Vassalboro Planning Board
Minutes of April 7, 2009

Present:
Planning Board: Virginia Bracket, George Gould, Gary Coull, Jay Nutting, Sally Butler
CEO: Paul Mitnik,
Public: Edward and Joanne Marcoux, David Jenney, Jim Hart, Mary Grow

The meeting opened at 7:00 PM.

Review of February 3 Minutes: George motioned to accept the February 3 Minutes. Sally seconded. All in favor.

Edward and Joanne Marcoux
Major Site Review, Preliminary Meeting
Shoreland Zoning / General Development District
Tax Map 23, Lot 85-1

The Marcoux’s attended the meeting to obtain information on their plans to redevelop the former site of the Bean Factory. Their immediate plans for the site are a flea market which would be primarily outdoors. Edward questioned the need for a major permit for Site Review which appeared to pertain to larger land developments. Ginny explained that the size of the building is over 5000 square feet and this makes it a major development. Ginny explained that many items within the Site Review permit would not pertain to this project, but they still had to go through permitting. The Board needed to address such items as parking, and access to the property and the other items in the performance criteria.

Edward asked about the need for a Shoreland Zoning permit and Ginny explained that the location of their property within 250 feet of the Outlet Stream and the change of use of the property makes this permit necessary.

Paul asked Joanne about their other plans for the property including the possible use as a storage facility for personal property. Joanne said that was on hold due to the bad economic climate and that they wanted to start with just the flea market. Ginny recommended that they put the storage as a use on the application, even if they didn’t plan to do it right away; since if it was left off the application, they would have to come back to the Board in the future.

George questioned about the safety of the chimney on the property and Edward said he didn’t know but would be willing to take it down if necessary.

Shoreland Zoning Ordinance Public Hearing

The public hearing for revisions made to the Town’s Shoreland Zoning Ordinance was next. Ginny opened the floor for public comment. Only one person, Jim Hart of the Kennebec Water District, commented. Jim stated that he supports the changes that the Board is proposing to the Shoreland Zoning Ordinance and believes that the changes will be of great value to the Town.

Ginny explained that the stricter provisions of the Town Ordinance as compared to the State Guidelines are being maintained. These include the zoning as a Limited Residential District rather than a Stream Protection District for streams and using 15% as the allowable expansion of a non-conforming structure rather than 30%. The Limited Residential District extends the zone to 250 feet compared to 75 feet of the Stream Protection District and the structure setbacks are 100 feet compared to 75 feet, respectively. Jim concurred that a 75 foot setback is too close.

Jim talked about low impact development and how this is being used to reduce phosphorus inputs into lakes and other waterbodies. Jim said that the services of Kennebec Valley Council of Governments are available to assist towns with the evaluation of low impact developments.

There was no other public comment and the hearing closed at 7:40.

Subdivision Application Process

Paul presented some new application forms that he proposed to be used for future subdivision applicants. The presented applications were revisions to ones presented in the February Planning Board Meeting. At that meeting the Board asked Paul to combine the new application forms and the check off list for application completeness.

Paul explained that the new applications were organized so that all the items to be included on the Subdivision Plan were grouped in one location and the other required supporting information grouped in another location. This required information in the Ordinance is not organized this way, but Paul believes that this will be quicker and easier for both the applicant and the Board when checking completeness of the application.

Paul indicated that inputs were added asking about forest liquidation harvests and mobile home parks to check consistency with state laws applicable to this. Also included is a sign-off by the applicant verifying that all the information is accurate. A major change in the new forms as compared to the existing forms is the requirement for the applicant to provide written information to address the Performance Standards. This will rightfully put the burden of proof on the applicant as required by the Ordinance.

Paul indicated that the new application requirements in the technical and financial capability of the performance standards (Section H) will enable the Board to better judge how capable an applicant is and information will be provided to determine whether there can be potential compliance issues with an applicant.

Paul discussed that performance guarantees were added to the application including information on the cost of subdivision improvements and application requirements for the guarantee. Paul believed that the new application should result in less compliance issues in subdivisions in the future.

The new applications were adopted by the Board by motion of George and seconded by Jay. All in favor.

The meeting adjourned at 8:00 PM.