Langdon Planning Board
Langdon Planning Board
Unofficial Meeting Minutes 7-18-2012
Meeting called to orderat 7:10PM by Chairman, Rob Chamberlain
Roll call by the Secretary, Bob Fant
Board Present: Rob Chamberlain, Pat Bresland, Bob Fant, Everett Adams, Chops Polcari, Marilyn Stuller, Betty Whipple, ExOfficio and alternate member John Gulardo
Absent: Alternate member Bob Gentile
(Not sure if we want to include these names in the minutes?
General Public: Shelley Barnes, Pat & Fred Roench, Don & Marilyn Martin, Bill White, Jay Grant, Mike Kmiec, Mary & Jerry Henry, Attorney Joseph Hoppock, Chris Porter, John Landry.)
Minutes of previous meeting of 6-20-2012 read and approved with no changes
Minutes from May non-public session dated 5-18-2012 approved with no changes
Meeting Temporarily adjourned 7:20PM to conduct field inspection.
Field Inspection – Board carpooled to Betty Woodell property to view excavation and hear Betty explain the operation. Betty explained the purpose of the excavation. The blasted rock was either used for fill in order to create a “flat spot” on her land where she could pile logs, or was trucked off and used in road construction/repair in neighboring towns.
Meeting reconvened: the board returned to the Municipal Building and the meeting was reconvened at 7:50PM
Old Business
Excavation- Canfield: Continuance of a discussion regarding Tom Canfield property. Rob explained that at our last meeting, the property owner told the board that the pit would only be open until December 31, 2011. Based on that information, the Town of Langdon made arrangements for reclamation. Reclamation was going to blend both properties. Instead of leaving a 50’ strip of land at the boundry line with slopes on both sides, all of that material would be removed so that the two properties would look better. Chris Porter states he had a signed agreement for excavating until December 2012, then added his rights with the property owner have been extended to May or June 2013. He claims that the Town has actually taken material that belongs to him and he wants to be paid back. Also, the Town has excavated over the Town’s property line onto the Canfield property and has also stored material on the Canfield property. Chris Porter stated that he intends to excavate. Rob explained that he could remove stockpiled material but would need a permit to excavate (per RSA155E). Rob further stated that the pit lost its “grandfather” status and the property owner agreed that this was the case. A “Intent to Excavate” is not the same thing as a “Excavation Permit” and Chris would need an Excavation Permit. Chris stated that he would “close the pit” and do the reclamation but voiced his concerns about the amount of time the permitting procedure would take. The board volunteered to call a special meeting next week to help move this along.
Excavation: Mary & Jerry Henry – Mary had requested to address the board and was put on the agenda. Attorney Joseph Hoppock represented them stating there has been no excavation on their property since 1977. The original parcel was 125 acres owned by Mary Henry’s parents. In 1997 the land was sold to Norm Beaudry, except for a 13.1 parcel which was sold to the Henry’s in 1998. In 2004 a “Cease & desist” order was issued to the Henry’s. Attorney cited RSA155E:2IISub par c-“a site which ceased operation prior to (year__?___) is not subject to reclamation” and stated the Henry’s would not be doing any reclamation.
Supporting documentation provided by Attorney include:
7-12-2004 Letter from Mary Pinkham-Langer, Gravel Tax Appraiser addressed to Langdon Planning Board and Langdon Selectboard regarding excavations in Langdon
6-22-2012 Letter from Wendy Ward, Technician, USDA-NRCS commenting on soils and vegetation growing on the Henry’s property.
7-11-2012 Letter from Mary Pinkham-Langer, Gravel Tax Appraiser regarding RSA155E:2,I,Existing Excavations;RSA155E:2-a, Other Exceptions; RSA155E:5 Minimum and Express Reclamation Standards
15 pages of photos (multiple photos per page 52 photos total) including 2003 USDA aerial photo and a 2012 Google arial photo
Attorney states that there is no standing water, no erosion and no drainage problems on the site and no need for reclamation. Pat mentioned piles of loam that were delivered but never spread as promised. Chops mentions the Planning boards letter of 1-16-2009 addressed to the Henry’s and hands a copy to the Attorney. Attorney Hoppock claims the board is harassing the Henry’s and demands this matter be settled immediately. Rob explains that the board needs to review the material that the Attorney has just presented and that we would be back in touch with him.
Missing Town Records: Planning Board files containing Meeting Minutes and supporting documents are still missing. They were in a file cabinet in a locked room. Betty Whipple said when she first came on the selectboard, “everyone had keys”. Jay Grant, from the audience, commented that there was a key made that was given to people to access the front door, but it was later learned that it was a master key and opened more than just the front door. Since then, key pads have been installed on some doors so they can be programmed with a unique pass code for each user. That way, when someone leaves office, the pass code can be deleted and there is no worry about copies of keys That could still be used. Locked cabinets have now been secured so that each board has its own locked cabinet and only the board chair and Bob Cuniff, admin assistant to the selectboard, have keys.
Chops stated that only the Zoning Board and Planning Board chairs had keys to the room with the filing cabinets. Even the Planning Board secretary did not have a key. Everett offered that when the minutes were first noticed missing, he looked for them and found some from 2004 in the mylar cabinet, obviously misfiled. Rob asked Everett, Pat and Chops if they were able to reproduce any copies of meeting minutes. Chops had meeting minutes from 2007 & 2008 along with letters and workshop meeting minutes. Most of 2009 were also recovered from the town website along with 2010, 2011 and 2012. Missing still are 2004 – 2006. Rob asked members to continue to look for these missing years. The selectboard will be asked to look into this further as no “break-in” had occurred to the building and only the Planning Board files are missing. These are town records and are important to recover and protect in the future.
Master Plan Survey Questionnaire: SWRPCprovided positive feedback on our Master Plan survey questionnaire. They particularly liked the raffle idea. Lisa Murphy, SWRPC Senior Planner’s letter of 7-13-2012 was distributed to the board. It was agreed that the vision committee will handle the suggested changes and bring the updated survey back to the board for final approval. The committee was also asked to speak with Bob Cuniff about obtaining address labels accessing both the tax list, cross referenced with the property list.
Building Code/Zoning Ordinance: Initial review of our building codes and zoning ordinances show that they are “comingled”. The Building codes show very little that qualifies as “building code” and most of it is really zoning ordinances. The board was asked to review the codes in more detail to identify what is zoning and what is building code so they can eventually be separated. Some discussion on adopting the state building codes ensued. Everett was in favor of adopting the state codes and volunteered to bring in the state code book for the boards review at next weeks meeting.
New Business:
Site Plans & Mylars: Chops states that he was informed that all plans and mylars need to have the upper right hand corner empty for recording at Newport. We need to add this detail to the check off list. Bob Fant will add to this to the Sub-division Check off list.
Complaint of Noise: Selectman Jay Grant mentioned there was a complaint of noise mentioned at the last Selectboard meeting. The noise was coming from a log/firewood/mill operation that has just started up on the Beech property. There is one part-time employee, a building 44x48 that is used for storage, tv room, but not for the business. Jay questioned what permit/limits on hours of operation apply, if any. Everett mentioned that there is an RSA that applies and states the hours of operation are limited to Monday through Friday, 7:00am to 5PM, Saturday until 2:00PM, No Sundays. Jay asked Everett if he could produce the RSA and Everett stated he would find it for next meeting.
Special Meeting: Motion to hold a special meeting to continue planning board work (Pat/Marilyn)All Agreed.
Special Meeting scheduled for Wednesday, July 25 @7:00PM to continue work on Canfield/Porter Excavation permit, Henry Excavation/reclamation, Planning Board records recovery and follow up for RSA’s from Everett.
Motion to Adjourn (Betty/Bob Fant)
LPB/Secretary
Bob Fant