Wales Planning Board Meeting
October 11, 2005
Minutes
In Attendance: Ed McDonald (Chair); Lori Blier (Secretary);
Alice Dipaolo (Co-Chair); Lyndon Spaulding (WPB); Tom Goudreau (WPB); Ralph
Sanborn (WPB); Horton Austin (Road Commissioner), Paul Burgess (Selectmen), Rueben Wheeler
(Wheeler Surveying); Clarence (Ray) and Trinidad Henry.
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The meeting
was opened at 7:00. Lori distributed the agenda, minutes from
September 13 meeting, revised draft entrance permit and instructions, revised
culvert specifications document, and the draft building permit. The minutes were reviewed by board members
and approved as written.
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The board
and Horton reviewed the culvert specifications and revised entrance permit. Horton indicated that the culvert
specifications were adequate from his perspective. The board also indicated they were ready to
sign off on them. Discussion turned to
the entrance permit. Horton said it
looked good to him and that the amount needing to be completed on the side that
would not be the carbon side of the multi-part form would be ok to have to
complete twice. The board also liked the
revised design. A motion was made and
seconded to adopt the culvert specifications and the revised entrance permit
with no further changes. The board voted
unanimously to adopt the new documents.
Lori will look into printing the documents and verify that there are no
issues with having the back of the carbonless form imprinted. She will get them made up and give the bill
to Paul.
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Horton
gave an update on the Route 126 subdivision road approval. He has been to inspect the road and has
approved it in accordance with the vote at town meeting to accept the road when
it met with his (as road commissioner) approval. Paul has drafted a letter and sent it to the developer
advising that the road has been approved and is now considered a town road and
maintenance of the road(s) will be assumed by the town.
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The board
discussed the draft building permit Lori mocked up since last meeting. Paul provided the board with the permit the
current part-time CEO, Ken Pratt, would like to use. The board did not like the permit Mr. Pratt
would like to use due to its lack of information. It had less information than our current
building permit application. The board
reviewed the draft Lori created by combining the components of the Greene
permit and our existing permit. Everyone
agreed that it seemed to provide all the information we were looking for. A motion was made and seconded to adopt it as
our new permit and approved it with a unanimous vote. There was discussion on whether we should
have an instruction sheet like Greene’s permit.
There seemed to be some consensus that it would be a good idea. Lori will pull one together based on Greene’s
and add the fee information as well.
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Mr. Reuben
Wheeler was recognized to present his business with the board. He indicated he was here on behalf of his
clients Charles and Linda Hinkley who live on the Oak Hill Road (he is a professional surveyor). His clients have deeded over the back lot of
their property to their son (??), approximately 9 acres, they propose to
construct a common driveway and he has some questions regarding our road and
land use ordinance. He had questions
regarding the frontage requirements which the CEO had indicated would be
covered in part by the common driveway (the current frontage on Oak Hill Road is 237 not the required 250) – the board
verified it was. He also verified the 10
foot radius requirement and indicated their plan would meet that. His concern was with the 10% maximum grade
required for the common driveway in our road ordinance. Due to the existing grade of the land in
question and its composition, much of it on ledge, it would be difficult to
attain the 10% grade. He pointed out
that the maximum grade for the minor and private roads was 12% and wondered at
the 10% requirement for the common driveway.
The board indicated that it was not one of the items that sparked
discussion during the drafting of the ordinance. The board also indicated that it could give a
variance or a waiver for that requirement and questioned whether Mr. Wheeler
thought he could meet the 12% maximum grade.
He indicated he felt that could be attained and that, according to our
ordinance, he felt what was required would be a waiver. The board indicated it would be willing to
grant the waiver based on the current information and discussion. When asked when the work for this would
actually commence, he indicated he believed it wouldn’t be until spring
sometime. He asked whether he could be
put on the agenda for our next meeting and what other forms he needed to
complete. Lori gave him one of the new
entrance permit forms and indicated he would need two completed copies as well
as copies of the proposed common driveway plan (the smaller section focused on
the driveway on the plot plan he brought to this meeting). Lori indicated she could have a waiver letter
prepared for that meeting. Mr. Wheeler
indicated that it could be mailed at a later time. Mr. Wheeler will be added to the agenda for
our November 15 meeting (third Tuesday of the month due to Election Day being
on our normal meeting date).
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Clarence
(Ray) Henry and his wife Trinidad were recognized to present their business
with the board. Mr. Henry indicated he was
here because he had a problem. He
obtained a variance for his property to have a second dwelling. This was obtained in 1988 to accommodate an
apartment above his garage for his ailing mother and his mother in law. Over the past year, his mother has died. He would like to rent the apartment but has
since looked at his variance and has found that he is prohibited from doing
so. According to the variance he must
revert the property back to a single dwelling status. The board reviewed the copy of the variance
Mr. Henry had brought with him and concluded that he was reading it
correctly. The board also indicated that,
since it was a variance granted by the Board of Appeals, the Board of Appeals
would have to be board which amended the variance or granted a new variance for
the parcel. Also to be noted is the fact
that the wrong Map and Lot Numbers are indicated on the
document. Mr. Henry was required to put
in a separate septic pumping system and leach field to accommodate the
additional apartment and in the process also upgraded his own system. The apartment is an efficiency apartment
above his garage. It is the board’s
opinion that he should be allowed to retain the second residential unit status
and be allowed to rent the space. There
was discussion regarding the lack of apartments to rent in the town and the how
it seemed to be a shame to just let a space like that sit vacant based on a
decision made 17+ years ago. A motion
was made and seconded to recommend the repeal of the requirement to revert the
property back to single dwelling status and to allow rental of that second
dwelling. Ed will contact Bill Austin,
the chair of the Appeals Board to advise him they will need to schedule a
meeting. Lori will draft a letter with
our recommendation regarding the variance and send it along with Mr. Henry’s
information and a copy of the variance by the end of next week.
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Paul was
asked for information on the new CEO. He
is part time for right now – Ken Pratt.
He also does Minot and Wayne.
They are still looking for someone to fill the job on a permanent
basis. Ken is just hired until we can
hire someone permanent. Right now they
only have one applicant. There was some
discussion on ways to try to fill the position.
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Alice
will try to find the information on the International Residential Code and International Building Code on which the state laws are based. She has not found them anywhere on line
except in places you have to pay for them.
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The
meeting was adjourned at 8:30 p.m.
Next meeting will be held November 15, 2005.
Respectfully
submitted,
Lori Blier, Secretary
Related
documents: Culvert Specifications
Document; Entrance Permit; Building Permit
