Absent: Elizabeth Dudley, Eric Botterman (Town Council ex officio), Adam Schroadter (Alternate)
Called to order: 7:03 p.m.
Agenda Item #1 Pledge of Allegiance
Agenda Item #2 Public Comments
None.
Agenda Item #3 Review & ApproVice Chairman of Minutes: 05/17/11
Peter Roy corrected the date of the minutes from May 18 to 17.
Action
Motion: Janice Rosa made a motion to accept the minutes of 05/17/11 as amended
Second: Justin Normand
Vote: All in favor
Agenda Item #4 Regular Business
Consideration of application for Alternate member:
Frederick “Rick” McMenimen
Action
Motion: Peter Roy made a motion to accept Mr. McMenimen’s application to become an Alternate to the Board for the term to expire in May 2014
Second: Janice Rosa
Vote: All in favor
Workshop: Review draft Chapter 6 amendment of Master Plan – Economic Development
A subcommittee made up of Planning Board members and members of the business community worked on the revision of this chapter. Chairman Badger stated this draft is the result of a lot of work, especially from Diane Hardy, Town Planner, who has done a majority of the work on this. Chairman Badger stated he appreciated her hard effort on it.
Chairman Badger asked for input from the Board. The purpose tonight is to deal with issues and corrections anyone might have and schedule a public hearing for July. A formal presentation will be made to the Town Council, although the document is approved by the Planning Board.
Peter Roy stated, on page 5, there was a hyphen in the word “increased” and, on page 57, 2004’s activity should say “The Pines” rather than “The Pine”.
Vice Chairman Shelton stated she has read the entire document and gotten through about half of it, from an editorial perspective. She had one general comment. One item that would be good to add and comment on, within the Master Plan, is why the Black Bear TIF was developed.
There was a plan for access to get into the Black Bear TIF area. Diane Hardy stated there was a public information piece that was put out at the time both TIF districts were created and she has a copy of that. The funding for setting up Black Bear TIF was to provide a bond for the access over the Weiner property and over the railroad tracks. Diane Hardy stated she would be happy to work with Vice Chairman Shelton and include that information.
Janice Rosa mentioned a recent Zoning Board of Adjustment application. She stated if we want to encourage economic growth in our community, the zoning should be changed beforehand, so we welcome developers to come with those new concepts. A lot of other cities and towns have mixed use of residential and business. That is the only way a lot of businesses can make it today, just as was done with the mills for that to work with the downtown area. Diane Hardy stated there is a general recommendation within the chapter regarding the Planning Board reviewing all commercial and industrial zoning districts to make sure they still make sense. There may be a need to make some changes to bring them up to more contemporary standards and make sure there are no hidden obstacles for development. Chairman Badger stated the Planning Board should do a thorough review of the land use and zoning. He stated he knew of the application that went before the ZBA Janice Rosa was referring to and it was unfortunate it happened that way.
Vice Chairman Shelton suggested meeting with NCDC, whose charter is about their responsibility for growth and prosperity. Their mission is about community and economic development. She suggested the Planning Board could let them know they were looking for assistance with a consultant or some sort of more in depth analysis of what type of economic development residents wanted to see and where. The Planning Board could look at that to figure out how to modify zoning relating to a specific area to accommodate that. The prior work of the NCDC with their development of the mills is important to incorporate into this updated chapter.
Diane Hardy stated UNH Cooperative Extension has an individual who specializes in community facilitation and they might be interested in taking on Newmarket as a project. There is also Plan New Hampshire and they do design charettes, usually on a more specific property. There may be some grant assistance for it.
Chairman Badger stated he did not think the conceptual layout of the proposed shopping center on North Main Street, on page 22, was the most current, as the fitness center was not on it. Diane Hardy stated the developer submitted two plans, the first one submitted had the fitness center and the next day he sent the second and said he would prefer we use the second for the presentation to the Board. She did not know his reasoning for it. Vice Chairman Shelton asked why this was included in the Master Plan chapter. It would seem to her the Master Plan is about what the goals and objectives are. She stated if we add the information about what the needs of the community are and one of those is a grocery store, it’s up to the Planning Board or consultant to figure out where to make this happen. Diane Hardy stated grocery stores have been in the Master Plan for the last twenty years and this would show what is going on in Newmarket. A developer might see it and see that Newmarket is in a progressive mode and the prospects for future economic development are positive. It was couched in terms of recent economic activity. Vice Chairman Shelton stated it may need to be under a whole second section. She understands where Diane Hardy is coming from. She felt it needed to be separated out. Diane Hardy suggested moving it to “Challenges and Opportunities”.
Peter Roy stated maybe we do not need to include a site plan. If this is a ten year lasting document, he did not know if they were going to actually see the grocery store that was proposed. Diane Hardy stated they could mention the town is getting a grocery store and state how things are moving forward.
Vice Chairman Shelton stated she thought it was great to include the list of businesses.
Rick McMenimen was acknowledged and allowed to speak. He asked if this document was being incorporated into the Master Plan or if it was a stand-alone document to hand out to prospective developers. Chairman Badger stated it was going into the Master Plan, but could also be given out to interested parties. Rick McMenimen stated it would be interesting to see the number of residents who are retired or over 65, working class, and students. Chairman Badger stated the statistics in the document are old data and 2010 Census data may not be available for another year.
Rick McMenimen stated, on page 18, the airport at Pease is mentioned. He did not think there was any flying out of Pease anymore commercially. He stated, on page 19, the tax rates are shown for Newmarket and surrounding towns. Exeter and Stratham should be included. Dover, Durham, and Portsmouth should also be on there. He mentioned some minor corrections in the document.
Peter Roy stated on pages 13 & 15, there were formatting issues. On page 18, in the middle, he wondered if they could pull out the number for multi-family. Diane Hardy stated the data came from a report filed with the Division of Revenue Administration. The classification is the way they categorize the data. To try to pull that out would be a major undertaking. Peter Roy stated there should be something to say the statistics for multi-family cannot be easily compiled.
Vice Chairman Shelton questioned the definition being used for multi-family. She asked if this included condos and duplexes. She asked if Bryant Rock and Moody Point were under single family. Diane Hardy stated she would have to look at the source data. She is taking this information from what is filed with the DRA. Peter Roy stated maybe all that was needed was to have a definition in there. Chairman Badger stated all that was needed was to just qualify what was there. Diane Hardy stated she would get some definitions to include.
Gerry O’Connell stated he supported what has been done so far. He was on the Economic Development Committee. He stated we still need to follow through and look at our zoning, as far as areas and setbacks. He wanted to thank all of the members who helped with this.
Janice Rosa suggested putting a slide on Channel 13 asking people if they would like their business to be included on the list of businesses, so we are not accused of leaving people off.
Chairman Badger stated the idea is that Diane Hardy will take these comments and anything that is emailed to her in the very near future, give her some time to update for the July 12 meeting and we will have a public hearing on it.
Agenda Item #5 New/Old Business
Vice Chairman Shelton stated, regarding the Marc Jacobs report on the Solon Realty Wadleigh Falls property, the Conservation Commission discussed that at their last meeting. She received a notice from one of the members, as she was not able to be present at that meeting, and she reported the notice to Dan Vincent and Diane Hardy. There were several items within the Marc Jacobs report they took exception to and wanted follow-up action on.
Agenda Item #6 Adjourn
Action
Motion: Janice Rosa made a motion to adjourn at 7:43 p.m.
