Town of Panton
Development  Review Board  (DRB)
Minutes of November 3, 2005 (UNAPPROVED)

DRB Members Present:	Guest:
S. Hofmann (Chair)	Gregory O'Bryan
L. Giovanella	Debra O'Bryan
M. Hermann	H. Paquette
R. Kline	Nicole Paquette
D. Marshall
R. Moulton
A. Tisbert
E. Hanson, Zoning Administrator

Call to Order:  The meeting was called to order in the Panton Town office at 7:00 p.m. by S. Hofmann, Chair. A quorum was established.

Election of Chairman, vice-chairman & clerk:  S. Hofmann advised the board that the Selectboard had now officially changed the Planning Commission/Zoning Board of Adjustment to a DRB.  Election of Chair, vice-chair and clerk is necessary with this change.  S. Hofmann asked for nominations for these opens.  R. Moulton made the motion to leave the officers as they are for the rest of the year.  Seconded by R. Klein.  So voted unanimously.  All voted.

Minutes:  Motioned by R. Moulton seconded by R. Klein to approve the minutes of the October 6th 2005 meeting with the spelling of Klein corrected.  So voted unanimously. All voted.

E. Hanson at this point requested permission to hand out a copy of a map that he had omitted in the packet sent out to members of the board concerning the two hearing being conducted tonight. 

Warned hearing of O’Bryan Property:
S. Hofmann swore in anyone wishing to speak during the O’Bryan hearing.
E. Hanson spoke of the briefing memo he had prepared for all members.  The O’Bryan’s are taking out of a 78 acres lot which lies astride of East Road.  The O’Bryan’s are proposing to subdivide two lots basically all of the property to the east of East Road on parcel 22 on the tax map.  They wish to divide one lot into 18.81 acres containing their own homestead and 2.09 acres which formally contained a mobile home for farm labor housing.  The Paquette’s which is the second hearing tonight are proposing to put a replacement doublewide on that property.  Because there are or will be two dwellings on that property it is preexisting nonconforming use and if they put the new doublewide back on it will be a continuation of a preexisting nonconforming use.  E. Hanson went on to say that the O’Bryan’s are proposing to do for the property on the east side, of East road they are proposing to divide around essentially build a 2.09 acre subdivision around the mobile home bringing that into conformance and at the same time bring all the rest of the land on the east side of the road into conformance as well.  G. O’Bryan asked what happens after this step as to what they had to do.  E. Hanson explained the steps involved for final approval and that a second hearing would not have to be warned, that the board could recess tonight’s hearing until December 1, 2005 at which time they could return with the survey drawing and a Mylar.  R. Moulton made the motion to accept the O’Bryan property as presented seconded by L. Giovanella.  So voted unanimously All voting.  R. Moulton made the motion to recess this part of the hearing until December 1st at 7:00 P.M.  Seconded by L. Giovanella.  So voted unanimously. All voted.

New business:  S. Hofmann advised that the DRB board needs to set a budget for next year.  There has not been a budget in the past and the Selectboard is now requesting one.  S. Hofmann advised that he had spoke with S. Torrey and the figures so far this year looks like about $10,000.00.  M. Hermann and E. Hanson both suggested money be in the budget for education purposes.  The amount of $2000.00 was suggested for education.  S. Hofmann stated he was anticipating at least two maybe three issues requiring legal fees again.  S. Hofmann felt $5000.00 in legal fees could be possible.  S. Hofmann asked for recommendation on legal fees, R. Moulton reminded the board members that if they did have recommendations  they needed to speak one at a time as it is very hard to transcribe minutes with everyone talking at once.  M. Hermann suggested making the line item education and training.  L. Giovanella asked about survey money and E. Hanson advised that B. Saxton is no longer with Regional Planning and the board needs to resolved who will help with town planning.
S. Hofmann advised he had gone to the Selectboard for approval on hiring help for rewriting the town zoning and the Selectboard basically told him there is no money to hire, they suggested go to Addison Regional. S. Hofmann advised starting work on the Zoning Bylaws in January.

Warned Hearing of the Paquette: 
S. Hofmann swore in anyone wishing to speak during the Paquette hearing and board members introduced themselves to the Paquette’s
E. Hanson did an overview for this hearing stating the Paquette hearing relates with the O’Bryan Property hearing hear earlier this evening.  The Paquette’s are here this evening requesting permission to place a double wide home on the spot where the O’Bryan’s had their farm help housing.  The new home would be located in the same spot with the same number of bedrooms as the farm housing was.  The only difference would be the new home would extend a bit further to one side and back from the property boundaries. The new home would comply in all respects with the existing property and when the O’Bryan subdivision is completed this would be conforming in all respects. 
S. Hofmann asked for comments.  M. Hofmann asked about adequate septic.  E. Hanson stated it was adequate.  H. Paquette asked about moving the driveway location.  M. Hermann expressed concern about another curb cut into the road.  Right now the present driveway is used for farm equipment.  E. Hanson advised speaking to the Road Forman before doing anything.  The new drive would be about 50 feet from the current one.  L. Giovanella asked if the board could establish something now as to the current driveway becoming a secondary driveway on this property.  R. Moulton made the motion to approve their application with a new primary driveway and a secondary agriculture driveway. Seconded by A. Tisbert so voted unanimously.  All voted.

Annual Report:   S. Hofmann asked everyone to be thinking about their input for the next town report.

Whispering Pines:  S. Hofmann asked E. Hanson for an update.  E. Hanson stated he does not have anything to report at this time, but is still working on it.  E. Hanson went on to say it is a mess and has gone on for a number of years.  M. Hermann suggested this has been an ongoing problem for years in Panton and perhaps a brief summery would work best.  E. Hanson stated perhaps the worst snapshot is there are 13 registered voters living in Whispering Pines Campground.  S. Hofmann stated there appears to be four children that get on the bus daily from there.  E. Hanson went on to say that he had heard from one of  the residence of Whispering Pines a few days ago and she was very upset because someone in the town had told her that the town has a bylaw stating that no one living in a mobile home trailer there could  go to school.  E. Hanson advised the caller this was not true.  E. Hanson stated the vast majority of what has been done there has not been properly permitted.  D. Marshall asked if there were new buildings or trailers brought in.  E. Hanson answered mobile homes not travel trailers.  R. Moulton added that just for background information 20 years ago, he had a person named Al Chamberlain working for him at Kennedy Bros. and A. Chamberlain was one of the original tenants living there year round.  R. Moulton went on to state  that he had been zoning administrator at one point for the town of Panton and he had resigned  from the post because the Planning Chair and the Selectboard was condoning what was going on there.  M. Hermann requested that when E. Hanson gets the summery worked up that he forward it to the members before a meeting.

S. Hofmann advised the board that concern has been brought to his attention about the Keever subdivision that was done in the year 2000-2001.  The person that bought the lot between D. Keever and the Lowman house is going to start building soon and they will be blasting because where the house site is required to go is all ledge.  The Planning board at the time of this subdivision decided where the building envelope was to go, which is not legal.   L. Giovanella asked why it was not legal.  E. Hanson explained it was not in the board’s authority to determine a house site.  The board can determine a building envelope for the property, in fact the zoning regulations determine it now  and you can change that by issuing a variance if that is what is required to develop a lot but you can’t dictate where a building will go.  S. Hofmann went on to say he had spoken with E. Hanson and the Selectboard and the Selectboard basically said don’t ruffle anything wait and see if anything happens.  S. Hofmann said the Selectboard advised that should the owners want to come in we will address it at that point.  M. Hermann stated if his memory was right that D. Keever came in saying if she sold the property she wanted future houses built back from the road.  D. Marshall stated that D. Keever came in with a plan as to where the houses were going to be and where she wanted the driveways.  D. Marshall went on to say the board encouraged her to build on the ledge and back from the road and at that time it did not seem to make a lot of sense.  L Giovanella looked back in her minutes and clarified that this property was done as a PRD.  E. Hanson stated this was not carried through as a PRD.  Discussion continued as to what happened at the time of this subdivision. L. Giovanella read from past minutes. 

Comments by board members:  S. Hofmann asked if anyone had any comments.  M. Hermann asked about a replacement for R. LaFleche.  S. Hofmann stated that the Selectboard had decided to go with an eight member board at this time.  Conversation went on as to why that decision was made and was it legal.  S. Hofmann stated he personally wanted nine members.  S. Hofmann said he would go back to the Selectboard once again if everyone was in agreement and ask for another person.  E. Hanson went on to say that in Salisbury they have a seven member board with two alternates which seems to work well.  D. Marshall and A. Tisbert both stated they would like a nine member board.  R. Moulton stated he had been on a small board in the past and felt that a five to seven member board works just as efficiently.  L. Giovanella also would prefer a nine member board. R. Moulton pointed out that this was a new board and the Selectboard chose to go with an eight member DRB board so at this time there is no opening.  M. Hermann stated that he did not think the terms of appointment were legal as an eight member board that appointments would have to be four year terms not three years as it stands now.  E. Hanson read from section 4460 from Vermont Municipal and Regional Planning and Development Act book that  development review board  members  shall be appointed by the legislative body of the municipality with the number of members and terms of office  determined by the legislative body subject to the provisions of subsection A of this section.  Subsection A doesn’t specify number of members or terms.  L. Giovanella requested that if the Selectboard does not agree with appointing another person to the board she would like to know their reason why.

The next meeting will be December 1, 2005 @ 7:00 P.M.
Motion to adjourn at 8:10 P.M. by L. Giovanella seconded by A. Tisbert.  All voted