Walpole Planning Board

Walpole Town Hall

November 11, 2014 Minutes

Presiding: Jeffrey Miller (Chair), Robert Miller (Vice-Chair), James Aldrich, (Secretary), Jason Perron, Kelley Hicks, Chas Street (Selectboard Representative).

Alternates: Ed Potter and Jeff White.

Absent: Dennis Marcom, Member.

Recording: Marilou Blaine. These minutes are unapproved and will be reviewed at the December 9, 2014, meeting for corrections, additions and/or omissions.

Meeting Opened: Mr. J. Miller, Chair, called the meeting to order at 7 p.m.

Roll Call: One board members was absent so Mr. Miller asked Alternate Jeff White to sit in his place.

Minutes: Mr. Street made a motion to accept the minutes as written. The motion was seconded and the board approved the motion.

Old business: Public Hearing No. 1; Liberty Utilities Site Plan Review – Liberty Utilities is scheduling routine maintenance and hazard tree removal as part of its routine vegetation management program along Farnum Road. This is a designated Scenic Road in Walpole.

Mr. Jeffrey Carney has worked with Granite State Electric, National Grid and now is with Liberty Utilities. He has 30-plus years experience working in rural and urban forestry. He’s a licensed forester and a member of the NH Forestry Council.

Mr. Carney said he needs approval from the planning board and the homeowners on the Scenic Road to start work. He has met with three of the five customers on the road and they have agreed to what he and his crew plan to do. The other homeowners will be contacted. The proposal is to take down weak limbs and trees and prune vegetation where needed, a safety mandate from the state.

The board approved of the routine maintenance. The secretary will send Mr. Carney a letter.

Public Hearing No. 2: Revision to Walpole Zoning Board Drinking Water ordinance – The Walpole Drinking Water Protection Committee has drafted recommended changes to the Wellhead Protection overlay District Ordinance.

Committee Chairman Jennifer Palmiotto explained the changes to the current ordinance to the board at last month’s meeting. She was given a copy of the Planning Board Workshop minutes held on October 28 where two changes to the revised draft were made. One was to fill in the dates on Pages 4 and the other was to change the word on page 14 from considerable to considered. Ms. Palmiotto said she could do this.

A motion was made to accept the Water Protection Ordinance as amended; it was seconded and was approved by the board.

Ms. Mansouri, chair of the Walpole Zoning Board, thanked Ms. Palmiotto for all the hard work she and the committee did and hoped it would pass. Later she mentioned a new law about making sure property owners are notified when considering changes to zoning districts.

Mr. R. Miller, who was on the committee, said it was an interesting exercise and there was a lot of detail that went into it. The group spend hours and hours going over language and words, he said, and did its best to make sure the language was as accurate and concise as possible, he said.

New Business: Requested a Lot Line Adjustment at 37 North River Road. The property is listed under Albert Fontaine Revocable Living Trust. Town Tax Map 18, Lots 12 and 12-1 Zoned Residential B. A conforming lot in Residential B zoning is 25,000 square feet.

Mr. Matthew Drew said the Lot Line Adjustment would add 4,631 square feet to Lot 12-1 from Lot 12 on Tax Map 18 in the Residential B Zoning District. Mr. Fontaine is on Lot 12 and Allen and Tiffany Parkert are on 12-1.

Since Mr. J. Miller is an abutter, he asked the board if he should recuse himself. Board members said the project is pretty straightforward and minor so they didn’t think it was necessary.

The board voted to grant Mr. Drew his request for a Public Hearing in December.

No. 2 Request for a Site Plan Review: Office of Dennis Pellegrino into a two-bedroom apartment at 40 Main Street in the Commercial District.

John Bowman, representing Millpond Builders, showed plans of a two-bedroom apartment on the first floor of where the dentist office of Dr. Dennis Pellegrino had been.

Mr. J. Miller asked about the second floor. Ms. Westover said the second floor currently is an apartment. Mr. J. Miller said the question is if the Pellegrinos are making an apartment from an office where there is already an apartment. Do we need to go through a Site Plan Review? he asked.

Mr. Miller cited the Site Plan Review Regulations, Page 3 Revision 1 –  Activities Not Subject to Site Plan Review.

Mr. J. Miller said it is already a multi-family residential building and the use or level of activity doesn’t change, in fact, it may even decrease, since it is no longer a commercial operation.

Mr. Miller asked the board members how they wanted to handle it. Mr. Aldrich said it was an apartment building before Dr. Pellegrino bought it. So Mr. Miller said it’s going back to a previous use and seems fine within the confines of the neighborhood.

Another board member pointed out that there is no change in the footprint. The board determined there was no need for a Site Plan Review. A motion was made by Mr. Aldrich and seconded by Mr. R. Miller and the board agreed..

Request for a Public Hearing No. 3: Mr. Steven W. Brode Subdivision – one lot into two lots, Town Tax Map No. 7, Lot No. 22, Rural Agricultural Zone. Ms. Westover was here last month for the same subdivision but state regulations say that slope and soil must be considered when defining  a lot. The lots will now change from 1.95 to 1.78  and 1.0 to 1.17 acres respectively.

Cindy Westover, representing Mr. Brode, was back before the board to change the acreage on the subdivision of two lots on Town Tax Map No. 7, Lot No. 22 by .17 acres. She explained that even though the town of Walpole had a requirement of 1 acres and 200 feet of frontage to be a building lot, that is not how the state views it. The state has a formula for creating a lot under five acres using soil and slope.

The state requires two approvals for a one-acre lot – a septic approval and a slope/soils approval. So in this case, the state said if this is to become a building lot you need more acreage because of the slope. Ms. Westover said  the abutter and the seller worked it our so that instead of transferring 1 acre, the acreage is now 1.17 acres.

Mr. J. Miller pointed out that this would only happen with lots under 5 acres, because that’s when a subdivision needs both state and town approval.

Ms. Westover was granted a request by the board for a Public Hearing next month.

Monthly Workshop Session: Since the fourth Tuesday in November is just a couple of days before Thanksgiving, there will be no workshop this month.

Mr. Aldrich made a motion to adjourn at 7:30 p.m., Ms. Hicks seconded the motion and the motion passed.

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone

Respectfully submitted,

Marilou Blaine