Town of Searsmont

Planning Board Minutes

August 19, 2008

1. Call to Order: 7:00p.m.

2. Attendance: Chair: George Sprowl, Vice Chair: Paul Leeper, Peter Jolliffe, Dave

Marceau and Steve Porter.

3. Minutes:

Motion made seconded and passed to accept August 5, 2008 minutes

with minor changes.

4. Applications and Requests: Joy Runyon of Cox Road, Fire Lane 14, Searsmont, Maine filed for an application for a 34 cubic ft. expansion on the upper part of her house. She would like to raise her porch entrance-way up higher, so that she may not hit her head on in as she enters the house. A notarized letter was presented to the Board from Joy Runyon authorizing the contractor, Steve Boyle of Northport to represent her, as she could not be at the meeting. Frank reviewed all measurements and found they meet the criteria. He was not at the meeting. All information was reviewed by The Planning Board.

This addition creates no changes to the footprint, therefore;

Motion made, seconded, and passed unanimously to accept the application with a Fee of $100.00 to be collected.

5. Communications: Paul Leeper spoke with Rich Baker of the State Planning Office

and received the new Shoreland Zoning Maps. Paul Leeper will e-mail out all town

warrants to be voted on, to all Board members.

6. Old Business: The following motions were made to make changes to the Town Land

use Ordnance that will be voted upon at town meeting in March of 2009.

Motion made, seconded and passed to change the definition of

Expansion of a structure with added language to include roofs, to say:

Expansion of a structure: An increase in the floor area or volume of a structure,

including all extensions such as, but not limited to attached: decks, garages, porches, greenhouses

and volume created by the roof.

Motion made, seconded and passed unanimously to change the language in 401.1 to replace the word Enlarged, with expanded.

With the change, 401.1 will read as follows:

No Building or structure with a footprint greater than 100 sq. feet or more than 16ft. above grade shall hereafter be built, expanded, (enlarged) moved or placed on a lot without permit. This shall not apply to alterations within the frame of an existing structure*. Any building or structure, including those too small to require a permit, must abide by all pertinent setback requirements as outlined in the Ordinances. The Planning Board may authorize the Code Enforcement Officer to grant permits for a single family residence, a residential garage, a residential outbuilding or accessory structure, or a residential deck or porch, as provided in this Ordinance, unless the construction (1) be located in a Shoreland Zone or in a Flood Hazard Zone, (2) involve any commercial activity, home occupation or other project requiring Site Review under this Ordinance, or (3) require Subdivision or Mobile Home Park approval. The authority of the Code Enforcement Officer as described in this section may be revoked by a simple majority of the Planning Board.

*Superseded by State Plumbing Code

Discussions also took place on adding the definition of footprint to our town’s ordinance, using the state’s model and excluding uncovered porch, but including covered porches.

The States definition being as follows:

Footprint. The outline that would be created on the ground by extending the exterior

walls of the building to the ground surface. For the purposes of Section 6(D), a porch is

not considered when determining the building’s footprint

No motion was made to adopt this as further investigation into the matter will pursue.

The Planning Board discussed Section 800 tables and its language. The main focus was on the earth filling of more than 10 cubic feet and comparing our statue with the states. Under state law it requires a permit. Under current State law we may, as a town keep all our zoning laws, but must conform to the States when it pertains to Resource Protection.

Motion made, seconded and passed unanimously to accept table 800 changes to be comparable to the states.

7. New business: Updated significant wildlife habitat maps for Fresh water wetlands from the State Planning Office for the town of Searsmont were presented. The Planning Board reviewed and discussed the changes. One significant change is in the Lowry Pond area which shows an expansion of resource protection of 250 feet around the Pond. This essentially leaves no room for building around the Pond. Discussions took place on this fact, and Paul will call Rich Baker to confirm the findings of the new zoning by the State of Maine.

8. Adjournment: 8:30 pm