Planning Board Minutes

PB Minutes of 1-15-26

January 15th, 2026

Town of Carroll Planning Board
Meeting Minutes
January 15, 2026
5:00 PM

“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: Chair Alex Foti, Rena Vecchio, Paula Murphy, Don Jones, Selectboard Rep. Brian Mycko

Public Present:

Minutes Taken By: Steffanie Apostle

Item #1: Meeting was called to order at 5:03PM

Item #2: Pledge of Allegiance

Item #3: Attendance Taken – Quorum Met

Item #4: Review of Minutes December 4, 2025

Alex Foti suggested adding Tavis Austins Business Title to the minutes. Tavis Austin is the Project Manager for Echo Lake.

Steffanie Apostle to add title in the minutes

Brian Mycko made a motion to accept the minutes as amended and Paula Murphy seconded the motion. All were in favor, nobody opposed or abstained. Motion to approve the minutes as amended was passed.

Item #5 – Review of Site Plan & Subdivision Applications

Alex Foti did a little research to see what our neighbors in Whitefield, Bethlehem and Littleton have. Alex Foti passed around copies of the application for the Planning Board to see. It’s a much shorter form than the long list and you describe what your project is and that you will abide by the rules, etc.

Paula Murphy said when it comes to Site Plan vs. Subdivision she has a hard time looking at one application to the other because they look identical.

Steffanie Apostle said they do. The thing with that is if you are doing a subdivision, you don’t necessarily have a septic plan or state approvals because you are just subdividing. You could sell the property or decide later what you want to do. I think that is where the confusion comes in with people filling out the forms.

Paula Murphy said we need to really think about what is required for a Site Plan or a Subdivision.

Rena Vecchio had some forms that came from the State of New Hampshire handbook. This is basically what we already have for Subdivisions and Site Plans. Rena Vecchio said in all honesty she didn’t care what the other local Towns have because this Planning Board is the watch dogs for our Town not the other Towns. They can be basic guidelines, but the whole idea is for us to protect the Town. Just imagine when David Scalley came in and we didn’t accept his application because it wasn’t complete. If we hadn’t had that; he would have been free to go. I am not saying that to disrespect him, I would say that if he was here.

Brian Mycko said that was a very good example. We have to be careful because if we take too much out people can say it’s not on the application.

Alex Foti said we can put on the application that it needs to comply with checklists, appendix B, or whatever we want.

Rena Vecchio said her only request is that everyone takes some time to go over it and make sure this is what everyone wants to do.

Paula Murphy had a question about what the 2 applications were and when you use them.

Brian Mycko said if you had a 50-acre lot and you were going to break that up into house lots that would be a subdivision. If you are going to take that 50-acre lot and put up a warehouse that would be a Site Plan.

Paula Murphy clarified that the purpose is different.

Brian Mycko said yes. If you were going to put a campground on it that would be a Site Plan review not a Subdivision. Subdivide is breaking the land up vs. the Site Plan, which is what you are going to do with the land.

Brian Mycko said you probably won’t see too many more subdivisions because the Town is running out of land.

Alex Foti said there was a person in Bretton Woods who owned a lot of land

Rena Vecchio said that it was Sylvester and he used to run the Omni Mount Washington Hotel.

Paula Murphy said the other thing that she found unclear was the difference between a minor and a major subdivision.

Alex Foti said that was one area we need to clean up because in some areas it does mention a difference between minor and major.

Steffanie Apostle said that a minor was up to 3 lots and anything over 3 lots was considered a major.

Alex Foti said that there is no difference. We say it’s minor vs. major but there really is no difference
Steffanie Apostle said the only difference she is a
ware of is the fees. Minor is $25.00 and major is $50.00.

Rena Vecchio said it was also an additional $10.00 per lot.

Brian Mycko said we should eliminate minor and major and just call it a subdivision. If we are confused everyone else is going to be confused.

Paula Murphy said she couldn’t find any differences between them in the regulations.

Alex Foti said he has had people ask him what the difference is.

Rena Vecchio said this is why I say we need to look at this book before we make any changes.

There was a brief discussion about raising prices for the application. Would it make people more serious? How much land is left in Twin that could be subdivided? We have a few residents that own a lot of property, but land is scarce up here.

Suggestion to remove minor vs. major subdivision and keep it as a subdivision regardless of how many lots and adjust the fees.

There are many types of subdivisions listed on the application that nobody has ever seen or knows what they are.

Do we have a separate application for each one?
What is the difference between manufactured home and modular home?

Can we add Voluntary Lot Merger to the application?
The rules and regulations are not very clear.

Subdivision regulations do not pull up on the website; it goes to approval application packet and not the regulations.

Steffanie Apostle to investigate that.

Rena Vecchio said that she believes it is easier to have 1 list and application so if it does not apply, they can N/A it.

Alex Foti said as a person who may be filling out the application that may make it look like it is required.

Rena Vecchio said there is an explanation at the beginning of the packet. (X) is for completed, (W) is for a requested waiver and (N/A) is not applicable.

The Planning Board decided not to change anything right now and add it to the revamping of the Zoning Regulations the Town will be doing in 2026-2027. This way they will have some knowledge and guidance.

Rentals

Brian Mycko brought up how the State is trying to pass a rule to up the taxes of short-term rentals/Airbnb and 2nd homes. They are trying to reel back the solar discounts also.

Paula Murphy said upping the price of people who have a second home is them trying to help with the housing shortage.

Alex Foti said they have done 4-5 studies that show if you got rid of all the Airbnb’s its only like a .06% increase in houses.

Brian Mycko said there is a huge housing shortage.
Discussion about the hotel tax going to the Town. That is based on number of residents and not on the number of hotels or lodging so towns with no hotels get 4-5 times more than us who have hotels because they have more residents.

Paula Murphy asked about the State Rep. having office hours to address some concerns?

Steffanie Apostle to ask Lori Korzen to come to a meeting

Casella

Brian Mycko brought up Casella and the State trying to take control away from the Towns and leave it up to the State in regards to trash.

Steffanie Apostle said the State has too much control over Towns

Brian Mycko said Casella just lost a 1.9-million-dollar lawsuit.

Rena Vecchio said this is not a business you want in this Town.

Paula Murphy said they have leaks.

Brian Mycko said the leaching was supposed to be completely contained and it was not. They had a major leak and had to clean the water. The landfill was supposed to be capped at a certain height and they have gone over it. Casella came to the Selectboard (2) meetings ago and are proposing across from UPS.

Alex Foti asked if that was for sorting out?

Brian Mycko said it would be a transfer station. They want to put a transfer station like a warehouse. All smaller trucks and local trucks will come. Then they will truck it off with 18 wheelers to multiple locations.

Brian Mycko asked if they would be washing the trucks they left there and Casella said no.

Paula said with all this co-mingled trash they should be talking about recycling instead.

Brief discussion on the Twin Transfer Station and not being the easiest to use or understand.

Brian Mycko wants to talk to the Selectboard in March about transfer station signage and possible stickers, but the Town needs to get through deliberative session first.

Brief discussion on recycling and people not recycling. Should they be fined?

Town needs to update the board at the Transfer Station so people can see what has been recycled and how much the Town is saving.

Rena Vecchio said Casella would rather just go to court because they have the money.

Brian Mycko said regardless of the amount of money Casella offers us the value that the land is going to lose, tax revenue loss, and people’s life over there; its not worth it.

Rena Vecchio said they were not trustworthy and they lined their trucks up on Route 3 and the odor was horrendous. They leave stains on the road. They can’t be trusted
Brian Mycko said they closed the rest area because of all the trucks parking there and waiting.

Brian Mycko also brought lithium batteries and fires they cause. Casella is not planning on emptying the facility daily so it will catch on fire.

Paula Murphy said they are a commercial trash hauler; do they really care about the Town? They want to generate rubbish so they can make money.

Brian Mycko said Casella said it would be (7) 18-wheelers. The other thing is Casella made a lot of promises to Bethlehem they didn’t keep. They said they would only put so much trash there and they went above that.

Paula Murphy reiterated they leak all over the roads.

Rena Vecchio said they can’t be trusted

Brian Mycko said if this comes before the Planning Board be prepared for a large audience

Steffanie Apostle said she believes they need to go to the Zoning Board first for an exception and then to the Planning Board for a site plan.

Brian Mycko said he thinks it should go to the Town voters.

Rena Vecchio said the Town needs to have their legal representatives there at the meeting.

Alex Foti said the problem is when Bonnie Moroney said she was going to fight it tooth and nail; we have rules we need to follow. If they come to the Planning Board and have all of their stuff complete.

Brian Mycko said the Board can reject for a lot of things. They have no fire suppression, there is no Town water there so the Fire Chief can say no.

Alex Foti said we have to follow the rules. This Town has the tendency to think they can do what they want.

Brian Mycko said he talked to Bonnie Moroney about adding more money to our legal line for this.

Steffanie Apostle said we should be talking to the lawyer now about this and not wait until the week Casella is going to show up.

Brian Mycko said he wasn’t sure when they were coming. It sounded like it would be this year. Brian Mycko thinks they are waiting to see what happens to Bethlehem. Bethlehem has very specific ordinances and Casella can’t build a transfer station there. The only transfer station they can have in Bethlehem is one owned by the Town.

Steffanie Apostle said we screwed up as a Town when we removed from our ordinances the sentence that said “if it is not listed it is not allowed”

Brian Mycko said he thinks Casella waited until last minute to approach the Town because they knew we wouldn’t have time to put a warrant article in to block them.

Steffanie Apostle asked if it was too late to put a warrant article in?

Brian Mycko said it was too late.

Rena Vecchio said this is why we need to have a lawyer here every time they come and it can’t be the new lawyer.

Brian Mycko said the Town no longer uses Orr & Reno.
Rena Vecchio questioned why he was at a different meeting not too long ago

Brian Mycko explained that it was because it was for Echo Lake and Bob Carey has been involved since the beginning so we were allowing him to finish the Echo Lake project as opposed to trying to catch a new lawyer up on 10 years of info.

Steffanie Apostle said to the Zoning Board that everyone needs to freshen up and read the ordinances so they know what is allowed and what isn’t allowed because they will need to go to Zoning first. Andy Smith said that he will need to recuse himself as the Chair of the Zoning Board because he is involved in the sale of the property which is currently under contract.

Alex Foti said they are already under contract?

Steffanie Apostle said they under contract pending a lot of approvals. Andy Smith said to Karen Moran she is going to have to run the meeting because he was involved with the sale so he can’t be part of it.
Rena Vecchio asked if they would have enough people to vote if Andy Smith recused himself.

Steffanie Apostle said yes.

Rena Vecchio asked about the 10 spots Steffanie Apostle said were open for the Boards?

Steffanie Apostle said there are (3) open for Zoning, there are (2) for the Planning Board, then there are supervisors of the checklists and things like that.

Alex Foti said if the Sale of the land is contingent on this, sounds like they will be here sooner rather than later.

Brian Mycko said he had a feeling they were going to speed it up because they lost the lawsuit.

Alex Foti said if the land is under contract they will want to do it soon and give the lawyer a heads up.

Rena Vecchio said to ask the lawyers to study what Casella does. Casella doesn’t really care; they will take you to court or wait for you to take them to court.

Brian Mycko was there when the new lawyer came to talk to the Selectboard and Brian Mycko said he knows Zoning. Brian Mycko also said there are a lot of lawyers at the office he can use for resources. We were assigned to the office as a whole not just a specific lawyer.

Alex Foti said that unfortunately the previous lawyer did not have a very good track record.

Brian Mycko said the previous lawyer gave bad legal advice and the Town had to pull a few warrant articles out because they were not legal and the State would not let us use them.

Alex Foti said with Casella being so trigger happy with lawsuits we need to make sure we cross our T’s and dot our I’s. We need to make sure we have very solid ground.

Steffanie Apostle asked if there was a way we could hold them off and tell them it has to go to Town vote and because this is so late in the game that would be next year?

Brian Mycko said that would be something to ask the lawyer. They may even ask for a special election.

Alex Foti said we have to have solid grounds. You can’t treat one business different than the other.

Steffanie Apostle asked out of curiosity, if this happens to go to a lawsuit are they allowed to build a facility in the meantime while it goes through court?

Brian Mycko said no. They would have to settle all their lawsuits first and it could take a few years. The problem is when Bethlehem closes, they have nowhere to go.

Rena Vecchio said Carberry

Brian Mycko said that won’t work because of contract issues which is why they want to put a transfer station here so the small trucks can just dump here and then they distribute.

Item #7: Adjourn

Brian Mycko made a motion to adjourn the meeting and Rena Vecchio seconded the motion. All were in favor and meeting was adjourned at 6:08pm.