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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2018-01-16 Planning Board Minutes PLANNING BOARD OF THE CITY OF BANGOR TH , 2018, 7:00 P.M. TUESDAY, JANUARY 16 THIRD FLOOR COUNCIL CHAMBERS, CITY HALL MEETING MINUTES Board Members Present: Charles Boothby, Chairman Ted Brush Nelson Durgin Phyllis Guerette Steve Hicks Ken Huhn Peter Parizo City Staff Present: David Gould, Planning Officer John Theriault, City Engineer Paul Nicklas, Asst. City Solicitor Sean Gambrel, Planning Staff Planning Officer Gould called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m. 1.Welcome New Planning Board Members Planning Officer David Gould Introduced and welcomed two new members of the Planning Board, Mr. Ted Brush and Mr. Ken Huhn. 2.Election of Officers for 2018 Member Guerette nominated Charles Boothby as Planning Board Chair. Member Durgin seconded the motion. Mr. Boothby was elected chair unanimously. Member Boothby nominated Nelson Durginas Planning Board Vice Chair. Member Guerette seconded the motion. Mr. Durginwas elected Vice Chair unanimously. PUBLIC HEARING 3.Amending Chapter 165 –116.Minor Revisions–Allowing the reduction of parking to not less than required by codeas aMinor Revision (Staff review) C.O. #18-082. Assistant City Solicitor Paul Nicklas presented the ordinance change to the Board. Mr. Nicklas stated that this was a very straightforward amendment to allow a reduction of parking spaces on a site through the Minor Revision process, so long as the amount of parking on the site was still at or greater than the minimum required for the use. Currently parking is listed as an item that cannot be changed via the Minor Revision process and this amendment is to remove that clause. Mr. Nicklas described the Minor Revision process to the board, specifically noting that approval of a Minor Revision requires the signature of the Planning Officer, the City Engineer, and the Code Enforcement Officer, and that any one of these three can choose not to sign the Minor Revision and thereby send the project to the Board for review. Mr. Nicklas added that the Minor Revision process did not include public notice or abutter notice and that the process could be completed in a matter of days, rather than a matter of weeks, which is valuable to many applicants. There were no questions or comments from the Board. Chair Boothby opened the public hearing. There were no comments for or against the proposal. Chair Boothby closed the public hearing. Member Huhn moved to approve the ordinance amendment as presented by Mr. Nicklas. Member Durgin seconded the motion. The motion was approved unanimously. 4.Land Development Permit Application –Site Development Plan –1070 Hammond Street, AMERCO Real Estate Co., d.b.a. U-Haul Moving and Storage; construction of two (2) 235 s.f. building additions to house enclosed stairwells in a General Commercial & Service District (GC&S). Member Parizo stated that he felt he had a conflict of interest on this project. The board voted unanimously in agreement. Mr. Parizo left the room. Silas Canavan of Walsh Engineering introduced the project, which is for the construction of two stair towers on an existing building on the U-Haul site. These stair towers are to serve as egress for the second floor as it has been renovated. Each of the towers will be located on existing impervious surface and will each be roughly 235 sq. ft. in size. The new stair towers have been connected to site sidewalks. Member Guerette inquired about the initial Conditional Approval and why it was included in this proposal, since it seemed irrelevant to the stair towers. Planning Officer Gould answered that the revised Site Plan will become the authoritative document for the site and if the Board wants to retain the original condition, it should be included on this proposal as well. Chair Boothby opened the public hearing. There were no comments for or against the proposal. Chair Boothby closed the public hearing. Member Durgin moved approval of the applicationwith the original condition attached.. Member Huhn seconded the motion. The motion passed unanimously. ADDITIONAL BUSINESS 5.Planning Board Approval of Minutes Planning Board Minutes from January 2, 2018 were approved unanimously, noting a few minor misspellings. 6.Other Business Assistant City Solicitor Paul Nicklas provided the annual Board training, focusing on best practices for meeting procedure and deliberation. Mr. Nicklas offered a copy of his notes to any member of the Board who would like them. Planning Officer Gould distributed the 2018 Meeting schedule, noting that there will be no meeting in early July as the meeting would fall in close proximity to the Independence Day holiday. Planning Officer Gould also mentioned that there are upcoming MMA workshops that board members may find useful, and that if any board member wished to attend, the City could cover their expenses. Chair Boothby relayed that he had attended these workshops and found them valuable. Chair Boothby stated that he would like to discuss the policy of the board voting on individual members’ conflicts of interest. He stated that he would like to discuss this item at a later meeting. The meeting was adjourned at 7:30pm.