Planning Commission Minutes
The official copy of these minutes can be obtained at Wallingford Town Hall.
Planning
Commission Minutes Index
Home
August 13, 2007
Present:
William Brooks; William Scranton; Robert Soule; John West; Melissa
Whitmore
Guests: Linda
& Dean Mooney, Anne Miller, Herbert Yengel, Barbara Taraska, Betty Ann &
Don Lockhart, Gregory MacLeod, Ann Tiplady, Dennis Smith, Sandi Switzer, Karen
Lamay, Jill & George Burkett, Robin Best, Tom Phillips, Charlotte Johnstone,
David Whitmore
Acting Chair Bob Soule
opened the meeting at
1.
Elect Chairperson
Missy Whitmore nominated
Bill Scranton to be the Chair of the Planning Commission. John West seconded the
nomination. Motion carried 5-0.
2.
Review and approval of meeting minutes of
Bob Soule moved and Missy
Whitmore seconded approval of the minutes for
3.
SITE PLAN REVIEW:
Linda Mooney explained that
they would like to erect a fence out of boards at the western edge of their lot
behind the parking area. This would ensure privacy for their patients and also
the abutting property owner, Charlie Woods. When fill was brought in to create
the parking area, it left a drop of about three feet to ground level where the
fence will be raised. The fence will have to be seven or eight feet in height
from ground level in order to provide about five feet of coverage at the parking
lot level. The applicants have worked with Mr. Woods and he is in agreement with
this application.
Missy Whitmore moved and Bob
Soule seconded approving the site plan. Motion carried 5-0.
4.
RECONVENE - SITE PLAN REVIEW: Dennis
Smith – Permit #07-23 – 2251 Route 7 South – use front of north building
(Route 7 South property) for office
Missy Whitmore moved and Bob
Soule seconded denial of the application because the use Mr. Smith is proposing
is not a permitted use in the ARR zoning district according to Article 4 Section
2 of the current Zoning regulation. Kevin Brown had to get a conditional use
ruling from the Board of Zoning Adjustment to have his business there but it has
not been used as such for over two years. According to Article 3 of the Zoning
Regulation, a non-conforming use has to go back to the BZA if there is a change
in that use or if it is abandoned for one year or more.
Mr. Smith spoke about Jill
Burkett’s snack bar business that operated for a time on the Kevin Brown
property and also on the Burkett property. He feels like he is not being treated
the same as other applicants. Ms. Burkett stated her views. After some
discussion the motion was voted on and carried 3-2 with Bill Brooks and John
West voting no and Bob Soule, Bill Scranton and Missy Whitmore voting yes.
5.
Tom Phillips – talk about the gravel pit / reclamation project on Waldo
Lane
Tom Phillips made a
presentation to explain what he sees as the options for the property if the Act
250 permit is denied. He said that there has been a gravel pit at the site for
50+ years and there have been plans for a walking bridge for about 30 years. An
engineer has estimated that to reclaim the current pit, about 100,000 cubic
yards of fill would have to be drawn in at a cost of about $500,000. A second
option would be to push the hill down into the pit to perform the reclamation at
a cost of about $200,000. These costs would be borne by the Town. The third
option would be to build three homes on his property and the pit would remain
mostly unchanged.
Mr. Phillips said that the
engineers have looked at the bridge and concluded that it could handle the
proposed truck traffic even though it does need some repairs. About 350,000
cubic yards are proposed to be extracted to create the two over one slope from
the base level of the current pit floor up toward Route 140. There would remain
about 50 feet of hillside and trees between the top of the new slope and Route
140. There could then be ballfields put in and an ampitheater with seating
carved out of the hillside. He is asking for Planning Commission support of the
project.
Bill Scranton said that the
Planning Commission is taking a neutral stance on the project. The project
has BZA approval for extraction and Interim Zoning in place to allow for the
crushing and screening. Many of the guests at the meeting spoke about various
concerns including: noise associated with crushing and the trucks; some sort of
written guarantee be provided so that the ballfields and ampitheater would be
constructed at the end of the project; the 1999 airport extraction that was done
and the reclamation required afterwards that was not done; concerns about the
bridge.
Mr. Phillips stated he
really doesn’t want to spend any more money fighting for this. He will go
through with the appeal process of the Act 250 ruling and then decide what to do
after that. His goal was to provide some good recreational space for the Town
and just break even on the project.
Barbara Taraska advocated
pushing the hill into the pit and developing his three acres for housing. Greg
MacLeod stated that sometimes business deals do not go as well as hoped for and
that he would feel better about it if there were a contract to ensure that the
reclamation would take place even if Mr. Phillips passed away unexpectedly.
Dennis Smith said that he remembered back in 1984 when was working for John
MacLeod that Mr. MacLeod told him that any amount of gravel could be removed as
long as it was considered fill. Mr. Phillips agreed that if not for the Town’s
involvement in the project and the old Act 250 proceeding, he could, on his own,
extract as fill.
Anne Miller said that she
thought things had been handled poorly from the start by the Selectboard and the
applicant. The process should have been more open to the public from the start.
Ann Tiplady asked if there were any conceptual drawings of how things would look
at the end of the project. Bill Scranton showed an engineering map that seemed
to show contour lines but was rather incomprehensible to a layman’s eye.
Charlotte Johnstone advocated taking down the hill without doing extraction.
Dennis Smith asked if the steep bank is on Tom’s property and Mr. Phillips
said that it is. Mr. Smith said that Tom should get a return on his investment.
Missy Whitmore recused herself from the PC to say that there are ways to
stabilize the steep bank that are not as expensive as some of the other
proposals being entertained and that there are grants available for reclamation.
Bill Scranton said that he remembered a couple of years ago that Dr. Upton, who
was on the Conservation Commission at the time, stood up at town meeting and
asked the Selectboard to budget $5000 to do something about the reclamation.
Bill said he thought only $500 has been spent over each of the last two years.
6.
Recommendations for new Planning Commission members
Missy Whitmore suggested
that we ask the Selectboard to consider re-appointing Rick Smith and Jay Kenlan
to the terms they held expiring in 2008 and Rob Barker to the term expiring in
2009. She said that the level of experience they have in matters of Planning and
Zoning really makes them the best candidates for the openings and she hopes that
the Selectboard might reconsider them.
Larry Miller has said that
he would like to serve and we all feel that it would be very good to have him on
the board. Bob Soule said that Jay White is interested and we agree that he
would also be a good addition. Ann Tiplady, who was a guest at the meeting, said
that she is very interested as well. She has a background in animal science and
environmental studies and she and her husband live on
There were other people that
members of the PC spoke with individually and who expressed interest in serving
on the board, just not at this time. We felt that any of these people would be a
good addition to the Planning Commission. They are: Kate Fredette; Jill Burkett;
Hans Huessy; Charlie McLafferty; John McTaggart; Tom Phillips.
7.
Old Business
We discussed some of the
items that need to be added into the new Zoning regs like the survey definition
and mention of the Otter Creek Multiple Resource Area. Missy said she has all
the information that we had agreed on at previous meetings and would incorporate
it into the document.
8. Adjourn:
Bob Soule moved and John
West seconded to adjourn at
Next
Meeting:
September 10th at
By:
_________________________
William
H. Brooks, III
Secretary
and Zoning Administrator