By Alex Malm
The Planning Board were scheduled to review a proposed subdivision plan during its April 5 board meeting, but far too many waivers got in the way of moving forward with that review.
The developers proposal is for 21 single-family homes at 20 and 22 Young Road. Variations of this plan have been discussed conceptually for a number of months by various town boards and commissions.
Initially the plan was to put well over double that amount of dwellings on the two properties.
The issue the Planning Board had to address during the meeting was in regards to the waivers being requested by the owner of Cedar Crest Development, Aaron Orso.
“Before we get to the plan we have to determine if it’s complete,” said Planning Board Chair, Art Rugg.
Assistant Town Manager, Kellie Caron, said she had just received a waiver request for the 10 outstanding checklist items, and because she didn’t have time to review it all, they were recommending that the application not be considered complete.
Caron pointed out that one of the items that was missing was the stormwater report. It was explained that a version of the report was submitted as part of the design review, however, it wasn’t part of the formal submission.
Planning Board member, Jake Butler, said it sounded like there was a conversation about everything by everyone involved, but “It’s just not in the checklist itself.”
Butler, who appeared to be speaking in favor of forgoing the oversight said, “It almost seems more of a housekeeping issue.”
Another one of the waivers being requested was in regards to all the different lots having lot numbers identified by the assessor.
However, it was argued that they couldn’t get those numbers without the merger going through first.
Caron stated that she has seen merger requests with formal submissions in the past, so they can identify the lot in advance.
She explained if they were to accept any of the waivers, it would be for acceptance only.
“They still need to fulfill these requirements,” said Caron.
Rugg said he thought it would be better to have all the information first before making a decision.
Butler asked if the board would consider at least accepting the waivers for completion of application purposes.
“Can’t we as a board exercise some forward thinking here,” said Butler.
The board took a vote to accept all the waivers for application completion purposes. That vote failed on a 2-5-1 vote, with Butler and Bruce Hallowell being the only members voting in favor.
Butler then asked if the board could get it on the agenda for next week.
Orso seemed to think they could have everything addressed in a week and could be back in front of the board.
“We feel very confident that we can be back here in a week with every one of these things addressed,” Orso said.
However, there were concerns by some of the board members about how big of an agenda they already would have for the April 12 meeting and whether or not everything could be formally submitted in time.
The Planning Board agreed to continue the proposed subdivision plan at the May 10 meeting.