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BRANDON PLANNING COMMISSION WITH BRANDON SELECTBOARD OCT. 20, 2008
Planning Commissioners present: Ethan Swift, Linda Stewart, Anne Bransfield, Lynn Saunders, Jenny Nixon, Jon Andrews
Selectboard members present: Bill Hatch, Richard Baker, Bruce Brown, Kellie Patten
Call to Order - The meeting was called to order at 7:00 pm.
Ethan thanked Selectboard members for the opportunity to discuss the town plan draft. He said that formatting has not yet been addressed but will be. This discussion is for content and Selectboard comments.
Kellie said in general, the plan needs to be consistent between chapters. For example: Forestdale, railyard, and capitalization of the word 'Town'. She also said the entire document needs to be edited for punctuation.
There was discussion chapter by chapter. Most of the discussion has been reflected in changes made to the chapters. There was some general discussion and items still under consideration.
Chapter Comments
Child Care - Ethan said he believes that under Chapter 117, we have to have a separate section. It was noted that it should cover Child Care and Elder Care. It was decided that if we do not need a separate chapter to comply with Chapter 117, that the text on Child Care will be rolled into the Community Profile. Ethan will check the statutory language.
Education - Kellie pointed out that there is no Education goal. Education does not have its own chapter, but is included under Public Facilities. Some people thought Education should have its own chapter and others felt that it did not need its own, if it was not legally required. Ethan said the Commission will try to work on pulling it out to make a separate chapter and asked Kellie for her help in doing so - especially communicating with the school boards and / or principals for information from them.
Community Profile - Dayle Ann said things are changing for older workers and there is a potential for older workers to be seen more as a resource. She said this is an emerging issue nation-wide. There might be retraining or recognizing older people as a workforce. That should be a positive change. Richard said that issue is not just elder care but addressing how can people age in place, be independent, have access to public transportation and be productive. Ethan said the survey results showed a significant feeling that there is a lack of good elder housing.
Government - Kellie said she would like to see more definitive numbers in some places. For example, under Households, there are places which say "increased 3.50%" but there are no references to the initial number or what they add up to. There is no way someone reading this can do the math to find out i.e., what the new number of households are. Lynn said it implies it is from the 2000 census. Kellie said it says 3.5% but she asked what that means? There is no way to know what the number is - either what it was before the increase or what it was after the increase. How does it compare to the region or state? Is it a lot or a little? It was noted that perhaps some of Kellie's questions might be answered by looking at the technical appendices, which were not included with the Selectboard materials. Ethan said statistics will be addressed and tied into technical appendices.
Energy / Transportation - Richard said the information is interesting and asked what was planned for it. Will it be used for zoning ordinance rewrites? Is there a recommendation for creating incentives or tax stabilization for people using it? Will we rebuild the hydro plant? Ethan said he can do follow up.
Recreation - Do we want to still want to include the indoor pool? Some thought it should be included, even if we don’t think it is a reality. Others though it should not be included if we can’t afford it. There was consensus that many of the recommendations in this section can be tied into the Recreation Master Plan, which the Brandon Recreation Advisory Committee (BRAC) has been charged with writing. There was a question about the Town Plan recommending Recreation items that BRAC may or may not want in the Master Plan. Ethan said that many of the items were included with the input of BRAC. Richard said he thinks there is a lot of specificity and advised that they could be possibly consolidated into fewer bullets and leave the rest to be addressed in the Master Plan.
Economic Development - Kellie said there is terminology talking about 'median income' and 'large portion' (i.e., A large portion of the Brandon workforce commutes out of town to work) but it doesn't say what that means. There was discussion about the term "diverse economy." Richard said it implies we are economically stable and we have a diverse economy. He said it is not true since Brandon has one of the largest populations in the state of people living on unearned income. That is not diverse. Ethan said he believes it means that there is diversity in the workplace. Lynn said income is a part of the economy but it is not the economy. Richard said we have become a magnet for non-contributing members of society. Lynn said there is business diversity - artists, tourism, small business people, manufacturers, etc.
There was discussion on designated growth centers. The old Steinberg Farm area can help connect Park Village to downtown. Another area is down on Union St near the railroad tracks. A designated growth center has to be connected to downtown and there could be more than one in a town.
Conclusion and Implementation - Ethan said he hopes to put together these changes and then hold a Planning Commission hearing, hopefully in early December. He asked for any additional changes from Selectboard members to be sent to him by the end of the week. The Selectboard will hold two hearings after the Planning Commission sends it along.
Ethan said that Regional Planning owes us 100 copies of the Plan. He will ask for it in two batches of 50 for the different hearings. Richard said he hopes the Selectboard could have the new Town Plan adopted by Town Meeting.
Motion by Saunders/Andrews for the Planning Commissioners to enter into executive session for a discussion of personnel at 9:05 pm. Motion passed. Everyone who was not on the Planning Commission left the meeting.
The Commission came out of executive session at 9:20 PM.
Motion by Saunders/Stewart to nominate "said person" as the permanent Zoning Administrator. The motion passed unanimously - 6 to zero.
Next Meeting(s) - Nov. 3
Adjourn - Being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 9:21 pm.
Respectfully submitted
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