MINUTES OF A SPECIAL MEETING OF THE CORNWALL PLANNING AND ZONING COMMISSION HELD ON ARIL 25, 2006.

A Special Meeting of the Cornwall Planning and Zoning Commission was held at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, April, 25, 2006, in the Cornwall Town Hall. Present were: members David Colbert, Chris Hopkins, Anne Kosciusko, and alternates, James LaPorta and Emilie Pryor. James and Emilie were designated to vote. Land Use Clerk Colin Gold was also present.

SPECIAL MEETING

Chair, Anne Kosciusko asked for Communications to be added to the agenda at the end. The motion carried.

Town Plan Update Nature Conservancy Proposal

Greg Overton of the Nature Conservancy (NC) presented the Commission with what services the NC could offer to Cornwall. Specifically, he addressed the buildout analysis GIS, which the NC would pay for. He mentioned a meeting next month, to which commission members from each of the six towns that the NC serves would be invited. He said that his GIS mapper was ready to get working. Greg gave a brief overview of what a buildout analysis actually represents: all houses that could possibly be built in the next ten years based on zoning, projections of population, town regulations, and the POCD. Commission members had various questions regarding other criteria that the Buildout Analysis could take into account, including soils, slopes and septic systems. Commission members expressed interest in supplying as much information as possible, so as to be accurate and cost-efficient. Anne Kosciusko asked whether fiscal analysis of development could be studied. Greg said that it would take more time than the buildout map, but replied that the NC would be very interested in pursuing this option in order to see revenue and expenditures generated from parcels. Emilie Pryor asked if the NC had experience in rethinking zoning regulations. Greg replied in the affirmative and that he would like to conduct some forums on this topic with other NC-served towns. There was then a brief discussion on Washington’s soil-based zoning spurred on by David Colbert. Greg advised that it would be best to next meet with Ken, the GIS mapper. Commission members asked for he and Ken to check their schedules in hopes that Ken could present on May 23, or if possible May 9. Greg said he would get in contact with Rick Lynn. Commission members asked if a handout could be provided prior to meeting with Ken.

GIS Maps

Anne passed out a copy of things that must be addressed in a POCD. She said that most of these things were sufficiently addressed in the current Plan, but emphasized that this list was just to see the scope of what they must accomplish for the next Plan. There was then some discussion about what role professional planners could take on in the context of Cornwall’s upcoming POCD. Anne also had some maps and statistics about Cornwall land use, from CLEAR.

COMMUNICATIONS

Land Use Clerk Colin Gold informed the Commission that the final copies for the Base Map and Water Resources map had been received from HVA. The Commission took a look at the two maps briefly. Anne discussed with Emilie whether there should be community resources on the Cultural Resources map.

Anne informed the Commission that she was going to ask Tom Byrne to talk with them about their legal role in development.

Lastly, Colin passed out the sheet about Jim Gibbons’ forum on Subdivision Regulations. Anne and David, along with the rest of the members discussed having Jim come and do a presentation to the town about open space requirements and fee in lieu of. It was determined that sending out postcards to all landowners and posting notification of the forum in the Chronicle, sometime in July, would be the best course of action.

ADJOURNMENT

The meeting was adjourned at 8:50.

Colin Gold, Land Use Clerk

NOTE – THESE MINUTES ARE A DRAFT. THEY WILL BE NOTED AS FINAL ONLY AFTER THEY ARE REVIEWED AND APPROVED AS DRAFTED OR AS MODIFIED AT A SUBSEQUENT MEETING OF THE CORNWALL P&Z COMMISSION.