Meeting called to order at 7:00pm by Brooks McCandlish, Chair.
Members Present:
Brooks McCandlish, Chair; Stephen Pierce; Denise Renk; Bill Duffy; Bob Hodges; Nathanial Bruss, Alternate; Heather Weed, Alternate
Review and Consideration of Minutes
Minutes of November 2 were approved with the correction of “accept her request to grandfather the sign” and replace with “sign”
Laurie Buchar regarding request for rehearing for Heselton Junk Yard:
Brooks started off by stating that this was not a public hearing, the point of this meeting was to see the evidence and to then determine if there was enough to grant the request for a rehearing. Brooks then went on and read from the Zoning Ordinance regarding the rehearing process. All the Board members took the time and read the letters from the Conservation committee, Amy Manzelli, Esq (attorney for Laurie Buchar, Don Clark, Constance Clark, and Gary Clark), and the letter from Robert S. Carey (attorney for William C. Heselton). The Board discussed the letters and some board members felt that there was new evidence on property value and also on road conditions and overall environmental impact. The letter from Amy Manzelli mentioned the impact the junk yard would have on the abutting historic property so it was suggested to have the Board reach out to the historical society to for their input. Another reason that was mentioned in Amy Manzelli’s letter for a rehearing is because one of the abutters has been out of the country but they have now returned and are in the process of continuing gathering evidence and that is one reason why the evidence was not presented tonight. Robert Carey’s letter stated that the application for a rehearing needed to be automatically denied because the State law requires an approval or denial within 30 days of the application being submitted. The Board further discussed this and because they decided to postpone until further evidence was presented, they did not feel that the application needed to be denied because they were taking action and just wanted further information before a final decision was made.
Amy Manzelli requested in her letter that the rehearing be in March in order to allow appropriate time to gather additional information.
Motion to deny rehearing: this motion was not seconded.
Motion to approve rehearing for the first Wednesday of March; seconded, vote 3-2.
Both parties will be paying for an appraiser to go out and assess the property value and overall environmental impact.
The Board made a motion to have all evidence/documents presented to the Board no later than February 1st, any information presented after February 1st will not be part of the rehearing. Vote 4-1
As there was no additional business to come before the board, meeting adjourned at 7:53PM.