Fitzwilliam Planning Board
October 6, 2009
Members present: Terry Silverman, Suzanne Gray, Robin Haynes, Jason Hill, Mac Landy, John Tommila and Carmen Yon, Selectmen’s representative.
Others present: Nancy Carney, Deputy Fire Chief, abutters.
Call to Order: 7:05 PM
Public hearing: Mulcahey Land and Timber, LLC application for a boundary line adjustment and a four lot subdivision of property located between West Lake Road and Webb Hill Road, Map 11, Lot 5-1 and Map 27, Lot 13, Rural District.
Paul Grasewicz, surveyor, presented the case for Mulcahey Land and Timber, Inc. He distributed the subdivision plan, topography plan, driveway plan and profiles. Four lots are proposed, the location of which is driven by wetlands considerations. Two lots with 250’ frontage each on West Lake Road are about 5.5 acres each, and building sites have been located for each lot. Each meets the requirement of 90,000 square feet of contiguous nonwetlands. A common driveway is proposed for these two lots, in part to avoid having to cross wetlands more than once. This drive is about 500 feet long. It would be difficult to serve one of these lots with a driveway because there is an established water flowage under boulders that may be interrupted with a driveway. Mr. Grasewicz said the Road Agent had
seen the driveway sites and approves of them.
Haynes said she likes the idea of a common driveway off West Lake Road because it is a pristine area, but expressed concern about the wetlands along the road and in back.
The Board and abutters noted the driveway access points off Webb Hill Road. One driveway is located at the crest of the hill and one is located before the ascent begins. Haynes asked the condition of Webb Hill Road. An abutter, Carolyn Lilback, said the road is wide enough to let two cars pass one another.
Tom Parker, an abutter and Selectman, said the town had not yet received payment of timber tax from the timber company logging the property. The Selectmen received the report of cut, and will send the tax invoice. He does not want the subdivision approved until the tax is paid, so the town won’t be in the position of trying to collect the tax from new lot owners. Silverman asked him to send the Planning Board a memo to that effect for the files. Silverman also noted for the record that the subdivision will not be approved until the tax is paid to the town. Mr. Parker’s other concern is meeting setbacks for wells and septic systems, given the wetlands in the area.
Grasewicz said each lot has a designated building site. He added that a large volume of water flows off the hill into a bowl and from there it flows down into Massachusetts.
The Board agreed to do a site walk on Thursday, October 8, 2009 at 10AM. They will meet at the turnout on West Lake Road on the Parker property. Silverman asked that the building sites be demarcated, especially the ones for lot 5-1-2. He noted that the Board needs to confirm functional frontage for lot 5-1-1, even though there’s an option to use the common driveway.
Silverman moved, Gray seconded and the Board voted to continue the public hearing on this case until October 20, 2009 at 7:30 PM.
Appointment: Natural Resources Inventory presentation.
Dorothy Zug represented the NRI sub-committee. She gave an NRI booklet to each Board member and reviewed the backgrounds and qualifications of the committee members. She asked for an hour on a future agenda for the NRI committee to make detailed presentations.
The NRI initiative grew out of the Community Forum held in May 2006. Three Conservation Commission members and three interested citizens formed what later became a sub committee of the Conservation Commission to develop a natural resources inventory of the town. They have worked for more than 3 years, meeting once a month at first and then more frequently as the project neared completion. She said the book was a product of six minds.
Each map in the book has been published as a 2X3 wall map as well. Referring to maps in the book, Zug noted that most of the bedrock in town is Concord Granite, known in town as Fitzwilliam granite. The topo map shows the many hills in town, and the watershed map shows that almost all of the water in town originates in town around the Pinnacle area. Because of this, Zug noted that the town is responsible to other communities and the town to protect the water quality and watersheds.
Zug pointed out that New Hampshire is growing twice as fast as other New England states, and the Monadnock region is growing too. Open space will be increasingly in demand, and so there is a need for an open space committee. She met several times with Pete Throop, from the Monadnock Conservancy, about setting up an open space committee. He suggested interviewing residents about special places to preserve and conducting a town wide wildlife survey.
Zug notes that the guidelines developed for assessing the conservation value of land will be helpful. She pointed out the unfragmented lands, large lots and agriculture lands maps as indicative of lands to be protected or carefully developed.
Tommila asked about the cost of the NRI. With volunteers meeting monthly or more frequently and doing all the work, the only cost was for printing the book, and that was about $1,000, far lower than the cost to other towns who engage consultants to do the work. Haynes noted that the last NRI was completed in the early 1990s.
Silverman said he was a little stumped as to how to recommend where development should occur. He said the Board did not like the ‘smart’ tags that are popular now, smart growth, smart development, etc., seeing them as basically give-aways for developers. He asked if someone from the NRI committee could work with the Board on the development portion of the master plan. He said the NRI will be very useful and he is humbled by their efforts.
Silverman said the Board would schedule time for the NRI Committee to make a presentation.
Preliminary consultation: Candace Starrett with client to discuss options for business in Fitzwilliam.
Mr. Donald Haenisch joined the Board to discuss his business ideas. He said he is looking at the Concord Industries building, using it as office, warehouse and light industrial manufacturing space to produce solar products. He anticipates creating more than 200 jobs in the community when in full production.
Silverman said the Board was very interested in having the building occupied and having new business and new jobs in town.
Silverman asked what kind of infrastructure needs the business might require. Mr. Haenisch said he didn’t think there would be much needed in the way of infrastructure. He doesn’t anticipate a lot of heavy truck traffic. Silverman said with Route 12 access, heavy truck traffic is OK.
Minutes. The Board reviewed minutes of the September 15, 2009 meeting. Landy requested that more detail from the meeting discussion about the Wenniger subdivision regarding the lot designated as a non-building lot be added to the minutes. Silverman noted that the surveyor had indicated at the site walk that the two lots will be merged first, and the building lot will then be subdivided from the resulting lot.
Silverman moved, Landy seconded and the Board approved the minutes as amended.
Technical Assistance Grant opportunity from SWRPC. Silverman noted that there is a grant of technical assistance available and SWRPC will decide on two towns to receive this technical assistance for developing a water related ordinance. This is not a grant of money.
Silverman said he’d suggested doing a local shoreland protection ordinance to protect Laurel Lake and Rockwood Pond especially. He added that the Board heard, during the Master Plan presentations, that the quality of the water is degrading each year, that runoff is a problem. He figured that a local ordinance would allow the town to be more responsive and act more quickly than the state to prevent problems from happening.
Yon said the biggest objection to this is that is could become a policing burden on the town. He is not sure how much more effective the town will be compared to DES actions. Silverman said the town can react faster, adding that landowners around Laurel Lake and Rockwood Pond support the town with taxes more than any other group. Yon said he suspected that the shortage of money might slow down DES response time.
Yon said even the regular ordinances are hard to enforce and he feels the best policing is via site plan review and building permits. Enforcing regulations on existing structures is more difficult.
Gray asked how often the health officer is sent out to check on septic violations near the lake. Yon thought the health officer was sent out twice and the code enforcement officer was sent out once to Laurel Lake this year. Gray asked if two or three times a year is an undue burden on the town. Yon said the town had referred that many to DES – structures in the water, building over wetlands, tree cutting – saying the town takes care of health issues. He wondered how to police fertilizer use.
Landy said that a local ordinance wouldn’t prevent the town from calling in DES. Town could issue a cease and desist and then call DES. Gray asked how many incidents might there be. Grasewicz said it depends on how hard you look. Haynes said it will cost the town now or later if we lose the quality of water in the lakes, adding that this is an application for technical assistance and we don’t know if we’re going to be chosen.
Tommila reiterated that in his experience DES reacts quickly. He’s talked with residents and they are concerned that there will be more cost to the town with a local ordinance, like the cost of policing, there will be more ordinances, and there will be potential legal liability issues. He said we don’t need more laws; they increase legal costs to the town. Tommila said these lakes are monitored annually and we work with biologists to learn of the issues. Tommila and Yon agreed the town didn’t need a local ordinance that mirrored the state shoreline protection law.
Silverman said the town gets in trouble when the ordinances are not clear or properly spelled out. He said he’d call the Selectmen first, if he saw a violation; calling the state wouldn’t be first. He would feel he wasn’t getting his tax dollar’s worth of service. Yon said this law isn’t easy to enforce. It’s complicated and requires measuring. Tommila said you need to know how much water comes off the roof, for impervious surface calculations. Yon said you have to get a CSPA permit before getting any building permit.
Gray said Barbara Green told the Board the Laurel Lake Association has twenty years of uninterrupted data and the clarity of the water has declined every year by about 1%. She said if we can’t control this in some way, the quality will continue to decline. Haynes said we’re trying to prevent problems. She added that there needs to be a lot of education. Yon reiterated the issues involved in catching someone violating the law. Haynes said the Board is just looking at the possibility of getting help and any ordinance would go to town meeting. Yon said he personally didn’t think it would get policed.
Silverman said if we get the grant and it results in an ordinance that will be a good thing, adding he understood about the costs to the town. He said it’s not about the CSPA; it’s whether or not we want to try to further protect the lakes. Without the technical assistance grant we probably wouldn’t work on it now, adding that he has no financial stake in these lakes, but does want to protect these bodies of water. Gray said the Board spent a lot of time listening to the public and it’s frustrating not to do anything with that information.
Gray moved, Landy seconded and the Board approved a motion to apply for a technical assistance grant from SWRPC to develop regulations regarding protecting the quality of water in Fitzwilliam’s ponds and lakes. (Four aye, two nay.)
Silverman noted that NPR aired a program about a New Found Lake regional organization formed to protect the watershed area for the lake initially through master plan guidelines.
Livestock ordinance. Silverman noted that local farmers have been invited to attend the next Board meeting to discuss a livestock ordinance. He said it’s not just about one rooster, but about amending the ordinance to include a containment section and a nuisance section, in response to complaints about other birds and animals around town in the past year. Three other farmers were suggested and invitations will be sent; an open letter of invitation will be posted as well.
The Board adjourned at 9:00 PM.
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