The Town Council, at the most recent Public Meeting held on April 22, had an agenda item dedicated to a citizens petition warrant article that overwhelmingly passed in March. This article had asked voters if they supported moving from an appointed Planning Board, selected by the Town Council, to an elected Planning Board, selected by the will of the people.
While the warrant article was advisory only, meaning it had no legal effect to compel the Town Council to listen, it is felt that many citizens expressed how they felt on the matter, and that it is incumbent upon the town to listen and to take action!
Resident, Deb Paul, who originally gathered the necessary signatures and submitted the warrant article for the March election, was unable to attend the meeting due to a personal matter, but several citizens gave input on the matter.
Resident, Kristine Perez, spoke at the public hearing, reminding the Council that “This was overwhelmingly approved by the voters,” Perez said. She went on to note that about 65% of the voters in town voted in support of moving to an elected Planning Board.
Resident, Jonathan Esposito, also spoke, noting that the primary reason he supported moving to an elected Planning Board is because he feels that the current appointed one isn’t receptive to feedback from citizens. With going to an elected body versus an appointed one, he said “perhaps our voices would travel a little farther in being heard.”
Resident, Martha Smith, said she thinks the planning board must “keep in mind what the vision of Londonderry is,” and without generous public comment, the Board would miss input from the community.
Planning Board Chair, Jake Butler, spoke, explaining that there is public comment as required by law, as part of public hearing processes for things like new proposed developments, or other proposed regulation changes. He pointed to one example being a recent meeting when the Board heard a fair amount of feedback for a proposed unit development.
“I can’t stress enough that there is public comment on everything that is a public hearing that comes to the Planning Board,” he said.
Town Councilor, John Farrell, said, “We’ve been doing it the same way for 30 years,” and that the Planning Board has been advised by the town’s attorneys in the past that they shouldn’t have public comment in general outside of public hearings.
“If the reason to do this is public comment that has seemed to have been resolved,” he said. Farrell also gave his opinion on whether or not he felt the Citizens Petition was a good idea, and his feeling was that no one had explained sufficiently enough to him why an elected board would be the way to go.
When reached out for comments, Deb Paul stated that she put this warrant article forward because she felt that an elected planning board are chosen by the people, while appointed board members are given there position by some other authority, and it can be taken away at anytime if they do not agree with their opinion. “I feel that many different perspectives, not just those people that are like-minded with the Town Councilors that appoint them, is a better system.”
Paul went on to say that she has not been happy with the direction the town is headed, becoming much less rural and that our infrastructure was having a had time handling it.
She added, “To say this is the way we always done it is just backward thinking and not a reason to go against the will of the people in a town election.”