Present: Chair Jeff Miller, Vice-Chair Dennis Marcom, Clerk Jason Perron, Select Board Representative Steve Dalessio, Jeff Harrington, Joanna Andros, Trevor MacLachlan.
Discussion: Lot size in rural/agricultural district.
This discussion was prompted by Cliff Peters who lives on County Road. He was an abutter at a public hearing on a subdivision and after the meeting Mr. Peters wrote the Planning Board a letter. Mr. Peters was invited to speak at the meeting but declined because he wasn’t feeling well.
Rural/agricultural district zoning in Walpole requires the following:
Land Standards
1. Lot Area. The lot area in the Rural/Agricultural District shall not be less than 40,000 square feet for each dwelling unit and every lot shall have a minimum frontage of 200 feet.
2. Yard Requirements. No building or other structure shall be erected closer than sixty-five (65) feet to the center line of the abutting right-of-way nor closer than twenty feet (20) to any side or rear property line.
After discussing possible lot sizes, the Planning Board will have a meeting in December or January to discuss the topic with property owners in this district to get their input, ideas and opinions.
The meeting adjourned at 8 pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Marilou Blaine
WPB Secretary
cc: WPB, ZBA, Town Officials, The Walpolean.
Posted: Inside the Town Hall, on the bulletin board outside the Post Office.
The Walpolean 
This is tricky and complicated:
2. Yard Requirements. … nor closer than twenty feet (20) to any side or rear property line.
On the one hand, none of us want a giant (tall and thin or low and wide or high and wide), ugly (open to interpretation), sun blocking structure adjacent to our homes.
On the other hand, an acre has a surrounding linear feet of 835 feet. 835 feet times 20 feet would come out to 16,700 sq ft of land that we can’t use for anything while at the same time we pay taxes on it!!!
So we can’t put up a fence within 20′ of the property line? Could it be 20′ high?
A very tricky and complex problem that needs reasonable and knowledgeable people from both sides to work on and figure out.
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