 I learned that the hard way one Thanks everyone for coming this evening We have a few things on the agenda including a consent item So any amendments Sharon? No, okay? So before we get going I'd like to ask everyone to please rise and I swear everybody in in one shot If you're gonna say a word tonight, even if it's hello It's easy to do if you could just stand we'll swear a minute. We'll get it done Do you swear that any testimony you present this evening will be truthful to the best of your abilities? Thank you We do have a consent agenda item so the way our public comments work is If you have anything to say to us about anything that's not on the agenda, this is this is when you comment about it But this is when we also take comments about items that are on the consent agenda And that's I don't questions and comments from from the you folks in the audience and commissioners and staff Before we move on to vote on the consent agenda So we have on the consent agenda tonight a minor site plan This is Fred and Alice Norden are proposing to develop an existing lot at 279 West sleepy Hollow Road to accommodate a single-family house That is the consent agenda So this is the circular logic Underneath our public comments as anyone have any questions or comments for us on anything not on the agenda or anything on the consent Sharon so regarding the consent agenda. I have made some minor changes to the draft letter On finding 13 is the public works Comments and in number one they make reference to two documents and it's September 11th 2003 and an ordinance So I've provided you all with a copy at your table of that of those two documents as well as I've placed a draft letter at the For the public at the table as well as that memo to circulate around and to clarify This is the town ordinance is in effect today. Yes and also The last condition one the last paragraph of condition one I should have been a condition two not not reading as the last paragraph of condition one So I've bulleted that as condition two I've deleted condition three as a mylar is already recorded in my own record. So that was a faux pas and Condition 12 I added the one-time gravel road fee with the amount and That way it captures all of the criteria that's listed as well in the memo and that's all I have Does anyone have any questions on the comments on the consent agenda? Commissioners does anyone have anyone have any comments in the consent agenda? Hearing none. I will move. I will move on to the second item on our third item on our agenda This is the time we know we move on quickly if we don't get I live on Wesley B. Hollow Road and president of the Road Association. I would like to state I have a couple of comments to make first off that Personally as a resident of the road and for the road association that we object to the permit and additional building on the road It is our opinion that the permit does not meet the requirements of the Wesley B. Hollow Road policy And the class four road select board policy of September 11th, 2003 in the ordinance, okay? It is also our belief that the road Does not meet the requirements for access and safety as there has not been adequate maintenance due to lack of funding for the Wesley B. Hollow Road Association and that not everyone contributes and that the road does not meet the standards for access For safety, which means emergency vehicles coming to the houses on the road, okay? And we believe that that is going on right now with the road the road cannot handle additional traffic There's currently 17 houses on the road in 2003, which will note is like what 13 14 years ago 16 years ago The 2003rd policy was adopted yet the town has not added any money that it's collected to the road And it's put all the money into paving. So we have a small section of the road It's about a hundred feet that's paved the rest of the road is truly a class four road Which by definition of the town's standards is not meant to be driven on all year and Is a road that shouldn't have a lot of seasonal houses on it, which this one does, okay? Not arguing about the classification actually not asking for the town to upgrade the road We just believe that further development on the road with the condition of the road as it is is a safety issue For the community and the people that live on the road and they have a right to do that We also want to state formally that The road association that lives at the end of the road is underfunded and does not have a contribution And it's not legally authorized or able to collect money from everyone on the road for road maintenance Right now the town is collecting money that it for road maintenance, but not spending it on the road or doing road maintenance It's saving it for the paving project And I think there's currently about eight or nine thousand dollars in a fund that the town is not spending In 2013 The road washed out. I think you mentioned it what last meeting what didn't get mentioned Is that people that lived on the road and I wasn't there at the time spent around 45 thousand dollars out of pocket There's a loophole because it's a class 4 road It doesn't get FEMA because the town doesn't maintain it The residents don't own all of the road and so they couldn't get FEMA because it's personal property So it leaves them in a conundrum when there's a washout So another reason for not approving of this permit is there's no language in it That states if there's a major washout on the road again That this residents has to contribute to paying for the fix which was I think around six seven thousand dollars for the people That were living there at the time And not everyone contributed to the payment of fixing the road and the major washout And this is that 2013 storm and so for that reason we object to approving this permit or any more development on the road I Want one more for you We are not confident that the money is collected In these permit approvals and previous subdivisions will be used for the road because there's a memo From the public works dating that they don't intend to collect the money and actually do maintenance with it And they haven't done any maintenance for over 16 years put any of the collected money into the road And so that's another reason for not approving that I Have a quote from the town attorney about the situation of the road In 2007 when the town attorney was advising the town about the road They stated it's worth noting that in most towns class 4 highways are not typically used to access homes They're used as access points for landowners who use their land for hunting sugaring timber harvesting And they're used as public recreation trails in the winter as most class 4 roads are not plowed on This road there's 17 homes that may be classified and maintained as a class 4 road So the town doesn't need to maintain it, but it's really not It's it's functionally a class 3 road with the number of people that live on this road And I really hope that you will look in your hearts to think about Approving more housing on this road as it is being approved to maintain this class 4 road Even the town attorney made that statement in 2007. I'm going to stop here for a moment And I want to correct a couple things You you referenced some descriptions of class 4 road, and I know that's the town attorney's description I'm not talking about the town. I'm talking about the town ordinance right now verbatim class 4 town highways are all highways other than class 1 2 and 3 the select board Select board determines which highways are class 4 highways So it doesn't say that it's a seasonal road it doesn't say anything about that it just says that it's roads that are not Okay, so so I want to I also want to and I appreciate your your being here But I also don't want to go over the same stuff that we went over last meeting Road designation road maintenance is the select board period are Followed when they approve this permit and if the documentation that they perceive Stating that the road meets the criteria is not actually adhering to the policies in place that they do have a right To say no this permit as is is not okay, and we don't need to do that There's $30,000 I think earmark for more paving there continues to be nothing to do to maintain the road I don't want to get into safety issue You do have an obligation this is a maintenance. This is a public works Discussions this is like board discussion. I disagree with that. I think it's planning Commission's Responsibility to ensure the safety and approval of their permitting process, okay? And I will argue that we can end it with that we have Nope, nope, please I got I'll get you next. I know you've got something to say. Do you have This in writing so can we put this as part of the record what in writing your comments? You're all of these are direct quotes from all of your own town documentation that you're doing tonight Oh, no, I don't have it all written out. No, I figured it was going to be on camera. Okay. Yeah So please continue. Okay So The road safety issue is probably the biggest primary one in that it is not up to standards It's glass for road. There's 17 homes. I'm going to leave it at that for you I think that really should be sufficient reason to say we need to relook at where you're spending money and Improving the quality of the road how you're collecting money And on a final note the question comes up of the legal responsibility of the Wesley P. Hollow Road Which is just nine members at the end of the road to maintain the entire road But I'd like to state that there's a highway agreement with mr. Burnett that says he has to maintain the whole road For his lifetime. There's a Subdivision by set to subdivision say they have to create a road association maintain the road There's a West End permit that says they have to create a road association and maintain the road There was documentation for the sweetster permit. It didn't get added in the last minute saying they have to create a Road association and then we'll go back to the end on the town ordinance that states that The subdivisions are required to maintain the property in front of their lot. It's a public road Wesley P. Hollow Road is happy to maintain property in front of our homes as Required in the ordinance we receive no funding from anyone else on the road And we can't maintain the rest of the road and for that reason we're telling you right now The town is collecting money and has told me they will maintain the road as they see fit release money as they see fit And they're not contributing to any maintenance again That's a safety issue and I just met these really nice people and I feel really terrible. They're here But I don't think it's a safe place to build a house right now until we figure out with the select board I realized that but we just don't want to add any more houses to this mess. Thank you Sir, so I'm Bradford Holden. I'm the representative of the applicants Be appropriate to address just a couple of things. I won't get into select board issues or town highways Yeah, just bring it to us so I Would just like to bring it to everyone's attention. Well, first of all, I have a question Does the town plow this highway in the winter? Yes, okay, so I would consider that maintenance They don't they don't consider it maintenance. Oh, let's let's so anyhow I just wanted to break it everyone's attention that this lot is a little bit unique in the fact that it's been an existence since 1976 So there were no homes besides the Sweets are home. I believe on West Sleepy Hollow at the time The applicants the Norton's had purchased the property So that's just noteworthy there I really don't want to get in the town highway things but They purchased this they purchased this lot knowing that it had access or its sole access was on a class 4 and there are many towns that And many people that live on class 4 highways throughout the county And that's all thank you So also on this frontage on the class 4 town highway, it's 9.0 2.0 5 0 Frontage on class 4 town highway a class 4 town highway is considered a highway for the purpose of land development and Therefore a budding property owners have frontage on a town highway I go back to 92 So I think we've you know we've established that there are development rights on that road The town discourages development on a class 4 road, which is also in the same section of the ordinance because it's not developed and I don't have that copy of the ordinance, but that's also in there and it discourages commercial and residential development on a class 4 road Because it's not maintained by the town And so we have two conflicting ordinances which actually were brought to the attention of the select board about 20 years ago Again, that's a select board issue, but it is an ordinance issue for the safety against the safety issue adding more houses to this road It can't handle it We have public works has reviewed this and looking in the Application I don't find any notification or any in the draft letter. I don't find any notification from them that they are concerned with the Existing condition of the road they talked about The traffic they talk about assessing a $30,000 per lot Fee which would seemingly exceed the 8,000. I think you said that they had available right now Sharon so I just for the record would like Only one being proposed for right because well, there's already a house exactly. Yeah, both pre-existing And I guess that's it for me. Okay. Thank you If this process would continue and then it would be a proposal for a specific place for house with this all happen again, so we could discuss it No single family Residences don't drive Visitation to the Plenty Commission. Okay So there would be any further discussion about possible like the clearing and It would be not done your neighbor's door and ask them if they can work with you But I would be issuing a building permit And that would be posted on the site And there is a there is a there's an appeal period associated with that So if you wanted to appeal that my decision to issue a permit, you certainly have that, right? You'd be notified by a sign by the front row Close the public hearing portion of our public comment section and now move on to the next item on the agenda, which is actually Which is the minor site plan with the changes as specified by by share Do we have a moat is anybody ready to make a motion on that? I move we approve the consent agenda Move by shoe seconded by Tom discussion All those in favor I I opposed Motion carries 6-0 consent agenda Thank you Everyone for bringing your comments concerns to us regards the West Levy Hollow Road it Said before this is really a the overall road structure concern Really needs to be brought to the select board Absolutely, and raised again It was raised brought to them a number of years ago And they made a choice at that point to keep it as a class for But there may be enough in place now to bring it up The town will be reaching out to residents on the road We are now getting ready to discuss zoning amendments relating to uses