BRANDON PLANNING COMMISSION

APRIL 7, 2008

Planning Commissioners present: Ethan Swift, Linda Stewart, Jon Andrews, Jenny Nixon, Matt Carmolli, Lynn Saunders, Anne Bransfield

Others present: Janet Mondlak, Tara Kelley, Kevin Thornton

Call to Order - The meeting was called to order at 7:10 pm.

Minutes - Motion by Stewart/Carmolli to approve the minutes of the March 17, 2008 and February 4, 2008 meetings as written. Passed.

Visitor - Kevin Thornton, Brandon Historic Preservation Commission member, brought copies of the Brandon Workbook for Commissioners. There was brief discussion with Kevin regarding the comments he had sent to the Commission on the Town Plan update.

Survey Results / Planning for Public Forum / Next Steps

• Some responses were overwhelmingly supportive of the idea presented, i.e., the concept of allowing new residential in downtown as conditional use as well as creating incentives for building reuses.
• Some results really speak to some of the areas of the Town Plan and they should be incorporated into the revisions.
• There are a couple of different approaches for the format of the public forum. There could be informal stations of each section of the Plan or there could be formal presentations on each section.
• There was discussion about the "reuse" stock available regarding downtown housing. Information should be able to be gathered from tax maps. Lynn said that if people don't know what the capacity is, the "incentive" question is not valid. She said there needs to be a look at everything potentially available - both downtown and out of town. Ethan said many respondents stated they wanted to see denser growth around the downtown or extended from the downtown. Ethan said a Community Development Block Grant proposal is being reviewed to study potential housing density at Park Village. He said that level of analysis would need to be done for this also.
• Kevin said he was on the Economic Development Committee a few years ago and there had been a lot of talk about second story use. There had been issues from the State with fire safety codes. There was preliminary discussion with the Division of Historic Preservation regarding legislation but he does not know the follow up.
• Linda asked for definitions of low income, affordable housing, and elderly housing in order to know what we have and whether or not more is needed. Then the Commission can decide if it should be written into the Plan. Ethan said those numbers should be available in the 2000 census.
• Tara said the Board had decided that the survey would be opinion, not scientific. Ethan said the intent was that the survey would not be a statistical analysis but the graphs are helpful for seeing what people would like to see.
• Tara said the Board needs to decide what they want to do with the survey results. How should they be interpreted and do they change anything already written in it?
• Ethan said there is a perception that there is not enough housing in Brandon because of the big subdivisions planned.
• Ethan said the Planning Commission recognizes the historic nature of our downtown and its importance. Brandon is a destination and it is important to try to retain historic buildings and find new uses.
• Kevin said the Brandon Historical Preservation Commission has not done much in the past few years although last year, they worked with a UVM Grad student who performed a barn survey in town. He said one of the things threatened in downtown are barns. People can’t afford to maintain them. There is a state barn grant program but it is limited. He said the grad student got a start surveying five streets. Kevin said the Commission is frustrated that they are not empowered to do anything. It was created because of the downtown legislation. Lynn said the Commission could do more with an educational component for new developers / owners and to provide them with appropriate resources to do it right.
• Ethan said when the Ordinance was being updated, there was a provision added to make it easier for people to create mother-in-law types of apartments. He suggested barns could be reused for housing. This is part of Chapter 117 as a provision for affordable housing. This part of the Plan needs to be compatible with the Ordinance.
• Timeline: Ethan asked Commissioners to look at the survey results and their particular section to see if there is anything that would be recommended for change. The deadline for getting this information back to Tara was set for April 19. Tara’s email is tkelly@rutlandrpc.org
• Public forum goal: Ethan said he thinks the Commission has done a good job at getting general input. He thinks the next forum should be a reactive phase. The next step will be a formal draft to the Selectboard.
• The Commissioners decided the forum should be an open format with seven stations around the room. Each major section can be a station in the room (with each Commissioner to head up respective sections). People can learn more about the proposal, the issues that came up with regards to the survey, and perhaps rank the issues. There could be a general highlight of information from the survey and how the information was integrated into the sections. There can be copies of the sections and the whole plan available for people to still give feedback.

Town Plan:

• The preparation process needs to be updated.
• The committee needs to come up with a Vision Statement. Tara and the Commission came up with key words and crafted a Vision Statement. She will polish it and send it to board members for their review.
• After the Vision Station, there will be Chapter headings and Goals.
• Lynn recommended not using the VPIRG source for the energy report because it is a political group. Tara said she will look for another source.
• Tara will change the order of the chapters to make it more readable.
• There will need to be a section about child care to be compatible with state statute. Tara has some statistics.  
• Tara will work on making a uniform format for each chapter. She will send the sections to Ethan for him to send to Commissioners to check on their sections. She will indicate what is missing.
• Each section will have a heading, goal(s), objective(s), and recommendation(s).
• It was recommended that the Selectboard get a copy of a tracked changes document to date. Tara will work on this.

Public Forum:

• The forum is scheduled for April 24 at 7:00 pm at the Senior Center. Ethan will prepare a flier and press release.
• The deadline for Commissioners for section revisions is April 16. Everyone needs to send their section to Tara.

Other Business:

• Kevin said the Preservation Trust of Vermont is having their annual historic preservation conference in Brandon on May 2. This is a terrific conference which will attract a big crowd and it has a great keynote speaker. There are many Brandon related break out sessions planned.
• The Town Officers Education Conference is next week.
• On April 21, at UVM, there is a low impact development workshop

Adjourn - Being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 8:30 pm.

Respectfully submitted

____________________
Janet Mondlak, Recording Secretary