These minutes are for informational purposes only. For official minutes, please contact the Town Clerk's Office.
PLANNING COMMISSION
REGULAR MEETING
SEPTEMBER 10, 2002
CALL TO ORDER
John Loomis, Chairman, called the Regular Meeting of the Simsbury Planning Commission to order at 7:37pm in the Main Meeting Room of the Simsbury Town Offices. The following members were present: Susan Bednarcyk, David Ryan, Ernest Gardow, Ferg Jansen, Joan Howard, Carol Cole and Pamela Katz. Also present was William Voelker, Director of Community Planning and Development, and Leonard Tolisano, Senior Planner.
APPOINTMENT OF ALTERNATES
Chairman Loomis appointed Carol Cole to serve for Pamela Katz until she arrives.
REVIEW OF POCD WORK SCHEDULE
The Commissioners reviewed the proposed 2002-2004 Work Schedule for the Plan of Development. The members made several revisions to the schedule. Add “(subject to revision)” in the heading. Add a line: 9/17 package with the invitation letter, work schedule and revised statutes to be sent to the Board of Selectmen in advance of the 9/23 meeting. Change “Begin drafting” to February 2003. Change “Hold public hearings” to March 2004, to allow additional time for drafting. Add something prior to the public hearings about distributing a draft for public review and holding informational meetings.
There were additional comments during this discussion. Chairman Loomis asked Mr. Voelker to review the Land Use Map and let the Commission know of any changes that may have occurred since 1994. Chairman Loomis asked as many members as possible to attend the Board of Selectmen meeting scheduled for September 23rd, when he will present this information to the Selectmen. Commissioner Jansen suggested meeting with the Zoning Commission on the same evening. Mr. Voelker said he thought Chairman Bradley wouldn’t mind hearing the presentation depending on their agenda, and Chairman Loomis said if it could be arranged for him to go to the Zoning meeting as well, he would be happy to do so. Chairman Loomis said he will be making phone calls to personally invite members of other Boards and
Commissions to present their ideas regarding the Plan of Development. He encouraged other members to do the same. He mentioned that he had spoken recently with Mr. Dick Davis of the Simsbury Land Trust, and Mr. Davis had expressed interest in making a presentation. Commissioner Jansen said the Economic Development Commission would like to address them, Commissioner Cole said she believed the Chamber of Commerce would like to address them, and Commissioner Howard said she thought Tourism would also like to come in and present something.
Chairman Loomis said he had inquired about having Mr. Jim Gibbons of the UConn Extension Service make a presentation to the Commission about Plans of Development in general and how to undertake their preparation. Mr. Voelker said Mr. Gibbons is an excellent speaker and this would be worthwhile. Mr. Tolisano will call Mr. Gibbons to find out if he is available to come in for one of the two Commission meetings in October, preferably the first meeting. Commissioner Bednarcyk suggested inviting other Boards and Commissions to attend the presentation, and the members agreed that Mr. Gibbons would be scheduled for October (if possible) and any members of other Boards and Commissions who could attend would be welcome to do so. Chairman Loomis reiterated that first Mr. Tolisano would need to check Mr.
Gibbons’ availability, then
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schedule the presentation, then they could invite others. The additional October meeting will be left open to discuss the materials presented by Mr. Gibbons, together with the Principles and Practices Chairman Loomis will be providing to the members, or to schedule a presentation if one of the other Boards and Commissions is ready to present, or to possibly discuss in advance how to draft the Plan. By drafting the Plan, it was agreed the discussion would be going over the format, not the content. The agenda for the other October meeting will be set later.
Mr. Tolisano pointed out that the physical process of preparing the Plan, that is the graphics, layout, text preparation, etc, takes time and will affect the 7/31/03 draft completion date. There was discussion about the Plan of Development fund, and Chairman Loomis asked Mr. Tolisano to investigate how much is in that fund presently, and what the process is for retaining and renewing those funds. Chairman Loomis asked how the draft Plan is made available to the public for their review prior to the open hearings, and Mr. Tolisano said that it was placed in several locations in town for people to review ahead of time. The suggestion was made that for this Plan, it might be possible to utilize internet technology to make the Plan available for wider public distribution and access. Discussion moved to
the public hearings. Mr. Tolisano mentioned that previously, there were several informational meetings held in different locations around town, at which the Planning Commission and town staff provided an overview of the Plan of Development and were able to answer questions and take feedback from the public in an informal setting. These informational hearings were held prior to the one official public hearing mandated by statute. The members concluded that these informational hearings would likely be useful again, but for now the schedule will simply say that the Commission will hold informational meetings to be followed by 1 or 2 public hearings, with dates to be exactly determined in the future.
Mr. Mike Paine, President of SCTV, addressed the Commission about televising Plan of Development meetings. He said the intention is to simply have a camera and microphones at the meetings, and broadcast these sessions without editing. They would not be broadcast live, however, since SCTV is already committed to the Board of Education for that purpose, whose meetings are held at the same time. Mr. Paine said he would like to come in to tape one meeting per month, and preferably all Plan of Development business could be scheduled for that meeting. It was agreed that SCTV would tape the presentations this fall, and they should definitely tape the public hearing(s) in 2004, and they would tape some of the drafting discussions, possibly one time per month, to be determined later.
Chairman Loomis said he would make the changes to the work schedule and email the updated schedule to the members.
REVIEW OF LETTER OF INVITATION FOR PLAN PRESENTATION
The Commissioners reviewed the letter of invitation, collectively editing to correct minor grammatical/structural issues. There was general agreement regarding the substance of the letter.
Chairman Loomis said he would make the changes to the letter and email the new letter to the members. This opened a discussion regarding using email to keep individuals interested in the Plan of Development updated as to the progress of the Plan, to give them reminders about upcoming Commission meetings and what part of the Plan would be addressed at those meetings, etc. It was agreed that this could be done fairly easily, and that it would only be done for
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individuals who signed up specifically requesting to be added to this email list and given these updates electronically.
REVIEW OF ADDRESSES
Chairman Loomis said that Mr. Voelker had mentioned that the Planning Department has photocopies of mailing labels, not the actual labels. Mr. Tolisano asked if the Commission wanted the package sent to only the Chairs of the other Boards and Commissions or to all the members. Chairman Loomis said to send it to all members of other Boards and Commissions, but possibly just one package could be sent to other interested parties (like the Chamber of Commerce or the Watershed Association, for example) and those parties could disseminate the information to their members themselves. Commissioner Bednarcyk said she would obtain mailing lists for Homeowner’s Associations or any other lists still missing, and Chairman Loomis thanked her for her commitment to working with the town staff to ensure all bases
were covered regarding addresses. He said the packages should be sent by the end of September, and Mr. Tolisano asked if it would be acceptable to include them with the upcoming meeting agendas to be sent out to the various Boards and Commissions. It was agreed that would be fine, but the materials should then be copied onto colored paper to ensure that they stand out from the rest of the regular agenda package.
COMMUNICATIONS
Legal opinion on voting on minutes of commission meetings (July 3, 2002)
Chairman Loomis brought to the members’ attention the letter in their packages regarding the legal opinion on voting on minutes of a meeting at which you were not present. Commissioner Gardow said they could add this information regarding voting on minutes to the Planning Commission’s procedures if they wanted. Chairman Loomis asked all the members to consider the information first before enacting any changes to the Commission’s by-laws, and also said they would need to examine how procedurally the by-laws can be changed, if that was what they ultimately decide to do. Commissioner Katz then clarified that in the absence of any changes to the Commission’s by-laws, the members can use the legal opinion furnished in this letter for guidance, and Chairman Loomis said yes.
Principles and Practice
Chairman Loomis said the information in this section excerpted from a book on planning would be very useful, and he would have copies made for all the members to be distributed for the next meeting.
STAFF REPORTS
Mr. Tolisano informed the members that the Connecticut chapter of the APA (American Planners Association) would be presenting the town and the Design Review Board with an award for the recently completed Design Guidelines. He mentioned that ASLA (American Society of Landscape Architects) had already presented an award for the Design Guidelines. In addition, Mr. Tolisano plans to submit the Guidelines for consideration for a national award next year. He
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also said that a draft of the archaeological site sensitivity analysis had been completed and the analysis would be made available once the final document had been approved. He said many
areas, especially along the Farmington River corridor, have been identified as potential sites for archaeological exploration.
CORRESPONDENCE
Commissioner Gardow mentioned that the meeting on Land Use Planning in Connecticut was scheduled for 9/17/02, and he said he would attend this meeting. A meeting on the Census is scheduled for 9/19/02 at Aetna from 4-6:30pm, if anyone was interested in attending. Commissioner Bednarcyk mentioned that Commissioner Carey would be unable to attend the CRCOG meeting scheduled for 9/19/02 and volunteered to go instead. Commissioner Cole volunteered for the November CRCOG meeting, and Commissioner Jansen volunteered for the December CRCOG meeting.
APPROVAL OF MINUTES of July 23, 2002
On page 2, paragraph 2, line 11, where it states, “Commissioner Schoenhardt suggested…” this should read “Mr. Rich Sawitzke suggested…” Commissioner Katz made a motion to approve the minutes of July 23, 2002 as corrected. Commissioner Gardow seconded the motion, which passed unanimously, with Commissioner Howard and Commissioner Cole abstaining.
ADJOURNMENT
Commissioner Katz moved to adjourn the meeting at 9:54pm. Commissioner Jansen seconded the motion, which passed unanimously.
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Pamela Katz, Secretary
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