 2017. Staff begin the Master Plan rewrite process in 2014. The intended chapters include: • Vision Statement • Land Use • Economic Development • Natural Resources • Transportation • Housing • Community Services & Facilities • Historic & Cultural Resources. The Vision Statement and Land-Use chapters are the only chapters required by the RSA. The other chapters have been added by the City. There is also an Energy chapter that was recently adopted. She went over the timeline where the process is currently. It is not 100% comprehensive and for the sake of brevity does not include all MPAT or other meetings. After reading the time line she realized that the memo was missing the Natural Resources chapter information. She mentioned that chapter was drafted as part of a grant by Lakes Region Planning Commission and the Audubon Society in 2015. Where we stand today: > Vision Statement – draft form, the intent is to use the Values statement as our Vision Statement > Land Use – in VERY rough, skeletal form > Economic Development – in draft form, written by Community Opportunity Group > Natural Resources – in draft form, written by LRPC in conjunction with the Audubon Society Transportation – in draft form, written by LRPC > Housing – not yet begun Community Services & Facilities – not yet begun Historic & Cultural Resources – not yet begun Current Recommendations to Planning Board for completing the remaining Master Plan chapters: • Reform Master Plan Advisory Team, with Planning Board members and other City Leaders playing active roles. • Decide on desired content and scope of remaining chapters. • Review budget and decide on method of completion of remaining chapters. 3 Interim Planning Director Loughlin stated that she would like the board to start the discussion on how to move forward with the final chapters and reviewing the drafts. Her recommendations are: reform the Master Plan Advisory Team (MPAT), as some are no longer participating and there might be some that would like to join. Once that is done the team or the Planning Board needs to decide on the desired scope and content with the remaining chapters. Lastly, the budget needs to be reviewed and a method of completion needs to be decided on with the remaining chapters. She recommended meeting every other week at minimum once the team is formed. Thoughts from the board: Acting Chair W. Contardo thanked Interim Planning Director Loughlin and asked if M. Foote had any additions. M. Foote is on the Advisory team and as a Conservation member there are lists that they can look at to see if the decisions are going in the right direction. Also, people can look at the Master Plan to see if they want to move here and be economically safe. Acting Chair W. Contardo suggested taking comments and ask Interim Planning Director Loughlin to ask Counselor Bownes, as the liaison, if he would bring the memo to the Council, along with what is available for consumption on the chapters to get Council feedback. There was discussion on the scope of work per the contract with LRPC that was not executed. Interim Planning Director stated that she is asking for the Board to consider tasking the MPAT with figuring out a strategy to move forward and come up with a scope or if the wish is to look at the scope that LRPC did and use that. Acting Chair W. Contardo suggested that a path for comprehensive feedback would be to move the information forward with a response needed by Council. M. Limanni suggested not bringing this to Council yet and instead have a meeting prior and really detail and outline the scope and what the possible cost would be due to the fact that funding is being withheld. Acting Chair W. Contardo disagreed and would like the process moved forward. There was discussion on the importance of the Master Plan and Council. H. McLean would like to get the chapters that remain to be written and the plans on how to get them done, as well as the fact that the scope is being worked on, to the Council and see what they think. M. Limanni agrees with H. McLean. M. Limanni stated that he would volunteer for the master plan advisory team. Interim Planning Director Loughlin will send out the language of the memo with permission to add the Natural Recourses chapter, prior to giving the memo to Council. Interim Planning Director Loughlin addressed the fact that the Zoning Task Force (ZTF) has been unable to meet, so there is no update. She is hoping to get a meeting set up in the next few weeks. That way there can be a recommendation and presentation to the Planning Board by January regarding the accessory dwelling units and the use chart changes in the CR zone. Acting Chair W. Contardo thanked the Board for their presence at the work session. He asked if a member of the Board would look over the accessory dwelling units and compare between the State's recommendations and what the City has proposed so far. E. Bones agreed to look over the City draft and the new State RSA on Accessory dwellings and compare them. 4  Interim Planning Director Loughlin continued with her report by addressing the City of Laconia Planning Board Rules and Procedures document. The procedures language is form 1998 and are currently outdated. In the spring, Staff started working on the revisions. She is requesting a subcommittee of members to work with her and start the revisions or if the Board wants to meet as a whole and do a few work sessions until completely revised. There was discussion on how to revise the procedures. H. McLean brought up the fact that G. Denio and he were both eligible to be Vice Chair. There was discussion regarding the official policy that G. Denio will look into. H. McLean requested that the nominations for Chair and Vice Chair be postponed until the Board can see what the rule says and Acting Chair W. Contardo doesn’t think it be a good idea based on previous elections and nothing had changed. He suggested it be checked out by anyone that has a question. Conclusion: The Board wants to see the changes that have been done by Staff so far on the procedures and feedback from the Board will be given through email. X. Liaison Reports 4. Lakes Region Planning Commission: There was nothing to report for LRPC from H. McLean. 5. Conservation Commission: Interim Planning Director Loughlin mentioned the Conservation is gearing up for mill-foil. E. Bones asked who cleans up the rivers and Interim Planning Director Loughlin said the City doesn't do direct cleanup, but there are volunteers that do every so often. 6. City Council: D. Bownes was absent. XI. Other Business XII. Minutes 7. Acceptance of minutes from November 1 Motion to approve the minutes from Nov 1 and Nov 22 work session made by E. Bones and M. Limanni seconded. The motion passed unanimously 7-0. XIII. Adjournment The motion to adjourn the meeting was made by E. Bones, and G. Denio seconded. The motion passed unanimously 7-0. 8:15 pm. Respectfully, K. Graham 5