MAY 15, 2007

Approved June 5, 2007

Board Members Present: Tom McGlenn, George Munson, Dennis Place, Ted Bloomhardt, Lisa Godfrey, and Zoë Wainer.

Board Member Absent: Greg Waples.

Also Present: Alex Weinhagen, Planner; Peter Erb, Zoning Administrator; Holly Russell, substitute recording secretary; Joe Fallon, Carlene Emmons, Karen Quenneville, Robert & Dee Burritt, Laurie & Michael Hennessey, Deanna & Steve Utter, Valerie Beaudry, George Bedard, Joyce DeVoid, Steve Chupack, Greg Glade, Barbara Galgon, Daintha Francis, Brent Francis, Richard Francis, Jim Frazier, Jeff Davis.

Minutes Ted Bloomhardt made the motion to accept the minutes of May 1^st as corrected and this motion was seconded by George Munson and passed unanimously. The correction was at the request of Judy Fritz in regard to her subdivision review and added the following: Judy said “that regarding the neighboring subdivisions, re-subdivision on most of them was unlikely or impossible because of road frontage. The Board noted that road frontage is not necessary for small subdivision that can provide access via a private right-of-way.”

Emmons/Burritt Appeal

The item of business was the continuation of the warned public hearing in regard to the Carlene Emmons and Robert Burritt appeal of a letter of violation from Peter Erb, Zoning Administrator, in regard to stormwater runoff from the Emmons subdivision on Bittersweet Hill a private road across from C.V.U. High School.

At the DRB meeting on April 17^th, the Emmons engineer, Nick Nowlan had explained the background and design of the system. The Hennessey’s had also submitted a report from Trudell engineering. The Board had wanted to have an independent engineering consultation, and Alex explained that he had received 4 estimates from engineers and they ranged from $700 to $3800.

Joe Fallon, representing Carlene Emmons, explained the following issues:

The Trudell report was flawed in that the original Emmons house and garage were not part of this subdivision, and that 2006 was a very wet year when this flooding occurred.
The Utter’s installing a swimming pool may have caused some of the flooding problems.
He also said that they understand that some work needs to be done on the spreader. He further explained that his clients had paid $17,000 to design and install this system and they would only be prepared to pay ½ the cost of hiring an engineer to review the system.
He said his clients would be willing to continue to work with the neighbors on this issue.

Laurie Hennessey, a neighbor who has also had problems with storm run-off at the back of her property explained the situation for her family and Deanna and Steve Utter’s property.

She felt that the Trudell report was accurate and that at the insistence of the neighbors, Nick Nowlan has redesigned the system due to water problems onto neighboring properties.
There is continuing to be flooding issues even this year.
The Utters have requesting permission to drain some of this water into the Town’s roadside ditch and were told they would have to conduct a study as to the amount of water entering the Town’s system.
They are concerned about the maintenance of this retention pond.

Val Beaudry also stated that theneighborhood community septic pumping station is on her property and she is concerned about this excess runoff affecting that station.

Deanna Utter then stated that she did not feel that the neighbors should have to pay for ½ of any independent engineering study.

Ted Bloomhardt then outlined the two issues that seem to be the problem: The system was designed for a 25 year flood and this seems to work. However, this system does not work for any water running off this hill and onto neighboring properties. It seems to have been designed to address the wrong problem. Lisa agreed and asked whether the DRB would have looked at the pre-develop baseline for this project, as the first house may have caused some of the problems prior to the subdivision being constructed.

George Bedard who had worked on this subdivision originally explained that the original plan had been to direct water into an existing ditch and the neighbors had requested that plan be revised. Steve Utter explained that this revision had been at the request of the Quinns whose property had been directly affected.

Dennis then made the motion to discuss this issue in deliberative session and this motion was seconded by Zoë and passed.

Chupack – Final Plat Approval Appeal

Steve Chupack then presented an appeal to revise the conditions of final plat approval for his lot in the Orchard Commons subdivision located on the north side of the Richmond Road. Greg Glade and Barbara Galgon, purchasers of this property were also present).

Condition #5 of this original 1985 approval by the Hinesburg Planning Commission stated that: “A minimum setback of 30 feet shall be maintained between any principal or accessory structures and boundaries of properties not owned by the applicants.” Steve was requesting that in order to construct a garage on this property he would like to change this approval condition only for his lot. This would be to allow structures, specifically a garage with breezeway, to be constructing within the 20 foot setback allowed under the Hinesburg Zoning Regulations. He explained that his lot is one of the few in this subdivision that does not have a garage. Peter Erb, also explained that many of the houses in this 20 year development were not constructed within the building envelopes and in some instances within the lots boundaries.

Steve explained that this is the only location on his lot where a garage could be built as he had granted a driveway right-of-way to the property to the north of him.

Zoë Wainer made the motion to close the public hearing and that the Board take up this appeal in deliberative session. This motion was seconded by Dennis Place and passed unanimously.

Francis Family – Sketch Plan

Dick Francis and his son Brent then explained a plan for sketch plan approval to create one new 3 acre lot from the Francis Family property on the north side of the Hayden Hill Road West. They presented the following items concerning this subdivision:

The lot will be on the edge of the woods at the edge of the meadow.
The new lot will share a common road-cut and right-of-way with the Dominique Francis lot. They have left sufficient room between these two lots to access the two portions of the main property.
They do not feel the need to show more of a master plan for this 180+ acres because all the grandchildren will now have lots to build on.
Dick explained that this lot is on the very edge of the deer yard which extends over the hill to Texas Hill.
They are in the State Current Use Program to manage this sugar orchard and forest.
There is a wet area that will defuse and filter any run-off from this new drive and lot. They will also address the stream that crosses the property.
They have done preliminary perc tests.

The Board members felt they would like to have a site visit to the property and requested that they put up flags for the building location and drive.

Ted Bloomhardt made the motion to continue this sketch plan discussion to the Board’s June 5^th meeting with a site visit to the property prior to the meeting at 6:15 p.m. This motion was seconded by George Munson and passed unanimously.

Davis – Conditional Use Permit

Jeff Davis then presented a request for a conditional use permit to construct an expansion on a pre-existing non-complying camp at Lake Iroquois. Jeff had received a previous conditional use permit to remove and rebuild a pre-existing camp on this lot located at 187 Shadow Lane. At this time, he was requesting to construct a 12’ x 12’ screened porch and a 16’6” x 9’ deck on the east side of the existing structure.

Jeff explained the following issues of this proposal:

They will tear down the existing deck on the rear of this camp which is in violation due to the fact it does not meet the rear-yard setback requirement.
With these new additions, they will still meet the 75 foot setback requirement from the lake.
Jeff said that the original lot coverage with the old camp was 15.7% and with the additional construction it will now be 16.2%. Alex explained that the original camp was not as large as this one but did have a large parking area on the lake side.
Peter Erb brought up that the proposed plan shows steps on both sides of a new entrance on the west or uphill side of the camp and he was not sure that this is “necessary” as defined in the Zoning Bylaw. Jeff explained that it would be difficult for the propane delivery person to get to the tank in the back of the lot and also be more convenient for his family and guests to access the camp from the back of the property using this second step. This side entrance and deck was not part of the application for this review.

Ted Bloomhardt explained that this request does not make the structure any more non-complying. Jeff explained to Lisa that this addition will not affect the neighbors view as there are woods between him and the Williston land to the north.

Ted Bloomhardt made the motion to close the public hearing and accept the decision of approval as drafted. This motion was seconded by Dennis Place and passed unanimously.

Other Business

George Munson made the motion to continue the Suki Flash sketch plan approval for an additional 6 months at her request. This motion was seconded by Zoë Wainer and passed unanimously.

Tom McGlenn then made the motion to go into deliberative session and this motion was seconded by Ted Bloomhardt and passed unanimously. In returning to the open meeting from deliberative session the following business was acted upon.

Tom McGlenn made the motion to approve the denial of the Fritz sketch plan and this motion was seconded by Ted Bloomhardt. The motion passed with Tom McGlenn, Ted Bloomhardt, Lisa Godfrey, and George Munson voting for, Dennis Place voting against, and Zoë Wainer abstaining from the vote.
Ted Bloomhardt then made the motion to acknowledge and approve the Carlson revision to their recorded final plat mylar and this motion was seconded by Dennis Place and passed unanimously.
The Board then directed staff to draft a motion on the violation appeal by Emmons and Burritt.
The Board also directed staff to draft conditions of approval for the Chupack appeal.

The meeting adjourned at 9:55 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Holly Russell

Acting Recording Secretary