COMPREHENSIVE STEERING

PLANNING COMMITTEE

MEETING

NOVEMBER 6, 2006

Present:  Rick Smith, David Wood, Gary Vanderhorst, Dave Adams, Sally Ellms, Jim Leupold, Lynda Battenhausen, Midge Dube, Dot Mitchell and Marv Schorr.  Town Board members present were Alan Grattidge, Sandy Verola, Bruce Gardner and Bob Lipiello.  Town Historian Laura Linder was also present.

The first order of business was to approve the minutes from October 2, 2006.  Gary Vanderhorst made the motion to approve, with a second by Marv Schorr.  Motion carried.

Dave Wood said he was hoping tonight, with a little bit editing, that this may be the last meeting of the committee.  The committee will meet next month just to finalize the Plan and to make sure it’s ready for the town newsletter, which gets mailed out in early February.  Dave will get the edits made at tonight’s meeting to Nan and then forward the changes back to the committee after they come back from Nan. 

Dave handed out copies of the history of Charlton, written by Laura Linder.  The committee felt it was too long.  Dave Adams offered to edit the piece to make it smaller, and Sandy asked Dave Adams to email it to her after he completed the edits. 

The next items discussed were suggestions made by Jason Kemper from the Saratoga County Planning Department.  Larry Benton also looked at the Plan and gave it high marks.  Mike Valentine and George Hodgson also reviewed the Plan.  In Jason’s letter, under Goal 1 – Agriculture and Farmland, he suggested the significant viewsheds be identified in this section or the section entitled “Open Space/Environmental Resources”.  The committee agreed to leave that section where it is.  Sandy Verola asked what happened to the subcommittee that was supposed to look into the tax burden on other landowners in town when implementing programs to protect the agriculture and farmland within the town.  Dave Wood said Guy Mitchell was supposed to look into this, and he in turn said Dot Mitchell would look into it.  Dot stated she didn’t know how to go about it.  Dave Wood said he spoke with Carol Hawley and she said she would do it for us.  Dave said we need to have a list of items being suggested to give to Carol. 

Dave Adams suggested changing the wording of #4 on page 9 from “Allow further reductions…” to read “Evaluate and implement, if feasible, further reductions…”  The committee agreed.  Dave also suggested changing #7 on page 10 from “Allow a Purchase of…” to read “Consider establishing a Purchase of…”, and at the end of the sentence add See also Goal 2, item #12.  Also, #9 on page 11, should be changed to read, “Encourage purchase of development rights and conservation easement programs…”

Goal 3 – Historic Buildings and Landmarks, Jason stated having an advisory committee and an active historic commission is redundant.  Dot Mitchell said she suggested an advisory committee of volunteers who have the expertise to help only if the Historic District Commission had questions where they needed extra help.  After considerable discussion, it was suggested to split #1 into two parts.  Laura Linder had something written up which Dave Adams read to the group.  The new #1 will read as follows:  Form an historic buildings and land marks committee of three to five knowledgeable residents of the community to identify, research and describe sites of importance in the town of Charlton.  A working inventory of these sites will be established to form a town register of historic sites.  This committee with work with the office of the town Historian and the Charlton Historic District Commission.  The new #2 will read, Form an advisory committee of volunteers with expertise in agriculture, (inaudible) and restoration (inaudible) to assist the historic buildings and land marks committee, the Historic District Commission, and office of the town Historian with questions on conservation, preservation and restoration on an historic site important to the town.  These sites begin with the Charlton Historic District and Scotch Church, a historic site already on the New York State National and Historic Site Registers.  Numbers 2, 3, and 4 will become numbers 3, 4, and 5. 

Goal 5 – Roads and Pathways, Jason suggested identifying some areas so if a property is developed it can be determined quickly if a trail is required on that parcel.  The committee discussed and decided to drop this suggestion and won’t change anything in the plan.

Goal 6 – Zoning Ordinance and Subdivision Regulations.  Dave Adams will edit #1. Dave proposes focusing on conservation subdivision design and shifting the discussion of PUD into Items Recommended for Study and Possible Action on page 15.  The committee agreed.  Dave Wood stated that the town can use parameters for the PUD ahead of time and asked Dave Adams to include some of the guidelines in the future study. 

Under Goal 6, item #2, Dave Adams recommended this apply to major subdivisions.  Dave Wood stated he believed the Planning Board was interested in this happening for individual homes and not just major subdivisions.  Dave Adams stated that water supply and individual homes is covered on page 15, #1, under Items Recommended for Study and Possible Action.  Dave stated there were concerns about requiring this and what the implications of it would be.  He said the conclusion the committee came to was this needed to be looked at and studied later because the committee doesn’t know enough about how it might work and all the implications to put it under recommended actions.  Dave Adams said that subdivisions are not individual homes but three or more homes.  Alan Grattidge noted what Jason Kemper’s letter said which was “to require wells within a certain distance of the application be shown on the subdivision plans, and information on the quantity and quality of those wells be presented to the deciding boards.”  Dave Adams stated he believes Jason’s comment about information on the quantity and quality of wells would be useful in developing how to amend these regulations.  There was more discussion and comments on item #2, and it was decided it would remain as is, but delete “until a Certificate of Occupancy is issued” at the end of the sentence. 

Dave Wood asked if there were other concerns or questions about Part I of the plan.  Dot Mitchell stated that the chart on page 21 will have to be amended with inclusions of the historic information being added to Goal 3. 

Moving on to Part II, Supporting Documentation, on the Table of Contents, Section 1, will be changed to read “Public Input” instead of Community Input.  Also Section 3, should be listed as page number 80, Section 4 will be changed to read “A profile of Charlton’s Resources & Population” and the page number should be changed to 81.  On Page 4 at the bottom, under Planning & Zoning, Zoning should be capitalized.  On page 81, Dave Adams is going to edit to shorten the history section.  On pages 82 and 83, Soils and Flood Hazard Zones should be at the top of the next page.  Also on page 83, it was decided the Wetlands section will be eliminated.  Under Significant Ecological Communities, the first sentence will be changed to read, “The Consalus Vly, a significant wetland, is located in the…”  On page 86, under Library Service, the word Service should be capitalized.  Under Burnt Hills/Ballston Lake, Ballston is spelled incorrectly, and Ballston Spa Public Library and Galway Community Library should be added to the list.  On page 85, Clubs should be changed to Organizations.  Under Charlton Historic District, in the first sentence Historic and District should be capitalized.  Also in the first sentence, the number of structures will be removed and it will read, “…rural hamlet encompassing structures, mostly early…”  In the second sentence the word before should be included before 1800, so the sentence should read, “…16 of the structures are believed to date from before 1800…”  On page 88, Emergency Services, Fire Protection should be in bold.  Also the first sentence under Fire Protection should be changed to read, “The Town of Charlton has three fire districts, each with its own fire department.”  District 1 should read, Containing the Charlton Fire Department located…  District 2 should read, Containing the Harmony Corners Fire Department located…  District 3 should read, Containing the West Charlton Fire Department located…  Under Rescue Squads, the word Department should be inserted after the word fire in each paragraph.  On page 89 under Schools, the first sentence in the first paragraph should read five school districts not four.  The second sentence should begin with the word The and Both should be eliminated.  In the same sentence the Amsterdam Central School District should be included after the Scotia-Glenville Central School District. 

The committee will meet again Tuesday, December 5, 2006 as a formality to approve the final changes to the plan.  A motion was made by Gary Vanderhorst, seconded by Marv Schorr to adjourn the meeting.   Meeting adjourned at 8:30 P.M.