Minutes—16 August 2006.
Present: M. Mansouri,
J. Galloway-Leclerc, L. Carignan (alt) B. Webb (alt), L. LaClair (alt), L.Weber
NOTE: THE FOLLOWING MINUTES WILL
BE REVIEWED ON 20 SEPTEMBER, 2006.
The meeting was called to order at 7:30 PM. Mr. LaClair and Mr. Webb were appointed as
voting members.
New Business: Resignation
of Mr. Vose. Ms. Mansouri, Acting
Chair, read a letter of resignation from Mr. Vose. A letter will be written to Mr. Vose
expressing the Boards deep appreciation for Mr. Vose’s years of service. Mr. Britton arrived at this point in the
discussion. Ms. Mansouri raised the
issue of whether we want to appoint a new member to fill out the Board until
the next election. Ms. Weber read RSA
673:12 regarding vacancies. Mr. Webb said that we have three active alternates
at this time, and he does not think we need to appoint a regular member. Ms. Galloway-Leclerc moved that we continue
until the next town meeting with the members we have, and that a new member be
elected at Town Meeting to fill out the remainder of Mr. Vose’s term. Mr. Britton seconded the motion. Ms. Weber said that by the language of the
statute, only the four remaining elected members should participate in the
vote. All voted in favor.
Walpole Village
School Temporary Banner Sign. No action
taken, as no one was present to represent the school.
Mr. Fitzpatrick,
Annexation of land-locked Walpole parcel to
existing parcel located in the Town of Alstead. Virginia Fitzpatrick of Lawrence Associates
called regarding the creation of a lot in Walpole
with no road frontage to be annexed to a parcel in Alstead. In a subsequent phone call she advised the
Secretary that her client was not yet ready to proceed.
Richard and Tammy
Lafayette, Map 5, Lot 20, County Road—Variance Application. Mr. Webb is to continue as a voting
member. The Lafayettes have submitted an application for
the installation of a 28 foot by 56 foot three-bedroom mobile home on the site
of the existing mobile home. The new
home will result in an incursion into the setback requirement, either from the
back line of the property or from the front line. Fred Poisson presented the proposal for the Lafayettes. Two different mobile homes occupied the site
before the Lafayettes
purchased it in 1996. The existing home was
installed in 1995. In May of 2004, Mr.
Lafayette obtained a building permit for the installation of the currently
proposed 28 x 56 home. At the time it
was thought that the setback requirements were not an issue. In 2005, it became apparent that there was a
dispute with Mr. and Mrs. Mack, abutters, over the location of the back
boundary of the property and the ownership of a well used by the Lafayettes. The Macks notified the Selectmen of the
dispute, and the selectmen issued a stop work order for the installation of the
new home. Instead of waiting for the
courts to resolve the boundary issue, the Lafayettes
want to get a variance from the setback requirements based on a new survey that
Mr. Lawrence did for the Macks. A new
artesian well is in place, but is not yet in use. Two options were presented: the option the Lafayettes prefer is to locate the home on
the partially finished foundation already installed, which would mean the
building is 17.5 feet of the back boundary.
The second alternative is to locate the building 20 feet from the back
line, but a diatance of 62.5 feet of the center line of the highway. This site is less attractive to the Lafayettes because it
would require redoing foundation work already put in place while Mr. Lafayette thought
he had a valid building permit.
In
response to a question by Mr. LaClair, Mr. Poisson said the new home would be a
single story, and the distance from the old well, now outside the boundary
line, to the new boundary line is less than 10 feet. The old boundary passed
right through the old well. Mr. Britton
asked the size of
the existing mobile home.
It is 14 feet by 70 feet, and is shown by a dotted line on one of the
maps. Mr. Webb asked about the leach
field. It is a state approved field
installed in 1996-1997. Mr.
Lafayette
is not yet using the new drilled well next to County Road. It was moved and seconded that we accept the
application and set the matter for public hearing on September 20.
Mr. Poisson asked that the Board
give Mr. Lafayette permission to continue with the work at his own risk in the
time between now and the hearing. Mr.
Webb said this was not a practical approach.
It would be foolhardy to continue until the Board has made a
determination, which it cannot do until we have heard all the information at a
public hearing. Ms. Weber said that the
Board has no authority to relieve Mr. Lafayette from his obligations under an
order issued by the Selectmen. Mr. Poisson asked if the proposal had met all
the rules to obtain a variance. Ms. Weber stated that the rules are contained
in the Zoning Ordinance. This proposal
does not comply with the rules contained in the Zoning Ordinance, and the
purpose of having a hearing is to show why the rules should be set aside in
this case.
Scott Surles, Wentworth Road
Catalogue Sales Business. Mr. Surles
reported that financing to move his catalogue sales business to a different
location had fallen through. He is
proposing to run the catalogue sales out of his home and barn. Because of the lack of financing, he has
scaled back his plans for the business.
He is proposing to sell on-line through a web site and by catalogue and
telephone. He will have no retail sales from
the property and no customers will come to his home. He will run the business with himself and one
other employee initially and will not rule out adding a second employee if
necessary. He will not, in the future,
repair snow machines on the property.
Mr. Webb asked what the Zoning District was, and was told it is
Residential A. Mr. Surles said the
Ordinance specifically allows him to have a barbershop in his home, with two
employees, and he argued that the catalogue business would be far less
intrusion in terms of traffic.
Ms. Weber asked how often inventory would be
delivered. Mr. Surles said that the
majority of their business will be drop shipped from other locations and will
never be physically present at the Wentworth
Road location.
Some items were purchased as good deals at trade shows and will be
stored in the barn and shipped UPS. Ms.
Galloway-Leclerc said it sounded like the proposed operation conformed to the
zoning requirements. Mr. Webb said it
seemed reasonable to him, and that the use conformed to the regulations. Mr. Britton made a motion, that the business
as presented was acceptable under Article V, Section B. (3) of the Zoning
Ordinance. Mr. LaClair asked if the
motion should state that the approval was conditional on the representations
made this evening. Mr. Webb said we
always rely on the representations made to the Board, and that if we find that
the representations fall within the ordinance, we are duty bound to allow the
proposed use. Mr. Surles said that the
failure to obtain the full financing has caused a drastic reduction in the
scale of his operation. Ms. Weber said
that the Selectmen can always bring an enforcement action if they find the use
exceeds what we have approved. Mr. Britton
renewed his motion to approve a home based catalogue and web sales operation
with no more than two employees under Article V, Section B. (3). Ms. Galloway-Leclerc seconded and all voted
in favor. Mr. Surles was thanked for
presenting the information and Ms. Mansouri added that if there were any
changes, the Board should be informed.
Freedom of
Information Act Request. Ms. Weber
reported that the attorney for Merriam Farms. Inc. had made a request for
information on the Merriam Farms Inc. property under the Freedom of Information
Act. The request was for information
back to 1974, which required a six hour record search. Ms, Weber was unable to locate the Minute
Book for the period 1973-1977. The
search produced only two pages that may possibly be relevant. Sheldon Sawyer stated that Merriam Road is currently a Class VI
road, impassable, and lying mainly in the timberland district. The exact
Minutes—August 16—Page Three
boundary of the timberland district is difficult to locate,
as it is 1320 feet from County
Road, and by definition follows the curves of County Road. Merriam Farms wanted to bring the road up to
Class V and have the Selectmen take it over.
The Selectmen denied the request without a public hearing. Now Merriam Farms is in court to compel the
Selectmen to hold a public hearing. Mr.
Sawyer says Merriam Farms has violated environmental rules for unpermitted
alterations to culverts, and has been fined by DES. Merriam Farms was unsuccessful in an attempt
to buy a right-of-way through UNH land.
Mr. Britton asked if this kind of development might be more appropriate
in another area of town. Mr. Sawyer
responded that the Selectmen will not allow development in the timberland
district without a vote of the Town. Mr.
Britton pointed out that the property in question has steep slopes, a brook and
other wet spots. Ms. Mansouri said the
ordinance requires a finding of an occasion to put a road in. Mr. Britton said that if a lot has 200 feet
of road frontage, it is possible to build back into the Timberland zone.
Old Business:
Minutes. Mr. LaClair moved the acceptance of the
July 19 minutes and the minutes of the July 26 Special Meeting. Mr. Webb seconded, and all voted in favor.
Gravel Pits. Ms. Mansouri reminded the Board that we
had spoken about a second inspection for the Hodgkins pits and perhaps all the
gravel pits in the fall. A question was
whether we should continue to inspect as two person teams or whether we should
inspect as a group. Ms. Weber said she was just concerned about maintaining
consistency between inspections. The
issue of berms was discussed. Mr.
Britton said for the record he thinks this task should be handed back to the
Planning Board. Mr. LaClair said that
the south Hodgkins pit has some areas that appear to be ready for reclamation,
as it looks like more than five acres have been worked out. Mr. Britton said eventually more businesses
should go into that industrial area. It
was decided that we would give notice of the reinspections, and if concerns
still exist, the teams will report back to the full Board, which will schedule
a further visit. Teams were assigned as
follows:
Mr.
Carignan and Ms. Galloway-Leclerc—Sawyer and Woods
Mr. Britton
and Ms. Mansouri—Cold Rover (2)
Mr.
LaClair and Ms. Weber—Hodgkins (2) and Graves
Meeting adjourned at 8:40. The next meeting will be held on Wednesday, September
20th, 2006.
Respectfully submitted,
Lucy McVitty Weber