Minutes of September 2, 2008

Present:

Planning Board: Ginny Brackett, Jay Nutting, George Gould, Sally Butler, Doug Phillips

CEO: Paul Mitnik,

Public: Charles O’Neal, Jim Heckman, Brenda Pinkham, Doug Coull, Marah Pion, Cassie Lee, Mike Farrell

The meeting opened at 7:05 PM. Cassie Lee, who Subdivision was approved in the 8-5-08 Planning Board meeting, presented larger subdivision plans for the three Board members present at the last meeting to sign. Evidently, the Registry of Deeds would not accept the smaller version of the plan signed last month. The plan was signed by George, Doug, and Sally.

Review of August 5 Minutes: George motioned to accept the July 1 Minutes. Sally seconded. All in favor.

Greg OHalloran

Stone Rd Subdivision

Tax Map 9, Lot 31

Greg, who was going to ask for an extension for cleaning up debris from a torn down barn, did not show.

Brenda Pinkham

Shoreland Zoning Webber Pond

Expansion of Non-Conforming Structure

Tax Map 18, Lot 1

The Pinkhams are proposing to add a 10 X 10 deck to the side of their seasonal camp located at 119 Pleasant Point Road. A 4 x 6 portion of this building was removed within a year. The current footprint of the building is 551 square feet, counting the portion removed. The 15 % expansion limitation for non-conforming structures allows up to 82 square feet for the deck. The 24 square feet of building removed will be directly transferred to the deck which allows up to 106 square feet. A 10 X 10 deck utilizes 100 square feet which meets the 106 square foot limitation. Ginny asked about where the steps will be extending and Brenda said off to the side, parallel to the lake. It was noted that even if the removed portion of the building is not included in the allowable expansion calculation, the proposal still meets the criteria. The proposal was approved by motion of George, and seconded by Jay. All in Favor.

Laurah Brown and Jeffrey Ronco who were also on the agenda, did not show.

Coyote Ridge Subdivision

Mike Farrell who has a home on Coyote Ridge Drive asked to speak about problems with the road. He brought a home there last February and was told by the real estate agent that the road would be a paved and accepted as a Town road within a year and Town would take over the plowing of the road in the winter. It doesn’t appear that this will happen and there is no time table on when the paving will be done. Leo Purrington was the original owner of the subdivision and this was transferred to John Peron. Mr. Peron has had financial difficulties and has moved out of state and cannot be contacted. Ron Lavallee is a principal financer of the subdivision. The road was not adequately plowed last winter. Mike wants to sell his property but cannot do so.

Paul explained about issues with the road. Vassalboro’s Road Commissioner, Gene Field inspected the road last spring. The alignment of the road is off 10 to 14 feet and up to six utility poles may have to be moved to proper align the road. The sub base gravel depth is not sufficient in many areas and eight inches of gravel need to be added along the entire length of the road. Paul said that he could not issue any more building permit there until the road is brought up to standards. Unfortunately, the Town does not have a definite day when the paving will occur. A weakness of the Road Construction Ordinance is that the time when various stages of the road construction must be completed is not specified.

Jay asked Mike why he couldn’t sell his property. He has $450,000 invested in the home and right now it would only sell for $300,000, due partially to the road issues. Paul mentioned that the conditions written on the Planning Board approval state that a road association is suppose to be formed. Mike said that the by-laws of the subdivision prevent forming a subdivision until 75% of the lots are sold. Only 11 lots or 55% of the lots have been sold. Ginny mentioned that they should form a road association despite the bylaws. Doug thought that they should get some legal advice concerning this issue.

Ginny mentioned that the real estate agent should never have promised that the road would become a town road. This is decided at Vassalboro’s annual Town Meeting and has to be approved by a majority of the voters there. The real estate agent is Sprague and Curtis and the agent Jim Pepin. Mike mention that the deeded covenants that each homeowner has are not even consistent. Ginny said that deed covenants are not part of a Planning Board approval.

The discussion ended with the recommendation from the Planning Board that Mike and other homeowners pursue this farther at the next Selectmen’s Meeting to be held on September 13.

The meeting adjourned at 8:05 pm.