MInutes
NEWMARKET PLANNING BOARD MEETING
JUNE 13, 2017
MINUTES
Present: Val Shelton (Vice Chairman), Diane Hardy (Town Planner), Janice Rosa, Rose-Anne Kwaks, Peter Nelson, Jane Ford, Gretchen Kast (Town Council ex officio Alternate)
Absent: Eric Botterman (Chairman), Glen Wilkinson (Alternate), Amy Burns (Town Council ex officio) – all excused
Called to order: 7:00 p.m.
Adjourned: 8:08 p.m.
Val Shelton appointed Gretchen Kast to sit in for Amy Burns.
Agenda Item #1 – Pledge of Allegiance
Agenda Item #2 – Public Comments
None.
Agenda Item #3 – Review & approval of minutes: May 9, 2017
Val Shelton stated, on page 9, line 297, she thought what Gary Levy said was, “It is the skilled nursing they were looking for on the EDC”. He referred to this subject on the prior page. It is the lowest impact traffic. She stated to take out the word “not” that was before “skilled nursing”.
Action
Motion: Rose-Anne Kwaks made a motion to approve the minutes with the amendment
Second: Janice Rosa
Vote: All in favor
Agenda Item #4 – Regular Business
Principal Regional Planner Kyle Pimental and GIS Planner Rachael Mack, from Strafford Regional Planning Commission – Findings from the Groundwater Modeling Report
Kyle Pimental gave an overview of the project. They had distributed copies of the final report, which is now being reviewed by NH DES. He stated, in 2016, the Planning Commission partnered with the Town and submitted an application to the State’s local source water protection program. They built off of a model that UNH had created. It was about the impacts on sea level rise on groundwater and the rise of the groundwater table. Initially, this study was looking at the impacts of road paving on the coast. They tweaked that model and ran it again to look at the impacts on drinking water in Newmarket. The idea was to determine vulnerabilities, like public and private drinking water, septic systems, underground storage tanks, and any contamination or hazardous sites. All of that GIS information was combined and they ran a model.
He stated, in terms of process, they started back in May of 2016 and held their first Planning committee meeting in June. They asked the questions of what the role of the committee was, what was the process going to be like. The model started going under construction that summer. June to October had a lot of time spent on making tweaks to the model and planning which scenarios would be used. In March, 2017, the results of the data were presented to the Planning committee and, in May, they had their final draft report and recommendations and the maps were distributed. This brings them to June and this presentation.
There were three goals they wanted to accomplish as part of this application. The first was to understand how sea level rise may impact groundwater sources. The second was to identify areas in town that might be vulnerable. The third was to provide some recommendations and strategies to help the community become more resilient.
A groundwater flow model was used to predict the impacts of sea level rise on groundwater levels and look at salt water intrusion. There are different levels of thickness and it looked at the interface between fresh and salt water.
He showed the study areas. It was all of Newmarket, parts of Durham, Lee, Newfields and Exeter. They could look at other communities along the coast using this information.
These are all based on emission scenarios. They were put together by the International Panel for Climate Change. One of the two scenarios they used was the A1FI. If no changes are made with energy efficient fossil fuels, green gas emissions will continue to rise by the end of the century. The low scenario takes into consideration that, globally, they reduce their reliance on fossil fuels and make different energy choices.
Given that, there are a number of uncertainties that come into play.
The scenarios that were used were one foot by 20-30, 2.7 feet by 20-60, 5.2 feet by 20-90 and 6.6 feet by 20-100, looking at the worst case scenario from now to the end of the century. He showed what it looked like mapped out.
Rachael Mack stated the first one was looking at the short term scenario vs. the long term. They chose to represent throughout the report the long term worst case scenario. This will cover the greatest extent out of all of the scenarios.
The map she showed indicated the range of groundwater rise predicted. The worst case was 1-7 feet, with the 7 feet occurring on Moody Point to a small extent. That area would experience the most groundwater rise.
They wanted to identify potential hazards that could come up and what other vulnerable infrastructure existed. They identified two potential contamination sites. One was the former Frank Smas property. It is now owned by Nature Conservancy. The second was the Kevin D. Ernest Revocable Trust property. It was identified as supporting vehicle repairs and, based on the extent and scope of the property, they predict low volume impact. The third was the Moody Point sewer pump station. Just being on Moody Point, which is predicted to experience the greatest amount of groundwater rise, infiltration of water based on the depth of the pumping station, made it a potential threat.
She stated, with the DES data, they identified thirty private drinking water wells within that extent of groundwater rise. Some limits of that data are that only about 30% of those have been georeferenced, so they don’t have locations for all private wells. Also, it only goes back to 1984, so wells prior to that are not included. The final piece involved the three public wells at Moody Point.
The other piece of data provided was the salt water intrusion. With that, in her model, she used zero for fresh water and one for salt water. So, it was a relative scale. In that worst case scenario of 6.6’, Moody Point is again predicted to experience the greatest increase in concentration, up to about 16%.
One thing they did not take into account was the current depth of groundwater relative to the surface. The Moody Point wells are more susceptible. The depth of the wells is 47’ to 575’.
Their final analysis was modeling on a previous study in another community that looked at risks to septic systems. Since they hadn’t identified many local potential contamination sources, they thought that was something that may be affected and need to be considered by this report.
They used data from the web browser and at whether each site had the presence of wetlands, floodplains or surface water. They determined a composite score. They did not have current septic tank data available.
If the septic is in a high risk area, but the groundwater is currently 40-70 feet below that point, even 7-8 feet of groundwater rise is not going to have an impact.
The goal of this analysis was to identify areas that would be at greater risk relative to others.
Kyle Pimental stated they met with the Planning committee and threw out some ideas on areas where the Town might want to go for the future.
They looked at adaptation strategies, a timeframe and what additional needs the Town had.
In terms of next steps, this was a pilot project. This has never really been done before. There is a lot more that could be done, but with the timeframe and funding available they were strapped on what they could accomplish. There are a lot of other options for future renditions of this.
Rose-Anne Kwaks asked how many gallons are pumped through the station at Moody Point a day. Bruce Johnson, Moody Point resident and also Water Systems Chairman for the community, stated about 1,000 gallons a day. Rose-Anne Kwaks asked what percentage that has increased over the last five years. Bruce stated five years ago, it was more, because they were running irrigation off of it then. They are a public water source, so they are treated the same as the Town wells. They have to go through the same testing. In 2012, they did a complete chemical test of their wells and they were notified their salt and saline levels were high. It was referred to as all solids in the water. They had risen from 500 on the TBS scale up to 1200. Up until that point, irrigating in the summer, and using 26,000 gallons a day. They stopped doing the irrigation in 2012. Since then they have not done any. A typical day now is about 8,000 maybe a little higher when people are watering plants. In the winter, it is closer to 6,000. Their TBS level has stabilized. They are running now between 1,000 to 1, 200 depending on the time of year and the water use. The average household consumption is about 100 gallons a day, maybe a little less. They have 88 users and are running about 8,000.
Kyle Pimental stated, in terms of what the solids are right now, between 800 and 1,000 milligrams per liter, the EPA says that above 250, you can start to get the salty taste. The last two pieces of this are you can add or remove wells or change the pumping rates.
Investigating the changing shoreline was not taken into consideration. What that means is as sea level rises, it will impact different areas depending on the topography of Newmarket. This project was to give a very general idea of where there are vulnerabilities for the town. The data is available to add to this. Other communities are very interested in this. This was a pretty innovative project and DES was really supportive of this.
Rose-Anne Kwaks stated the water started to taste salty at 250 milligrams per liter. Kyle Pimental stated it was aesthetic. There is nothing harmful at that level.
Bruce Johnson stated, when you get up around 1,000–1,500, the water gets brackish and there might be some taste to it. Above 1,500 it is getting very salty. They monitor their level on a daily basis and it is reported to the community monthly.
Peter Nelson asked if there was a number for maximum buildout of Moody Point. Diane Hardy stated Sean Grieg, Director of Environmental Services, has been working with Wright Pierce and they are working on a buildout for water and sewer.
Kyle Pimental stated they have information about well depths and the TBS. The deeper wells have higher concentration.
After DES reviews this and comments are back from everyone, they will get a PDF to the Board.
Todd Rogers, Moody Point, asked if they did anything with the effects of drought. Kyle Pimental stated it may. For this project, drought was not considered.
Dale Pike, Smith Garrison Road, stated he sat on the technical committee for this. He answered Rose-Anne comment. They may not have modeled different amounts, but showed the effect of rising sea level.
There were no further comments.
Cheney Property Management Corp. – Request for extension of approval for an application for Site Plan & Special Use Permit, at 52, 54, & 56 Exeter Road, Tax Map U4, Lots 12, 13 & 14, M2A Zone. The approval was to remove three existing buildings and construct a two-story 27000 sq. ft. mixed-use building, with commercial on the first floor and residential on the second floor
Diane Hardy stated she has had conversations with Mr. Cheney. They are disappointed the project has not gone forward. Mr. Cheney stated the conservative financing world has meant the project will have some delays. It is a reasonable request. A lot of back breaking work went in by this Board on the site review and proposed zoning changes. She recommended a two year extension. The project has to be complete in two years. He is putting the request in early, because he needs that additional time to pull the financing together to make it happen. This is for vesting purposes. He has two years to do substantial completion and, at that point, he will be exempt from zoning changes that might come along.
Peter Nelson expressed some concerns about the vacant buildings sitting there.
Action
Motion: Rose-Anne Kwaks made a motion to continue the Cheney Property Management Corporation request for extension of approval for an application for a site plan and special use permit at 52, 54, 56 Exeter Road, Tax Map U4, Lots 12, 13, and 14 in the M2A Zone to July 11, 2017
Second: Jane Ford
Vote: All in favor
There will be a continuation of a public hearing to amend Chapter 32 Zoning and Appendix A Subdivisions of the Municipal Code of the Town of Newmarket, New Hampshire, in accordance with RSA 675:2, RSA 675:6, and RSA 675:7. The purposes of these amendments are to: (1) make modifications to Sec 32- Special Use permits to allow “assisted living and memory care unit”; (2) add a new Article V. Section 162 Assisted living overlay district as an overlay district over a portion of the existing B-1 and B-2 zoning off New Road.
Val Shelton stated they just received a letter from Town Counsel and they need to vote if they want to make that information public.
Action
Motion: Rose-Anne Kwaks made a motion to make the June 13, 2017 letter from Donahue, Tucker and Ciandella lawyers regarding the Ham parcel public
Second: Janice Rosa
Vote: All in favor
Val Shelton stated since they just received this, she did not know how much they were prepared to discuss this. She also said Diane Hardy has done a lot of research of classifications of different types of facilities and Rose-Anne Kwaks recommended giving this to the committee to discuss. It will give interested parties some time to review the Town Attorney’s information.
Val Shelton opened the public hearing.
Gary Levy, 81 New Road, stated the EDC had suggested a coastal protection zone regarding density around those sensitive areas, regarding the previous speakers from SRPC earlier. The Board might want to revisit some of those recommendations.
He stated he spoke to Heidi Turcotte, who is the Long Term Care _________ for NH. She was very helpful and sent him some information.
He said it was a good idea to go back to the subcommittee. They might want to look at Route 152, as well, so the Town has an overall plan on where it wants to go.
He asked if the map could be up on the website. Diane Hardy stated they could do that.
Mark Vatcher, 184 New Road, stated they have the driveway by the entrance to the property. Diane Hardy stated it is not the entrance. Val Shelton stated, to be clear, the overlay district is just being discussed as a permitted use that would be available to a certain area. There is no proposal before this Board describing any sort of development or where an entrance would be located. That would be something a developer would bring to this Board.
Diane Hardy stated the configuration error shown with the road and lots carved out will be coming off of the tax maps. There will now be two vacant lots shown. There will be no proposed right of way.
Val Shelton stated there may be easements, but that has nothing to do with tax maps.
Diane Hardy stated she had done quite a bit of research and would like to clarify a couple of things. Assisted living comes under a general category of residential care and health facility, which are licensed by the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) and that is defined in RSA 151:1. It is a general statute that provides for the development, establishment and enforcement of standards for the care and treatment of persons in hospitals and other facilities, in which medical, nursing and remedial care is rendered. It provides for the licensing of those facilities. She has a list of twenty three facilities that fall under the category of residential care and health facility units that are licensed under this RSA. It runs the gamut from adult daycare facilities to surgery centers to hospitals and laboratories. There are some provisions for assisted living and community living. In the RSAs, there are four levels of continuing care and nursing homes. She described the various types of care facilities under the Administrative Code of NH. There are facilities with minimal care. A second tier provides supportive services, not a nursing home. The residents must be capable of self-evacuation. The next level of care is a nursing facility, with 24 hour care. The fourth tier is for special needs facilities, which provides specialized supervision and training. The Board needs to look at these and decide what types of facilities they want to see in this area. This is a very complicated issue, we are learning, and we want to make sure we take time to carefully weigh the issues.
Diane Hardy will check the subcommittee member list, for current members and possible openings. Gary Levy expressed interest. He thanked Diane Hardy for her work on the research.
Agenda Item #5 - New/Old Business
Committee Reports
SRPC
Peter Nelson stated they just sent in the new transportation project list and they are making amendments to it.
Conservation Commission
There was discussion of a Conservation Commission representative from the Planning Board. There is no member on that Commission at this time. Rose-Anne Kwaks volunteered for the position. She was nominated and voted in unanimously.
Planners Report
Diane Hardy stated the Town received an $8000 grant from the Setting Sail program. This assists with climate change resiliency. There was a workshop with two regional planning commissions, along with DES. They came up with some ideas for projects. They talked about updating the Town’s stormwater regulations. The Watershed Alliance has come up with an updated model. The grant has a ten month timeframe. There will be a steering committee, if anyone would like to participate. There is a meeting on June 28 about what this means to Newmarket and give an overview of the recommended regulations. Peter Nelson and Gretchen Kast volunteered to assist with this project.
Other Business
Rose-Anne Kwaks thanked everyone who helped out and purchased plants at the successful plant sale at the library by the Newmarket Gardeners.
Agenda Item #6 - Adjourn
Action
Motion: Janice Rosa made a motion to adjourn at 8:07 p.m.
Second: Jane Ford
Vote: All in favor