TOWN OF HINESBURG

PLANNING COMMISSION MINUTES

 

June 2, 2004

Approved July 7, 2004

 

Commission Members Present:  Jean Isham (Chair), Fred Haulenbeek, Carrie Fenn, John Buckingham, Joe Iadanza, George Bedard, Nancy Norris, Johanna White, Daniel Greller

 

Commission Members Absent:  none.

 

Also Present:  Alex Weinhagen (Town Planner), George & Karla Munson, David Lyman, John Lyman.

 

The meeting began at approximately 7:35pm.

 

**NOTE** The May 19 meeting was cancelled.  This was Daniel Greller’s 1st Commission meeting.  He was appointed to the Commission on May 3, 2004 to fill Deb Howard’s seat.

 

Town Plan Revision – Review & Discuss Draft 2:

The Commission went through draft 2 of the Town Plan page by page.  A variety of grammatical and substantive corrections and changes were discussed.  A partial list by section follows:

2.1 – Add “reasonably priced housing” to each recommendation (a-d)

2.2 – Add “disabled housing” to the general goal and the recommendations

2.5a – Delete the 2nd sentence of this recommendation.  George Munson felt the 1st sentence was good, but the 2nd sentence should be deleted because it was so vague.  George Bedard wanted to keep it, but the consensus of the rest of the Commission was to delete the 2nd sentence.

2.5e – Add “reasonably priced housing”, but otherwise no change.  Fred initially wanted to change it to emphasize access to farm or forest land in the rural areas.  George Bedard wanted to keep as much flexibility as possible with regard to uses of open land and lot sizes.  Fred agreed that the language was acceptable.

Table 2 – Delete this table.  Jean questioned the accuracy of table 2 given that it shows 4 new residential units in the industrial zoning districts in the last 6 years.  Alex noted that this table is very hard to validate, and that there are discrepancies between it and the figure 7 showing new housing units over time.

3.2 (general, green space) – No change.  Jean felt the Village section doesn’t discuss the preservation of green space enough.  She wants to encourage in-fill, but doesn’t want every last square inch of the Village paved or developed.  Carrie said there is new language on the need for a village common or green.  She also pointed out that section 3.2.7d should help the Town track this.

3.2.1a – Fred suggested additional changes to the West Side area recommendation to emphasize that the Commission envisions a unique and carefully crafted, new zoning district rather than a simple enlargement of the existing Village Zoning District.

3.2.1c – Joe suggested changes to emphasize the Towns interest in redeveloping underutilized structures in the Village as opposed to undeveloped land.

3.2.3 – No change.  Carrie suggested adding a 3rd recommendation for this goal to create a vegetated buffer of 130’ on either side of the LaPlatte River from Silver Street to the Shelburne Falls Road.  George Bedard and Nancy expressed various concerns, especially regarding the non-flexible 130’ number.  Jean said she felt vegetated buffers were important, but that this was not the appropriate section to make such a recommendation.

3.2 (general, property rehabilitation) – David Lyman asked what could be done about the 3 decrepit properties within the northern gateway to the existing village core (on east side of Route 116 across from the Giroux metal shop).  The Commission pointed out recommendation 3.2.1c that encourages the redevelopment of such structures.  Alex wondered if the Plan should be more direct and identify this area as one that needs special attention or resources.  Jean and other Commissioners felt it would be a bad idea to single out individual properties.  John Lyman asked if this area could be better screened with street trees if the Town took over Route 116.  Alex and Joe said that even though the State controls the right of way, the Town should be able to get street trees, sidewalks, and street lights here given the Route 116 Scoping Study recommendations.  All of that will require initiative and money.

3.4.3a & 3.4.4a – No changes.  George Bedard suggested deleting the added text that says the Commission will consider a lower overall base density in the rural areas of town.  The rest of the Commissioners disagreed, noting that this issue was discussed at length at the last meeting, and that the new language represented compromise language.

3.0 (for all areas in town) – No changes.  Karla and George Munson wanted to make sure that the Plan included enough enabling language so that the Commission would feel empowered to make zoning district changes that were not necessarily specifically mentioned in the Plan.  Jean felt that the draft Plan gave the Commission enough flexibility within reason.

4.3 – Modify section on Lewis Creek Association and delete last 4 paragraphs under Water Quality & Stormwater section.  Fred felt the new language describing the Lewis Creek Association sounded too much like an endorsement rather than a description.  Other Commissioners agreed that the organization should be more briefly described.  Fred also felt the new stormwater language was too extensive and did not reflect the level of discussion and concern that this topic had received thus far.  He said the language walks a fine line between information and advocacy, and that some of it should be deleted because few other topics are treated with such depth in the Plan.  Carrie explained that all of the new language was simply informational and descriptive rather than prescriptive.  The consensus was to keep the 1st two paragraphs of the new language.

 

The Commission will continue the page by page review at page 34 at the next meeting.  Jean asked Alex what the new schedule for the Commission’s formal public hearing on the Plan.  Alex said that the schedule is now in flux given the time the Commission is taking to incorporate some of the early public feedback and make more changes.

 

Minutes of the May 5, 2004 Meeting:

Carrie MOVED to approve the May 5, 2004 meeting minutes as amended.  Joe SECONDED the motion.  The motion PASSED 8-0 (Dan abstaining).

 

Other Business & Announcements:

None.

 

 

Respectfully Submitted,

 

 

___________________________________/____________

Alex Weinhagen, Town Planner               Date