Town of Sharon Planning Board

Meeting Minutes of 9/19/07

Amended and Approved on 10/3/07

 

 

Planning Board Attendees

Eli Hauser – Chair

Paul Lauenstein - absent

Arnold Cohen – Vice Chair

Amanda Sloan 

Susan Price – Clerk

 

 

Peter O’Cain, Assistant Town Engineer, Consultant - absent

 

Attendees

Jon Shocket

Mahra Shocket

Scott Rawl

Jennifer Goldson, Consultant for CPC

 

Meeting Initiation

The meeting was called to order at 7:30 PM by Chair, Eli Hauser who read the Chair’s Report.

 

Meeting Minutes

Mr. Cohen moved to accept the minutes of 8/15 as amended. Ms. Price seconded the motion. The Board voted 4-0-0 in favor.

 

Mr. Cohen moved to accept the minutes of 9/5 as amended. Ms. Price seconded the motion. The Board voted 4-0-0 in favor.

 

Lot Shape

Ms. Price and Ms. Sloan discussed postponing their meeting with the Finance Committee on 9/24 because they were not notified in time and had previous commitments for that evening.

 

Calendar of Events for the Planning Board

1. October 2nd – Planning Board meeting – Brickstone to present.

 

2. October 17th – Public Hearing regarding 5 warrant articles.

 

3.  Mr. Hauser notified the Board that the Board of Selectmen accepted the citizen’s petition articles; signed by 164 citizens onto the Town Warrant regarding the zoning previously passed for the  Brickstone project. The Board discussed the need for a Public Hearing on this proposed article as well as the appropriate timing of a hearing prior to Town Meeting. It was determined that October 31st would be the date for the Public Hearing to discuss the articles which Mr. Hauser will forward to the Board. Request is to be made to the article proponents’ attorney to provide a summary of these lengthy articles for the publication notice.

 

Eisenhower Drive

Mr. Hauser reported that, as per an email from Peter O’Cain, (pertaining to the question that if a Public Hearing was held regarding changing the width of the emergency access road for the Eisenhower Drive Extension, whether the entire case would need to be reviewed) Lisa Whelan, stated that the Planning Board, by having a Public Hearing on the Eisenhower Drive Extension roadway, can limit the discussion without opening it up to other issues. Mr. Cohen commented that Mr. O’Cain was to obtain a letter from Chief Mann regarding his position on changing the road width but that has not yet been presented to the Board.  Mr. Rawl, who owns 2A Eisenhower Drive, asked the Board what was acceptable and Mr. Cohen commented that it is not right to give a decision until the Public Hearing. Mr. Cohen explained that in the subdivision statute, people can amend the plan but there is a procedure for the hearing process. Mr. Shocket explained that he is not trying to harm the street just narrow the paved portion to avoid making the access appear to be a public road. He also asked what would happen if he brought 3 options to the Public Hearing. Mr. Cohen said he would need to look at the bylaws. Mr. Hauser said the purpose of the Public Hearing is to learn the Town constraints and take input from the public.

 

Sign Review

None.

 

Bond Reduction

None.

 

Community Preservation

Jennifer Goldson, CPC consultant for the Community Preservation Committee, provided the Board with an overview of CPC activities in Sharon as well as the purpose, process and timeline for the plan she is developing for the Town. The purpose of her attendance at the meeting was to communicate the overarching needs for community preservation that she has collected to date from meeting with various other Town boards and committees and solicit feedback from the Planning Board regarding their priorities.

 

Collectively the Board provided the following comments:

 

Community Housing

Ms. Price - resolving sewage issue in P.O. Square is a priority for the Town.  She would support different homeownership programs (place-based, people-based, elder housing), preservation of historical buildings and converting them to affordable units, and development of affordable housing on appropriate Town-owned land (not on land suitable for municipal uses and not on conservation land).

 

Ms. Sloan – The Town is reactive instead of proactive in planning. The Town doesn’t look at things as a whole but rather looks at small projects that crop up. There is no sense of how it fits into the Towns future direction.  She feels the Town needs a full-time town planner and infrastructure. Sharon is culturally diverse, religiously diverse, open space is important; the Lake is the jewel of the Town.

 

Mr. Cohen said that an overarching need is more open space. The state matching is anticipated not to be 100% after this year. There is a lot on the CPC list and the funds are diminishing.

 

Mr. Hauser commented that the statement on the Hunter’s Ridge CSD as stated in Ms. Goldson’s notes is not factually accurate. He said it is important for the community housing to have a current inventory. He stated that the Housing Partnership and Housing Trust need to identify goal of volume and quantify what they want to build. What is their mission? There is no longer a 40B threat for Sharon if the projected pipeline delivers – we’re at the point where affordable housing can be proactive. He thinks there is a need for Town employees and elderly housing. There is a need to craft a tangible example of affordable housing.

 

Mr. Cohen stated there is no money in CPC to spend for this fiscal year and that the Housing Trust asked for money and CPC said no, because of its expenditures for an affordable home on Glendale Road.

 

Historical Preservation

Ms. Price said money is needed for improvements to historical homes, for example, through deed restrictions or matching funds; restore access to historical trails; funding for preserving Town records.

 

Ms. Sloan said there are historical sites that are left abandoned. Any project to support public historic sites would be great.

 

Mr. Cohen supported preserving historic documents. Mr. Hauser stated we need a historic sites, inventory and restore the train station.

 

Open Space

Ms. Price – said it is important to plan for the future of unprotected agricultural land and private recreation land that may have a potential for redevelopment, as well as improve access to stock of existing open space and trails.

 

Mr. Cohen commented that CPA fund will be doing development but the funds need to be used wisely.

 

Mr. Hauser commented that public access to open space sites that have public visibility is important.

 

Recreation

The Board said to improve facilities, schools and playgrounds, improve existing and create new trails, use landfill site for recreation.  Mr. Hauser commented that a town-wide bike trail would be good to have.

 

Other Business

The next Planning Board meeting is scheduled for October 2nd.

 

Meeting Adjournment

Mr. Cohen moved to adjourn the meeting at 10:00 PM and Mrs. Price seconded the motion. The Board voted 4-0-0 in favor.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

.