Planning Board Minutes

Minutes of 7/6/2023

July 11th, 2023

“These minutes of the Town of Carroll Planning Board have been recorded by its Secretary. Though believed to be accurate and correct, they are subject to additions, deletions and corrections by the Planning Board at its next meeting when the Board votes its final approval of the minutes. They are being made available at this time to conform to the requirements of New Hampshire RSA 91-A:2.”

Planning Board Members Present: Vice Chair Austin Alvarez, Don Jones, Ryan Peffers, Tom Godfrey and Rena Vecchio

Public Present: Walter McGrail, Sue McGrail, David Scalley, Evan Karpf

Pledge of Allegiance

Vice Chair Austin Alvarez introduced Corinne Ripa as the new Land Use Secretary.

Minutes by Corinne Ripa

The Chair opened the meeting at 7:01. The Vice Chair asked if everyone had read the minutes of June 1, 2023 and if there were any corrections or errors.

1. Corinne Ripa stated a typo, page 7-3rd sentence under CHANGE OF USE FOR RT 3 MAP 207 LOT 050 should read “He would use the house” not “He would you the house”

2. Austin Alvarez stated Ryan Peppers should read Ryan Peffers in all instances.

3. Tom Godfrey stated a typo, page 4 should read Wild Bloom Brewery instead of Wild Loon Brewery.

4. Rena Vecchio stated the very last sentence on page 7 “Austin Alvarez made a motion to adjourn…” should be eliminated, it was carried over from the May minutes.

Also on page 7, after the sentence “Chairman Foti closed the Public Hearing, it should read “…the wifi is not good here, so we have decided to go with the skyweb providers.
Rena Vecchio makes a motion to accept the minutes of June 1st, 2023 with the above changes. Ryan Peffers seconds the motion and it passed with 3 ayes.

SITE PLAN & SUBDIVISION OF ECHO LAKE LLC PHASE ll/MAP 206 LOT 053

This has been continued from the previous two meetings. There will be a third party review done by Kevin Leonard of Northpoint Engineering as discussed and decided in the June 1st PB meeting. A check was needed in the escrow acct in the amount of $4500 from Syed Nuruzzaman for the review to begin. The check was received July 3rd and Kevin will begin the third party review in mid July. This agenda item will be continued to the August 3rd PB meeting. Austin Alvarez stated that a vote was needed to extend the review of the site plan to the August meeting. Tom Godfrey accepted the motion. Rena Vecchio seconds the motion. It passes with 3 ayes.

DANIEL SHAHEEN SUBDIVISION/GARDNER KELLOGG/MAP 407-054-001-000

New application to be reviewed. Corinne spoke with Gardner Kellogg this afternoon and he asked to be continued to the August meeting as he has not been able to procure some items that the Fire Chief, Jeff Duncan, had requested. He sent Land Use an email verifying this request. Corinne also told him that a mylar was needed and to please bring that to the August meeting.

SELECT BOARD MEETING REQUEST WITH PLANNING BOARD AND ZBA
Both the chairs of the Planning Board and Zoning Board are gone until July 20th. Upon discussion of available dates, it appears that the first or second week of August may work. Wed Aug 2 was noted as a viable option for most of the PB. This will be relayed to Kelly for the Select Board. Corinne will discuss availability with ZBA at the meeting on July 13th.

FOLLOW UPS

a. Rehab Facilities-the SB was going to look into a Legal Consultation regarding this issue. No SB member was present, so no update was available. This will have to be continued until the next meeting.

b. Land Use Secretary-Corinne Ripa introduced at the start of the meeting.

c. Change of use from 571 Rt 3 S, Lot 207-050-000-000-it was decided at last meeting for Austin Alvarez to speak with NH Legal Services. They advised that this is not a PB issue but rather a ZBA issue and it should be taken to the ZBA. It will be tabled to the August 3rd meeting as both the Chair of the PB and the Chair of the ZBA are the property owners and they are unavailable until after July 20th.

d. Red Bull Distribution Center decision by SB on 6/13/23-property is 104 rt 3 N, 206-023-000-000. Background-a cease and desist order was issued on 5/17/23. A CO was also granted on 5/17/23. The SB approved the use of the property as a parking area on 6/13/23. The PB must now discuss this decision and either confirm that decision or reject it with an appeal. (refer to SB meeting minutes of 6/13/23)

Rena Vecchio made a motion to appeal the decision made by the SB as she feels it is not a parking lot. Don Jones seconds the motion for purpose of discussion.
Rena feels that the SB needs to explain why they classified it as a parking lot. She feels as a board, they need to be able to understand that decision.
Vice Chair Alvarez opened the public hearing.

Evan Karpf felt it was disrespectful of the SB to the PB and ZBA to accept that decision. He feels that everyone should be treated equally. He has done a lot of business in this town and has gone through a lot of change of uses. He feels an appeal would give the ZBA another opportunity to review this. It was a fire house, and he does not see fire trucks in those bays. He feels the applicant has opportunities to look into waivers or other avenues to ask for extenuating circumstances to be considered. He feels that the applicant is not following the rules that others are asked to follow. He states this is his personal opinion.

David Scalley states he did not purchase a firehouse. He purchased a building that was no longer a municipality and no longer a fire house, it was a commercial building. In the deed there were 12 restrictions. Those restrictions stated what he could not use the building for. After purchasing, he had merchandise, appliances and pallets of inventory. His trucks and equipment were parked there and he would take that material and distribute it, just like the new business is doing right now. He had used the building for 14mo without any issues. Now that Red Bull is in there, in what he feels is doing the same thing, it has become a problem. He feels strongly that if the owner was anyone else, they would not be there for this meeting. Normally, the owner of the building would go to the building inspector for the use he was using it for and the building inspector would have granted it. Since the owner IS the building inspector, it was brought to the PB and SB.

A discussion ensued between David Scalley and Rena Vecchio about the prior business versus the new business being conducted in that building.

Vice Chair Alvarez closed the public portion of the meeting.

A vote was made to appeal the decision made by the SB. There was 1 aye to appeal and 3 nays. The decision will not be appealed by the PB.

Vice Chair Alvarez asks if there is any other business.

a. Resident Walter McGrail raises his hand. Although he is not on the agenda, he would like to voice some concerns he has with the Quaint Glamping project.
He wrote a letter to Chair Alex Foti back on May 31st. He requested that Mr. Foti read the letter at the June 1st meeting. It was not read. I have attached the letter to the minutes. He feels he should be considered an abutter even though his property does not directly abutt the property, his shared driveway does. He has no frontage, so David Scalley mentioned that because he has a non-conforming lot, GIS should have picked him up as being within a 500ft radius. The thought is he may technically be considered an abutter. This should be looked at closer to see if he is legally an abutter and if he needs to be added to the list. This will be discussed in the August meeting.

b. Don Jones states that we are due for an update from Onmi. Vice Chair Alvarez will try to get an update for August meeting.

Don Jones makes a motion to adjourn. VC Alvarez states “all those in favor” followed by unanimous ayes. Meeting adjourned at 8:01pm.