Planning Board
Wednesday, April 10, 2024
Meeting Minutes
The Planning Board held a regularly scheduled meeting on Wednesday, April 10, 2024 at Town Hall, 705 Chesham Road.
The meeting opened at 7:00 pm.
Members present: Courtney Cox Co-Chair, Ryan Stone Co-Chair, Kathy Scott Select Board Representative, Peter Thayer, Jonathan Miner, Don Scott, and Lisa Anderson.
Attendees: Sherry Sims, Winston Sims, Jeff Grosner, Rebecca DeFusco, Marcus Poisson, Jon Buschbaum, Erin Hammerstedt, Barbara Watkins, Paul Clark, Ned Hulbert, Mary Day Mordecai, Earl Horn
Agenda and voting members – Mr. Stone noted the voting members for the evening included himself, Courtney Cox, Pete Thayer, Lisa Anderson and Kathy Scott. Members approved the agenda with the addition of a discussion on housing with Paul Clark, to follow Transportation.
Minutes of previous meeting – Members voted to approve the minutes of 3/13. Kathy Scott did not vote due to absence.
Conceptual Consultation, Minor Subdivision, Marcus Poisson, 62 Sunfish Lane (Map 20 – Lot 2) – Jon Buschbaum of Envirespect Land Services, agent for Marcus Poisson of Sunfish Lane, discussed with the board a preliminary plan for a minor subdivision of Mr. Poisson’s 32.9-acre parcel into two lots. Access to the new lot would be from Sunfish Lane, an existing private road off Cherry Hill, which currently serves three dwellings. Mr. Buschbaum noted there exists adequate frontage for two lots and the proposed new lot offers the best potential and soils for a potential dwelling and septic. Mr. Poisson’s goal is to use the existing drive and boundary lines and preserve the existing landscape. The original lot acreage would be reduced to just over 24 acres and the new lot would contain 8.84 acres.
The board reviewed with Mr. Buschbaum the subdivision application and plat submission requirements, and an overview of the process. Mr. Buschbaum hopes to submit the required paperwork at the board’s next meeting.
Master Plan ReView Steering Committee – The subcommittees continue work on “status updates” of Master Plan section topics. The updates include the status of progress toward goals laid out in the 2014 Master Plan. The board discussed how best to include links to these reports in the Master Plan synopsis. Lisa Anderson will send samples of the status updates as they currently exist to PB members. The Steering Committee is aiming for June 12 to have the links embedded in the synopsis.
Ordinance Review – Members discussed re-sharing the ordinance topics under consideration for next year for the Ordinance Review Committee. Ryan Stone will work with Jon Miner to get this out. The updated ordinances are available on the town website and in hard copy in the office.
Transportation Committee – Mary Day Mordecai reviewed with the PB the committee’s focus on Complete Streets upon the committee’s inception in 2016 and its work since then with the Southwest Region Planning Commission, the NH DOT and the Select Board to advise on projects and secure grant money of over $25,000. She noted the TC is now in a membership and project transition period, still focused on the goal of safety and accessibility on roads in town. The TC is recruiting prospective members for future work and Ms. Mordecai is drafting a history of the committee’s work, organizing files and notes and organizing Complete Streets training with SWRPC, likely in May and into the summer. She and Ned Hulbert will be rolling off. Julie Pakradooni and Russ Cobb are joining ongoing members Earl Horn, Erin Hammerstedt, Police Chief Steve LaMears and PB member Don Scott.
Noting that the TC has been designated a subcommittee of the PB, Ms. Mordecai highlighted the work that the committee has done with the Select Board over the years, adding that much of the TC’s work ultimately requires SB approval. Given this, the TC believes it makes more sense to move from underneath the PB to being a committee under the SB, while continuing to maintain a connection to the PB through a couple of meetings each year.
During discussion, Mr. Stone asked the TC how other towns are structured and if the TC would explore this. Ms. Mordecai offered to do so. Kathy Scott stated she would consult with NHMA to get its input.
Housing Conference – Resident Paul Clark, who attended the 2024 Homeownership Conference in Concord on March 26 with the support of the PB, shared highlights of the program, including local, regional and statewide statistics on existing housing, the affordable housing shortage and projected housing needs. Highlights from the SWRPC housing Assessment show that Harrisville’s population has declined by 8.5% in the past 20 years. The region’s biggest population losses are among 14-21-year-olds and 35-45 year olds.
Mr. Clark also shared data on the rising costs of housing and housing construction and some of the potential solutions discussed, including more accessory dwelling units (ADUs) and smaller homes. He emphasized that the recommended approach to the housing problems is bottom up, through building community-wide interest in the problems and building teams to collaborate to find solutions rather than a top-down approach that starts with implementing solutions. Ideas for doing so include showing films and holding talks to generate community interest and buy-in, ideas the PB could help organize. Modifying town ordinances to accommodate more housing units is another avenue.
PB members echoed the serious concerns and welcomed a meeting with JB Mack of SWRPC for information and advice. Ned Hulbert suggested the PB possibly appoint interested people to explore the issues and get the conversation going, perhaps developing a community land trust as a solution.
Following a lengthy discussion, Mr. Stone suggested deferring the remaining agenda topics to the May 8meeting. All agreed. An additional topic for next month will be discussion of role of alternate members vs. full members.
The meeting adjourned at 9:30 pm.