Roll Call: Present: Board members Chair Jan Galloway-Leclerc, Vice-Chair David Edkins, Clerk Tom Murray, Tom Winmill. Alternates: Myra Mansouri, Don Sellarole, Shane O’Keefe. Absent: Board member Pauline Barnes and alternate Carolyn Vose.

Minutes: Review of September minutes. Mr. Edkins made one correction. He said Tom Murray was also absent as he was preparing for the Horse Thieves annual dinner. He also asked if the secretary would put the end time of the meeting in the minutes. She said she would.

Call to Order: Ms. Galloway-Leclerc called the meeting to order at 7 pm. She asked alternate Don Sellarole to fill in for the absent board member. He said he would.

Old Business:

Gravel Pit assignments: Inspection forms to be returned – Cold River Materials on Brewery Road, Tim Graves on Wentworth Road and Hodgkins on Old Drewsville Road.

Mr. Sellarole and Mr. Murray returned their Gravel Pit Inspection form for Cold River Materials. Both said there was one small issue. They asked for a small correction where someone had cut into a mountain of shurpak. Mr. Patch said it would be corrected immediately. Otherwise, everything else was in order, both members said. 

The Old Drewsville Road gravel pit, which was thought to be owned by John and Roger Hodgkins, has been sold to Jason Perry. Mr. O’Keefe knows who he is and will get in touch with him so Ms. Galloway-Leclerc and he can inspect the pit some time before the next meeting. The reports are due in October. Mr. Edkins and Ms. Mansouri will inspect the Graves pit on Wentworth Road.

Mark Stevens, Watkins Hill Road, removal of parents home

I checked back at the previous minutes of 2019 and 2020, which I will attach in a separate email.,They are the minutes of the meetings that Mr. Stevens came to in regard to the Watkins Hill property. It all began In May 2019 when Mr. Stevens came to the meeting and said he was building a house on his parents property and wondered what the requirements were. He wanted to live in the vacant house where his parents had lived while he was building a home on the property. There is actually no ordinance pertaining to this type of situation. However, since the buildings are in the rural/agricultural district there is an ordinance saying under Uses Permitted that says: “One single or one two-family dwelling per lot, with private garages and accessory buildings.” He was given a one-year time limit to build his home without demolishing the his parents’ building and living in the vacant home on the property. He was told he did not need a variance. If he were unable to complete the new home in one year, Mr. Stevens must come back to ZBA.

A quick review of previous minutes shows Mr. Stevens has been back to a ZBA meeting in September 2020, January 2021 and July 2021. Initially, during Covid, his contractor came down with Covid – more than once – and he had a supply chain issue with building materials. At another meeting he said he had tried getting several people to demolish the 200-year house down, but no one was interested. 

Some members who were on the Board when this was taking place thought it was time to get the Select Board involved. The Chair will send a letter to the Select Board explaining the situation and hoping they can help the ZBA sort this out and tell the board what is the next step.

Revisiting Airbnbs

Mr. Sellarole said that a couple years ago the board talked about Airbnbs. Recently he heard of house that was sold solely for the purpose of renting it out for short terms. He was wondering if the board wanted to revisit the topic.

Reaction was mixed. Some board members said they didn’t think it was an issue at this time. There doesn’t seem to be any problem by renters making too much noise or bothering neighbors. Others, such as the Chair, remember Town Counsel advising the Board to do something before it becomes a problem. Mr. O’Keefe, who works for a town in Vermont said that town is having an issue with short-term rentals and it had affected housing availability. That’s already a problem in many towns. Mr. Murray remembered that at the time of the board’s last discussion of the topic, there were only eight (8) such places. 

It was decided that the secretary would put together the information that was gathered at that time when it was last discussed in 2020 and would send the most pertinent information to the current board so that they can look it over and see if they want to pursue the possibility of an ordinance.

Adjournment

Mr. Edkins made a motion to adjourn. Mr. Murray seconded the motion and the motion carried. The time was 7:37 pm.

These minutes are unapproved and will be reviewed next month for corrections, omissions and additions.

Respectfully submitted,

Marilou Blaine

ZBA Secretary