Planning Commission

10/28/2021 - Minutes I. Call to Order Members Present: Mike O’Brien, Chair; Abby Bleything, Vice-Chair; Amy Houghton; Sarah van Ryckevorsel; Tommie Murray; Brendan Sage City Staff Present: Eric Vorwald Guests Present: Kristine Lott, Mayor Call to Order by: Mike O’Brien Meeting Start Time: 6:33 PM Minutes Recorded by: Eric Vorwald II. Changes to the Agenda Eric indicated that he would like to have the Planning Commission add an item after the review of the Form Based Code information to set a new public hearing for consideration of the amendments. All were in agreement. III. Public Comment None IV. Approve Previous Meeting Minutes Decision: 4 – 0 Motion by: Sarah Second: Amy Minutes/Notes: Motion to approve the minutes as presented. V. Review Form Based Code Application Requirements (Part 2) and Definitions (Part 9) Eric provided an overview of the information included in the agenda packet and stated that, since the public hearing was being rescheduled due to a conflict with the Veteran’s Day Holiday, we had additional time to review the draft amendments. Eric highlighted new text that included a requirement for a traffic impact study to be included with application submissions. The Planning Commission discussed the details and made serval recommendations for changes. Following this discussion, the Planning Commission reviewed the changes to the definitions that were made in response to their comments from the October 7 th meeting. The members reviewed this information and confirmed the changes were satisfactory. Following this discussion, Eric asked if the Planning Commission was comfortable rescheduling the public hearing. Brendan made a motion to re warn a public hearing on the proposed amendments to the form based code for Thursday, December 9 th . All were in favor. VI. Introduction to ULUDR Article IV – General Use Regulations  reviewed this information and confirmed the changes were satisfactory. Following this discussion, Eric asked if the Planning Commission was comfortable rescheduling the public hearing. Brendan made a motion to re warn a public hearing on the proposed amendments to the form based code for Thursday, December 9 th . All were in favor. VI. Introduction to ULUDR Article IV – General Use Regulations Eric provided an overview of the text for Article IV and highlighted several items from this section. He stated that these were the general regulations that applied to all the zoning districts, with several exceptions. He highlighted several sections including design review, parking, and signs. He further explained that, Section 4.4 on design review and Section 4.12 on parking included several changes, but were done in the context of the existing zoning regulations. He also added that, the proposed amendments were not intended to establish new policy or preempt policy direction from City Council related to historic resource protection or parking. He indicated that the proposed amendments were primarily in response to items that had previously been identified, and changes within the existing framework of the regulations that have a connection to zoning or land use regulations. The Planning Commission discussed whether or not they should get into these discussions at this point or wait until more information was available. Eric noted that, if the Planning Commission wanted to postpone discussion on the sections related to design review and parking, that would acceptable and further stated that review of the other sections could take place while additional work was being completed to support future discussions on those sections. With that, Mike suggested a start to the discussion but cautioned about getting too far into the changes. All were in agreement. The Planning Commission discussed the first three sections of the proposed amendments and made suggestions related to the draft language. At approximately 7:45 PM, Mike suggested the Planning Commission end discussion and resume at a future meeting. All were in agreement. VII. City Updates Mayor Lott provided an update on the City Manager hiring process and indicated that Wendy Harrison had been appointed as the interim manager and that a professional search firm was being engaged to assist in the hiring process. She also provided an update on the responses from the Air National Guard to questions that were asked following a presentation to City Council. She also referenced the noise monitoring website was now live. Eric added additional information on the website and provided a brief demonstration. Eric also mentioned that he and Abby attended the Northern New England Chapter of the American Planning Association’s Conference in Burlington, and reminded the Commissioners about the Festival of the Pumpkins that was starting over the weekend. VIII. Other Business Eric mentioned that both of the November meeting dates for the Planning Commission fall on holidays this year, so both meetings would be cancelled. IX. Adjourn Motion by: Amy Second: Abby Meeting End Time: 8:03 PM